Davos to see fresh drive in Doha deal

G20 commits itself to bring talks to fruition

The meeting, convened by Switzerland, will take place on the sidelines of the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in the last week of January 2011.

“The meeting will discuss the progress of Doha talks and see what we can achieve that G20 has mandated...the meeting will be informal in nature,” a commerce ministry official said.

WTO Director General Pascal Lamy would also participate in the deliberations. Besides, EU is also likely to attend the meeting. Leaders of the world’s most influential countries, including the US and the European Union, Brazil and India had pressed for concluding WTO talks for a multilateral agreement in 2011 at the last meeting of the G20 in Seoul in last November.

“Our strong commitment to direct our negotiators to engage in across-the-board negotiations to promptly bring the the Doha Development Round to a successful, comprehensive and balanced conclusion...” “We recognise that 2011 is a critical window of opportunity, albeit narrow, and that engagement among our representatives must intensify and expand,” the G20 leaders had said.