A vendor displays bananas for sale along a road in the Port area of Manila in this file picture
 
The World Trade Organisation's marathon-running chief has urged his staff to eat bananas to sustain themselves through long negotiating sessions -- in which tariffs on the fruit are among the most contentious issues.

Pascal Lamy asked the WTO's roster of economists and lawyers to work "enthusiastically" and with "team spirit" during a high-stakes meeting of trade ministers that began on Monday.

"We will be asked to work long hours, to do work on all sorts of potentially unexpected assignments that may crop up, but such is our fate!" the normally staid Frenchman wrote in an e-mail to staff.

"What do I recommend during your long work hours in the next two weeks? Bread and bananas, or any other high energy diet at your disposal!" he said in the e-mail sent out last week.

About 30 trade ministers and 800 government officials are in Geneva seeking a long-sought deal on cuts to import tariffs and subsidies that skew trade in goods from cotton to cars.

Among the hot-button issues being discussed are the European Union's import duties on bananas which are higher on Latin American imports than those from other former European colonies.

Ecuador, Panama, Costa Rica, Colombia and Peru want those rules overhauled before accepting a new global trade pact which requires consensus among the WTO's 153 members to be clinched.

Bananas for sale in the WTO cafeteria during the talks carry Chiquita stickers from Costa Rica.

世界貿(mào)易組織總干事日前敦促（參加貿(mào)易部長(zhǎng)級(jí)會(huì)議的）會(huì)務(wù)人員做好打“持久戰(zhàn)”的準(zhǔn)備，讓他們備好香蕉補(bǔ)充體力。香蕉關(guān)稅將成為本次談判最具爭(zhēng)議的議題之一。

“世貿(mào)組織”貿(mào)易部長(zhǎng)級(jí)高端會(huì)議于本周一開(kāi)幕。酷愛(ài)馬拉松運(yùn)動(dòng)的世貿(mào)組織總干事帕斯卡爾•拉米在會(huì)上要求世貿(mào)組織的經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家和律師們要帶著“團(tuán)隊(duì)精神”“充滿熱情”地工作。

這位平日里以嚴(yán)肅形象示人的法國(guó)人在給全體工作人員的一封電子郵件中寫道：“會(huì)議期間，我們可能會(huì)被要求加班，要處理各種隨時(shí)可能出現(xiàn)的情況，但這就是我們的任務(wù)！”

他在這封于上周發(fā)出的郵件中說(shuō)：“接下來(lái)的兩周大家就要投入到緊張的工作中去了，我能給大家點(diǎn)什么建議呢？那就是隨時(shí)備好面包和香蕉，或者其它高能量食品！”

約30位貿(mào)易部長(zhǎng)和800名政府官員目前正在日內(nèi)瓦舉行磋商，討論降低從棉花到汽車等各類商品的進(jìn)口關(guān)稅以及導(dǎo)致貿(mào)易失衡的相關(guān)補(bǔ)貼等歷史性問(wèn)題，期望達(dá)成共識(shí)。

此次會(huì)議的熱門話題之一是歐盟的香蕉進(jìn)口關(guān)稅問(wèn)題，歐盟對(duì)拉美地區(qū)進(jìn)口香蕉所征的關(guān)稅高于其他前歐洲殖民地。

厄瓜多爾、巴拿馬、哥斯達(dá)黎加、哥倫比亞和秘魯?shù)葒?guó)希望在接受新的全球貿(mào)易協(xié)定之前先廢除這些舊條約，新的全球貿(mào)易協(xié)定需得到世貿(mào)組織153個(gè)成員國(guó)的一致同意才可生效。

會(huì)議期間，世貿(mào)組織自助餐廳所售的香蕉上都貼著哥斯達(dá)黎加的“金吉達(dá)”商標(biāo)。

Vocabulary:

staid: sober（沉著的；嚴(yán)肅的）

hot-button:敏感的；熱門的