GENEVA (Kyodo) The key talks earlier this week at the World Trade Organization were a test for the future of the much-needed multilateral negotiations, the endurance of top negotiators and for Japan its international presence. But all these tests were failed.
There is ample evidence to believe that Japan remained out of the spotlight inside and outside the main closed-door bargaining room during the grueling, nine-day negotiations.
Before and after arriving in Geneva, trade minister Akira Amari repeatedly said that one of the important missions for the country was to "act as a bridge" between developed and emerging economies, in order to lay the ground for a compromise between the two fronts to unlock the long-running Doha Round process.