Ministers from the world's major trading nations said their efforts to narrow differences on how to open markets to more foreign goods and services are insufficient.
"We have been working in an incremental way and I don't believe we can get a deal in incremental steps," Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim told a press conference in London on Saturday. "What is lacking is the deep conviction that if we don't have an ambitious result, we won't have any result at all," he said.
Amorim's comments followed more than a dozen hours of meetings with ministers from the EU, US, India, Japan and Australia seeking to spur WTO talks. The ministers, who together represent 60 percent of global trade, have met several times since 2004 in an effort to reach a breakthrough that will lead to a broad accord this year.
The WTO's 149 governments have set an April 30 deadline to agree on formulas that would lower duties on farm and industrial goods ranging from grains to cranes. They have until the end of July to complete details of a trade accord that the World Bank says would be worth about US$96 billion to the international economy.
"We were able to see the broad outline of an agreement," US Trade Representative Rob Portman told journalists.
By negotiating for the first time with actual numbers and studying models that show the effect of proposed reductions, "we could see the good, the bad and the ugly of what we've been talking about," he said.
He and EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson have called on a group of developing nations to make substantial cuts to their customs duties for industrial and consumer goods.
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RULES BROKEN: The MAC warned Chinese not to say anything that would be harmful to the autonomous status of Taiwan or undermine its sovereignty A Chinese couple accused of disrupting a pro-democracy event in Taipei organized by Hong Kong residents has been deported, the National Immigration Agency said in a statement yesterday afternoon. A Chinese man, surnamed Yao (姚), and his wife were escorted by immigration officials to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, where they boarded a flight to China before noon yesterday, the agency said. The agency said that it had annulled the couple’s entry permits, citing alleged contraventions of the Regulations Governing the Approval of Entry of People of the Mainland Area into the Taiwan Area (大陸地區人民進入台灣地區許可辦法). The couple applied to visit a family member in
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‘EXTREME PRESSURE’: Beijing’s goal is to ‘force Taiwan to make mistakes,’ Admiral Tang Hua said, adding that mishaps could serve as ‘excuses’ for launching a blockade China’s authoritarian expansionism threatens not only Taiwan, but the rules-based international order, the navy said yesterday, after its top commander said in an interview that the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) could blockade the nation at will. The object of Beijing’s expansionist activities is not limited to Taiwan and its use of pressure is not confined to specific political groups or people, the navy said in a statement. China utilizes a mixture of cognitive warfare and “gray zone” military activities to pressure Taiwan, the navy said, adding that PLA sea and air forces are compressing the nation’s defensive depth. The navy continues to
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