Millennium Development Goals (Hansard, 1 July 2003)

§ Baroness Amos

The Government's position, set out in the 2000 White PaperEliminating World Poverty: Making Glohalisation Work For The Poor, is that we will indeed urge the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to commit itself with the rest of the international community to achieving the international development targets. Dr Supachai, Director General of the WTO, has stated that he is also personally committed to these goals, though he recognizes that the WTO is not a development organization, and thus must work with other agencies such as the World Bank, UNCTAD, and UNDP to ensure complementary policies to achieve these targets.

The WTO and its members can best contribute to attainment of the MDGs by ensuring that the current WTO round delivers on the ambition of the Doha development agenda and that the negotiations result in tangible benefits for developing countries and the poor. This is particularly true of progress needed in the various negotiations of most importance to developing countries, such as agriculture, TRIPS and public health and special and differential treatment. We will be working hard in the run-up to the 5th WTO ministerial meeting in Mexico in September to ensure that we secure a successful outcome to these negotiations.