10/20/06 Divided Doha & Puny Pumpkins

Doha's Divided Attention & Puny Pumpkins. I'm Greg Martin with today's Northwest Report. World Trade Organization Director-General Pascal Lamy says bilateral and regional trade talks are taking focus away from efforts to reach a global trade deal. He says there simply aren`t enough competent trade negotiators out there. Lamy calls that a resource diversion problem - noting that - and these are his words - most WTO members can`t afford to ride both horses. He says smaller countries just can`t focus on both the global approach to trade - and the new focus by the European Union and the U.S. on bilateral trade agreements. With the risk of a multi-year suspension of the Doha Round of trade talks if there`s no breakthrough early next year - Lamy says all focus should be on a multilateral deal. Difficult growing conditions this year have produced a smaller pumpkin crop...smaller in numbers and size. According to Gary Lucier, USDA economist, because of smaller supplies of pumpkins , wholesale prices are up. LUCIER: In general, especially in the Eastern and Central part of the United States, prices for pumpkins at the wholesale level have been averaging above a year ago. For Jack-O-Lantern pumpkins that could be as high as 50 or 60% above a year ago. Now here's today's Washington Grange Report. (GRANGE REPORT) That's today's Northwest Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.