Doha talks on agenda of WTO meet: Envoy

The Doha Round of trade liberalisation negotiations will be discussed
when ministers meet later this year at the World Trade Organisation,
Chilean envoy Mario Matus said Friday. "The review of WTO activities
including the Doha programme is one of the two points on the agenda
of the regular ministerial meeting of our organisation that will be
held in Geneva between November 30 and December 2 ," said Matus, who
is Chile's ambassador to the WTO. The regular ministerial meeting of
the WTO's 153- member states will also deal with the trade body's
contributions to "the recovery of the (world economy), growth, and
economic development." However, Matus added that the meeting "will
not take decisions" on the two issues. "There will simply be a resume
that should be adopted at the end of the two and a half days of
discussions," he said. "There will be reports linked to the themes
such as cotton, small economies, violations of WTO rules, electronic
commerce," said Matus. WTO Director General Pascal Lamy had said on
several occasions that the ministerial meeting would not be a
negotiating session on the Doha Round. The WTO is bound to call a full
ministerial meeting at least every two years. But this timetable has
slipped given the tortuous progress of the Doha talks on extending
free trade rules, which began in 2001 but which have been plagued by
disagreements between developed and developing countries.