it was a terrible mistake now i'm very hard to take going to let once again a little longer the club has never had sex with the perfect their lives let alone. listen to the i'm living. a.

hello and welcome to sophie and co the shevardnadze well look at the global economy today and how i would speak this players the world trade organization is finding its way in the changing circumstances. in the stormy you don't say for ocean of the global economy it's short there is safety in numbers. the world trade organization was called on to steady the ship coordinates direction and help the participants communicate. in the turbulence of recent years because these giants lost its called friends while its members become more selfish the rich dominate the poor imposing unfair rules of training better deals.

how can the w t o restore come among its ranks and extinguish fierce trade conflicts does it know where it's headed where is it safer to be now within the w t o or with ours. and our guest today is it all back to us of that though the director general of the world trade organization who just assumed office at the beginning of september this year mr as a veteran it's great to have you with us on the show. so in your first address to the director general you said at the w t o one the multilateral trading system are an important crossroads well in fact the w t o is thought to be going through a major crisis and many even doubt its viability what can you do to change that do you have any concrete solutions. well we have been. this situation for a long time and we have to change it simple as that. has been in place since

one thousand nine hundred ninety five and since then there has never been one single negotiated agreement multilaterally we have to change that now bali is an opportunity we're going to have the ministerial conference at the end of the year in december and we are negotiating now with smaller package it doesn't mean that it's not significantly affect it's a very significant package but it's something different from what we were doing before so who knows this next approach would begin to yield some fruits and we can not only harvest something significantly bali but also open the door for future agreements but in your approach to changing things in w.t. what would be different from your price predecessor because he was saying the same thing you were saying that things have been stagnating and he wanted to change that but he couldn't do anything really. well this is the first time that we actually try to approach something different from the whole round. we have still

a few weeks to go this is an opportunity i am talking to members engaging with them i think we're trying to build some trust and confidence in each other and this is a very personal process whether we believe it or not in such a big organisation but it's very personal to we have to understand where each other come from and we're in i think we are in position to do something it's very it's going to be extremely difficult it doesn't look easy but it's possible it's doable and i'm sure that will be dug around that you just brought up in this global trade negotiations will chant we're supposed to lower trade barriers across the globe right now is considered as good as debt are you still going to pursue it. i don't think it's as good as that frankly what we want to do in bali is part of. it's not the holdovers around but it's part of the it's a partial package which is within the doha round and my hope you said if we can be

successful in bali we're going then to only log the negotiations and maybe we'll knows try to approach the rhone from different angles from different perspectives and begin to move in the right direction if you look at w t o today right the way it's wired it's not exactly fair since we never joined later has to follow the rules set by the founding members right supporting many developing countries who joined later in an under privileged position what are you going to do about this inequality. well the purpose of negotiations is precisely to lower and to have more disciplines which apply to everyone i think those who exceed that later head to negotiate the terms of accession but that's frankly that's the rule of the game that's the way it has always been now once the members are in they negotiate on a far they negotiate on equal basis with all the other members they have equal rights and they will negotiate conditions for the next round of the next agreements

which will hopefully be something that they can accept and perceive is something balanced here many would argue that trade conflicts have been a definite rise in the recent years why have they flourished in your opinion and what can be done to ease these tensions. treat patients are not new i mean. they have been there since the beginning of times. beginning of the one nine hundred forty seven three dimensions exist that's what the system is for the system is resized lead to ease those tensions to allow members to find solutions to negotiate outcomes which are acceptable to both of them i have been negotiating into being a participant in the w t o since one thousand nine hundred seven and over all these years i have never seen. a moment a moment not a year a moment when tensions were not there so you don't you don't think it's a new think of

a present that that actually trade tensions are rising you think it's always been there. not ok but. frankly it will always be there. all right but also there are more and more regional unions being formed around the globe the likes of the americas sir the european union the customs you know valorous kazakhstan russia for instance can these grow and develop within their organization or is this the beginning of a man for w t o. o on the contrary i think the help of the building blocks towards trade liberalization these blocks these groups these costumes you news these free trade areas they don't come up with without disciplines in order to be set up they have to follow disciplines and these are multilaterally negotiated disciplines which ensure that these blocks that these free trade areas will not raise barriers on the contrary that they are going to lower to begin to these countries into

a more open environment. but what about the united states and the e.u. agreement that's probably going to be signing time soon the free trade agreement which is sad will be a military g w w t o just because you know it will control thirty percent of global trade what would you do what we what suppose ition of w t o after this agreement is signed. the same as any other this is an agreement that will help to move forward trade liberalization i think that these agreements are very important they compliment the multilateral trading system but they do not substitute the let the multilateral produces for several reasons. less limited more limited them sort of more limited in terms of covering. there are fewer countries that participate in them. they these agreements are limited in terms of the disciplines that they can

