The World Trade Organization (WTO) launched its first ministerial meeting in four years today with WTO chief Pascal Lamy warning the conference that time was running out to conclude a new global trade deal, according to dpa. While trade negotiations are not on the agenda of the three-day gathering in Geneva, the stalled global trade round is likely to play a major role, following a call by world leaders for an agreement on the issue by the end of 2010. But in his opening remarks to the meeting, Lamy said the ministers were facing "the moment of truth" telling them they would have to decide whether the 2010 deadline would be met. "Time," the WTO director-general said, "is running out," adding that there were "still hard negotiations" ahead if the 153-member organization was going to sign off on a trade deal. However, the buildup to the meeting has been accompanied by outbreaks of violence from radical anti-capitalist demonstrators with the area surrounding the WTO"s seventh ministerial conference area having been transformed into a tight-security zone. On Saturday an anti-free trade march through Geneva erupted into violence, with cars torched and shop windows smashed. The meeting in Switzerland comes a decade after a WTO ministerial meeting in Seattle aimed at driving forward global free trade was engulfed by violent protests. The WTO member states represent about 95 per cent of total global trade. Ministers last met 2005 in Hong Kong. But a gathering scheduled for 2007 was postponed because of lack of progress on the trade round launched in Doha in 2001. This week"s conference is being held amid signs that global trade is recovering from its biggest contraction since the Great Depression with ministers attending the Geneva summit already stressing the role played by trade in helping to haul the world economy out of recession. In the run-up to the opening of the meeting, developing countries released a statement calling for the ministers to take "urgent action" so as to forge ahead with the Doha trade round. "There is an urgent need to translate political statements into concrete engagement in Geneva in order to accomplish the shared objective of concluding the round in 2010," said the developing nations which included several of the world"s leading emerging economies such as Brazil, China, India and Mexico. Their call is likely to be echoed during the Geneva in the coming days meeting with the trade ministers expected to reaffirm their commitment to meeting the deadline to sign off on the new trade deal next year. But with negotiations over a new global trade deal poised to enter their ninth agonizing year, the ministers will be looking for clear signs from US President Barack Obama"s administration on whether it is prepared to provide fresh impetus to the stalled global trade talks. However, in a statement ahead of the meeting Obama"s top trade official Ron Kirk insisted that the US was committed to hammering out a global trade deal. "The United States engages with other economies and plays a leadership role at the World Trade Organization in order to boost American exports and grow the well-paid jobs Americans want and need," said Kirk. Underscoring the sense of frustration surrounding the sometimes acrimonious global trade negotiations, some trade analysts have suggested that the WTO should scale back its hopes for the agreement and instead try to reach a less ambitious accord. "The very fact that Doha is not on the agenda shows that a deal is not in sight," said Romain Benicchio, a trade specialist with the British charity group Oxfam. While officials have pointed to the consensus that has already been reached in negotiations in key trade areas that would ultimately form a new agreement, a key farm trade lobby group expressed disappointment at the lack of progress on the trade talks. In a statement released in Geneva, ministers from the 19-member Cairns Group ministers said they were "disappointed with the limited progress in resolving or narrowing differences" on farm trade issues.
