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DGT to attend Multilateral Trade Agenda conference
The Director-General of Trade, Mr Tony Miller, will join senior representatives of other member economies of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) to attend a three- day conference in Australia.
The purpose of the meeting, to be held between February 21 and 23 in of Brisbane, is to discuss the shape of the new multilateral trade agenda and the ways moving it forward within the WTO framework.
It is jointly organised by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Committee for the Economic Development of Australia and the Queensland Government.
The conference, entitled "The future directions for the multilateral trading system", will also consider the agenda for the inaugural WTO Ministerial Conference scheduled for December in Singapore.
Mr Miller has been invited to be one of the two lead speakers at the conference's final session and will give a speech on "Mobilising the Multilateral Trading System: Towards Another Round?".
"As a staunch supporter of free trade, Hong Kong is anxious to maintain the momentum for trade and investment liberalisation," Mr Miller said today (Saturday).
"We have one of the world's most liberal trade and investment regimes, and fully support efforts to develop a consensus for more movement in the multilateral arena towards freeing up the global flow of goods, services and capital."
"With these objectives in mind, Hong Kong looks forward to contributing constructively to the forthcoming conference," he added.
The conference will be chaired by the Australian Minister for Trade and will be opened by the Minister of Trade and Industry for Singapore, the host of the 1996 WTO Ministerial Conference.
In addition to academics and international trade and business commentators, participants will include senior trade officials from WTO member economies as well as senior representatives from the Organisation of Economic Co-operation Development (OECD), the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and WTO, led by its Director-General, Mr Renato Ruggiero.
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