Breakthrough in Doha talks by June: Lamy

Greater involvement by world political leaders is expected to deliver a breakthrough in the Doha Round of negotiations at the World Trade Organization by June, the chief of the multilateral trade body Pascal Lamy said.

"The prospects of closing the gap (in positions of major players) appears more plausible and probable than ever. We are at a delicate and critical moment and have a possibility to deliver," the WTO director general, who is in India to participate in a seminar on Doha Round, said.

"There has been a pretty good movement and we have the opportunity of closing the gap some time end of June. The landing zone has started to appear," he said, adding the push was coming from political leaders who realise that the cost of failure

would be huge. 

The major countries and blocks -- India, Brazil, US and EU -- were involved in hectic bilateral negotiations and were close to making their offers which could see US bringing down its trade distorting subsidies and EU its farm tariffs.

Emerging countries would be providing market access in right proportion.

Lamy was, however, worried that the movement was slow. He said talks have been at the bilateral level and any breakthrough would have to come at multilateral level. 

Speaking at the seminar earlier, Lamy said: "we need to speed up the process so as to grasp the window of opportunity which closes by the end of June.

In June, US administration's mandate from the legislature to accept any deal at the WTO expires."