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Commonwealth Secretariat press release

New WTO General Council Chairman meets Commonwealth Secretary-General

25 February 2004

New WTO General Council Chairman meets Commonwealth Secretary-General Ambassador Shotaro Oshima, the new Chairman of the WTO General Council, met Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon at Marlborough House today. Their meeting followed the Commonwealth Trade Ministers Mission to Geneva, Washington, Tokyo and Brussels, which ended last week. Today's discussions focused on the concerted efforts being made to revive the Doha Round of trade talks which stalled in Cancun last September. Mr McKinnon referred to the strong statement on multilateral trade issued by Commonwealth Heads of Government at their Abuja Summit and said "all parties need to promote an early resumption of negotiations. They need to demonstrate the flexibility and political courage necessary to achieve a balanced outcome to the Round that delivers on the Doha Development Agenda. A breakthrough on agriculture is key to the success of the negotiations".

He went on to urge Japan, as a member of the G8, the Quad and as a major economic and trading nation, to seize the opportunity provided by its election as Chair of the WTO General Council "to play a leadership role during a year when the US is involved with presidential elections and the EU sees changes in key personnel." Ambassador Oshima emphasised that "Japan is committed to push ahead and reinvigorate the negotiations to achieve early completion of the Round and will be working closely with partners, both formally and informally, to seek to have key negotiating frameworks in place by mid-2004. "In this connection, the Commonwealth Trade Ministers Mission to Tokyo has assisted us in initiating a dialogue with an association that spans the whole spectrum of development experience. I am hopeful that these contacts will be particularly useful in my work as the Chairman of the General Council of WTO.

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