Multilateral cooperation | 51 WTO The WTO is the forum where negotiations are conducted at the multilateral level to further develop economic relations. The outcomes of the negotiations are reflected in the WTO agreements and the WTO rules. The WTO member states aim to further liberalise international trade within the framework of the negotiation rounds. The current WTO negotiation round (Doha Round), which is the focus of the activities of the Permanent Mission in Geneva in regard to the WTO, was launched in 2001 – at the same time as China’s accession to the WTO. The Doha Round is based on the principle that «nothing is decided until everything is decided», which is why it is not possible to already implement the negotiation progress made in individual areas. Even after ten years of negotiations, a conclusion of the Doha Round does not yet appear to be in sight. But rapid progress would be urgently needed. Over the past decade, the nature of trade and accordingly the type of barriers to trade have changed dramatically. A new way of looking at world trade is necessary, for instance in regard to the advancing division of labour and international value added chains, which should also be reflected in the WTO rules. Emerging countries like China, Brazil and India have risen to potent trading parties over the last ten years of the WTO world trade round. The relative weight of the industrial countries of the North in global trade has steadily declined. The relative weight Since no progress has been made in the WTO in this regard, hundreds of bilateral and of the industrial countries regional free trade agreements have been concluded in parallel with the world trade of the North in global trade comes at the WTO is not a solution and does not take account of the factual changes in has steadily declined. negotiations. The opinion appears to prevail that simply waiting for multilateral out­ world trade. Even just since the outbreak of the financial and economic crisis – i.e. over the last four to five years – no fewer than 61 new agreements have been concluded. Only five of these concerned industrialised countries, 32 concerned both industrialised and developing countries, and the remaining 24 exclusively concerned countries of the South. These figures illustrate the increasing integration of the developing countries, especially the emerging countries, in world trade. The EFTA states play a lead role in the negotiation of free trade agreements. At the same time, they emphatically push for multilateral solutions within the framework of the WTO, which would be to the advantage of all parties and preferable to bilateral solutions. The EFTA states therefore strive to play an ex­tremely active role on both the multilateral and the bilateral tracks. A ray of hope at the WTO ministerial conference in December 2011 was the conclusion of the negotiations – which likewise began ten years ago – on the revision of the WTO Agreement on Government Procurement. This agreement allows companies to submit cross-border bids for tenders by governments and public entities. Another success was the admission of Russia to the WTO after 18 years of negotiations. This means that all major national economies in the world are now members of the WTO.