The collapsed world trade negotiations could be possibly brought back to life if WTO member countries solve problems at home and there are “enough pre-cooking preparations” in the diplomatic front, said WTO Directory- General Pascal Lamy here on Wednesday.

He told a forum on the first day of the Cairns Group's 20th anniversary meeting that the major problems that caused the breakdown of the WTO trade liberalization negotiations, or the Doha Round, in July are not insurmountable. He criticized WTO members' negotiators for just focusing on " small picture," or some gains in certain industries, while forgetting the bigger benefits the Doha Round would bring to the world trade.

The unsolved dispute over market access and reduction of subsidies that contributed to the failure of the Doha Round are just about matters of “a few thousand tons of beef, a few thousand tons of poultry and a few billion dollars of trade-distorting subsidies,” Lamy pointed out. The WTO chief applauded the Doha Round for making “quantum leaps” compared to the previous Uruguay Round negotiations in setting up liberalization targets in market access, reduction of trade-distorting domestic subsidies, export subsides and other issues.

Lamy supports the efforts to revive the world trade negotiations. “Is the Doha Round worth the fight, my answer would be yes!” he said.

But he said he does not want to see a “hasty restart” of the negotiations, calling for "quiet, serious and long preparations."

He said efforts at the next stage should be made by WTO members at home, pointing out that “some farming constituencies either do not want to give up their subsidies, or do not want to expose themselves to greater competition.”

“It is at the national level, in each WTO member country, that a deal needs to be worked out,” he said.

The three-day Cairns Group meeting is being held with expectations that it would be helpful to a revival of the Doha Round, although the chance for a breakthrough is considered low.

The annual Cairns Group trade and agricultural ministers' meeting has been expanded to include Lamy, US Trade Ambassador Susan Schwab, US Agriculture Secretary Mike Johanns, Japanese Agriculture Minister Shoichi Nakagawa and EU's top negotiator at the WTO Carlo Trojan.

The members of the Cairns Group are Argentina, Australia, Bolivia, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Paraguay, Philippines, South Africa, Thailand, and Uruguay. - (Xinhua News Agency)