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The European Union has been the driving force behind calls for an investment agreement through the WTO, with the European Commission claiming this will bring development benefits to recipient countries.

The statement said that India had consistently opposed expansion of the WTO agenda to include new issues.

The statement of the Commerce and Industry Minister Shri Arun Jaitley was read out by Shri S.N. Menon, Additional Secretary, as the Minister had to leave on 22 June to join the Prime Minister in Beijing.

Khor said that the Doha declaration had stated that developing countries' needs and interests would be at the heart of its programme. But this had turned out to be empty rhetoric.

With prime access to elite government and corporate circles, its various corporate members gain handsomely from international trade agreements, from IMF or World Bank handouts, and from privatization programs.

Several NGO representatives analysed what they called the 'myths' surrounding the proposed investment agreement in the WTO, and called for Ministers to decide against negotiating an agreement.

Are WTO members courageous enough to define 'explicit consensus?' Allow me to define it for you as the following: Unless people state an approval to negotiate, there is no explicit consensus.

On modalities, members are split into two camps with developed and developing countries pushing for vastly different approaches.

Progress on market access has been highlighted as one of the principal negotiating objectives of the United States, along with agricultural reform.

European Trade Commissioner Mr. Pascal Lamy has insisted that the Singapore issues is part of the single undertaking agreed to at the WTO's Doha Ministerial Conference.