Brussels/Geneva, 11/02/2004 (Agence Europe) - The World Trade Organisation (WTO) put the finishing touches on Wednesday to the technical preliminaries needed for reactivating the Doha round of trade talks, by designating by common accord the persons who would be responsible for organising talks and making them move forward by the end of the year. The list resulting from consultation conducted by the WTO Director General, Supachaï Panichpakdi, was endorsed by consensus during a formal meeting of the General Council - the executive body that brings together the representatives of the 146 member nations in Geneva. The list includes:
The presidents of the 8 thematic negotiating groups, namely the Ambassador of New Zealand, Tim Groser, for agriculture, Stefan Johannesson (Iceland) for market access (industrial), Eduardo Perez Motta (Mexico) for the rules, Alejandro Jara (Chile) for services, Manzoor Ahmad (Pakistan) for the trade related intellectual property rights (TRIPS), Faizel Ismail (South Africa) for the development chapter, his counterpart from Bangladesh, Toufiq Ali, for clarifying the relationship between trade and the environment, and David Spencer (Australia) for improving dispute settlement procedures.
The presidents of the 13 standing committees and bodies of the WTO for this year, including the General Council which will be headed by Shotaro Oshima (from Japan) and the Dispute Settlement Body by Amina Mohamed (from Kenya). There are four Europeans on the list: Giulio Tonino (Italy), who is entrusted with the committee on balance of payment restrictions, Peter Brno (Slovakia) for the trade in services Council, Henrik Ree Iversen (Denmark) for the Committee on budget, finance and administration, and Peter Balas (Hungary) for the working group on trade, debt and finance.