Q U O T E S
"No deal is better than a bad deal at Cancun."

— Eamon Courtenay, Minister of investment and foreign trade, Belize
"Trade opening cannot simply be an end in itself: it must have a purpose, namely to improve the lot of mankind and to do this in a way which does not impinge upon the ability of future generations to do the same."

— Pascal Lamy, Trade commissioner, EU (Sept. 9, 2003)
"We found, as in a number of areas of our trade negotiations, that some of our work with individual countries or small regions really provides laboratories for us to try to advance the state of work in some of these cooperative areas."

The G-20* paper on agriculture has some good ideas and some bad ideas in it.

— Robert Zoellick, Trade representative, US (Sept. 9, 2003)

(* Group of 20 developing countries including members of the Cairns Group, China and India)
"We are here in Cancun with the same level of ambition we had at the start of the negotiations on agriculture. We want to eliminate export subsidies, significantly expand market access and substantially reduce and harmonise domestic support."

— Ann Venemann, Secretary, US Department on Agriculture (Sept. 9, 2003)

"Progressive trade liberalisation within the framework of the WTO system holds many concrete benefits for promoting growth and development."

— Mark Vaile, Minister for Trade, Australia (Sept. 4, 2003)

"All of us are painfully aware that the development dimension of the Doha Round is not receiving sufficient attention. We try to highlight the asymmetries and imbalances in the multilateral trade agreements, but keep getting side-tracked into non-trade related issues. We are finding that the Doha Agenda negotiations are a two-track process, with our concerns always on the slower track."

— Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Prime Minister, India  (Sept. 4, 2003)

"The greatest gains from world trade will come from completing the World Trade Organization's global negotiations. We made good progress since the negotiations started nearly two years ago, and WTO members can build on this progress next week in Cancun, Mexico. Completing the global negotiations by the 2005 deadline is essential, because opening global markets is a pathway to economic success for rich and poor nations alike."

— George W. Bush, President, USA (Sept. 3, 2003)

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