WTO seeking to hold official ministerial meeting for 1st time in 4 yrs

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GENEVA, May 3 Kyodo -
The World Trade Organization is in the final stage of arranging a top-level
decision-making ministerial meeting for the first time in four years to discuss
stronger surveillance over rising protectionism amid the global economic
downturn, trade negotiation sources said Sunday.
The global trade body is considering holding such a ministerial conference at
its headquarters in Geneva from Nov. 30 through Dec. 2, the sources said. The
WTO will aim to make a formal decision on the planned conference at its General
Council meeting in late May.
The WTO's official ministerial conference, which was meant to take place at
least every two years, has not been held since the December 2005 meeting in
Hong Kong because the Doha Round of global trade liberalization talks under the
WTO has been stalled with no prospects in sight for its conclusion.
But there are growing moves at the WTO to seek a ministerial meeting to resist
protectionist moves across the globe aimed at shielding domestic economies from
the fallout of the financial crisis, the sources said.
The planned conference may also help to open the door for a breakthrough in the
Doha Round, they said.
At an unofficial ministerial meeting in Geneva in July last year, the WTO
sought an outline deal on cutting tariffs on agricultural and industrial goods
to unlock the long-delayed Doha Round process. But the talks collapsed as the
United States and emerging economies failed to narrow their differences.
The WTO gave up trying to convene another unofficial ministerial meeting in
Geneva by the end of last year as developed and developing countries remained
divided on the core issues of farm and industrial goods trade.
==Kyodo
2009-05-03 23:36:45