PENPIX: Main protagonists in the WTO's Doha free trade round

Wed Jul 23, 2008 6:53am EDT
(Reuters) - Following are brief descriptions of the main protagonists meeting this week to try to cement a long-sought World Trade Organization treaty.
PASCAL LAMY, WTO DIRECTOR-GENERAL
The Frenchman and former European Union trade commissioner became head of the WTO in September 2005, nine months after the Doha round was originally meant to have concluded.
He is known as a tough negotiator, and has become personally involved in highly sensitive talks over banana tariffs in addition to his work overseeing the Doha round.
An avid runner, Lamy has sought to energize negotiators by likening the WTO talks to a marathon entering its final stretch.
SUSAN SCHWAB, U.S. TRADE REPRESENTATIVE
Since becoming the United States' top trade negotiator in June 2006, Schwab has worked aggressively to conclude bilateral free trade deals with Peru, Colombia, Panama, and South Korea, some of which have proved unpopular in the U.S. Congress.
Her record on the Doha round has also been mixed. A Geneva ministerial meeting she attended in her second month on the job collapsed in failure over rich-poor splits, and an attempt to revive the talks in Germany last year similarly fizzled out.
The daughter of a diplomat, Schwab grew up in Africa, Europe and Asia, and holds a PhD in public policy. She has repeatedly said that Washington was willing to make ambitious offers in the Doha talks so long as its major trading partners do the same.
PETER MANDELSON, EUROPEAN UNION TRADE COMMISSIONER
Known for his political prowess, the former British Labor politician is under intense pressure from the EU's 27 member states who are at odds over what a Doha deal should look like.
Mandelson, who tends to align with the United States in talks over agriculture and industrial goods, came under personal attack by French President Nicolas Sarkozy this month for his negotiating positions which may sharply cut farm subsidies.
"My shoulders are broad enough and my skin thick enough to take this," was his response.
CELSO AMORIM, BRAZILIAN FOREIGN MINISTER
The soft-spoken career diplomat is in his second term as minister of foreign affairs of Brazil and has won plaudits for raising his country's profile on the international trade stage.
Amorim's refusal to give into rich-country demands for big cuts to the duties applied to manufactured goods entering emerging markets has made him a hero for some and a headache for others in the WTO talks.
Brazil often speaks for developing countries in the Doha round, but has alienated some of its export-dependent regional neighbors including Chile and Mexico. African and Caribbean countries have also bristled against Brazil's stance on sugar.
KAMAL NATH, INDIAN COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY MINISTER
India's charismatic trade chief may prove distracted next week, when his party faces a confidence vote in parliament in the middle of the WTO talks in which India has a huge stake.
Nath, who has stood firm on the need to protect subsistence farmers in any deal to tear down barriers to trade, will travel to Geneva and then return to New Delhi for the key vote, and then return to Geneva for the end of the negotiations.
Diplomats say his presence will be needed for Lamy to successfully knock Washington, Brussels and India's emerging market peers from their entrenched positions. Before his current post, the voluble politician served as India's minister of textiles, and of the environment and forests.