DOHA, Qatar (Islamweb & News Agencies) - This week's gathering of global trade ministers will not fall into the traps that led to the collapse of the Seattle conference, the head of the World Trade Organization said Thursday.
``We have learned a lot out of Seattle,'' WTO Director-General Mike Moore told reporters as ministers began arriving in Doha for the meeting, which begins Friday.
Officials hope to launch a new round of trade liberalization talks, but the five-day meeting will have to overcome major differences among the 142 WTO members on issues such as agriculture, the environment and access to medicine.
The talks are taking place amid heavy security. On Wednesday, a gunman opened fire on U.S. and Qatari soldiers guarding an air base in this Gulf country. The soldiers shot and killed the gunman, whose motives remain unknown.
The ministers' goal in Doha is to agree on a joint declaration that will announce the issues they will tackle in the new round. (Read photo caption below)
Moore said the latest draft, drawn up by Hong Kong's ambassador to the WTO, Stuart Harbinson, had left ministers with ``a balance of unhappiness.''
The meeting in Seattle in 1999 was also supposed to launch a new round, but it failed amid rioting by anti-globalization protesters and complaints by smaller and poorer countries that they had been left out of important discussions.
This time, Moore said, the major talks will involve all ministers, with each permitted just two advisers so meetings can remain fairly small.
The last trade round - the Uruguay Round completed in 1994 - committed members to reduce import tariffs and drop other barriers on a wide range of goods and services. Those talks also looked at new areas, including agriculture and intellectual property rights.
The increasingly wide range of issues that can be included in trade talks has led to many of the disagreements.
One issue that was partially responsible for the collapse in Seattle - U.S. insistence the talks should consider labor standards - looks set be sidelined this time. But a new disagreement has arisen that pits the United States against developing nations.
Poorer nations say they want wider powers to handle health crises such as the AIDS epidemic without being constrained by the WTO's agreement on patent protection.
The United States, supported by Switzerland, insists the agreement already has enough flexibility and countries do not need to go beyond it.
Moore said this dispute was the one area where ``differences were so profound'' the draft declaration did not even suggest a final wording.
``I am hopeful that we can come out with something that both sides feel is reasonable,'' he added.
During the meeting, the WTO also plans to rubber-stamp the membership of China and its neighbor Taiwan.
China spent more than 15 years negotiating its terms of membership. Its arrival in the WTO means it will have to abide by international rules for conducting trade but will benefit from receiving the same trading terms as other WTO members.

PHOTO CAPTION:
WTO HQ: The Geneva-based group has been the focus of protest grou