Ghali lauds unified Arab stance in Doha

The Egyptian Economy and Foreign Trade Minister Youssef Boutros Ghali said yesterday that there is a unified Arab stance towards the issues tabled on the agenda of the World Trade Organization (WTO) conference which began in Doha on Friday.

Asked whether there was an Arab working paper reflecting this stance, Ghali said that this stance was reached during the Arab meetings and conferences that were held for this purpose.

On the issues of agriculture, environment and intellectual property which are tabled on the agenda of the conference, he said that there is no initial objection to these issues but the objections are to the technical details of them.

"There are some hurdles obstructing reaching progress; and these obstacles should be addressed before launching a new round of negotiations," he added.