1/3/2024 0 Comments Wto next meeting![]() These were collectively called ‘Singapore Issues’.On matters like investment and competition policy, India felt that having a multilateral agreement would be a serious impingement on the sovereign rights of countries. The discussions revolved around trade and investment, trade and competition policy, trade facilitation and transparency in government procurement. It included plenary meetings and various business sessions related to the agenda of the WTO’s first two years of activity and the implementation of obligations under the Uruguay Round Agreements. think they can run and hide from the deep and abiding problems the WTO has created," said United Steelworkers of America president George Becker.The first Ministerial Conference of WTO was held in Singapore during December 9-13, 1996. "Once again the cynical and arrogant WTO bureaucrats. We will allow them to express their views in total freedom," said Finance and Trade Minister Yussef Hussein Kamal.īut some of the most powerful US trade unions have joined human rights groups to protest the choice of Qatar as the venue, accusing the WTO of trying to escape from protestors. "We will not prevent anybody from entering to demonstrate on condition that the demonstrations are peaceful. Some of the thousands of delegates, journalists and NGO campaigners expected to attend would have to be accommodated on offshore vessels given the lack of sufficient hotel capacity in the small country, the WTO boss added.Īfter the Geneva announcement, the Qatari authorities vowed to permit law-abiding protests. Qatar filed its application to hold the next ministerial meeting at Seattle and won out through the backing of the G77 bloc of developing nations, Moore said. "This is an insult to the democratic process." "Where I have a problem is when extremists come along and they stop governments from engaging. NGOs have a right to come along as well," he said. ![]() "Ministers have a right to meet and represent their counties. Moore said each side of the globalization debate had a right to put its view across. Violent clashes broke out in the central Swiss city of Davos this week after protestors were turned back after trying to reach the World Economic Forum, an elite gathering of the world's most powerful nations and financiers. It has been followed by protests at nearly every major international financial gathering. The Seattle fiasco exposed profound mistrust around the world over the course of a western-dominated globalization. The last ministerial meeting of the 140-member WTO, in Seattle in November 1999, descended into a series of pitched battles between riot police and protestors. "Provision is made for the NGOs (non-governmental organizations), over 1,000 rooms have been set aside, and there will be opportunities for people to put across opposing views," the former New Zealand prime minister said. "We have every confidence that within the law, those have opposing views can put those across," the WTO director-general responded at a news conference in Tokyo after two days of talks with Japanese ministers. The Gulf state has strict laws on public assembly, sparking vehement criticism that protests would be stifled and that the WTO was running away from its detractors. Seeking to revive the trade liberalization drive that stalled at the Seattle fiasco, WTO members in Geneva agreed Tuesday to hold their next meeting in November in Qatar. World Trade Organization boss Mike Moore Wednesday insisted protestors would be free to peacefully express their opposition to globalization when ministers convene in the conservative Gulf state of Qatar.
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