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USTR Rob Portman pledged Washington's resolve to take the 'leadership role' in the faltering world trade talks

At the 'somber' conclusion of last week's World Trade Organization General Council meeting, GC Chair Amina Mohamed unveiled a new 'blueprint' aimed at quickly transforming the Doha trade negotiations.

Farm policy chiefs of the European Union and the defensive Group-of-10 coalition on Friday signaled their opposition to cap high farm tariffs as suggested in the 'middle ground' market access formula of the Group-of-20 countries

The Chair of the WTO Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC) Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi, at a meeting of the TNC on 28 July, summed up the situation in the negotiations on the Doha work programme as 'disappointing but not disastrous'.

The WTO General Council meeting ended today without any of the original anticipated results of additional agreements (or 'first approximations') on agriculture,non-agricultural market access, services and 'development issues.'

Key members of the World Trade Organization yesterday vowed to launch a make-or-break next phase of Doha Development Agenda consultations starting in September to arrive at full modalities in agriculture, market access for industrial products and services

Congressional approval of a trade pact with six small Central American countries nudged forward the Bush administration's free-trade agenda. But the close vote and bitter fight underscored anxiety about the pace of globalization and clouded prospects for approval of future deals.

The highlight of yesterday's one-year assessment of the Doha Development Agenda farm negotiations focused mostly on the evaluation by agriculture negotiations chairman Tim Groser

At 12:03 am on July 28th, the House of Representatives approved the Central America-Dominican Republic-United States Free Trade Agreement, CAFTA. CAFTA, which would expand NAFTA to Central America and the Dominican Republic, would devastate farmers, privatize essential public services, and accelerate the race to the bottom on wages in the US and all over Central America.

WTO authorities played down the significance of the new stalemate in the Doha Round of talks and the threat hanging over the sixth ministerial conference in Hong Kong. But civil society organisations see the multilateral trade system's latest fiasco in a much more serious light.