RIO DE JANEIRO, 2 April 2006 — The world’s top trading powers met here yesterday, battling to tease out progress on the WTO’s troubled drive to tear down commercial barriers by the end of this month.
The US and European Union trade supremos were due to wrap up an informal two-day meeting with Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim, representing the developing world, and World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy.
The four officials, including US Trade Representative Rob Portman and EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, held dinner talks late Friday that aides said reviewed the scant progress to date on the WTO’s stalled “Doha Round”. Lamy said both rich and developing nations must make painful concessions if they are to fulfil their promise to enrich the lives of millions of people through freer trade. “There is no time to lose,” Lamy told Sao Paulo business leaders Friday, noting that the WTO has only a month before it is meant to forge the outlines of a comprehensive agreement. “On each of the three issues — agricultural tariffs, industrial tariffs and domestic agricultural subsidies — each of the big actors has to move,” he said.
