WTO meeting in Geneva

Trade ministers from about fifty countries are meeting at the World Trade Organisation's headquarters in Geneva. They will try to bring new life into discussions intended to increase global commerce, which were launched in 2001. This report from Andrew Walker:

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The underlying objective is to make international commerce easier and cheaper and to boost incomes around the world. If they do reach an agreement in the next few days, it will just be an outline however. It would give an indication of how far the trade liberalisation would go but they would still have a heavy workload in negotiating detailed tariff cuts, product by product.

There are also other contentious areas to settle, notably trade in services such as telecommunications and banking, which the ministers are not even due to discuss in the next few days. Campaign groups have criticised the way these meetings are organised. Much of the business will be done by about thirty key ministers, around a fifth of the membership.

Critics say that works to the disadvantage of those countries not included, especially the smaller developing countries. Trade officials say however that groups, such as the least developed or African nations, are represented by ministers who consult the countries on whose behalf they speak.

Andrew Walker, Economics Correspondent, BBC

Listen to the words

the extent to which
how much

barriers
restrictions and obstacles that make something difficult to achieve

The underlying objective
The thing they really want to achieve

to boost incomes
to increase the amount of money that people earn

a heavy workload
a lot of work to do

tariff cuts
reductions in taxes on imported goods

contentious
likely to cause disagreement

to settle
to agree upon

key
important

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