HONG KONG, Nov 28: WTO director general Mike Moore is confident of finishing a new round of global trade talks within three years, he told a conference on Wednesday.

“I think they can be concluded in three years,” he told a press conference here, outlining his “roadmap to success”.

Moore was bristling with confidence following the successful World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial conference in Doha, Qatar earlier this month.

The conference, where ministers approved the accession of China and Taiwan and hammered out key agreements on agriculture, public health, labour rights, investment and dumping, was seen as a giant step forward for the WTO after its disastrous riot- and disagreement-plagued 1999 meeting in Seattle.

The former New Zealand premier, who has headed the WTO for two years, said he hoped the next talks venue would be decided by end of December.

“Before Christmas I will redeploy our divisions inside the WTO,” he told the Pacific Economic Cooperation Council here.

“We will, I hope, this year decide on who our next host will be and who our next chairperson will be and by January 28 I hope we will put in place our new trade management mechanism and their time-frames.

“We have maintained the momentum and we have maintained ministerial involvement (since Doha).”

He added: “If we stick to the time-frame we can have a successful fifth (ministerial conference).”

Hong Kong’s Commerce and Industry Secretary Chau Tak Hay told the meeting the success in Doha was partly due to the September 11 terrorist attacks in the US.

“It was this unfavourable development which actually galvanised many members of the WTO into action,” he said, adding that he expected the next round of talks to be far tougher than the down-to-the-wire meeting in Qatar.

“Those who want to block progress in the next round will be able to do so,” he warned.

Moore’s three-year stint as WTO head comes to an end next September, when he will be replaced by Thailand’s Supachai Panitchpakdi.—AFP