HONG KONG, March 7 (Reuters) - World Trade Organisation (WTO) deputy director general Miguel Rodriguez Mendoza said on Tuesday member countries were now more willing to cooperate than before the Seattle round of negotiations.
"We are moving from the confrontation of the pre-Seattle environment to a much more cooperative affair," Mendoza told a conference in Hong Kong.
"While members continue to see the launching of a new round of multilateral negotiation as a key objective, they are seen to be prepared to make progress on key components," he said.
By acting in this regard, they are changing the nature of the debate. They are showing that progress can be made even in the absence of a multilateral negotiations."
With the United States, the European Union and Japan deeply divided over agricultural and other issues, negotiators broke off the WTO talks last December. Violent protests in during the negotiations in Seattle further increased tensions.
Mendoza said the WTO saw the Seattle round not as a failure but as an opportunity. The WTO "is addressing some of the critical issues...with a view to move on to more ambitious issues, including the launching of a new round of negotiation," he said.
The WTO official said the implementation of the Uruguay Round agreement was complex and the most sensitive issue faced by the world trade body because developing countries had expressed concerns about implementing it.
Developing countries have said implementing the deal would bring disadvantages to them in competing with developed nations.
Mendoza said the WTO needed to find a way to implement the deal while at the same time easing the concerns of the developing nations.:
