Minister Flies to Geneva for WTO Meeting
Wednesday, 19 October 2005, 9:50 am
Press Release: New Zealand Government
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
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