[WTO Talks] ASEAN CCI urges WTO ministers to help end world poverty

From Channel News Asia

By S. Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia

KUALA LUMPUR : The ASEAN Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ASEAN CCI) has urged countries attending the WTO Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong to use trade as an instrument to help end poverty in the world.

In a statement released ahead of Tuesday's meeting, the ASEAN CCI says the most pressing issue is whether they can make the Doha Agenda live up to the challenge of ensuring development.

It hopes the huge gap between the rich and poor countries can take centre stage even as the conference aims to break the deadlock in trade negotiations.

It also noted that the WTO has had five ministerial conferences so far - in Singapore, Geneva, Seattle, Doha and Cancun.

And all these meetings had made pronouncements to address the needs of developing countries.

But the Chamber is disappointed that these pronouncements had been hollow, as the current structure of trade is lopsided in favour of the developed countries.

So it hopes that the Doha Agenda could be turned into a concrete commitment which promote the needs of the poor.