Japan Economic Newswire | March 29, 2004
Member countries of the World Trade Organization (WTO) began a three-day meeting of trade liberalization talks Monday in an attempt to narrow differences over tariffs and other key issues in nonagricultural areas.
At the day's meeting, Stefan Johannesson of Iceland was approved as chairman of the WTO's nonfarm trade negotiations, succeeding Pierre-Louis Girard of Switzerland, whose term expired last month.
The latest round is aimed at helping bring the stalled talks back on track with a series of unofficial sessions in nonagricultural fields, where advanced economies have been pressing developing countries to open their markets to industrial products further.
However, trade experts here expect little from the sessions as progress in negotiations depends heavily on talks on agricultural fields within the entire framework of the WTO's ongoing Doha round.
The latest sessions on farm trade liberalization were held last week but failed to make any progress. They were the first sessions held since a WTO ministerial meeting under the Doha round collapsed in Cancun, Mexico, last September.Japan Economic Newswire:
