Washington, DC – The National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) today released the following statement, welcoming new texts on agriculture and industrial market access in the Doha Round of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations. The NFTC urged WTO member countries to also move the services negotiations forward and seize the opportunity to successfully conclude the Round.
“The NFTC applauds the negotiating chairs for releasing the revised texts on agriculture and NAMA, which will provide the foundation for continued talks,” said NFTC President Bill Reinsch. “However, the negotiating group on services must also produce a text that could move forward in parallel with the other two pillars of the Doha Round. With the updated modalities in these three critical areas, there is a real opportunity for all countries, especially advanced developing and developing nations, to exert leadership and reach an agreement on these core issues as soon as possible.”
“With many nations, including the United States, expressing a strong commitment to conclude the negotiations, an ambitious and successful end to the Round could be in sight,” said NFTC Senior Vice President Catherine Bennett. “The real test of this commitment, however, will come as member nations review the new texts. We urge countries to stay focused on the goal at hand and resist the urge to derail talks by putting forth unreasonable demands.”
“Six years ago, each nation came to the negotiating table to work together on a multilateral effort of paramount importance – to boost world economic growth by liberalizing trade and removing barriers to an open, rules-based trading system. Six years later, the goal remains the same and though progress has been made, time is running out. Now is the time to reach a real breakthrough in negotiations and conclude the Round,” Reinsch concluded.
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