International Trade Daily | September 13, 2001
GENEVA--The terrorist attacks on targets in New York and Washington have raised the question among trade diplomats in Geneva whether the World Trade Organization's fourth ministerial meeting in Doha, Qatar should go ahead as planned.
Officials who spoke to BNA Sept. 12 said that it was too early to say what the impact of the bombings would be on preparations for the ministerial meeting, which is scheduled to take place in Doha from Nov. 9-13. But some officials said privately that if a link is made between the U.S. attacks and Middle Eastern terrorist groups, trade diplomats might have to review their decision to stage the conference in Doha out of security concerns.
"People are certainly talking about it," admitted one Western diplomat who spoke on condition of anonymity. "But no one is definitely saying that we should be there or that we shouldn't be there. It depends on how events unfold."
Officials agreed that any retaliatory strike by U.S. military forces in the region would heighten the security risk for trade diplomats, particularly U.S. diplomats. A U.S. decision not to attend the ministerial would probably force the WTO to postpone the meeting or change the venue.
The WTO conference is set to be one of the biggest international conferences ever staged in a Middle Eastern country, with ministers and senior officials from more than 140 member countries expected to attend the event. Qatar was the only member country which offered to host the ministerial, the first to take place since the WTO's riot-scarred gathering in Seattle in 1999.
Sheikh Fahed Awaid Al-Thani, Qatar's ambassador to the WTO, told BNA Sept. 12 that he had called WTO Director-General Mike Moore's office to see if any member country had asked that the ministerial conference be postponed and was told that no such request has been made.
Moore met earlier in the day with U.S. ambassador to the WTO Linnet Deily. A WTO spokesman said that there was no talk among the two about postponing the ministerial or changing the venue. "At the moment, we are operating on the assumption that we will be having our ministerial meeting in Doha as scheduled," the spokesman said.
Others, however, said that members would probably quiz the Qatari authorities more closely on their security preparations for the ministerial conference. Any subsequent decision on postponing the meeting would depend on who is responsible for the U.S. attacks and whether tensions in the Middle East heighten as a result.
"What happened in the United States will make us more careful," admitted Al-Thani. "But we think our security planning is sufficient.
Security in Doha was already a concern prior to the U.S. terrorist attacks. Several Middle Eastern organizations, including the Lebanese-based guerrilla group Hizbollah, have criticized Qatari authorities for allowing an Israeli delegation to attend the ministerial conference. WTO officials note that Qatar is obliged to accept delegations from all WTO member countries as a condition for hosting the ministerial conference.
Qatar is also home to one of the largest U.S. military bases in the Persian Gulf region. U.S. forces in the Gulf region have been on heightened alert since the bombing of the USS Cole in the port of Aden, Yemen, and the State Department issued a warning July 18 that individuals "may be planning imminent terrorist actions against U.S. interests in the Arabian Peninsula." U.S. citizens were advised to remain vigilant and exercise caution while in the region.
Qatar, with a population of 600,000, is one of the most open and pro-Western countries in the Gulf region. Its state-owned Al-Jazeera satellite station has been attacked by the governments of Libya, Iran and Saudi Arabia for its critical (and uncensored) reports on regional developments. The station has also become a favored outlet for taped messages from Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the U.S. terrorist attacks.
The WTO itself has become a central target in the increasingly violent antiglobalization movement, which claimed its first fatality during the G-8 meeting in Genoa, Italy last July.
Antiglobalization activists are reportedly preparing to send a fleet of protest boats to land in Qatar during the ministerial gathering to disrupt the event. The WTO said in August that it had sent out letters to 647 non-governmental organizations inviting them to attend the ministerial, but critics charge that most of the invitations have been given to business organizations.International Trade Daily:
