WTO Ministerial Can Send ‘Strong Signals’ to the World: Lamy

Director-General Pascal Lamy, in his report to the General Council on 17 November 2009, said that while the upcoming WTO Ministerial Conference would not be a negotiating session, it would be “a platform for ministers to review the functioning of this house,” including the Doha Round, and an occasion “to send a number of strong signals to the world with respect to the entire WTO waterfront of issues — from monitoring and surveillance to disputes, accessions, Aid for Trade, technical assistance and international governance”।
Thank you Mr Chairman.

Since my last report to the General Council on 20 October, I have met with the Negotiating Chairs and the General Council Chairman on a number of occasions to exchange views on the overall process and to coordinate activities so as to facilitate the work of delegations. You will all have received the organizational fax on 10 November outlining the schedule of meetings during the Senior Officials' Week. The Negotiating Chairs, the General Council Chairman and I are still fine-tuning this programme with a view to ensure predictability, inclusiveness and transparency in the context of an intensive meeting schedule. There may be a few minor changes to the overall schedule of meetings and I intend to outline these at the informal TNC on 23 November.

Before I provide you with a brief overview of the state-of-play and outlook of the negotiating groups, let me pay tribute to the Negotiating Chairs for their work and commitment. The past year has been one of modest, but nevertheless progress in all areas of negotiations, albeit of a different type. In some cases progress has meant a better understanding of positions; in some others, however, there has been tangible progress and we are about to capture this in a draft negotiating text, as is the case with trade facilitation.

Before the year ends, we still have two weeks of Senior Official engagement which need to be used to continue to move the ball forward. What is clear is that if we are to conclude this Round in 2010 as you have pledged to, we will need to take a hard look at where things stand early in the new year and map the road that would lead us to a successful result.
Vidyanand Acharya