Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade Stubb participates in the World Trade Organisation Ministerial Conference in Geneva
Press release 337/2011
15 December 2011
Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade Alexander Stubb will participates in the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Geneva, Switzerland, on 16 December. This is the eighth regular WTO Ministerial Conference. The previous one was held in 2009.
The most significant decision to be adopted in Geneva concerns the accession of Russia to the WTO. A special session about Russian accession will be held in connection with the Ministerial Conference. The negotiations that took a total of eighteen years were concluded in November. In addition to Russia, the conference will also approve the accessions of Vanuatu, Samoa and Montenegro.
The Ministerial Conference will discuss the challenges facing the multilateral trading system and the WTO, trade and development, and the future of the Doha Development Agenda. Finland regards it important that the conference reaffirm the importance of common rules and the WTO Dispute Settlement system for world trade and emphasise the WTO’s role in keeping markets open and the fight against protectionism. Finland supports further integration of developing countries, particularly least developed countries, into the international trading system. The Doha Development Round negotiations are at an impasse and it is unlikely that they could be concluded in the near future. Finland’s objective is that the conference would make a commitment to finding ways by which to promote certain areas of negotiation included in the Doha mandate, maybe as early as next year. The negotiations concerning public procurement are in their final stages. Finland's aim is to have these negotiations finalised by the Ministerial Conference.
During his visit, Minister Stubb will meet trade ministers of, for instance, Brazil, India and Canada.
The conference will be chaired by Trade and Investment Minister Olusegun Aganga of Nigeria, and attended by well over a hundred states and international organisations.
Further information: Director General Jorma Korhonen, tel. +358 40 732 4567, and Lauri Tierala, Special Adviser to the Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade, tel. +358 40 841 7141