Industry talks at WTO fail yet again

Geneva: Talks on industrial goods at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) last week have failed to narrow any gaps, and time is running out to reach a new deal, a senior mediator said.

Canada's WTO ambassador Don Stephenson, who chairs the negotiations on industry, known in trade jargon as Nama, told WTO members that there was no sense of urgency in the discussions.

"I think a deal is possible in Nama," Stephenson told a meeting of the WTO's 151 members."My central fear is this - that there is a deal but we don't find it," he said, according to a participant in the meeting.

His comments echo those by the chairman of talks on agriculture, New Zealand's WTO ambassador Crawford Falconer, who said on Friday the farm talks were not moving fast enough.