The Sixth Ministerial Conference (MC6) of The World Trade Organization (WTO) will open Tuesday afternoon in Hong Kong.

The MC6 serves as an important milestone in the course of the multilateral trade negotiations mandated by the Doha Development Agenda (DDA). A substantive outcome at MC6 will help bring the DDA negotiations to an early and successful conclusion.

The DDA negotiations were originally scheduled for conclusion by Jan. 1, 2005. Considering the progress of the negotiations, the General Council of the WTO agreed in August 2004 to an open-ended extension of the deadline. Since then, WTO Members have been working hard to take forward the negotiations. There is a common understanding that the DDA negotiations should be concluded in 2006, and to achieve this, WTO Members must attain a substantive outcome at MC6 in Hong Kong.

The Ministerial Conference is the WTO's highest-level decision- making body. A Ministerial is held once every two years. Since the establishment of the WTO, five Ministerial Conference have been held. The General Council of the WTO, at its meeting on Oct. 20, 2004, decided to hold the MC6 in Hong Kong on Dec. 13-18, 2005.

The Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government expect some 11,000 participants to attend the Ministerial, including 6, 000 delegates, 3,000 journalists and 2,000 representatives of Non- governmental organizations.

Trade, foreign, finance and agriculture Ministers from more than 120 World Trade Organization Member governments and from those in the process of acceding to the WTO participated in a Ministerial Conference in Singapore from Dec. 9 to 13, 1996. The Conference was the first since the WTO entered into force on Jan. 1, 1995.

It included plenary meetings and various multilateral, plurilateral and bilateral business sessions. These examined issues related to the work of the WTO's first two years of activity and the implementation of the Uruguay Round Agreements. The Singaporean Government was the official host of the Ministerial.

The Second WTO Ministerial Conference was held in Geneva, Switzerland, between May 18 and 20, 1998.

The Third WTO Ministerial Conference was held in Seattle, Washington State, the United States, between Nov. 30 and Dec. 3, 1999.

The Fourth WTO Ministerial Conference was held in Doha, Qatar, from Nov. 9 to 14, 2001.

The Fifth WTO Ministerial Conference was held in Cancun, Mexico, from Sept. 10 to 14, 2003. The main task was to take stock of progress in negotiations and other work under the Doha Development Agenda. On Sept. 14, 2003, the Conference ended after Chairperson Luis Ernesto Derbez concluded that despite considerable movement in consultations, members remained entrenched, particularly on the "Singapore" issues.

Source: Xinhua