establish they won't address subsidies for example they will very hardly address the new forms of protectionism which is coming into place they would never address these kinds of protectionism globally did that we chill with but these agreements wouldn't they're welcome they are important step in the right direction but they are not to be considered as substitutes and they would never be substitutes for the motor lettering system so if there was two blocks merge there be a threat of them forging new rules of the game two words everyone else. i don't think so because. these these blogs in the united states and the european union they are already very open economies and the fact that they are. having an agreement that allows trades and goods and services to flow freely between them doesn't change the picture very much what they are actually going to do is go into

the area of disciplines they're going to negotiate regulations which are more harmonized between those two and there can be helpful way because it diminishes the number of differences in regulations that members have to face when they try to sell their products and services in one or another country but at the same time it helps to move the environment of negotiations forward the more countries are engaged in treated early seizure negotiations such as these more helpful it is for the multilateral trading system to follow into and to act in a similar way rasher and brazil your home country are members of both w t o and the brakes clump of emerging economies also embracing china india and south africa. how much do you think brakes can continue developing into a new driving force in the world it will be for some time i have no doubts about

that even now that the developed world this is a recall very beginning to grow more rapidly than it was before the brics are still major elements for growth in the in the world economy and i don't think that's going to change very soon one of the reasons for there is that the dynamic economies that are still growing there are incorporated large masses of people into the formal economy so this phenomenon is not going to change very soon which doesn't mean that they are necessarily a club apart they are just becoming part of a more globally integrated world economy coming up did it break what's better always there i'm going to shake up next what's west has gained from joining w t l and who is to strongest kid on the block don't go away.

on their way to antarctica the crew of the i can to make sure the roof face many challenges. here you have to look out for yourself crashing on to rocks trapped in pack ice in extreme conditions anything can happen and dr always comes up with surprises you have to keep your eyes open because there's always something going wrong the ship carries huge reserves of water food fuel as well as helicopters and people able to survive extreme conditions they're ready for anything even an apocalypse she's really an incredible ship calling all antarctica stations and. this is going to make it feel that a radio check please respond. i

know c.n.n. the amazon b c fox news have taken some not slightly but the fact is i admire their commitment to cover all sides of the story just in case one of them happens to be accurate. that was funny but it's close and for the truth might take. off. goods because one whole attention and the mainstream media work side by side the joke is actually on here. at our teen years we have a different approach. because the news of the world just is not this funny i'm not laughing dammit i'm not how. you guys talk to the jokes well handled stuff that.

live. live live. live

. welcome back to the show we're talking to roll back the advantage of the director general of the w t o about the unity he's organization is lacking and the benefits

that may not be there so says we already are talking about russia it has been a member for a little over a year and now but what was russia's membership at it on a global level for trade for example. of course russia is a very important economy grew in the in the world and it would be very. unusual in unfortunate to have an organization the size of the w two one organization that is looking for universality to be operating without having russia in that so i think with the russian accession is a welcome development to the to the organization to the world economy because then the rules which apply globally to. chill members will also apply to russia so that provides predictability that provides a level playing field i think for all so it's a very welcome development had there been any negative fallout from that. not

really i think in the doubly cio every time a major economy joins the. riza period for accommodation there is a period for adjustments that happen when for example when china joined the years after the join the chinese accession years of accommodation there was a better understanding i think. the parties were testing where each other word they were talking to each other they will finding areas of commonality but also areas of disagreement and that's normal that's absolutely normal that's going to happen with russia too and that's going to happen with other economies that will be significant that will be joining the euro but what would you say russia has gained from joining definitely taken into consideration both the state of russian economy and also the way things are looking at this present moment. the biggest gain for russia is that it will never be subject to discrimination according to the

rules so anybody that. wants for example to impose a protectionist measures something that would impede russian products into the territory they will have to follow the rules and that was not the case before and you could see unilateral action for example being adopted against russia not any more any unilateral action or indeed this could minatory action against russia would possibly be to dispute settlement and eventually sanctions if you're going to impose and so i believe that russia has had a lot to gain in joining and will be one of the major beneficiaries of this system you know there's a question that has been keeping us scratching our hat for a while russia membership for nearly two decades when it then finally took a cooler approach to joining but it was then accepted even though nothing really had changed in russia's economy what exactly made it a session possible can you explain that to our viewers well it's essentially

a negotiation among members and these negotiations take time the reasons why one particular. becomes right to be concluded vary from case to case in the case of russia it was a lengthy negotiations which were getting. mature enough and the political will i think on the part of members and on the part of russia to conclude that political will was a very important element in accession negotiations and it was therefore russia so that i believe was the major key component that allowed the session to be successfully concluded that there are many requirements from the w t o to be imposed on russia in the coming years what impact will they have on russia the commie and its people. i can't really tell but i am sure that it will be for the better whether they can have a crisis of two thousand and eight it really scarred the global economy at just about every level so what conclusions have been drawn from these traumatic experience have any precautions been taken in case the situation repeats itself.

