While hailing the upcoming WTO Informal Ministerial Meeting in Dalian city, WTO experts said that the result of the meeting is still unpredictable considering the complication of the Doha Agenda topics.

"We hope to see the Doha Round being moved forward through the Dalian meeting," said Zhang Xiaoji, WTO expert from the State Council Development and Research Center. "But at this moment, it's difficult to tell what result could be reached at the meeting."

China will host the WTO informal Ministerial Meeting on July 12-13 in Dalian city of northeast China's Liaoning Province. Representatives from more than 30 WTO members will exchange views and opinions on a new round of Doha Development Agenda (DDA), and prepare for the sixth WTO Ministerial Meeting in Hong Kong this December.

"Making progress needs compromise from all parts in the negotiation," said Liang Yanfen, expert from the Research institute under the Ministry of Commerce.

Launched at the end of 2001, the DDA is the first multilateral trade negotiations since the WTO was established. The main objective of DDA is to push forward world trade liberalization and investment facilitation so as to promote development of all economies, especially that of developing countries. But during the past years, the Doha Negotiation encountered downturns.

Just a few days before the meeting, the World Trade Organization (WTO) chief Supachai Panitchpakdi expressed his worries about the slow progress in the Doha round trade talks.

"The Doha round is in trouble," Supachai said in a written interview with Xinhua.

Although ministerial meetings are not official WTO meetings and they involve 30 ministers as the WTO makes decisions by consensus of all of its 148 members, experts believe the Dalian meeting could push the trade talks forward.

"Informal ministerial meetings can be helpful, particularly if -- as is the case in Dalian -- those ministers present comprise all of the significant groupings of countries and positions," said Supachai.

Participants supposed to be present at the Dalian meeting include not only those from developed members, such as the US, the EC, Japan and Canada, but also from developing members including Brazil, India, Bangladesh and Benin.

To pave the way for an ambitious outcome for the Hong Kong Ministerial Meeting, ministers attending the Dalian meeting will have in-depth discussions on the five core areas of the conference, namely, agriculture, non-agricultural market access, development, services and rules.

Source: Xinhua