Pascal Lamy Quotes (72 Quotes)

The April 30 deadline will be a moment of truth. It's approaching fast, so we don't have any minute to waste.

We have known for some time that Hong Kong will not be the final conclusion to this round,

It is going to be three months of continuing work in progress, ... There is no way that Hong Kong can result in a sort of lowest common denominator deal.

If this country embarks on many, many bilateral trade deals, most of your resources will be absorbed by these bilateral treaties and less energy will be available for multilateral rounds.

To the question of whether a WTO member can put up obstacles to trade as a consequence of a threat to public health, the answer is yes.

While growth in trade will remain satisfactory in 2005, the decelerating trend is causing some concern,

These are operations of a new type. When it's Europeans launching these kind of offers, they don't see any novelty in it. When it's the Americans investing it seems normal. But when it is the Chinese or Indians, it's almost abnormal for public opinion.

Everyone - developing countries and developed countries - have to give a little ... in order to get this process moving forward, which will benefit everyone around the world.

We've got a big number of topics to be addressed. Most of that has to be done in the first half of this year.

This is no time for 'take it or leave it' attitudes or proposals, but the moment to combine flexibility with ambition, and political courage and resolve, so that we can make progress.

Not that what is on the table is nothing, but it is insufficient to reach an agreement.

The director-general has no magic wand ... things do not work this way in the WTO. We can catalyse, we can broker, we sometimes can lead, but at the end of the day ... member states have the decision-making power.

The problems are numerous and time is fading, ... There are a mountain of subjects to address and I hope that it can be climbed.

They both need to make progress in some areas to allow the rest to get moving.

The U.S. decision to go down the route of protectionism is a major setback for the world trading system,

Europe and the United States are moving on farm issues. This is good news,

The April deadline is the moment of truth, it's approaching fast and we do not have any minute to waste. Things are moving, the problem is they're not moving at the right pace. The pace remains too slow.

Hong Kong is not just another Port of Call for Doha round negotiations, it is our best opportunity to bring the round to conclusion by the end of 2006.

We want China in the WTO at the earliest opportunity, but there are remaining issues,

We need to act now, ... It is clearly essential that we keep up the pressure in agriculture, and this week's meetings are important in that respect.

The Europeans know that they will have to move on agricultural market access. The US knows it will have to move on agricultural domestic support and emerging countries like Brazil, India, South Africa and a few others know that they will have to move on industrial tariffs and services.

Each has to make efforts.

I hope that this will convince them that it is worth taking further steps.

It's obviously my priority number one, two and three. I'll be fully hands-on and fostering negotiation and cooperation,

One more heavyweight around the table is good news.

This request is designed to protect our rights in the WTO, fully in line with the procedural agreement reached with the U. S. in September, ... Whilst wishing to de-escalate this dispute, our aim is to see the WTO-incompatible FSC export subsidies removed.

It is not so much the United States that is trying to push the European Union in one direction or another, it is developing nations as a whole that are pushing the United States and Europe to open their markets a little more.

There is a lot of work ahead of us, following both what happened and what did not happen last July... the way ahead to Hong Kong obviously is and remains the number one priority.

What people commit to WTO they watch much more carefully than they did before,

This agreement, coming just before the Hong Kong ministerial conference, is good news, ... Members have shown that they are ready to ensure that the world's poorest countries have the flexibility that they need in order to meet their WTO obligations in a way that serves their development needs.

Others are doing the running for South Africa.

If adopted the actions recommended to the president would drastically reduce U.S. steel imports with severe implications for both the EU and third countries,

Is South Africa on the side of anti-dumping or anti-dumping victims South Africa will have to give a signal on this.

It is not good news, but we have to face reality.

I want to be very clear that we would have no alternative but to examine all options, both bilateral and multilateral, to protect our industry from the consequences of U. S. action.

Movement in those two areas would be helpful not only for the agriculture negotiations overall, but for the entire round.

Although the four days of talks were held in a constructive spirit, with positive movement on both sides resulting in a certain narrowing of difference on the outstanding issues under negotiation, conclusion of a bilateral agreement was not possible at this stage,

Clearly, we would all have liked to see a more operational text by now, but this is where we are. The current draft does not seek to establish a final balance here and now - that is for the end of the round, which is not where we are now.

It's not a question of, 'You kick me in the shin, I punch you in the nose,

There needs to be heavy political traction so the margin is narrowed and trade-offs can start happening,

While we have seen some progress on agriculture, positions are still too far apart on one issue, which is market access, to allow negotiations to progress.

Today we can be sure we are heading into the right direction. We managed to put the round back on track, after a long hibernation. But we are not there yet.

It's a bit like a business negotiation. We have reached agreement on the crucial elements,

My sense is that what they will be trying to do today and tomorrow in Rio is try and identify a sort of landing zone ... that will have to take place to get an agreement.

To set us on the right course we need to create more opportunities for trade, particularly in developing countries, and we need to adjust global trade rules to better meet the needs of entrepreneurs in the 21st century,

It's also clear therefore if the negotiations are to progress, the United States will have to move on domestic support.

We have much more members, we have much more active members, the size of the agenda is much bigger and the combination of size of the agenda and the number of active members makes the odds of a resolution much lower than they were before,

The U. S. must budge on domestic farm support, the E. U. must budge on agriculture tariffs and the G-20 must budge on industrial tariffs. We are approaching the moment of truth.

According to Lamy, both the EU and the United States could break the deadlock. They have margins of maneuver which they have to use tactically to the maximum of their capacities, ... The question is when do they show their hand.

Both need to make efforts, and that is the issue that will allay concerns of many developing countries who want freer trade -- and things will be a lot better.