05/10/07 What If?

What if? I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. I'm a big fan of Clive Cussler, author of Raise the Titanic and the recent box office hit Sahara. In an interview with Clive many years ago I asked how he came of with his story ideas and he simply said&What if? We have been hearing a lot about the World Trade Organization and the Doha Round of trade talks and I have to ask&What if&the talks fail? What if&we as the U.S. don't get what we want? WTO's Director-General Pascal Lamy updated the General Council yesterday on where things are. LAMY: I have warned governments that if they do not compromise soon, they will be forced to confront the unpleasant reality of failure. This would mean foregoing the very significant package of trade opening and rule-making that the Round represents, and breaching the commitment which was taken to work for a more developing friendly world trading system. The challenge before us is now not technical, but rather political. It is about leadership, about compromise, about countries recognizing their common interest in success and the collective costs of failure. But Lamy says the Doha Round can be successful. LAMY: In the days preceding our informal meeting, a number of major players had affirmed their commitment to a successful outcome of our negotiations around the end of this year, and also committed themselves to intensifying their efforts to finding common ground as a contribution to the conclusion of the Round. I have underlined my belief that a successful outcome to the Round is possible, even in the small amount of time remaining until the end of this year. As time does grow short every effort will be made to finalize an agreement but Lamy adds: LAMY: However, there are no illusions about the challenges it represents. All of us here in Geneva are well aware of the sequence of necessary steps which will be needed to conclude the Round and the severe time pressure that sequence now imposes upon us. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.