GENEVA (AFP) - World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy said in remarks published Tuesday that time was running short in the deadlocked six year-old Doha round of talks on reducing barriers to global commerce.
"These negotiations have been the focus of our work over the past year and the time remaining in which to conclude them runs short," Lamy said in a foreword to the WTO's annual report.
Chief negotiators put forward compromise proposals to the 150 WTO members last month in two crucial and hard-fought areas in the talks, agriculture and industrial goods, in an attempt to break the deadlock.
They asked trading nations to mull over the proposals during a summer break and to return to Geneva in September for intensive negotiations to seal an agreement.
Lamy said a deal would send "a much needed message of confidence to governments, economic agents and the public" and would reinforce the foundations of the global economy.