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World Trade Organisation (WTO) members had to match political promise with negotiating performance in order to reach agreement in the Doha trade talks, director-general Pascal Lamy said this week.
"It is less about talk about the talk and more about action. It is less about optimism or pessimism and more about activism," Lamy stated in a report to the General Council on the latest Trade Negotiations Committee meeting held earlier in July.
He noted that the WTO had come a long way and that "we are not far from our journey's end. The sense that we are entering the endgame needs to become both widely shared and effective".
Lamy emphasised that all the recent discussions pointed towards the conclusion of the Doha Round in 2010.
"There was also strong support for the process set out in the detailed road maps and for the need for all participants to be ready to work intensively in the autumn. The message was ‘all hands on deck'," Lamy highlighted.
He noted that while there had been recognition that work was required at all levels, including the bilateral level, but that the "primacy of the multilateral arena was stressed by delegations".
There has been wide agreement that bilateral engagement should be no reason for slowing or holding up the multilateral process, said Lamy, emphasising that the two had to move simultaneously.
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