Appointment of appellate body members, reforms to be discussed at WTO meet on May 13-14

Issues such as impasse on the appointment of WTO's appellate body members and way forward on reforms at the global trade body would be discussed in a meeting of developing countries here on May 13-14.

India has convened this WTO (World Trade Organization) ministerial meeting of 16 developing and six least developed countries next week, the commerce ministry said in a statement Friday.

It said the meeting is being held at a time when the multilateral rule-based trading system is facing serious and grave challenges.

"In the recent past, there have been increasing unilateral measures and counter measures by members, deadlock in key areas of negotiations and the impasse in the appellate body, which threaten the very existence of dispute settlement mechanism of the WTO and impacts the position of the WTO as an effective multilateral organisation," it said.

The current situation has given rise to demands from various quarters to reform the WTO, it added.

The 22 countries would also try to ..