Mexico heads the OECD Meeting Update Mexico. June 1999 Mexican Embassy to the UK Mexico heads the OECD Meeting On May 26th and 27th, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development held its Ministerial Meeting in Paris, gathering the participation of Ministers of Finance, Foreign Affairs and Trade of its 29 member countries. Mexico's Foreign Affairs Secretary, Rosario Green and Trade and Industry Minister, Herminio Blanco co-chaired the development and trade meetings respectively. Nevertheless they recognised that the outlook among all OECD members is still mixed. While the US continues enjoying stable economic growth, European countries are experiencing different economic outlooks, Japan remains uncertain while Korea is recovering fast.
Important challenges remain.
Mainly, the high level of unemployment in some OECD countries which calls for renewed efforts for designing economic and structural policies with effective social safety nets. The OECD stated its commitment to continue working further on its Jobs Strategy. Regarding sustainable development, Ministers agreed on the importance of including issues as climate change and bio-diversity as objectives for OECD countries and to promote discussions on how best to meet Kyoto commitments. On trade and investment, members agreed on the need for an open, transparent and rules-based multilateral trading system as a keystone of the world economy and the importance of settling disputes in accordance to WTO rules and the government's responsibility of complying to the WTO principles and rulings. Regarding labour standards, members agreed on the observance of internationally recognised core labour standards but reaffirmed their rejection of their use for protectionist purposes.