Talks process faces flak

 At least two of the five facilitators, who had been selected to assist in consensus building on the main areas under negotiation, failed to bring out the views of the WTO membership. This has forced officials to question the selection process adopted for preparing the draft ministerial declaration.

 The officials said with regard to agriculture and the Singapore issues, the proposals presented in the draft declaration was contrary to the views expressed by a large number of countries.

 At Cancun there was a recurrence of the problems encountered at the earlier ministerial meetings, especially in Doha in 2001, indicating that there had been no improvement in the process, they added.

 They also questioned the rationale of appointing Pierre Pettigrew of Canada as the facilitator for the Singapore issues when Canada was one of the votaries of a multilateral framework on these issues.