Smaller groups for WTO's green room meetings likely

NAIROBI: WTO's green room meetings may give way to smaller groupings of ministers for handling specific issues which also include the technical aspects of negotiations. Green room is the informal name of the director-general's conference room. It is used to refer to meetings of 20-40 delegations, usually at the level of heads of delegations. These meetings can take place elsewhere, such as at ministerial conferences, and can be called by the minister chairing the conference as well as the director-general. Officials said that WTO DG Roberto Azevedo has floated an idea in which ministers would be asked to steer some technical discussions so as to uplift the talks to ministerial levels.