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Mini WTO ministerial planned on sidelines of Davos economic forum

AFP, Geneva
Up to 30 trade and economy ministers may take advantage of a major forum in Switzerland this month to hold a mini-ministerial of sorts to discuss the latest round of WTO talks, officials said Tuesday.
Last month, members of the World Trade Organisation missed a key deadline to revive negotiations on farming and other tough topics, but said talks should resume early this year before political events such as a US presidential election take centre stage.
In a bid to push the process forwards, Switzerland's President and Economics Minister Joseph Deiss has invited about 30 ministers to meet on the sidelines of the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) in the Swiss ski resort of Davos on January 23, said a spokesman for the Swiss economics ministry.
"Federal councilor Deiss simply wanted to benefit from the presence of the trade and economy ministers to take stock of the Doha process
and to look to the future about how it may possibly move forwards," explained Manuel Sager.
The so-called Doha Development Agenda has been on hold since a major meeting in Mexico last September collapsed when bickering over cross-border investment and competition added to a more fundamental row about farm subsidies in richer countries and the high tariffs on agriculture imports from developing nations.
The Davos meeting would not be a mini-ministerial in the traditional sense, because it would only last half a day rather than the usual one-and-a-half, said a diplomatic source.
And Swiss authorities, who are organising the gathering with the help of the WTO, were unable to reveal who would be attending.
"We have invited about 30 ministers and we will have to wait and see how many will attend," said Sager.
The pressure is on the WTO's 146 member states to re-launch the trade liberalisation talks, which are due to conclude at the end of this
year.
On Monday, US Trade Representative Robert Zoellick wrote to fellow WTO members asking for accelerated talks leading to a ministerial-level meeting by the end of this year, probably in Hong Kong. He planned a global tour in February to meet with trade ministers.
But Zoellick was not planning to attend the Davos meeting, said a US source in Geneva, adding that WTO ambassador Linnet Deily would be Washington's representative at the forum.
The presence in Switzerland's of EU trade commissioner Pascal Lamy has also not been confirmed, an EU source said.
At the last mini-ministerial in Montreal last July, the United States and European Union launched the basis of a bilateral accord on farm trade in preparation for the conference in Mexico.
WTO director general Supachai Panitchpakdi is to take part in the WEF, which runs from January 21 to 25.