Press Release

For Immediate Release June 22, 2006

Contact: Eric Thomas The Fratelli Group (202) 822-9491

ABCDoha Holds Listening Session with Foreign Embassies on Doha Negotiations

Business Community Sends Strong Signal to WTO Members on Eve of Ministers' Meeting in Geneva

Washington, D.C. - The American Business Coalition for Doha (ABCDoha) convened a meeting yesterday with representatives from more than thirty foreign embassies, including the Delegation of the European Commission.

"Our objective was to establish a dialogue with the Washington-based diplomatic corps that promotes a direct and candid exchange of views with members of the U.S. business community on the way forward in the Doha negotiations," said Brigitte Schmidt Gwyn, Director of International Trade and Fiscal Policy, Business Roundtable.

"We are concerned as a coalition that the United States has put forward commercially significant offers without seeing sufficient reciprocity on any front, whether it's goods, services or agriculture," Gwyn continued.

Representatives from ABCDoha spoke on each sector under negotiation and conveyed the strongly held view that the Doha round of negotiations offers one of the best avenues for reducing global poverty, but that the potential gains are at risk if the round fails.

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The American Business Coalition for Doha (ABCDoha and www.abcdoha.org) is an umbrella group representing the diverse interests of service-providers, manufacturers, agriculture, customs facilitators, and many other stakeholders all dedicated to achieving an ambitious result from the Doha Round in 2006.