New Delhi, Sep 4 - Top officials of the 153 members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) will meet in Geneva later this month after a 'breakthrough' was reached to resume the Doha round of trade talks, India's Commerce Minister Anand Sharma said Friday.
'We have reached an agreement to intensify negotiations. There has been a breakthrough, If I can use this expression. The impasse has been broken,' said Sharma after a two-day meet here among the representatives of some 40 key WTO members.
'It has been backed by all with strong consensus and unanimous endorsement that the negotiators and senior officials will meet in Geneva on September 14,' the trade minister told a press conference.
During the meeting, which was proposed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during the London Summit of G20 in April, it was evident some key differences remained in defining a clear path to conclude the multilateral trade talks.
At the same time, there was also a realisation from all quarters that all such differences needed to be resolved for a healthy multilateral trading system, as also because of the 2010 deadline for Doha round, diplomats said.
Among the key stakeholders who attended the two-day meet here were US Trade Representative Ron Kirk, Brazilian Foreign Trade Minister Celso Amorim, Australian Trade Minister Simon Crean and WTO Director General Pascal Lamy.