WTO head pushes G20 for trade deal

GENEVA:The World Trade Organization will urge the G20 key economies meeting this week to make good on pledges to conclude a pact on global commerce by 2010, its director general said Tuesday."I will tell them that we in Geneva have done what they asked of us. They now have the road mapped out, but they still have to walk it," WTO chief Pascal Lamy told representatives of the trade body's 153-member states.Lamy will attend a summit of the Group of 20 (G20) developed and developing countries to be held in Pittsburgh on Thursday.In July, the Group of Eight rich nations and emerging economic powers had said that they wanted the long-stalled Doha Round of talks for a world trade liberalisation pact to wrap up next year.Trade ministers from key trading nations have also called on chief negotiators to map out a work calender for the next three months in order to meet the 2010 deadline.Lamy pointed out although this calender had been drawn up, "a work programme by itself... will not deliver a substantive result.""At this stage, I remain cautious in my forecast. It would be premature for me to predict today that the necessary political engagement will in fact take place over the next three months," he said.The WTO-led Doha Round was launched in the Qatari capital in 2001 with the aim of boosting global commerce to help developing countries, but deadlock between the major trading blocs has dashed repeated attempts to forge a pact.