Diplomat Tim Groser's skill in removing a key stumbling block to the WTO Round Trade won the praise of Negotiations Minister Jim Sutton yesterday.
He said Groser - who chairs the WTO's agriculture committee - achieved the breakthrough after "brutal negotiations" at a Paris OECD meeting on how to calculate farm goods tariffs.
Sutton said the deal reached was not greatly different from previous so-called settlements on the issue but, this time, it was backed by a representative group of trade ministers.
Progress had been held up on what was largely a technical issue which had become political.
The World Trade Organisation is running at least two years behind its goal of brokering a new global trade deal by the end of this year.
Its members have set a July deadline for an outline deal covering all sectors.
- NZPA, staff reporter
Diplomacy wins praise for NZer
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