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| WTO informal Meeting Enters Second Day Amid Bomb Blasts |
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SUN, SEP 02, 2001
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The World Trade Organization's (WTO) trade representatives held a second and final day of crucial discussions at this capital OF Mexico on Saturday, where two bombs exploded at branches of multinational firms, leaving one injured.
Trade ministers from 15 countries (Argentina, Australia, Brazil,Canada, Egypt, India, Jamaica, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa, Switzerland, Tanzania, and the United States), as well as representatives of the European Union (EU) and Hong Kong of China, participated in this meeting.
Those present in the two-day event attempted to reduce divergences in preparation to the 4th WTO Summit in Doha, Qatar, next November 9-13.
The meeting is presided over by WTO director-general, Michael Moore, and the Mexican economy minister, Luis Ernesto Derbes.
The informal ministerial event seeks to cover a wide range of consensus among the 142 member economies of the WTO prior to the Qatar Summit.
Mexico's meeting was held amid strict security measures in viewof anti-globalization disturbances.
Labor unions, student and peasant organizations from Mexico had called on protesters to demonstrate on Saturday against the WTO meeting and against what they described as a lack of political results by Mexican President Vicente Fox.
Fox took office last December 1, and was set to deliver his first State of the Union Address on Saturday.
The explosive devises exploded in the early hours of Saturday outside a McDonalds restaurant and a General Motors dealership.
As a result of these attacks one individual was wounded, and there was panic among the residents from nearby neighborhoods. A guerrilla group was blamed for the attacks.
The participants in the WTO meeting said the meeting at Mexico City is only an informal meeting, thus no important decision is considered to be taken here.
Prior to the Saturday's meeting there were informal bilateral meetings in which senior trade officials analyzed the main differences, among them the issues on agriculture, investments, subsidies and anti-unfair-trade measures.
One of the most polemic issues is the demand by the less developed countries to the developed countries to remove subsidies to agriculture in order to have open competition, in contrast to the position of both the EU and the United States.
Anthony Gooch, spokesman for the EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, said that the talks on agricultural issues will be included in the new round of multilateral negotiations of the World Trade Organization (WTO), a supporter of globalization.
So far, there have been no confrontations between demonstrators and the police.
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