Minister Väyrynen to attend the meeting of EU trade ministers in Brussels

Press release 230/2009
11 September, 2009

Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Paavo Väyrynen will attend the Informal Meeting of EU Trade Ministers to be held in Brussels on Sunday, 13 September.

At the meeting the ministers of trade and commerce will discuss the future EU trade policy and its challenges. Topics on the agenda include, for instance, the economic crisis and growing protectionist pressures as well as the challenges to the trade system posed by climate change. Another item for discussion is the WTO’s role in liberalisation of trade and as a motor of economic integration.

Finland stresses the importance of concluding the so-called Doha negotiation round in the WTO as quickly as possible, because that would give a strong signal on behalf of liberalisation of trade and free markets. Finland also considers that the WTO has a significant role in climate change, above all, in freeing environmental products and services from duties and removing other trade barriers.

An informal meeting of EU trade ministers is usually organised once during each Presidency.

Director General Jorma Korhonen, mobile tel. +358 40 732 4567, and Päivi Nevala, Adviser to the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, mobile tel. +358 40 753 4375