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Brazil, Britian agree on reviving Doha Round

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-08-14 12:13

BRASILIA -- Brizilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown agreed Wednesday on the possibility of saving the Doha Round of World Trade Organization (WTO) talks, official sources from the Brazilian presidential office said.

During a 10-minute telephone conversation, the two leaders "agreed that there must be bigger efforts to summon a new round of negotiations in September," the sources said.

Brown told Lula that he had discussed the issue earlier with US President George W. Bush, within the framework of a series of political initiatives intended to revive the deadlocked negotiations.

On Tuesday, the Brazilian president discussed the issue with Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, when he proposed a joint effort to renew the negotiations in September.

Brazil and India are demanding the elimination of agricultural subsidies by developed countries, which they say is the biggest hurdle for the Doha Round.

The latest round of talks in Geneva last month collapsed as efforts to reach a compromise on the point at which poor countries could raise import tariffs on farm products failed.