XINHUA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE | December 20, 2001
Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Mike Moore said here Thursday that the fifth ministerial meeting will be held in Mexico but the timing and the location are flexible.
Moore made the remarks at a press conference held at the WTO headquarters. He said trade representatives who attended the General Council meeting closing Thursday agreed to have the meeting held in the country.
The WTO fifth ministerial meeting is scheduled to be held in 2003. And it is expected to make a mid-term review of the new round of negotiations to be started early next year.
Trade ministers will also decide at the meeting whether to include some new issues in the new round of negotiations, such as trade and investment, trade facilities and competition policy.
These are the unsolved issues at the fourth ministerial meeting which was held in Doha last month.
Because of the shadow of the debacle of the ministerial meeting in Seattle in 1999 and the anti-globalization demonstration, only the Mexican government formally offered to host the fifth WTO ministerial meeting, according to a WTO official.XINHUA GENERAL NEWS SERVICE:
