Lamy told the French newspaper Liberation that he thought a big step forward in the talks to further open up world trade, begun in 2001, was more likely in June than in May.
He said, "I would say rather June, for an agreement on several points which are essential to go on to a conclusion before the end of the year".
He said, "The political and technical conditions are at last in line on three key subjects: agricultural subsidies, and customs duties on agricultural and industrial products".
On Tuesday, WTO submitted new proposals on agriculture and industry to its 152 members. Developing countries had objected that the previous most-recent texts, put forward in February, were not even-handed.
They said that requests for them to open their markets to industrial goods from rich countries were too big in comparison to concessions demanded by countries in the rich northern hemisphere for them to lower their subsidies to agriculture.
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Lamy said, "The countries in sub-saharan Africa still have the possibility of applying customs tariffs of 60 to 80 per cent on agricultural products under WTO rules. On average they apply 20 per cent. They have margin for manoeuvre".
He said, "If the reasoning in Brussels for Tokyo is that one can feed the planet via subsidies or excess production in rich countries, this scarcely carries conviction with poor countries".