WTO members must step up their efforts if they want to close a wide-ranging treaty to liberalize global commerce by next year, WTO chief Supachai Panitchpakdi said on Thursday.
With a summit in Hong Kong looming at the end of the year, Supachai said there has been too little progress in talks.
"I'm concerned on all fronts," Supachai said at the World Economic Forum (WEF), an annual meeting of political and business leaders in the Swiss Alps.
"Things have moved, but they've not moved far enough to guarantee that Hong Kong will be the penultimate step to complete the round in 2006," he said. "I can't even say how much we hope to achieve by Hong Kong. The members aren't even saying that."
The WTO sets the rules for global commerce. Its 148 member governments are trying to energize the "Doha Round" of trade talks -- so called because it was launched in Doha, Qatar, in 2001. It aims at slashing subsidies, tariffs and other barriers to global commerce.
A WTO conference in Cancun, Mexico, in September 2003 was meant to spur efforts, but collapsed amid bickering over investment rules between rich and poor nations, as well as differences on agriculture.
High-level meetings in Geneva last summer finally led to a "framework" accord that laid some groundwork on cutting tariffs in agricultural trade, as well as export subsidies that have helped farmers in rich nations and undercut their competitors in poor countries.
But the deal left the fine-tuning to meetings stretching into this year, with no clear deadlines.
"We've been digging in to the technical work," said Supachai. "It's about time to turn the technical work into political solutions."
The agreement contained looser language on trade in industrial goods and in services such as telecommunications and banking.
Nonagricultural trade makes up most of global commerce.In WTO-speak, negotiators refer to nonagricultural market access, or "NAMA."
Trade ministers from around 30 key WTO players -- including the US, EU, Brazil, India and host Switzerland -- are scheduled to hold a meeting on the sidelines of the forum on Saturday, aimed at getting the global trade talks back on track. Such "mini-ministerials" have often been used in the past to push negotiations forward.
"I urge ministers to commit themselves as clearly as they can to the agenda for Hong Kong," said Supachai.
As WTO chief, Supachai chairs the organization's key trade negotiations committee, which reviews progress in talks. By its next meeting -- Feb. 14 -- he said he hopes governments will have sketched out a negotiating timetable for the rest of this year.
"We need to decide as quickly as possible on an end date for the elimination of export subsidies, we need a formula on NAMA by the summer break," he said.
Supachai's term ends on Aug. 31 and there have been fears that a bitter leadership battle could deflect attention and put the treaty talks on hold.
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