WTO aim to start new negotiations
Senior officials of the World Trade Organization said that they want to start new trade negotiations, following the failure of the trade body’s ministerial conference meeting of September in Cancun, Mexico.
“Our collective aim is to arrive at a sufficient degree of consensus in all areas by December to enable the negotiations to resume their full momentum,” said Supachai Panitchpakdi, director-general of the WTO. He admitted, though, that “no one is under any illusion that this will be easy.”
The WTO aims to rebuild trust and confidence among members. It said that it would concentrate on outstanding issues such as agriculture and cotton — regarded as some of the main areas of disagreement at the recent Cancun meeting. The trade body said that it plans to conduct new consultations, starting with agriculture, “to test the will of the members to show flexibility.”