Minister Vaile to address challenges beyond Doha

Wednesday, 16 June 2004

Australia's Minister for Trade, The Hon. Mark Vaile, MP, will address the topic of "Challenges Beyond Doha" at the Radisson Playford Hotel, Adelaide at Noon on Friday 2 July.

The Minister's luncheon address forms part of the collaborative arrangement between the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the University of Adelaide's Institute for International Business, Economics & Law. This will be the first in a new series of major annual policy speeches.

In his speech, Minister Vaile is expected to chart prospects for the Doha round of WTO negotiations and opportunities and challenges for the multilateral trading system.

Minister Vaile will be joined on the program by The Hon. Paul Holloway, MLC, South Australia's Minister for Industry, Trade & Regional Development, who is expected to address his remarks to South Australian initiatives supporting the target of trebling exports by 2013.

Doha, Qatar was the venue for the fourth WTO Ministerial Conference from 9 to 14 November 2001 which launched the current round of multilateral trade negotiations.

The negotiations have been stalled since a series of missed deadlines contributed to a collapse of the fifth Ministerial Conference in Cancun in September 2003.

Recently, Minister Vaile has participated in high-level negotiations in Paris and Sao Paulo where considerable forward progress was made on the central issue of reforming world trade in agricultural products.

The Minister's speech in Adelaide comes at a critical time as negotiators from around the world meet in Geneva against an end-of-July deadline for crafting agreement in agriculture and other key areas of the negotiations.

Full details:

What: Trade Challenges for the Future, the The Annual IIBE&L Trade Minister's Policy Address
Key speakers: The Hon. Mark Vaile, MP, Federal Minister for Trade
The Hon. Paul Holloway, MLC, South Australia's Minister for Industry, Trade & Regional Development
When: Friday 2 July 2004
Where: Radisson Playford Hotel, North Terrace
Time: Noon

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