The World Trade Organization's Director General, Pascal Lamy, will be in China next week to
discuss issues related to the Doha Round multilateral trade talks, state media reported. "I want to make sure that as we reach this crunch time, China can both
preserve its defenses and offences in the negotiations," Lamy said. The round of talks need to be finished at the end of
the year or early next year, and to do that WTO members must first
reach an interim agreement on cutting agriculture subsidies,
agricultural and industrial tariffs in the next few weeks, Lamy said. The Doha Round was launched in 2001, but deadlines have been missed. China joined the WTO in 2001. It has said that imbalances between recently acceded member states and other countries is a concern it wants addressed.