6th Ministerial, Hong Kong 2005

The stage is set for a week or more of intense negotiations at the WTO as Ministers of some 40 to 50 countries are expected to arrive in Geneva in an effort to boost the flagging Doha negotiations.

In a letter sent today to Trade Ministers at the WTO, more than 100 civil society groups from around the world denounced the legitimacy of an exclusive Ministerial meeting in Geneva this week, and urged trade ministers to develop a new approach to the multilateral trading system. The signatories represented civil society groups from more than 30 countries, including the big WTO players - US, EU, Japan, Canada, Australia and India - as well as smaller countries like, Senegal, Uganda, Nigeria and Bolivia.

The Dance of the Seven Veils appears pedestrian when compared with the strip-tease currently being performed by the world's trade negotiators in Geneva. They are slowly and finally revealing their concessions to open global trade - just in time.

By the end of next week, the world is likely to know whether the Doha round of multilateral trade negotiations

World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy on Friday suggested a new game plan for concluding Doha Development Agenda negotiating modalities in agriculture and industrials by the end of the month, with concluding ministerial 'green room' sessions beginning June 29

President George W. Bush said on Thursday that the Doha round of world trade talks had reached 'a critical moment' and that he would press for further progress when he meets European Union leaders in Austria next week.

In an attempt to break the deadlock in the Doha Development Agenda negotiations on reaching full modalities by the end of June, Malaysian trade minister Rafidah Aziz yesterday offered a 'blueprint' that calls for accepting the Group-of-20 proposal as a 'basis to move negotiations forward' on the thresholds and cuts for tariff reduction, tariff reduction numbers and spending caps in the farm market access pillar (see related report this issue).