Director-General Pascal Lamy, in opening an informal meeting of the Trade Negotiations Committee on 22 June 2007, stressed that “the need now is for urgent action to restore confidence that these negotiations can and will be finished successfully.”
He urged Members to “engage fully in the multilateral process led by the Chairs, and put your cards on the table over the coming weeks in Geneva so that we can reach full modalities.”
Thank you all for coming to this meeting at very short notice. I thought it would useful to take stock of where we are and clarify together the next steps.
As you all know, the Ministers of 4 key participants have been meeting to try to bridge gaps in their negotiating positions, with the aim of contributing to the process here in Geneva. This does not appear to have been possible, but I will leave any further comments on substance to the representatives of those Members.
But what I can say is that I have spoken to all four Ministers separately and that all four have told me that they want the process to continue here in Geneva.
I believe that prior convergence among the G4 would have been helpful to pave the way towards multilateral convergence on modalities in Agriculture and NAMA. But, as I said yesterday to the press, helpful does not mean indispensable.
This negotiation is not a negotiation among just 4 players, it is a collective endeavour among all the participants in the Round — 150 Members and 29 acceding Observers. It is also a Single Undertaking covering a broad agenda with development at its heart. I think it is timely to reassert these basic principles.
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