WTO talks again hit ‘brink of failure’: Lamy

The Doha round of global talks aimed at expanding free trade is on the brink of failure, World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy warned on Friday.

Lamy added to the gloomy atmosphere that has prevailed in recent weeks after negotiators met at WTO headquarters in Geneva to take stock of their most recent attempts to overcome a decade of deadlock.

“My frank assessment is that under the right conditions of temperature and pressure a deal would be doable… were it not for NAMA (Non Agricultural Market Access, or industrial goods),” the WTO director general said.

“The magnitude of the gaps among the major players is effectively blocking progress in other areas and is putting in serious doubt the conclusion of the Doha Development Round this year.”

“This round is, once more, on the brink of failure,” Lamy added.

Despite the range of reasons given for the deadlock, from criticism of the conditions under which the negotiations were launched in the Qatari capital Doha in 2001 to help developing countries, the expanding membership of the now 153 nation WTO, objections to globalisation or protectionism and the economic crisis, Lamy insisted that main obstacle was much more basic.

“Closure on the remaining open issues is blocked because of a classic mercantilist issue: tariffs on industrial products, the bread and butter of WTO negotiations since their inception,” 60 years ago, he explained during the meeting.

Lamy has repeatedly expressed doubt about future of Doha this year, after several missed deadlines and failures over the past decade.

Those hurdles nonethless did not stop the talks on expanding existing global free trade accords from carrying on in some form.

In January, some political leaders repeated their call for the conclusion of the round in 2011, with British Prime Minister David Cameron warning that “we cannot go on after a decade with another year” of negotiations.

Decisions at the WTO must be carried by a consensus of all the member states.