A delegate to last weekend's special meeting of the WTO Agricultural Committee in Seoul said Wednesday the World Trade Organization (WTO), responding to strong requests from South Korea, has decided to include agricultural non-trade concerns (NTC) on the agenda for the second-level agricultural talks to be held sometime next year.

During the unofficial meeting, the WTO committee decided to open the second-level agricultural talks by March next year and discussed the major agenda for the second round of agricultural talks.

However, NTC items, which concern the sovereign right of countries to pursue non-trade objectives such as food security, food safety and development of rural areas, were not included in the draft agenda set by the committee chairman.