well that's precisely the reason why the members of the g twenty or meeting here in st petersburg get their leaders level it's precisely to avoid that kind of situation from repeating itself as far as the multilateral trading system is concerned i think could prove that it can be effective for example in avoiding protectionist strains after two thousand and eight the fear was that we would have a repeat of what happened in the one nine hundred thirty s. when protectionist measures were put in place and at the end of the day changed the scenery completely and led to further the oppression economically across the globe and this time around it didn't happen and i think one of the reasons why you didn't happen was because the doubly chilled discipline stopped members from introducing overt. protectionist measures here a recent policy change by the american federal reserve so big currency devaluations in many emerging markets as you may know this summer the brazilian ryall went down

twenty percent as did the indian rupee and the turkish lira. that led to a price hike on imported goods in the goods in this country where does it stand when problems like this come up. all these problems are frequently occurring. the issue of valuation of currencies or devaluation of currencies is a permanent t. shirt and i think that we have rules into the two which are not perfect for particularly the issue of currencies but allow members to take action that. ameliorate this situation or symmetries that they find from time to time. i think that this is a normal moment because it will this is not the first time that we see currencies shifting from up or downwards but what it promises like federal reserves

leads to unrest in those countries with shaking currencies similar to the arab countries to what the arab countries witness when commodities became too expensive when america started its quantitative easing in two thousand and eight great citizens couldn't afford basics like food and thought it was their government's fault and that triggered the arab spring uprising what's the point of that if not keep some global balance. does not take action by itself ever it is the members that take action so if members feel that somebody is doing something which affects their economy or affects their trade capacity then they are perfectly capable of consulting for so they can call the other member explain what the difficulties or try to find the solution mutually satisfactory or they can take the you should to dispute settlement if that's the case but it's up to members to decide what course of action they want to take it's not for the doubly

chill to do it by itself to double it still doesn't have any mandate to act. by its own will. also age year has been playing playing a crucial role in the world's economy in the recent years does it have a similar role within the w t o and can it keep the lead do you think i think it's one of the most dynamic areas of the world the asian markets in apec for example is largely asian and it's one of the most important forum for discussion i believe that. asia to be one of the main nexus of the world economy the major for one of the major forces in the global governance fora including the cio africa is also not their emerging continent in terms of economy what do you see happening there where's the growth going to be and who is going to benefit. well i think the african continent is very diverse that's for sure and there are

opportunities for growth there opportunities for investment opportunities for increasing trade across the continent. most of the times political stability is also a very important factor but not only that it's about creating the conditions to participate better in the world trade flows it varies from country to country it's very difficult to talk of africa without looking at the particular situation of each one of the countries that compose it can you do that latin america one of the key issues in your opinion that trouble that continent so i think latin america is well positioned to benefit from the growth i think many key exporters in latin america particularly in terms of commodities. non-royal commodities but also all commodities in some cases letting america is one of the. is a very mature. countries are following different bass and

those there are. more integrated in the world economy those that are more open and participating in the global trade flows are doing quite well just to wrap it up as a vat oh what would you hope to be your biggest achievement and your legacy after you leave the post of double it has director general well i hope i have been doing the. trade negotiations for a long time i started working with the w two in one nine hundred ninety seven so the organization was two years old in during this time i saw the negotiation facing much better days and i hope that we can i could leave the office with a w. two away as vibrant as it was before as relevant as it was before negotiating important deals and once again being the table where countries come to to negotiate three. station thank you very much for this interview that's all for today our

guest here on so clean coal was recognizing that the hat of the world trade organization thanks for watching us and we'll see you next time. well. that's technology innovation all the developments from around russia we've got the future covered. unexplored antarctica what is it in this icy expanse that attracts the people who come here. now i only go to the dock. and enter into.

a new generation of polar explorers is coming. we have a new group of specialists here now all of them are young how are they going to get along with each other and i don't know. who. i used to be a bureaucrat. to be seriously. what adventures await in this mysterious land where they live want to eat and want to be actually doing it on top to go. to the finish with economic ups and downs in the final column. the london deal sang and the rest. if you will be every week on all things.

but i will only react to situations i have read the reports and let you know it is a no i will leave them to the state department to comment on your latter point of the month to say to mr kerry you have a car is on the docket no god. no more weasel words. when you need a direct question be prepared for a change when you throw a punch be ready for a. pretty tough speech and down to freedom to question. limit. live.

the speed. limit. will. look. like a good. clear. cut. lists . to get right on the scene. first trip to live and i think you're.

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only. the u.n. security council is due to debate a resolution to enforce the chemical disarmament of syria the us military is still on standby and it's a strike at washington's discretion. in the civil war shows no signs of abating our correspondent has been following the syrian army on a daily operation in the embattled outskirts of damascus. on the latest revelations snowden deals the national security agency trawling through. transactions. news and much more twenty four hours a day.