In recent weeks, WTO Director-General Michael Moore has been holding secret meetings on various topics with small groups of powerful members including the United States, the European Union, and Japan, along with a handful of developing countries. The so-called "green room" consultations, which were never officially mandated by the WTO’s General Council, have focused on reconciling differences over such critical issues as agriculture, investments, and competition policy.

Delegates from several developing countries, including Cuba, Uganda, Mauritius, Bolivia, Honduras have publicly complained about the green room consultations and the lack of transparency. Some have charged Moore with hijacking the ministerial planning process.

"Many developing countries are not satisfied with the level of transparency and openness in the organization," Alfredo Suescum, Panama’s ambassador to the WTO said at a Nov. 6 meeting of delegates, according to South-North Development Monitor. "They are not being notified about what meetings are taking place. They are concerned why there was a limitation imposed on the number of delegations being invited to take part [and] why a general notice on the meetings was not being given."

Small-group or "green room" meetings were common during negotiations over the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) system in the 1980s, and were named for the color of the wallpaper in the GATT secretariat's conference room at that time. Under heavy criticism from developing countries at the 1996 Singapore ministerial, then-Director-General Renato Ruggiero pledged that the non-participatory green room process would not be repeated.

The charges of secrecy come at a time when Moore has been promising a new era of openness and accountability at the WTO. Moore defended the green room process at a Nov. 6 meeting of delegates.

"There should be no doubt about the importance both you and I attach to the transparency and to the primacy of the General Council in all our work," said Moore, "Let me add however that it is inconceivable that progress can be made without a wide variety of consultations among delegations.

But Martin Khor, president of Malaysia-based Third World Network, who is monitoring the Geneva preparations, said the green-room controversy seriously undermines Moore's claims. Not only are the public and NGOs being left out of the process, Khor said, a majority of WTO members themselves don't even know what's going on.

"This gives credence to the critics who have long claimed that decisions are really made by a few, and that the process lacks transparency," Khor said.