The decision on the venue and dates was made at an informal meeting of the WTO's General Council. The ministerial is the WTO's highest decision-making forum, where decisions can be made on all matters concerning multilateral trading rules.
WTO Director-General Mike Moore is expected to meet with Shaikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, Qatar's emir, in the Swiss city of Davos to confirm the WTO's acceptance of the Gulf state's offer to host the event before the decision is formally adopted at a meeting of the General Council on Jan. 30.
The ministerial will take place somewhat earlier than expected. Qatar earlier noted that the WTO's preferred November-December period for holding the event would conflict with Ramadan, the month-long Islamic period of dawn-to-dusk fasting which will begin in mid-November this year.
Qatar is the only one of the WTO 140 member to formally offer to host the next ministerial, which under WTO rules must take place once every two years. Violent protests against the WTO at its last ministerial conference in Seattle in late 1999 resulted in some 600 arrests, US$3 million in property damage and between $12 million and $22 million in lost business for Seattle merchants.
Earlier, a human rights group issued a statement urging WTO members not to hold the ministerial in Qatar because of the country's "blemished" human rights record.
"Holding this meeting in Qatar would shut down any possibility of peaceful protest," declared Kenneth Roth, executive director of New York-based Human Rights Watch, in a statement issued Jan. 20. "The WTO can't avoid public protests by holding a meeting in a country that doesn't allow public protest. That would send the signal that it's okay to build the global economy on a foundation of repression--exactly the opposite of the message the WTO should be pronouncing."
Human Rights Watch noted that a State Department report issued last February cited severe restrictions on freedom of assembly and association in Qatar, including a ban on political parties and political demonstrations.
If Qatar fails to pledge that free assembly will be respected, WTO ministers should find another location for their meeting, Roth said.
WTO spokesman Keith Rockwell said that as the host country, Qatar will be obliged to allow non-governmental organizations that have been accredited by the WTO Secretariat to attend the ministerial as observers. To receive accreditation, an NGO must comply with guidelines set down by the General Council showing that they have an interest in trade matters and be approved by the organization's members.
Rockwell said the NGOs that have been accredited for past ministerials include "our most vocal critics. They will be accepted as they have been for the previous ministerials...the Qataris know these are the conditions of the organization, they know they need to provide an NGO center where (NGOs) can meet, hold press conferences and speak with journalists, representatives of the Secretariat and delegations."
Qatar has already said it will provide rooms for 400-500 representatives from non-governmental organizations at an exhibition center immediately next to the main ministerial conference venue. The number is considerably less than the approximately 1500 accredited NGO representatives, not to mention thousands of other non-accredited demonstrators, who attended the Seattle ministerial.
"We have to operate in the space constraints that we have," said Rockwell. "Qatar is not a huge country. We have no idea what will be the agenda for this ministerial (but) we may find that interest in it is substantially less than in Seattle."
By Daniel Pruzin Copyright © 2001 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc., Washington D.C. Source: WTO Reporter, Wednesday, January 24, 2001, ISSN 1529-4153