Thai bid for WTO seat

Thai bid for WTO seat

JAKARTA (JP): Indonesia pledged its backing for Thailand's bid
to the chair of the Committee for Agricultural Products of the
World Trade Organization (WTO) when the two nation's trade
ministers met on Saturday.

Jakarta will lend full support, Minister of Trade S.B. Joedono
said after a meeting with his Thai counterpart Uthai Pimchaichon
who was visiting at the head of a delegation.

Both nations belong to the Cairn group of agricultural
commodity producing countries which presented a common front in
the Uruguay Round of global trade negotiations which were
concluded early this year.

The group had agreed to get the WTO's agricultural products
committee's chairmanship for one of its members.

The two ministers also discussed the possibility of a counter-
trade deal between Thai rice and Indonesian aircraft, Joedono
said.(17)