WTO to attend Cairns Group

SEOGWIPO (South Korea) - WORLD Trade Organization (WTO) chief Pascal Lamy will attend a meeting in Bali next week as part of attempts to restart global trade talks, the Indonesian trade minister said Monday.

Mari Pangestu said Lamy and the new US Trade Representative Ron Kirk have been invited as 'special guests' to the meeting of the Cairns Group of farm exporters from Sunday to Tuesday.

The new trade minister of India, as well as representatives from Japan, China and the European Union will also be attending the meeting of the 19-nation group.

'Apart from the Cairns Group discussion, we will also use the opportunity to talk about the wider WTO Doha Round,' Pangestu told AFP on the sidelines of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations-South Korea Summit in Jeju island.
But she said no breakthrough was expected.

'We are just expecting the beginning of a dialogue to restart talks,' Pangestu said.

We don't have any expectations where it would go but just to begin the process of dialogue again.'

The Cairns Group links agricultural exporting nations, which could play a major role in resolving the impasse in th