India, US, EU must be flexible in trade talks: WTO chief

NEW YORK: World Trade Organisation Director General Pascal Lamy has said India, the US and European Union must show flexibility for any progress in the Doha Round of global trade talks.

Significant obstacles still lie ahead and any development 'is more a question of months than quarters,' Lamy said in an interview published in the 'Wall Street Journal'.

"The negotiators have to sign the right numbers, but we are not that far," he said.

Lamy said the key to moving forward was flexibility by the US, the EU and India.

The US needs to agree to reduce agricultural subsidies, the EU must reduce agricultural tariffs, and India must agree to reduce agricultural and industrial tariffs, he said.

He told WSJ that a 'formal conclusion' to a successful Doha round could occur within eight months of a breakthrough in the negotiating positions of the US, EU and India.

Lamy said he would not call a WTO ministerial meeting to finalize a possible Doha round agreement until he was confident that it won't risk 'a breakdown with a lot of 'acrimony'. But such a breakthrough is needed before the July 1 expiry of the US Trade Promotion Authority (TPA), Lamy said.

The TPA gives US President George W Bush the authority to fast-track the approval of international trade deals. After the TPA expires, such approval will require likely contentious political negotiations in Washington.

"We'll need some breakthrough package to be on the table before (July 1) in order for this (presidential) authority to be extended or renewed," Lamy said. Failure to do so would send a 'very negative' message to WTO members trying to broker a deal, he said.