WTO RTA Committee Discusses 6 Trade Agreements, Ways to Boost Committee's Function

The World Trade Organization's Committee on Regional Trade Agreements met April 8 to consider six regional trade agreements and discuss how to enhance the committee's functionality, the WTO announced. The committee chair, New Zealand's Clare Kelly, said that members agreed to include an "executive summary in the factual presentations, to be drafted and circulated under the responsibility of the Secretariat."

WTO members at the meeting also elected Cameroon's Salomon Eheth the new head of the committee. The next meeting is "tentatively scheduled" for July 2-3.

The six RTAs considered at the meeting involve "the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Australia, Colombia, the European Union, Japan, Pacific Island countries, Peru, the United Kingdom, and Viet Nam."