Preparing for the Hong Kong WTO Meeting

Ambassador Amina Chawahir Mohamed of Kenya

Nearly 100 senior trade negotiators, including the Chairs of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) General Council (Ambassador Amina Mohamed of Kenya) and the Commonwealth Developing Countries Group in Geneva (Ambassador Charles Ntwaagae of Botswana) met in Cape Town, South Africa, from 31 August to 2 September 2005 to assess the state of play in the Doha Development Agenda negotiations. The meeting was opened by the South African Minister of Trade and Industry, Mandisi Mpahlwa.

Following the failure of trade negotiators to reach 'first approximations' on modalities for negotiations in the key areas of agriculture and non-agricultural market access by the end-July deadline, the meeting offered African trade diplomats the first opportunity to consult and exchange views on what needs to be done to achieve their objectives at the Hong Kong WTO ministerial meeting in December 2005.

Ambassador Mohamed gave the keynote address which helped focus participants' minds on priority issues for African countries as well as the necessary action to be taken at the national, regional and multilateral level in order to achieve a good outcome in Hong Kong. Priority issues identified by the senior trade negotiators include: improvement in market access across the board; substantial reductions in domestic support for agriculture; an end to export subsidies (with a call for the date to be fixed soon); and the provision of financial and technical support to facilitate the integration of developing countries into the multilateral trading system.

Commenting on feedback he had received about the workshop, Vinod Rege, Commonwealth Trade Adviser in Geneva, said, "The general opinion of the Geneva-based Ambassadors/officials who attended the meeting was that this was probably one of the most well prepared and well organised workshops on issues under negotiation in the WTO."

This was the second in a series of regional meetings on preparations for Hong Kong organised by the Commonwealth Secretariat. The first took place in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in May 2005, with participants drawn from the Asia/Pacific region. The final meeting in the series will take place in Barbados in November, for the Caribbean region. The purpose of these meetings is to encourage an informed exchange of views on the opportunities and challenges faced by Commonwealth developing countries in the current Doha Development Agenda negotiations.

 

CNIS - Commonwealth News and Information Service Issue 256, 12 October 2005

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