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International Marketing

Notes Fifth Ministerial Conference

The ministerial conference was held in Cancún, Mexico, aiming at forging agreement on the
Doha round. An alliance of 22 southern states, the G20 (led by India, People’s Republic of China
and Brazil), resisted demands from the North for agreements on the so-called “Singapore issues”
and called for an end to agricultural subsidies within the EU and the US. The talks broke down
without progress.
The Fifth Ministerial Conference in Cancún, Mexico, in September 2003, was intended as a stock-
taking meeting where members would agree on how to complete the rest of the negotiations.
But the meeting was soured by discord on agricultural issues, including cotton, and ended in
deadlock on the “Singapore issues”. Real progress on the Singapore issues and agriculture was
not evident until the early hours of 1 August 2004 with a set of decisions in the General Council
(sometimes called the July 2004 package). The original 1 January 2005 deadline was missed.
After that, members unofficially aimed to finish the negotiations by the end of 2006, again
unsuccessfully. Further progress in narrowing members’ differences was made at the Hong
Kong Ministerial Conference in December 2005, but some gaps remained unbridgeable and
Director-General Pascal Lamy suspended the negotiations in July 2006. Efforts then focused on
trying to achieve a breakthrough in early 2007.

Sixth Ministerial Conference

It was considered vital if the four-year-old Doha Development Agenda negotiations were to
move forward sufficiently to conclude the round in 2006. In this meeting, countries agreed to
phase out all their agricultural export subsidies by the end of 2013, and terminate any cotton
export subsidies by the end of 2006. Further concessions to developing countries included an
agreement to introduce duty free, tariff free access for goods from the Least Developed Countries,
following the Everything But Arms initiative of the European Union – but with up to 3% of tariff
lines exempted. Other major issues were left for further negotiation to be completed by the end
of 2006.

Did u know? The sixth WTO Conference Ministerial was held in Hong Kong from December
13-December 18, 2005?

Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
6. At the ............................ WTO member governments agreed to launch new negotiations.
7. A new working group was set up on the last day of the ............................ to discuss proposals
for creating a labour standards working group within the WTO or a body operated jointly
by a number of international organisation.

8. The inaugural ministerial conference was held in ............................ in 1996.
9. The ............................ conference in Seattle, Washington in 1999. This Conference was unique
in that it was held in tumultuous conditions and amid protests by non-governmental
organisations and groups.
10. One of the significant observations made by the ministers was about the ............................
being the competent body to set and deal with labour standards.

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