Lamy said that increasing use of non-tariff measures by different countries are impacting trade.
Trade ministers of key WTO member countries, including India would meet on the sidelines of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development meeting in Paris in the last week of May.
On Monday, media giant Thomson Reuters said 'it has appointed Pascal Lamy, director general of the World Trade Organization, to join its board of directors.' Lamy, who has started his second term at WTO that will last till 2013, will act as a trustee of the Thomson Reuters Trust Principles, which govern the way the company carries out business in an ethical manner.
World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy on Thursday faced serious charges of creating darkness at noon in the crucial Doha modalities negotiations when several trade ministers complained about their exclusion from the hard bargains he is conducting among seven members that also include India.
Director General of the World Trade Organisation had stated early this month that the current food crisis can be solved through a successful outcome of the Doha Round of negotiations for a multi-lateral trade deal among 151 countries. Biswajit Dhar, head of the Centre for WTO Studies, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade, felt that if an agreement is reached it would provide certainty in terms of policy regime for the farmers in developing countries.
Rapid industrialisation has helped India speed up its economic progress said WTO chief Pascal Lamy.
The G-20 leaders at their last meeting at London had asked Lamy to explore ways to improve the political engagements for resolving differences on the much-delayed Doha Round of negotiations, which were meant to culminate into a multilateral trade liberalising agreement in 2005.
The secretariat of the Geneva-based global trade body planned to increase Lamy's annual pay by 20 to 30 per cent from around 500,000 Swiss francs ($468,000) at present and proposed the raise at an informal committee meeting in early July to discuss budgetary and other issues, Kyodo news agency quoted trade sources as saying.
Several developing countries are expected to oppose a proposal by World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy to "freeze" the issues on which there is convergence within the Doha Development Agenda and resolve the outstanding issues, Business Standard was told.
India has consistently demanded that about 8 per cent of farm tariff lines to be exempted from the tariff reduction commitments while 12 per cent of tariff lines to be subjected to a minimum cut below 10 per cent. The United States, Australia, Uruguay, Thailand and Malaysia, however, vehemently opposed India's demands during what are called the Walk in Woods meetings convened by the chair for Doha agriculture negotiations Ambassador Crawford Falconer last week.
India has made it clear that it will not relinquish the leverage on agriculture and NAMA until a services deal is finalised by the WTO.
World Trade Organization Chief Pascal Lamy wants to have second term in office. He has now decided to throw his hat in the race in which he will be the first candidate to file papers.
Brazilian External Affairs Minister Celso Amorim, who is among the 35 trade ministers at the Delhi informal ministerial meeting said, "In the game of chess, sometimes the end game is much longer over the middle game. The fact that we are in the middle game does not mean it (Doha Round) will finish."
WTO chief Pascal Lamy has asked India to give increased market access for agricultural products and contribute toward advancement of the contentious Doha Round of global trade talks.
"We have always said if the WTO Director General feels there is a chance for (another) opening, then we will be prepared to come again to Geneva," Commerce Secretary G K Pillai told reporters on the sidelines of a Ficci-CUTS conference in New Delhi. A marathon meeting of 30 trade ministers failed to reach a common ground when they met in Geneva between July 21-29 on an issue of the level of protection for developing countries in case of import surge.
World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy has said that a final agreement in global trade talks is possible.
World Trade Organisation chief Pascal Lamy has endorsed India's stand in global trade talks but asked New Delhi to look at the 'bigger picture' and help break the impasse.
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