XN000022-1995-11-25+26 — Page 2

T

1 -

STI returns from informal ministerial meeting in Vancouver

The Secretary for Trade and Industry, Miss Denise Yue, returned today (Saturday) from Vancouver, Canada, where she attended an informal two-day meeting of trade ministers and senior representatives from 16 members of the World Trade Organsiation (WTO),

The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the challenges facing WTO and preparations for the first Ministerial Conference of WTO to be held in Singapore next

year.

"We have a frank and constructive exchange on what needed to be done to implement existing obligations resulting from the Uruguay Round agreements, and on what new trade-related issues should be discussed," Miss Yue said,

The meeting is one of several informal meetings involving WTO members in the run-up to the Singapore conference.

During the meeting, ministers agreed that the agenda for the Singapore Ministerial Conference must be balanced, meeting the needs of all WTO members. They noted that preparatory work would continue to help members to fulfill the commitments for further work embodied in the Uruguay Round agreements.

They also exchanged views on what new issues might be put on the agenda of the coming conference. Some of the issues surveyed included investment, competition policy and anti-dumping, regularoty reform and regional trade arrangements.

Miss Yue led the discussion in one of the sessions of the meeting, on the subject of going further and faster on trade liberalisation.

"We are being driven forward by the increasing globalisation of trade and investment in goods and services, and the accelerating pace of economic and technological change," Miss Yue told the meeting.

"The pressure is on governments to catch up and provide a better framework for international business."

Hong Kong is an active member of WTO, which was established on January 1 this year to take charge of administering the new global trade rules agreed in the Uruguay Round.

End/Saturday, November 25, 1995