Bali, Oct 08: Regretting the "stalemate" at the Cancun WTO ministerial conference last month, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee Tuesday asserted that rule-based and fair multi-lateral trading system should remain the goal. “But while we search for this ideal, regional trading arrangements offer immediate advantages, particularly for geographically contiguous regions," he told the Asean business and investment summit here.

The summit is being attended by leaders of the ten-nation Asean, Chinese premier and Japanese premiers Wen Jiabao and Junichiro Koizumi and South Korean president Roh Moo-Hyun, who, like India, are full dialogue partners of the key regional grouping.
Vajpayee said "in spite of the stalemate at the Cancun ministerial conference, a rule-based and fair multi-lateral trading system should remain our goal".