WTO head Pascal Lamy is awaiting fresh proposals on the thorny issues of agriculture and industrial products before deciding on any ministerial meeting, trade sources said on Sunday.
Speculation is growing in Geneva that Lamy will call ministers before the end of the year in yet another attempt to finally clinch a deal on global trade liberalization after seven years of impasse, false starts and disagreements.
The target is to get texts by the end of the coming week, trade sources told journalists.
The chairs of the agriculture and industrial products negotiating groups, Crawford Falconer of New Zealand and Luzius Wasescha of Switzerland respectively, will now consult with members and Lamy to try to arrive at proposals that could be placed before ministers.
Senior officials have been meeting at WTO headquarters throughout last week to try to iron out differences on key sticking points that caused a previous ministerial meeting in July to collapse.
Progress has been made but there are still many differences between the WTO’s 153 member states, with the key areas of cotton and the “special safeguard mechanism” — a means for poor farmers to hike tariffs in the event of an import surge — remaining “problematic,” sources said.
Brazil’s WTO ambassador Roberto Azevedo told reporters it was still uncertain on what dates any meeting could be held, or indeed if it would take place at all.
Trade sources said that given the current work schedule, it would be “tight” to hold any summit in the early part of the Dec. 10 to Dec. 19 range that has been bandied about in WTO circles here.
Launched in the Qatari capital in late 2001, the WTO’s Doha Round has foundered ever since in disputes between developed and developing countries on such matters as easing barriers to trade in agricultural and industrial products.
Developing countries are seeking greater access to industrialized markets for their agricultural goods.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique