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WTO chief Pascal Lamy says the political will may exist to revive stalled global trade talks, but negotiations can resume only if countries compromise on the main stumbling block of agriculture.

Despite the expected challenges, Seoul will push for certain exemptions over sensitive agricultural products during the upcoming third round of free trade agreement talks with Washington, the Korean government said.

Both notifications assert that these regulations are trade restrictive for countries like the US planning to export GM products to India.

Trade ministers of the developing-country Group-of-20 coalition will meet in Rio de Janeiro September 9 and 10 to finalize a position on how to revive the suspended Doha Development Agenda trade negotiations - a first indication of whether a turnaround in the negotiations is possible.

China would damage its robust economy and hinder its own policy objectives if it embraced economic nationalism, Susan Schwab, the US trade representative, said in Beijing yesterday.

(Bhagirath Lal Das) says the WTO negoiations are likely to resume in September and conclude in time to enable the US fast track authority to approve of the decision before June 2007.

China is willing to help restart WTO talks but wants to see developed countries make "substantial contributions" first, a state news agency on Tuesday quoted China's commerce minister as telling a top American envoy.

The recently-signed trade and investment framework agreement (TIFA) between the US and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) will sooner or later lead to a free trade agreement (FTA), and this will prove disastrous to the vulnerable sectors of the region, according to independent think-tank IBON Foundation.

The US trade chief warned Friday that WTO talks to liberalise global trade would be suspended for several years if there was no breakthrough over the next six to eight months.

The third round of talks over the Korea-U.S. FTA will be held in Seattle in the United States -a famous battleground of the WTO protests in 1999-from 6th to 9th September.