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Talks in Dalian vital for progress in Doha Round
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DALIAN, China (Kyodo) The meeting of World Trade Organization ministers in
the Chinese city of Dalian will be crucial to progress in the Doha Round of
global trade liberalization talks, farm minister Yoshinobu Shimamura said
Tuesday before the talks got under way.
"This will form the basis for
the ministerial talks in Hong Kong in December," Shimamura told reporters,
referring to the meeting in which the WTO members hope to reach an accord with
full numerical goals for tariff cuts.
"I don't know how far our
discussions will go at this point, but the participating countries agree at
least that we must come up with an outline before the end of July," he said.
"I believe this will be a very important conference."
Shimamura
was referring to an outline for trade barrier reductions that members are trying
to issue before the self-imposed deadline at the end of the month.
Trade
negotiators say the outline must be issued by the end of July if they are to
flesh out the specifics ahead of the Hong Kong conference.
The Dalian
meeting is bringing together ministers from 30 of the 148 WTO countries.
Shimamura said he reaffirmed the importance of the Dalian meeting in
talks with European Agriculture Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel earlier in the
day.
Global trade liberalization talks under the Doha Round, launched in
November 2001, have stalled due to differences among WTO members over issues
ranging from tariff cuts to farm subsidies.
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(Editor:Farah Song) (From:Japan Times)
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