Minister flies to Geneva WTO meeting

Trade Negotiations Minister Jim Sutton leaves New Zealand today to attend an important meeting in Geneva as part of the World Trade Organisation multilateral trade negotiations.

This week’s meetings are the second time in two weeks that the FIPs-plus group has met.

Mr Sutton said last week’s meeting made good progress, and he hoped that further progress could be continued this week.

There was the political will to reach agreement, but there was still a lot of work to be done in order to achieve that consensus, he said.

“This meeting is an important part of reaching consensus at the Hong Kong meeting, and the future of the international trading system depends on getting a good result.

“It is essential that we get a result where agricultural trade is on an equal footing with non-agricultural trade, and not hampered by unfair barriers. At the same time, nations that are big non-agricultural traders need to get something from these negotiations as well.”

Mr Sutton returns to New Zealand on Monday.