WTO Ministerial Meeting closes with adoption of Ministerial Declaration; gap between countries' opinions remains unfilled. The WTO's trade-related dispute resolution system continues to be dysfunctional.
The gap in opinion between the European Union and the United States and other countries has not been bridged, and no concrete progress has been made. The membership of East Timor and Comoros, an island nation in the Indian Ocean, was officially approved, marking the first new member countries in about eight years.