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“Many important issues from food safety, the environment and access
to essential medicines are currently the subject of intense public
scrutiny and need to be addressed,” WTO Director-General Mike Moore
said today. “The trading system as it stands now faces countless
challenges in need of attention. It is my hope that this symposium
will further discussion and thinking about how to tackle some of these
pressing issues.”
Special
work sessions during the two-day symposium will focus on trade in
agriculture, food safety and sanitary and phytosanitary standards,
intellectual property rights (the TRIPS Agreement), development and
environment issues and trade in services (the GATS). A fifth working
session will address the relationship between the WTO and civil
society.
Registration
forms are available on request or can be downloaded from the WTO's
website.
To
facilitate discussions and preparations for the five separate working
sessions, on-line forums on the subject areas will be launched on the
WTO's website in mid-June. Participants are encouraged to familiarize
themselves not only with the issues, but with the views and concerns
of other participants.
For
more information please contact:
Bernard
Kuiten — External Relations Division
bernard.kuiten@wto.org /
tel: 00 41 22 739 56 76 or 739 52 54
Hans-Peter
Werner — Information & Media Relations Division
peter.werner@wto.org / tel:
00 41 22 739 52 86 or 739 50 07
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