Wall Street Journal | Associated Press | November 15, 2001
UNITED NATIONS--U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan expressed hope Thursday that a new round of global trade talks would open markets for goods from developing countries.
Annan's call echoed speeches by dozens of Third World ministers at a six-day conference of the 142 nations in the World Trade Organization in Doha, Qatar.
After day and night bargaining, trade ministers reached agreement late Wednesday to start a new round of talks that would focus on lowering tariffs, a common competition policy and nondiscriminatory investment rules.
The secretary-general welcomed the successful conclusion of the conference, calling it "an important achievement for multilateralism" and saluting "the spirit of cooperation and compromise that made this outcome possible."
At the meeting, poorer nations scored significant victories, with the final document setting the agenda for the new round of talks peppered with language supporting developing nations.
They won a battle, fought mainly by Brazil and South Africa, against the world's pharmaceutical giants, allowing poor nations to override patents on lifesaving drugs in emergency situations.
"This will lead to increased availability of drugs to combat AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and other epidemics," Annan said in a statement read by spokesman Fred Eckhard.
Annan said the U.N. system will continue to work with all nations "to make the new round of negotiations a success."
The U.N. will also ensure "full and timely implementation" of agreements reached during the previous Uruguay round which was completed in 1994, he said.
"The WTO's member governments must now follow through and realize the potential embodied in the Doha agreements," Annan said.Wall Street Journal:
