December 9, 1996 (October 29), the Rat, the first WTO ministerial meeting. On 9-13 December

1996, the five-day WTO First Ministers' Meeting held in Singapore. More than 2,300 delegates from the 128 WTO members attended the meeting. The meeting adopted the Singapore Ministerial Declaration.
chairman of the meeting, Singapore's Trade and Industry Minister Yeo Cheow Tong said that during the meeting, the ministers analyzed the development of international trade in the past two years the establishment of the WTO, the commitment to continued trade liberalization, to promote the development and employment of all members, stability and prosperity.
"Singapore Ministerial Declaration pointed out that the trade liberalization of global trade growth to create more employment opportunities for many members, including trade in services and direct investment, including international economic changes as well as the growing economic integration as economic growth, create jobs and provide unprecedented opportunities.
in on the most controversial issue of labor standards, the Declaration recognizes the ILO is effective institutions to set and deal with labor standards, right of each member in particular stressed that does not allow new trade protection measures, agreed to set labor standards relative competitive advantage of low-income developing members questioned provisions of the cooperation between the WTO and the ILO must fully respect the different range.
on investment policy and competition policy issues, the ministers agreed to form two working groups to study the relationship between these two issues and trade, respectively, in the Declaration. (On TodayOnHistory.com)
attached: WTO Profile