Hopes for a conclusion to the World Trade Organisation's Doha Round of negotiations have again been dashed, with a ministerial meeting designed to bring the issues to a head this month having been cancelled.
WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy, at an informal meeting of heads of delegations on December 12, recommended that unless there were dramatic changes over the weekend that "we do not convene ministers to finalise modalities by the end of the year".
He said that after a week of intensive consultations, he had not "detected the political drive" for a final push towards agreement.
Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean was disappointed by the news from Geneva, saying a Ministerial engagement is the only way to break the impasse on two remaining issues.
"There is no denying that there are difficult issues at play – but they are surmountable with the right level of political will," Mr Crean said.
"When Ministers have engaged this year we have made real progress, as we did in July. Ministers need to meet again to drive the process forward."
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