WTO Ministerial Conference of 2001

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At the Doha Ministerial Conference in November 2001, trade ministers launched the Doha Development Agenda. With this Agenda, WTO members have placed development issues and the interests of poorer members at the heart of the WTO’s work.

The meeting, which took place just two months after the World Trade Center attack, was designed to show the world that economic growth and trade rather than terrorism was the way the world should work together. Held under tight security in the small Gulf state of Qatar, there were few protesters and even fewer lobbyists in attendance. The meeting established four key areas of work: liberalising agricultural markets in rich countries, opening up non-agricultural market access (NAMA) mainly for industrial goods in developing countries, continuing to press ahead with the services sector liberalisation under the GATS agreements, and working with the so-called Singapore issues of investment, competition policy and public procurement (these were removed from the agenda after the Cancun Ministerial Conference in 2003.