ZAGREB WTO CONFERENCE: WHAT DOES NEW ROUND OF TALKS OFFER?

ZAGREB, June 11 (Hina) - The first day of a WTO ministerial conference for Central and South-East European countries ended in Zagreb on Tuesday with a debate on Central and South-East European countries joining a new round of talks on trade liberalisation within the WTO, and adjustments on national levels necessary for joining the talks. #L# Last year's WTO ministerial conference in Doha started a new round of talks on the implementation of agreements, farming, trade in services, access to non-farming markets, the protection of wine and alcoholic drinks origin marks, the resolution of disputes, the relationship between commerce and environment, anti-dumping, subsidies and compensation, and regional trade agreements. WTO general director Mike Moore said those issues were not new. Some of them have been discussed since the Uruguay round of talks. The Doha conference introduced a change - those issues must be resolved by January 2005, he said. Resolving those issues includes opposed stands and interests, and solutions are often made conditional on difficult internal reforms. Conferences like the Zagreb conference, held during the period of negotiations, are the best opportunity to overcome or lessen such obstacles, Moore said. Representatives of 18 countries in the region who participated in the discussion were mostly positive about the start of the new round of negotiations, but they also addressed concrete problems encountered in the process. The most frequently mentioned problem were US limits on steel trade, as well as the protection of US agriculture, which the participants believe is contrary to WTO regulations. The ministerial conference continues on Wednesday. Tomorrow's session will be divided into two topics: trade regulations and liberalisation, and the challenges and opportunities of the multilateral trade system. (hina) rml