SHANGHAI, Oct 18 (AFP)
The choice of Qatar to host next month's World Trade Organisation meeting is under review because of security concerns, US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick said Thursday.
The priority was to ensure the meeting went ahead as scheduled over November 9-13, Zoellick told a news conference after annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) ministerial talks in Shanghai.
Singaporean Trade Minister George Yeo said the city-state was on stand-by to host the meeting if the WTO decides to switch the meeting owing to fears of instability arising from the US strikes on Afghanistan.
"There is a recognition that Qatar has made every effort and done extraordinary preparations in terms of holding the meeting," Zoellick said.
"But there's also a recognition that because of events beyond its control, there is uncertainty and risks, and for all of the rest of us our first responsibility is the security of our delegations, our people, and so it's understandable that the process is going forward to discuss that location.
"There have been other countries that have, in my view, very properly offered the possibility if need be of another location, and I think for all the ministers that I've spoken to, the key point is one way or another to go ahead with launching this negotiation because it's very important for the global economy at this point."
Addressing speculation that Singapore could step in at the last minute, Yeo told the news conference that "because we support strongly the launch of a new round and we know the difficulty of postponing the dates, Singapore agreed reluctantly to be a spare tyre and hope that other spare tyres would be available.
"We continue to hope that our spare tyre will not be used," he said.:
