The trade and farm ministers are scheduled to take part in a ministerial meeting of six major players in the World Trade Organization negotiations from Friday in London, Japanese officials said Tuesday.
Economy, Trade and Industry Minister Toshihiro Nikai and Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Shoichi Nakagawa will join the three-day talks organized by the European Union, ahead of the end-of-April deadline for WTO members to produce the outline of a comprehensive trade deal with numerical goals, they said.
The six key WTO players are the United States, the European Union, Brazil, India, Japan and Australia. WTO members aim to agree on details of trade liberalization measures, including tariff reduction formulas, by late April in order to finish the current Doha Round of negotiations by the end of the year.
WTO Director General Pascal Lamy will also participate in the event, the officials said.
During past negotiations at WTO headquarters in Geneva, major economies have presented simulation analyses on tariff-cutting formulas in agricultural and industrial areas using numerical data, they said.