News & Insights

Washington, DC – The National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) today issued a statement expressing the organization’s disappointment that WTO negotiators have been unable to reach agreement on modalities for negotiations in agriculture and industrial products in the Doha Round of WTO talks.   An April 30^th deadline for this stage of the negotiations was set during the December Hong Kong ministerial. 

“Without agreement in a very few weeks on these basic approaches for finishing the negotiations, the entire Doha Round will be in jeopardy,” said Mary Irace, NFTC Vice President.  “However, settling for a mediocre outcome is not an option for the American business community,” Irace added. 

A key representative of American business on US trade policy, the NFTC would play an important role in mobilizing companies in the legislative battle that would be needed to promote and secure the results of the Doha Round with Congress once the negotiations are completed.  Commenting on this effort, Irace expressed her agreement with a recent comment by Senator Grassley in which the Senator said “… a minimalist agreement would be a bad agreement.”

Irace also endorsed the sense of urgency conveyed by WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy in his remarks to WTO ambassadors earlier this week.  “The NFTC welcomes the Director-General Lamy’s decision to ask the Chairs of the Agriculture and NAMA groups to operate on a continuous basis and to ask all delegations to make the necessary officials continuously available over the next few weeks.  However, this process will not succeed without strong political support.  In this regard, we applaud Ambassador Portman’s decision to travel to Geneva next week with newly-nominated USTR Susan Schwab to demonstrate the ongoing leadership and commitment of the United States to the negotiations,” stated Irace.

“We are on the precipice at this late stage and the choice is clear – major developed and developing countries leading the Doha Round to a successful conclusion through a big outcome that is commercially meaningful or failing to lead and missing an enormous opportunity for the Doha Round to generate solid economic growth and development in the years head,” Irace stated.

Advancing Global Commerce for Over 90 Years

The National Foreign Trade Council (www.nftc.org) is a leading business organization advocating an open, rules-based global trading system. Founded in 1914 by a broad-based group of American companies, the NFTC now serves hundreds of member companies through its offices in Washington and New York.