BALI, Indonesia, Dec.2 (Xinhua) -- The Ninth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is set to open from Tuesday to Thursday, with trade chiefs of the WTO's 159 members gathering to discuss global trade issues and bring forward the long-stalled Doha Round talks.
Major target for this year's meeting will be sealing a package of global trade agreements that would mainly cover trade facilitation, development and agriculture, which would pave way for future completion of the Doha Round.
The following is a brief introduction to the WTO ministerial conference:
The Ministerial Conference is the top decision-making body of the WTO, which usually meets every two years. It brings together all members of the WTO, all of which are countries or customs unions. The ministerial conference can make decisions on all matters under any of the multilateral trade agreements.
Since the establishment of the WTO in 1995, eight ministerial conferences have been held.
On Dec. 9-13, 1996, in Singapore, the First Ministerial Conference examined issues related to the work of the WTO's first two years of activity and the implementation of the Uruguay Round Agreements.
On May 18-20, 1998, in Geneva, the Second Ministerial Conference reviewed the implementation of WTO agreements and made preparation for the launch of a new round of trade talks.
From Nov. 30 to Dec. 3, 1999, in Seattle, the United States, the Third Ministerial Conference ended in failure, with massive demonstrations and police and National Guard crowd control efforts drawing worldwide attention.
On Nov. 9-14, 2001, in Doha, Qatar, the Doha Round was launched at the Fourth Ministerial Conference, which also approved the joining of China, which became the 143rd member.
On Sept. 10-14, 2003, in Cancun, Mexico, the Fifth Ministerial Conference was held with the aim to forge an agreement on the Doha Round, but the talks broke down without progress.
On Dec. 13-18, 2005, in Hong Kong, China, the Sixth Ministerial Conference made progress on the phasing out of all agricultural export subsidies, termination of cotton export subsidies and market access for goods from the Least Developed Countries. It was considered vital for the Doha Round negotiations to move forward.
From Nov.30 to Dec.2, 2009, in Geneva, Switzerland, the Seventh Ministerial Conference declared that WTO ministers wanted to conclude the Doha Round talks quickly and agreeing to extend " moratoriums" on electronic commerce and intellectual property.
On Dec.15-17, 2011, in Geneva, Switzerland, the Eighth Ministerial Conference adopted a waiver to enable developing and developed-country members to provide preferential treatment to services and service suppliers of least-developed country members. Russia became the WTO's 154th member.
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