The group of countries that derailed trade talks in Cancun and slowed World Trade Organization negotiations for the Doha Round continue working together. In advance of December's WTO ministerial in Hong Kong, the G-20 group of countries plan to meet in Islamabad, Pakistan this September.
The G-20, includes 21 developing countries headed by Brazil, India, China and others. The group put significant pressure on developed countries during the Cancun talks, which slowed the progress on WTO talks to a crawl. The group met during the New Delhi ministerial earlier in 2005 and came to a broad agreement for tackling domestic and export subsidies. However, the G-20 has yet to decide on a formula for reducing ag tariffs.
The September meeting will include trade ministers from all G-20 countries and their aim is to come to an agreement on modalities for ag negotiations that could be used in Hong Kong. Pressure on the Doha Round of talks (which were actually a restart after the crash of the Seattle talks in 1999.
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