The World Trade Organization plans to hold a meeting as early as mid-October to enable WTO Director General Pascal Lamy to check the progress of the Doha Round of global market-opening talks, trade sources said yesterday.
The plan was revealed at a meeting of the WTO's General Council, a key decision-making body.
In the Doha Round talks, more than 150 member countries and regions aimed to cut tariffs and ease regulations in the services sector.
But advanced nations and emerging countries are at odds over how to cut tariffs and export subsidies in the core areas of agriculture and manufactured goods.
In order to break the stalled talks, WTO members are holding discussions in groups, each with a small number of participants.
At yesterday's meeting of the General Council, members that are not part of any grouping called for increasing transparency at the ongoing talks, the sources said. (Kyodo)
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