Legislators urge WTO negotiators to facilitate an agreement

The IPU and the European Parliament urge World Trade Organization members - and in particular the United States, the European Union and the G20 developing countries - to show political will and take the necessary steps to identify possible concessions urgently.

Legislators meeting at the House of Parliaments in June met the WTO Director-General, Mr. Pascal Lamy, who addressed a session of the Steering Committee of the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO. According to Mr. Lamy, since the last Parliamentary Conference on the WTO held in December 2006, developing countries have insisted that there was no way for them that this Round could fail. "For them, updating the international trade rules is a necessity. The reason why we restarted the negotiations was not technical, it was political", explained Mr. Lamy.

"We are at a stage where the thinking within the WTO membership is that we are probably reaching a crossroads. They think that something should and might happen sometime before the summer break. Is this the conclusion of the Round? No. The conclusion of the Round will only happen when each and every topic which was put in the bag of the negotiations when it was launched at the end of 2001 will be agreed".

"We undertake to ensure parliamentary backing for the conclusion of a real Development Round", concluded the Steering Committee members, after their meeting with the WTO Director-General.

The Parliamentary Conference on the WTO is a joint undertaking of the IPU and the European Parliament. Its principal objective is to enhance the external transparency of the WTO and make this intergovernmental organization accountable to legislators as the elected representatives of the people.

	Recent IPU Publication Annual Session of the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO This illustrated booklet reports on the work of the Geneva 2006 session of the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO - a joint undertaking of the IPU and the European Parliament. It includes speeches at the inaugural session, discussion papers, excerpts of the debate, and the text of the Declaration adopted at the end of the session.