§ Lynne JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry if she will make a statement on the mechanisms by which the agreement that the WTO Special and Differential Treatment system should become a more integral part of trade negotiations, reached at the Doha Ministerial meeting on trade of November 2001, will be implemented. [37859]
§ Ms HewittThe 'Decision on Implementation Related Issues and Concerns', agreed at Doha, instructed the WTO Committee on Trade and Development to consider the status and effective operation of existing Special and Differential Treatment provisions and to report to the General Council with clear recommendations for a Decision by July 2002 and, within the context of the work programme agreed at Doha, to consider how Special and Differential Treatment may be incorporated into the architecture of WTO rules. Discussions in the Committee on Trade and Development are ongoing.
As set out in the White Paper, 'Eliminating World Poverty: Making Globalisation Work for the Poor', we will be arguing for the EU to support approaches that recognise even more explicitly than at present that WTO Members are at different stages of development.
§ Lynne JonesTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what assessment she has made of the steps necessary for the WTO to be more transparent and open and its rules easier to understand. [37856]
§ Ms HewittThe Doha Ministerial Declaration, agreed by all members of the WTO in November 2001, recognised the challenges posed by an expanding membership, and confirmed the need to ensure internal transparency within the organisation and the effective participation of all members in the decision making process. Members also committed themselves to making the WTO' s operations more transparent to outside parties, including through better dissemination of information and improved dialogue with the public.
I support the need for such measures in order to maintain confidence in the multilateral trading system.