Mexico has offered to hold the next ministerial meeting of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), to be held no later than 2003.
The offer was formally sent to the World Trade Organisation on November 23 and was circulated two weeks after the close of the fourth ministerial conference in Doha where ministers of the member countries instructed the General Council to choose a location and date for the next conference.
Mexico is the first country to put in an offer and other members can also offer to host the meeting.
The ministerial meeting is held once a year and before Doha the conference has been held in Geneva, Singapore and Seattle. At Doha, it was agreed that negotiations on several issues would be launched.
The next ministerial meet will decide whether negotiations on investment, competition policy, trade facilitation and transparency in government procurement would also be initiated.
The general council chose Doha as the venue on 30 January 2001 and the dates for the meeting were finalised in February. Chile had also put in a proposal to host the fourth ministerial meeting but later backed out.
