European Parliament
President. –
Question No 8 by Liam Hyland 
Subject: WTO and agriculture deadline
In view of the fact that negotiators at the WTO were unable to agree agriculture negotiating modalities by the 31 March 2003 deadline, does the Council consider that satisfactory progress can be made in other areas in time for the 5th WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancún in Mexico next September, and that more acceptable agricultural proposals can be considered in the meantime in line with the negotiating mandate it gave to the Commission, and how does it regard the views expressed in the US by the Director of the Institute for International Economics, Mr Bergsten, who said, according to Reuters, that the WTO negotiations are more likely to stretch on until the middle of 2007 when the White House’s current trade negotiating authority expires?

