The Director-General spoke about the encouraging increase in activity and engagement in Geneva during the first half of the year, and pointed to the need to increase the specificity of discussions in the months ahead. Commenting after the meeting he said:

“I have been urging members to move from reflection to action, and so I have been very pleased to see that members have submitted a number of papers, including on core Doha issues.

“Members have undertaken a wide range of exchanges in different formats in recent weeks, raising a number of other issues.

“I have heard positive reports of the nature and tone of all these exchanges. I think we should welcome the very fact that a range of discussions is taking place – and that other constituencies are becoming more engaged, including the private sector.

“There is a lot to be positive about. But, if we really do want to deliver again, then members will need to be pragmatic, realistic and creative. We succeeded in Bali and Nairobi because we adhered to these principles. The Trade Facilitation Agreement in particular showed that members can be creative in structuring agreements to reflect members’ differing needs and priorities – also including technical assistance as a fundamental ingredient for success. Models and approaches like this should inspire us.

“But the most important thing we need now is specificity, in each and every area. We need to change the pace of our engagement and dive into a real proposal-driven process immediately after the summer. If we want to have outcomes in the near future, then we will need to accelerate our work significantly in the autumn. In all conversations we need to maintain and enhance our focus on development and LDC issues.”