Fifteen weeks until the opening of the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Hong Kong (Dec 13)...
The negotiations were behind schedule in July, just before the August vacations. Now the WTO negotiators will begin gearing up again - they have to make a lot of progress before December. Richard Waddington reports today on the great trade-off involved:
Diplomats say agriculture remains the key, and that without progress there, developing countries will be unable to offer significant new access to their manufacturing and service markets as rich nations demand.
The title of his column is "Marathon man Lamy must lead WTO sprint", referring to the new Director-General of the WTO, Pascal Lamy, who starts work this Thursday, September 1.
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