Director-General Roberto Azevêdo welcomed both applications and thanked Argentina and Uruguay for their initiative. He said that he saw both of these applications as a vote of confidence in the work of the WTO, and after the successes of the last two Ministerial Conferences, held in Bali and Nairobi, “it underlines a new level of expectation about what we can achieve”.

The chairman of the General Council, Ambassador Harald Neple of Norway, asked any member who would like to submit an application to host the 11th Ministerial Conference to do so before 31 August 2016 at the latest. He will then consult with members, including the applicants, with the aim of reaching a consensus by the time of the October 2016 meeting of the General Council. 

On a separate but related issue, the Director-General made his report to the informal Heads of Delegation meeting, held earlier in the week (on 25 July), available to members. This report is available here¹. He asked members to focus on potential outcomes of future negotiating work and reiterated his call to be ready to move into a full proposal-driven process in the coming months.

Notes:

1. At that time, only Argentina's bid to host the Ministerial Conference had been received. back to text