CASTRIES, St. Lucia (CMC):

Member-countries of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) are seeking to maximise opportunities from the resumption of Doha Round Trade talks at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).

The talks, suspended in July of this year, have resumed at the technical, informal level.

Elliot Paige, charge d'affaires at the OECS Geneva Technical Mission, said in a statement he considered the resumption of talks an opportunity to formalise the quiet diplomacy, which has been ongoing since the suspension of the Round.

"The resumption means that OECS countries can now re-engage in a very intense way in technical negotiations at the WTO. We very much support and think that there is a lot for us to gain in the multilateral trading system," he said.

He said while the new round of talks was a positive development, the OECS Mission has recognised that divergences still remain on the key issue of agriculture, parti-cularly market access and the subsidies of developed countries.