World trade ministers meet as economy starts recovery

GENEVA - Ministers and officials of the 153-member World Trade Organisation (WTO) are gathering in Geneva Tuesday for a second day of talks aimed at reviewing the work of the group.

While trade negotiations are not on the WTO summit’s agenda, the stalled global trade round has already taken centre stage at the three-day conference, with ministers and officials having renewed their call for reaching an agreement on the protracted trade talks by the end of next year.

The Geneva-based WTO’s seventh ministerial conference is being held against a backdrop of signs that a recovery in global trade from its biggest contraction since the Great Depression is helping the world economy to put the recession behind it.

The WTO member states together represent about 95 percent of total global trade. The organisation’s ministers had their last meeting in Hong Kong in 2005.