(Adds U.S. industry comment in paragraph 10-11) By Jonathan Lynn GENEVA, Oct 22 (Reuters) - The World Trade Organisation has put broad-based talks to end tariffs on industrial sectors from textiles to chemicals on hold to let the main players hammer out proposals instead, a senior WTO diplomat said on Wednesday. The question of sectoral agreements, where groups of WTO members have come together to drop tariffs in individual sectors, was a major stumbling block at July's abortive talks seeking a breakthrough in the WTO's Doha round. The United States has made it clear that wide participation by China and other advanced developing countries in sectoral deals was one of its top priorities in any deal in the Doha round, launched nearly seven years ago to free up world trade. But the new mediator for talks on industrial goods, Switzerland's WTO ambassador Luzius Wasescha, said the multi-party talks had been set aside for the next three to four weeks in hopes that the most involved parties could work together to forge proposed deals. "With regard to sectorals, both the proponents and the skeptics are not keen to engage in a multilateral process at this stage," Wasescha told reporters after briefing the WTO's 153 members on the state of his consultations. He said the sectors were so diverse that each required different solutions and different members participating. Fourteen sectoral deals are under discussion at the WTO. Some big developing countries say the accords go beyond the mandate of the Doha talks, and fear what they consider unfair pressure to expose fledgling industries to global competition. China in particular is upset at proposed texts calling for "critical mass" in the deals, which it believes is code for Chinese participation given its huge, rapidly growing economy. A U.S. industry official said he hoped the new approach could lead to a long-awaited breakthrough. "This could be a good way to focus attention on how beneficial the sectoral agreements will be for the advanced developing nations who will need to be part of that critical mass," said Doug Goudie, director of international trade policy at the National Association of Manufacturers. DOHA DIPLOMACY Sectorals would certainly have come up when WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy was in Beijing earlier this week for talks with Chinese leaders on the Doha round. This week is seeing a flurry of Doha-related diplomacy. White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said on Wednesday that Doha would be on the agenda of next month's summit to discuss the global financial crisis. Lamy and political leaders say completing Doha would send a positive signal to markets by boosting business confidence. Lamy is also due to meet new EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton later on Wednesday in Geneva, on her first trip since being confirmed by the European Parliament. Ashton will meet Wasescha and the chairmen of other WTO negotiations on Thursday. Hopes voiced early in the summer that a comprehensive Doha agreement could be reached this year have now been dropped. But Wasescha said he was still working on the assumption that an outline deal in the key areas of industrial goods, agriculture and services would be possible this year. "If the members engage and do the work, it's feasible, not easy but feasible," he said. He called on members to consider whether it was worth rejecting a deal just because they did not get exactly the tariff treatment they were seeking, given the financial crisis and difficult economic situation resulting from it. Wasescha said his work over the next few weeks would concentrate on special treatment sought for individual countries like Venezuela or for groups such as the SACU customs union combining South Africa and its neighbors. (Additional reporting by Doug Palmer in Washington)
A workers waits in a container of scrap metal at a collection center in Alajuelita, near San Jose, October 21, 2008. Ten recycling centers export over 200,000 tons of scrap metal ...
