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WTO Official Urges World Trade Accord NewsMax.com WiresDAVOS, Switzerland -- World Trade Organization members must step up their efforts if they want to close a wide-ranging treaty to liberalize global commerce by 2006, WTO chief Supachai Panitchpakdi said Thursday. With a summit in Hong Kong looming at the end of the year, Supachai said there has been too little progress in talks. Story Continues Below "I'm concerned on all fronts," Supachai said at the World Economic Forum, an annual meeting of political and business leaders in the Swiss Alps. "Things have moved, but they've not moved far enough to guarantee that Hong Kong will be the penultimate step to complete the round in 2006," he said. "I can't even say how much we hope to achieve by Hong Kong. The members aren't even saying that." The WTO sets the rules for global commerce. Its 148 member governments are trying to energize the "Doha Round" round of trade talks _ so called because it was launched in Doha, Qatar, in 2001. It aims at slashing subsidies, tariffs and other barriers to global commerce. A WTO conference in Cancun, Mexico, in September 2003 was meant to spur efforts, but collapsed amid bickering over agriculture between rich and poor nations. High-level meetings in Geneva last summer finally led to a "framework" accord that laid some groundwork on cutting tariffs in agricultural trade, as well as export subsidies that have helped farmers in rich nations and undercut their poor country competitors. But the deal left the fine-tuning to meetings stretching into this year, with no clear deadlines. "We've been digging in to the technical work," said Supachai. "It's about time to turn the technical work into political solutions." © 2005 The Associated Press
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