WTO public symposium on the Doha Declaration

In a public symposium hosted by the World Trade Organization in Geneva from 29 April to 1 May, participants from governments, parliaments, civil society, universities, and the media discussed the major role international trade can play for economic development and poverty alleviation in developing countries.

The symposium, which was not an official WTO event, included a plenary meeting and a number of work sessions on the Doha Declaration adopted 21 November last year in Qatar. The Doha Declaration calls for WTO member countries to promote an international trading system that ensures developing countries, and especially the least-developed among them, a share in the growth of world trade commensurate with the needs of their economic development. The Declaration states that all WTO member governments recognize the need "for all our peoples to benefit from the increased opportunities and welfare gains that the multilateral trading system generates". WTO Director-General Mike Moore referred to the Declaration as representing a watershed for the WTO.

Topics discussed in this public symposium included:

• opportunities for development,
• market access issues related to agriculture,
• services and industrial goods,
• the trade and environment agenda after Doha,
• proposals to include new subjects in the negotiations,
• a session on the functioning and financing of the WTO.

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