WTO
NEWS: SPEECHES - DG MIKE MOORE
30 November 1999
New Zealand's Trade Minister, Lockwood Smith, Tapped for Key Ministerial Chairmanship
WTO's Seattle Ministerial Conference
WTO
Director-General Mike Moore announced today his gratitude to New Zealand's Trade Minister,
Lockwood Smith for Minister Smith's agreement to serve as a "Friend of the
Chair" in the WTO's Seattle Ministerial Conference. The New Zealand Minister will
head up discussions aimed at bridging differences among WTO Members on those elements of
the Ministerial Declaration concerned with the so-called "Singapore Agenda",
namely investment, competition, government procurement and trade facilitation
negotiations. Other issues to be taken up in the Minister's group include trade-related
intellectual property rights, trade and the environment and proposed working groups on
trade and finance, trade and debt and discussions relative to globalization issues.