WTO wants new 'negotiating spirit' for further trade talks

11 Nov '05

3 min read

WTO Trade Organization's (WTO) Director-General Pascal Lamy stated in his report to heads of delegations on 10 November 2005 that the informal meetings of a number of ministers during the past few days have not been able to bridge differences, which would now require members to “recalibrate” their expectations for the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference.

He stressed the need to maintain the ambition of the Round, and for Hong Kong to mark a step forward in successfully completing the talks next year.

He would like to welcome you all to this meeting, the purpose of which is to review the state of play in the negotiations in the light of what has taken place since they last met in this format one week ago.

As he mentioned last week, a number of Ministers met in London on Monday in what was probably the first cross-cutting discussion at that level, moving beyond the issue of Agriculture to the rest of the negotiating agenda.

It would not be true to say that any substantive progress was made in that small group, but there were a number of useful exchanges, and the willingness of the Ministers involved to look at the negotiations in a horizontal way was a positive sign.

Following that meeting, he continued my process of consultations which he started last week, capitalising on the presence of a larger number of Ministers here in Geneva. In an initial session on Tuesday, Ministers, Vice-Ministers and Ambassadors from a range of Members took part in a discussion of the current situation, an assessment of the prospects for Hong Kong and the possible next steps.

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