Walsh and Kitt to attend WTO meeting

The Minister for Agriculture Joe Walsh and the Junior Trade Minister, Tom Kitt, are travelling to Qatar today. They will attend the latest World Trade Organisation ministerial meeting. Delegates will try to draw up an agenda for a new round of global trade liberalisation negotiations.

Joe Walsh said that he would be working to protect export subsidies for Irish farmers. However, Third World countries argue that such subsidies discriminate against them.

The last meeting, in 1999, ended without agreement amid the so-called "Battle for Seattle". The massive scale of the anti-capitalist demonstrations and violent clashes between riot police and protesters that marked the meeting took the WTO by surprise. They set the standard for a series of such protests that have come to characterise international political and economic meetings around the world.

Although political demonstrations are generally banned in the conservative Gulf state, the authorities in Qatar have said that peaceful demonstrations would be allowed during the five-day meeting. However, a repeat of the Seattle protests is not likely in Doha.

Labour groups in the United States and anti-capitalist groups worldwide have accused the WTO of deliberately selecting Doha to thwart public protests against its policies. Critics of the WTO say that the organisation serves the interests of big business at the expense of the poor and the environment.

Discussions are taking place under rigid security measures. A US Navy ship deployed in the region carrying troops trained for emergency civilian evacuations. A number of WTO members have questioned the wisdom of holding the conference in Qatar, due to the relative proximity of the country to Afghanistan.