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The Secretary for Commerce, Industry and Technology, Mr John Tsang, today (November 12) met with representatives from local non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to brief them on the latest state of play on negotiations in the run-up to the Sixth Ministerial Conference (MC6) of the World Trade Organization (WTO).
Speaking at the session held at the Hong Kong Central Library, Mr Tsang said the WTO attached great importance to the participation of NGOs in WTO matters and was always willing to listen to their views. Today's session followed a roundtable forum held last month during which both the WTO Director-General, Mr Pascal Lamy, and Mr Tsang met with representatives from various NGOs.
"As the Chair of MC6, I treasure every opportunity to have direct dialogues with local NGOs amidst my busy traveling schedules for meetings with different WTO members.
"Today's session is very useful. It allows us to have a comprehensive and in-depth discussion on the major areas of the Doha Development Agenda negotiations," Mr Tsang said.
The purpose of the session is to enhance civil society's understanding of Hong Kong's negotiating position on a number of subjects as well as progress on the negotiation front. All the 19 local NGOs, which have just been formally accredited by the WTO Secretariat for participation in MC6, have been invited to attend.
Mr Tsang kicked off today's session with an overview of the latest development on the negotiations. Briefings on negotiating subjects including agriculture, anti-dumping measures and trade facilitation, were then conducted by officials from the Trade and Industry Department (TID). There was also an open discussion at the end of the session with SCIT and TID officials answering questions from the floor.
The next discussion session, focusing on topics including services and market access for non-agricultural products, will be held on November 21. The sessions are organised by the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference Co-ordination Office.
Ends/Saturday, November 12, 2005
Issued at HKT 18:39
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