<p>While trade negotiations are not on the agenda of the three-day gathering in Geneva, the stalled global trade round is likely to play a major role, following a call by world leaders for an agreement on the issue by the end of 2010.<br /><br />Instead of considering a trade deal, WTO chief Pascal Lamy sees the meeting as providing "a platform for ministers to review the functioning of this house".<br /><br />Security barriers have been erected around the conference venue and police reinforcements have been called in from other parts of Switzerland amid concerns about demonstrators attempting to disrupt the meeting.<br /><br />An anti-capitalist protest in Geneva Saturday erupted into violence, with cars set alight and shop windows smashed.<br />The meeting in Switzerland comes a decade after a WTO ministerial meeting in Seattle aimed at driving forward global free trade was engulfed by violent protests.</p>.<p><br />This week's conference is being held amid signs that global trade is recovering from its biggest contraction since the Great Depression.<br />The WTO member states represent about 95 percent of total global trade. Ministers last met 2005 in Hong Kong. A gathering scheduled for 2007 was postponed because of lack of progress on the trade round launched in Doha in 2001.</p>
<p>While trade negotiations are not on the agenda of the three-day gathering in Geneva, the stalled global trade round is likely to play a major role, following a call by world leaders for an agreement on the issue by the end of 2010.<br /><br />Instead of considering a trade deal, WTO chief Pascal Lamy sees the meeting as providing "a platform for ministers to review the functioning of this house".<br /><br />Security barriers have been erected around the conference venue and police reinforcements have been called in from other parts of Switzerland amid concerns about demonstrators attempting to disrupt the meeting.<br /><br />An anti-capitalist protest in Geneva Saturday erupted into violence, with cars set alight and shop windows smashed.<br />The meeting in Switzerland comes a decade after a WTO ministerial meeting in Seattle aimed at driving forward global free trade was engulfed by violent protests.</p>.<p><br />This week's conference is being held amid signs that global trade is recovering from its biggest contraction since the Great Depression.<br />The WTO member states represent about 95 percent of total global trade. Ministers last met 2005 in Hong Kong. A gathering scheduled for 2007 was postponed because of lack of progress on the trade round launched in Doha in 2001.</p>
