Differences over the ‘revival’ of WTO negotiations

While Pascal Lamy, the WTO Director General, rushes around the world trying to revive an agreement he claims was 'almost done' and within Members' grasp, the Chairman of the Agriculture negotiating group Crawford Falconer—who has been through the mangle trying to squeeze consensus out of the Members over two years—has a more skeptical assessment of the chances of 'revival'.

"Overall, there was a credible basis for conclusion on very many (and possibly one could have said “nearly all”) issues. But even “nearly all” is not all. And, as a matter of plain fact, there was decisive disagreement on certain matters while other very significant issues were not even dealt with. So there was no possibility to put a judgement on the “other” matters to the final test.

That said, had the “outstanding” matters been resolved (and that would have been no small matter), I do think the rest could have “fallen into place”. But such a judgement is a function of a very particular situation. That situation was one where, at the time, Members were conscious that there was a genuine endgame scenario. Members were, accordingly, prepared to accept compromises that were not generally their preferred options. That was a mind-set that applied as of yesterday. As of today that remains at best moot. "  extract from: Chairman's report on July 'package' (WTO document JOB(08)/95)