Archive - Jun 2006 - Article

A group of over 100 civil society organizations has denounced the mini-Ministerial meeting to be held in Geneva in the next days as not legitimate as it does not allow for the effective participation of all Ministers.

Threats, deception and manipulation are among the negotiating tactics used by rich countries in the current round of trade talks reveals a new report, The Doha Deception Round: How the US and EU cheated developing countries at the WTO Hong Kong Ministerial, launched today by ActionAid.

The Chair of the WTO's Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC) Pascal Lamy, at an informal Heads of Delegation meeting Wednesday, outlined to WTO members the process, and substantive issues that are to be tackled at a 'mini-Ministerial' that begins on Friday (30 June).

As many Ministers and senior officials arrived today in Geneva for several days of WTO meetings, speculation was still rife on how the 'Ministerial Green Room' would be run, what issues would the Director General Pascal Lamy really want to focus on (and what issues may thus be left out), and what the Ministers and officials who are not invited to the Green Room would be doing.

Leading countries in the troubled

Over 70 European Civil Society Organisations from 21 countries [1] have today demanded a halt to the Doha round of the WTO talks. Tomorrow, EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and the European foreign ministers will meet in Geneva for a WTO Mini-Ministerial, which will attempt to strike a last minute deal to rescue the stalled negotiations.

A document listing issues to be tackled at the WTO 'Mini-Ministerial' starting on 30 June, and the sequence in which the discussion will take place, was discussed in a Green Room meeting of about 30 Ambassadors with WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy on Tuesday 27 June morning.

The NAMA-11 group of developing countries has strongly criticised the paper relating to modalities for non-agricultural market access(NAMA) for its unhelpful structure, for omitting the views of members or not reflecting their views accurately in some areas, and for creating confusion as to whether the textual language provided on specific issues was supposed to enjoy agreement or were merely put forward by the Chair under his own responsibility.

WTO members met this morning after the release of the draft possible modalities prepared by Ambassador Crawford Falconer of New Zealand, Chair of the Committee on Agriculture (Special Session) the previous day.

The Chairs of the Agriculture and NAMA (Non-Agricultural Market Access) negotiating committees, NZ Ambassador Crawford Falconer and Canada