Brussels, 29/12/2003 (Agence Europe) - The EU-Japan Business Dialogue Round Table of business leaders from the EU and Japan has sent President Prodi, Berlusconi and Japanese prime minister Koizumi a policy statement requesting early resumption of the WTO's new Doha Round negotiations.
'With the progress of globalisation, it is essential that WTO member countries further expand free access to non-agricultural and agricultural products, and establish and improve rules appropriate to the new economic environment, including the rules for investment, trade facilitation, protection of intellectual property, anti-dumping and so on', notes the statement. 'The development of international trade in goods and services above all requires solutions to be found on multilateral level, while taking into account the particular methods needed to permit a fair integration of developing countries in the world system. Bilateral approaches could indeed not provide fully satisfactory solutions in the present international economic conditions.'
Following the Cancun fiasco in September, the Round Table 'asks all parties to demonstrate flexibility such that satisfactory results for all parties may be achieved as soon as possible. In this perspective it will no doubt also be necessary to review the working methods of the WTO'.