SEE
ALSO:
press
releases
news
archives
Mike
Moore's speeches
|
Mexico’s
offer arrived at the WTO on 23 November and was circulated two weeks
after the close of the Fourth Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar,
when ministers instructed the General Council to choose a location and
date for the next conference. Other member governments can also offer
to host the meeting.
The
WTO Ministerial Conference is the organization’s topmost
decision-making body. It has to meet at least once every two years.
The fifth conference has to be held by the end of 2003 at the latest.
The Doha conference has already assigned
a number of tasks for the fifth conference, several involving
negotiations that were launched in Doha.
For the Fourth Ministerial
Conference, the General Council chose Doha as the location on
30 January 2001. On 8 February it agreed on the dates, 9–13 November 2001.
This followed an official invitation from Qatar, submitted to
ministers at the Seattle Ministerial Conference in 1999 and circulated
as document WT/L/342 on 31 January 2000. Qatar provided
further details in documents WT/GC/33,
WT/GC/33/Add.1 and WT/GC/33/Add.2.
Chile said it was considering a
similar offer, in a communication received 4 December 2000
and circulated the following day as WT/GC/39. On
30 January 2001, Chile said that after serious consideration
it had concluded that it would not be possible to host the meeting on
this occasion.
Details can be found in the
General Council’s minutes, document WT/GC/M/61/Add.1, and its annual
report for 2000, document WT/GC/44.
Mexico’s invitation for the Fifth Ministerial Conference has been
circulated in this General Council document:
WT/GC/55
28 November 2001
(01-6063)
FIFTH
SESSION OF THE MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
Communication from Mexico
The
following communication, addressed to the Director-General and dated
23 November 2001, has been received from the Minister of Economy of
Mexico with the request that it be circulated to Members.
“My
authorities have instructed me to inform you that the Government of
Mexico offers to host the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the WTO. If
this is acceptable to all WTO Members, it would be a great privilege
and honour for the people and Government of Mexico.
“Mexico
will be requesting the Chairman of the General Council to consult with
Members on this matter as appropriate.” |
|
IMPORTANT:
READ THIS FIRST
Many
of the links on this page will launch a search in the Documents
Online database. Documents Online runs in its own
browser window, which you can close to return to the main site.
Please allow a moment for the lists to appear in the new window.
Quick
help for downloading |
|
