WTO meeting to go ahead

Moore: "We are going ahead"

The World Trade Organisation has said its meeting scheduled for next month in the Arab Gulf state of Qatar will go ahead.

"We are going ahead with the conference as scheduled in Doha," Mike Moore, director general of the organisation (WTO), said.

"We expect 141 countries to attend."

There had been speculation that the meeting might be cancelled or transferred to another venue following the terrorist attacks on the US and subsequent retaliation against the ruling Taleban in Afghanistan.

However, some observers believe that the meeting is still likely to be scaled back for security reasons.

"Some delegations will want to minimise the number of people attending," David Woods of the newsletter World Trade Agenda in Geneva, told the BBC's World Business Report.

"The will want to make business as efficient as possible, which might mean that they 'thankfully' shorten some of their speeches."

The decision to go ahead with the Doha meeting will come as a relief to the Qatar administration, which has spent millions of dollars in preparation.

Doha was originally chosen in an effort to stem the likely mass of protesters, who were instrumental in making the last WTO meeting in Seattle in 1999 an ignominious failure.

New member

This round of WTO talks is significant, not least because of China's membership.

"We will be moving from a bi-polar body with the European Union and United States calling all the shots, to a tri-polar body in five years time, with China being a major influence," Mr Woods explained.

Trade ministers argue that the world desperately needs a successful round of global trade talks to kickstart confidence, in the midst of the current economic downturn.

The main issue on the Doha agenda will be market access for agricultural and industrial goods, as well as services.

Discussions are likely to be fraught as many developing countries say the benefits from the last round have yet to trickle down to them, and accuse richer states of blocking or foot-dragging on agreements which would benefit the poor.