World Trade Organisation (WTO) General Council will meet in Geneva today to break the impasse and re-start trade negotiations after the failure of Cancun ministerial meeting in September.S.N. Menon, Special Secretary, Department of Commerce and K.N. Chandrasekhar, Indian ambassador to the WTO, will represent New Delhi at the first General Council after the trade talks collapsed at the ministerial meeting on farm subsidies and Singapore issues.General Council Chairman Carlos Perez Del Castillo will submit a report which would outline progress made during informal consultations held in Geneva since Cancun.The report will also identify key issues to be addressed as negotiations resume and give sense of possible ways ahead.The meeting assumes significance in the wake of G-20 issuing a joint communique after their meeting with WTO Director General Suppachai Panitchpakdi and European Union Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, calling for a speedy resumption of global trade talks and indicating some softening of their stand.However, as indicated by Menon, large expectations should not be held from the meeting. The WTO has set a December 15 deadline to relaunch global trade talks. PTI
