This follows a lull since his predecessor Crawford Falconer circulated the latest draft text in December, although some low-key consultations and two meetings have been held since then.

Ambassador Walker briefly described to agriculture negotiations his consultations so far, heard their views, and outlined a schedule for the next few weeks, before the summer break in August and early September.

“The one key point that I took out of, I think, everybody who has spoken,” he said, “is the importance now to move ahead with the process here in Geneva, to focus on closing the remaining gaps and the technical issues, which is very much music to my ears as that, as I said in the introduction, is the core task that I see as chair to help you do that.”

The next steps he outlined include a “Room E” meeting of a representative group of delegations (explained below) followed by various types of consultations in July and another informal meeting of the full membership by the end of that month.

He also said he would hold a technical workshop on the types of data members will need to supply. He explained this in some detail.

(Responding to concerns raised by some members, he refers to WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy’s statement to the 26 May meeting of the General Council, made as chairperson of the Trade Negotiations Committee.)

Use these links to download the audio files or to listen to what he said in the meeting:

This meeting

This was an informal agriculture negotiations meeting of the full membership, officially an “Informal Open-Ended Special Session” of the Agriculture Committee.

The latest texts and a number of related issues can be found with explanations here, including what “the text” is and says, and a “jargon buster”.

The current phase of the negotiations is about “modalities”, explained here.

Explanation

Explanations of the issues are available for the chairperson’s 2008 drafts and reports.

• “Room E”: meetings of a representative group of about 30—37 delegations as part of a process that is controlled by the full membership.

• “Walks in the woods”: meetings among small groups of delegations outside the WTO. These are explained here (see “where and who?” box on the right).