§ Dr. CableTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if he will make a statement on the outcome of the General Council of the WTO held on 7 and 9 February. [110964]
§ Mr. CabornThe World Trade Organisation General Council meeting on 7–8 February took a number of decisions on next steps for the organisation. It was agreed that the mandated negotiations on agriculture and services would take place in the Agriculture Committee and the Services Council, respectively, and that they would get under way during this quarter (services in the week of 21 February, agriculture in the week of 20 March). Efforts are now being made to find Chairpersons for these negotiative groups.
It was also agreed that parallel consultations should be conducted on several issues by the Director General and the incoming Chair of the General Council. These include measures to improve market access for least developed countries, further efforts on capacity-building and technical co-operation for developing countries and, linked to this, action on implementation deadlines where some WTO member governments have problems meeting their commitments under existing WTO agreements. In addition, a consultation process was launched on improvements to WTO consultative and decision-making procedures. It is hoped that the outcome of these consultations will be made known quickly, if possible by the end of March.