Dust Settles from Marathon Geneva Session, Progress Minimal
As reported yesterday, WTO Director General Pascal Lamy changed tactics and pulled together small group meeting with key countries in Geneva to try and spark a breakthrough. It ended up being quite a night for USTR Susan Schwab and her colleagues from Brazil, India, China, EU, Australia and Japan to say the least. They started meeting off and on from early afternoon yesterday in Geneva and didn't wrap up until 3:30AM local time today (Thursday). Starbucks anyone?
Due to a wrap time more associated with nightclubbing than negotiations, the details are slow to trickle out; however, it is evident that a final deal is not near. The usual players are saying the usual stuff. They want more and more from US/EU before they will even think about considering putting something on the table. The US has demonstrated leadership this week, but the key players from advanced developing countries are content to just grandstand.
The other development that is coming out from last night is that Lamy met with every trade minister who is in town to seek out their "absolute red lines" in the negotiations. Wish we could watch those on YouTube.
The schedule for today calls for another round of small group meetings later and it promises to be a very late night/early morning, yet again. The Signaling Conference on Services, originally scheduled for today, has been now pushed back to Saturday.
Without question, today will be one of the most important days during this Ministerial. There will need to be some real signs of progress and a demonstrated desire by key countries to try and wrap this up or Pascal Lamy may have no choice but to pull the plug.
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