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Report
No.240704 |
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- International - |
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WTO Resumes Doha Round Negotiations Eyeing for Early Agreement An informal ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) was held on January 27, 2007 in Davos, an eastern city of Switzerland. Ministers of major member countries gathered together for the first time in half a year since the Doha Round of multilateral trade negotiations had been frozen in July, 2006. Ministers agreed on early resumption of full-blown talks to establish modalities for agriculture negotiations, i.e. standards for reducing protection measures. However, they could not go as far as specifying the exact timing for restarting talks. Agriculture Minister Matsuoka and ministers of some 30 other countries/regions including the United States, the European Union and Brazil participated in the informal meeting. Ministers underlined their posture to do their utmost to move the negotiations forward. Meanwhile the trade negotiating committee (TNC) of WTO, which is composed of all members and oversees the Doha Round talks, held its session on January 31 in Geneva. The TNC agreed to restart full-blown negotiations in all the negotiating fields including agriculture. The agreement of TNC follows the policy confirmed by WTO informal ministerial meeting of the preceding weekend at Davos to resume negotiations. WTO is now set to head towards finishing up the negotiating round along parallel trucks of multilateral talks in Geneva and a series of subsurface bilateral talks. |
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