Scoop  Parliament

Minister Flies to Geneva for WTO Meeting

Trade Negotiations Minister Jim Sutton leaves New Zealand today to attend an important meeting in Geneva as part of the World Trade Organisation multilateral trade negotiations.

This week's meetings are the second time in two weeks that the FIPs-plus group has met.

Mr Sutton said last week's meeting made good progress, and he hoped that further progress could be continued this week.

There was the political will to reach agreement, but there was still a lot of work to be done in order to achieve that consensus, he said.

"This meeting is an important part of reaching consensus at the Hong Kong meeting, and the future of the international trading system depends on getting a good result.

"It is essential that we get a result where agricultural trade is on an equal footing with non-agricultural trade, and not hampered by unfair barriers. At the same time, nations that are big non-agricultural traders need to get something from these negotiations as well."

Mr Sutton returns to New Zealand on Monday.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

 

Parliament Headlines | Politics Headlines | Regional Headlines

Gordon Campbell: On How National’s ”New” Welfare Plan Resurrects A Past Failure

Sam Uffindell’s defenders keep reminding us that he was only 16 at the time of the King’s College incident, and haven’t we all done things in our teens that, as adults, we look back on with shame and embarrassment? True. Let's be honest. Haven’t we all at one time or another, joined a gang and beaten a smaller, younger kid black and blue with wooden clubs? In that respect, Uffindell’s defenders on the streets of Tauranga risk sounding a bit like the psychiatrist Kargol played by Graham Chapman on Monty Python. Some of the media commentary has also noted how the Uffindell saga has taken the shine off National’s good poll results and distracted us all from the unveiling of an important welfare policy at the recent National Patty conference. OK… So let's put the spotlight back on that welfare policy...
More>>