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World
Trade Organization Symposium on
Issues Confronting the World Trade System
WTO Headquarters, Geneva, 6-7 July 2001
Approximately
450 representatives of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), governments,
businesses, academia and the media attended the WTO Symposium, which
served as a forum for the exchange of views on critical issues confronting
the world trading system. Participants met in plenary sessions and convened
in work sessions focusing on: agriculture; food safety and sanitary
and phytosanitary standards; trade related intellectual property rights
(TRIPS) - access to essential medicines and biotechnology/biodiversity;
trade and environment; trade in services; and WTO and civil society.
During the closing plenary, the moderators of the work sessions summarized
the issues covered during the discussions in each group, highlighting
a spectrum of views expressed and noting that the debates had been rich
and led to a clearer understanding of the various perspectives on issues
confronting the world trading system. Above
left: The new conference facility of the WTO, site of the Symposium
on issues confronting world trade.
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Photos and RealAudio from Saturday, 7 July - Closing Plenary |  |
| Jump to: 6 July AM - Opening Plenary - 6 July PM - work session #1 - 7 July AM - work session #2 | ||
| Reports of the moderators to the Final Plenary | ||
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 Listen
to the report of Pekka Huhtaniemi, Ambassador of Finland to
the WTO, on the session entitled "Agriculture - Issues and
Negotiations". |
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| Listen
to the report of Adrian Otten, Director of WTO Intellectual
Property Division, on the work session entitled "TRIPS -
Access to essential medicines." |
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Bird's-eye view of the dias during the closing Plenary | |
| Listen
to the report of Thomas Cottier, on "TRIPS - Bio-technology/Bio-diversity." |
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David Runnalls, President of IISD, presented the following two concluding reports: |
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Listen
to the report of B.K. Zutshi, former Indian Ambassador to
WTO, on "Status of public services - Negotiating issues for
the current services round." |
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Listen
to the report of Kazuaki Miyagishima, Associate Professor
at the School of Medicine of the Kyoto University, on "Food
Safety and the SPS Agreement." |
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Listen
to the report of Sylvia Ostry, University of Toronto, on "WTO
& Civil Society - WTO institutional reforms." |
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| Closing statements | ||
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In
his closing statement, Mike Moore, Director General of the
WTO, stated that it is "good to be able to disagree without
being disagreeable," and called upon the WTO membership to
take action. |
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In
her closing statement, Chair Alimata Traore, Minister for
Industry, Trade and Transport of Mali, said that the symposium
should be part of a more regular framework to increase transparency. |
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Moore congratulating Touare, minutes after the close of the final Plenary | |
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Links | |
 WTO
website for the Symposium (includes all documents) |
WTO
home page |
Sustainable Developments home page ~ Linkages home page