News & Insights

Mary A. Irace

Vice President, Trade and Export Finance

National Foreign Trade Council

Washington, DC – The National Foreign Trade Council and its members are disappointed that the WTO ministerial meeting has adjourned without agreement on a ministerial text that would have allowed the Doha Development Agenda to move forward to the next stage of the Doha negotiations.  Progress had been achieved during the past few days and the NFTC was hopeful that agreement was within reach.  Unfortunately, certain countries were unwilling to engage in a constructive manner and lost sight of the positive economic benefits of greater trade liberalization on a multilateral basis.

While the NFTC has some serious concerns over parts of the latest draft text, it was a workable text.  We hope we overcome the current impasse and get the negotiations back on track as soon as possible.  We firmly believe that developing countries stand to lose the most should the Doha Development Agenda not reach a successful and timely conclusion.    

The NFTC and its members have been champions of an ambitious outcome to the Doha Agenda.  We commend Ambassador Zoellick and the entire U.S. negotiating team for their leadership during this Ministerial Conference in the direction of reaching that objective.

The WTO is at a critical juncture in our view, with its future credibility and relevance at stake.  Absent greater leadership by key developing countries to engage in the Doha negotiations in a meaningful fashion, it is not clear that momentum can be easily restored.

The NFTC and its members remain committed to trade liberalization and will be reflecting in the weeks ahead on how this can be best advanced.