Mary Upton (Dublin South Central, Labour)
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Question 97: To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs the outcome of the recent meeting of the World Economic Forum of Trade Ministers in Davos, Switzerland; the prospects for the completion of the Doha round of the WTO negotiations in view of the meeting; the prospects for developing nations following this meeting; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4315/07]

Dermot Ahern (Louth, Fianna Fail)
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The World Economic Forum took place in Davos, Switzerland, from 24-28 January 2007. The Taoiseach participated in a number of meetings at the Forum on 24-25 January.

A number of Trade Ministers who were present at the Forum met informally on 27 January for an exchange of views on the situation in the now suspended current round of WTO negotiations, the Doha Development Agenda. As this was an informal meeting, there was never any question that decisions relating to the negotiations would or could be taken. The informal meeting included representatives of the major parties to the negotiations, including EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and US Trade Representative Susan Schwab, as well as representatives of the developing countries.

Reports from the meeting indicate that the participants had a very useful exchange of views on the prospects for relaunching the WTO negotiations. They signalled their hopes that the negotiations could be formally relaunched at the earliest possible date and that full-scale activity in the different official-level negotiating groups in Geneva should be resumed without any delay with the aim of making progress towards the successful completion of the Round. The participants also stressed the importance of the development dimension in the negotiations and reiterated the firm commitments made in Doha when the negotiations were launched and more recently at the WTO ministerial meeting held in Hong Kong in December 2005 in this regard.

There exists now an opportunity to relaunch the negotiations in the coming weeks and all parties to them have an obligation to seize this opportunity and to participate constructively in efforts to bring them to a successful conclusion. Together with our partners in the EU, Ireland remains fully committed to bringing the current round of WTO negotiations to a successful conclusion. This is a development round and its successful conclusion offers the best outcome for the developing countries. Ireland has always stressed the need to take account of the needs of the developing countries in the current round. All parties to the WTO negotiations have an obligation to look to the needs and interests of the poorest of the developing countries. The richer among the developing countries, as well as the industrialised countries, must ensure that these special needs are taken into account. The EU, for its part, is ready to work for a fair and balanced outcome in this regard.