After spending a day in Berlin to meet with German Government Officials and German Business Groups on Tuesday, the Chamber's Doha Business Delegation is in Brussels today with the same aim: Take the pulse of the almost eight year old Doha Round of World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations.

Our message is clear that we strongly support concluding an ambitious and balanced outcome to Doha, but we aren't there yet. The Chamber supports the Obama Administration's efforts to seek more clarity from our trading partners about what is on the table in the talks.

Unfortunately, there seems to be a bit of a transatlantic disconnect about timing and substance. This was clear from our meetings in Berlin and will certainly come out more in our meetings with European Commission Trade Officials and European Business Groups today. The prevailing thinking on this side of the Atlantic is that we need to take what is on the table and move on. That won't fly in the U.S. (with the business community, U.S. Congress or Administration), which is why the timing of our trip is so important.

The timing of our trip is also important because there are changes coming in Brussels with the Commission turning over and other EU structural changes post-Lisbon Treaty. Just like there is a new looking German Government in place as of today.

Only new and creative thinking is going to get us to a successful Doha result our business delegation is here to take the pulse of Doha, but also to plant some seeds about the need to consider different approaches. The world is very different than it was 8 years ago when Doha was launched.