Some 400 members of national parliaments representing 65 countries and regional parliamentary assemblies are taking part in the Hong Kong session of the Parliamentary Conference on the WTO, organized by the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and the European Parliament, which opened today, ahead of the Ministerial Meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The IPU President and Speaker of the Italian Chamber of Deputies, Mr. Pier Ferdinando Casini, told the opening session: "The keywords for our debate will be agriculture, non-agricultural market access, services, rules and institutional capacity building, among others. I would place political will on the very top of this list, because of the importance of this factor at a time when success depends upon leadership, vision and firm adherence to the international commitments inscribed in the Doha Declaration".

President Casini added that parliamentarians are "gravely concerned - already two years ago in Cancun we expressed alarm that the Doha Development Agenda was making no real progress. This seems to be even more the case today. We reiterate that failure to move the Doha Agenda forward will exacerbate many other problems, weaken the fragile fabric of the global economy and accelerate centrifugal forces in the global community". The IPU President underlined that "conversely, progress in trade and a truly successful WTO Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong will have a highly salutary effect".

Mr. Enrique Baron Crespo, chair of the European Parliament's delegation, stressed "something which some people seem to have forgotten: this round is meant to be about development. A second point is that these negotiations have an agenda - and if we want to achieve a balanced result, we will have to deal with all the points of that agenda. Trade is not an end in itself - the objective is to increase global prosperity, giving priority to the least advanced countries. However, we know that economic growth alone cannot address all the concerns of the public. A final point which needs to be emphasized is the importance of preserving and maintaining the multilateral trade system".

The Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Mr. Pascal Lamy, informed the conference that "in the next few days WTO members will have to take important decisions, although not the very final ones. Hong Kong is one of many steps along the road of a complex and lengthy negotiation. However, it is a step that should take us closer to our finishing line next year.… There is little time to spare. As the WTO expands to include new members like Saudi Arabia and Tonga, the world expands its expectations of the WTO. And now it is time to start delivering".

More information on the conference's web page

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Established in 1889 and with its Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the IPU, the oldest multilateral political organisation, currently brings together 143 affiliated parliaments and seven regional assemblies as associate members. The world organisation of parliaments has an Office in New York, which acts as its Permanent Observer at the United Nations.
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Contact for additional information or interviews:

In Geneva: Mrs. Luisa Ballin, IPU Information Officer 5, ch. du Pommier, CH - 1218 Le Grand-Saconnex / Geneva mobile phone: +41 79 649 71 45 Fax: +41 22 919 41 60 E-mail: lb@mail.ipu.org or cbl@mail.ipu.org Mr. Sergueï Tchelnokov. IPU Officer in charge of the parliamentary conference. mobile phone: 852 940 27 257 E-mail: st@mail.ipu.org