§ Mr. MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry where and when the strategic goals to be pursued by the European Union at the four Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation scheduled for Doha in November were(a) agreed and (b) made public; and which Ministers and officials were present when the goals were agreed. [157327]
§ Mr. CabornThe EU's aims for a New Round of multilateral trade talks were set out ahead of the three Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) at Seattle in the General Affairs Council (GAC) Conclusions of 26 October 1999. Those aims were discussed in European Standing Committee C on Monday 22 November 1999 and the Government's proposals were accepted.
The GAC in Seattle on 3 December 1999, attended by myself and my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, confirmed the EU's comprehensive approach to a New Round.
Following the failure at Seattle to launch a New Round, the UK has been fully involved in reviewing the EU's position through numerous discussions at Ministerial and official level. These include a Ministerial meeting in Porto which I and other EU Trade Ministers attended, on 17–18 March 2000, and most recently another Ministerial meeting of EU Trade Ministers on 25 February 2001, which I attended.
The EU is still seeking the launch of a comprehensive round of talks: we maintain that only a broad-based inclusive agenda can encompass priority issues for every WTO Member, increasing the incentive to tackle more difficult areas and so bringing greatest benefits to all.
The EU's principle of a comprehensive mandate was supported by the House of Lords Select Committee on the European Union in its report on the EU Mandate after Seattle (HL Paper 76: published 13 June 2000). That report noted the need for it to be pragmatic and flexible in its execution of that mandate.