WTO Director General Mike Moore today warmly welcomed the breakthrough
achieved by the U.S. Congress on legislation to grant President Bush
the Trade Promotion Authority he needs to negotiate trade agreements.
Mr.
Moore said the agreement among Congressional leaders, which could lead
to passage of the bill by next week, and the well-received U.S.
proposal on reducing farm subsidies and tariffs, have given further
momentum to the Doha Development Agenda negotiations and kept those
talks on course for completion by the 1 January 2005 deadline.
“I
congratulate President Bush and U.S. Trade Representative Bob Zoellick
as well as the leaders in Congress on this important breakthrough.
U.S. leadership is vital to the Doha Development Agenda and passage of
this bill in the coming days will lift confidence among the 144 WTO
Member Governments that we can finish these talks on time,” Mr.
Moore said.
Mr.
Moore pointed out that many of the issues being negotiated in the Doha
talks have been under discussion and analysis for five years
establishing a solid foundation for the current work which should
enable governments to conclude their work on schedule.
“This
is not a three-year negotiation. We’ve actually been negotiating for
five years already so there should be no reason to miss the deadline,
particularly given the good work we have done since our Doha
Ministerial Meeting last November. Since the Doha meeting governments
have approved; the structure and timetable for our negotiations, the
selection of Cancun, Mexico as the next Ministerial Conference site
and a significant increase in funding for technical assistance and
capacity building. The progress on TPA and the solid US farm proposal
to be tabled here in Geneva next week build on that work. All of this
puts us in very good position to wrap these talks up on time,” Mr.
Moore said.
|
