Director-General Pascal Lamy, in his statement to the Trade Negotiations Committee on 7 February 2006, noted the “very detailed timelines” in the Hong Kong Declaration and urged negotiators “to intensify contacts with other delegations and with your capitals, to move us towards the elements we will need to conclude this Round at the end of the year”.

Statement by Pascal Lamy
Since the beginning of the year, I have been pursuing my contacts with a wide range of Members, at various different levels and in various locations.

My activities have included meetings with various groupings (African Group, ACPs, LDCs, Grulac, G-20), meetings with a larger number of Ambassadors here in Geneva and with a number of Ministers, including in the margins of the World Economic Forum in Davos some 10 days ago. I have also just now returned from a visit to Chile, Peru and Argentina.

From the conversations I have had during these activities, I have received three clear messages:

- one, that there is widespread commitment to making good on what was agreed at Hong Kong,

- two, that there is a shared intention to move ahead across the whole of the DDA, making progress on all issues, and

- three, that all interlocutors understand that they will all have to move from their current positions and are willing to do so by moving ‘in concert’.

Obviously, Agriculture (in particular market access and domestic support) and NAMA remain the flagships of the convoy, but no-one is in any doubt that our convoy is a large one.

These two issues have an important role in leading the convoy to port, but we all know that the convoy must arrive together; this is the very essence of our common principle of the “Single Undertaking”. In the bodies under the TNC alone, we are working on 10 separate areas - beyond Agriculture (including cotton) and NAMA, including Services, where the Hong Kong Declaration opened the door for plurilateral negotiations which will be to a great extent demand driven. WTO goal is to help producers of goods and services, exporters, and importers conduct their business.

World Trade Organization