• Commonwealth:
• News:
• News Archive Search:
• Secretary-General Calls for Commonwealth Leadership in Trade Talks

Secretary-General Calls for Commonwealth Leadership in Trade Talks

25 November 2005

Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon has called on the Commonwealth to show leadership in the current Doha Development Round of international trade negotiations.

"This is a test of Commonwealth leadership. The Commonwealth accounts for one-fifth of global trade, and represents the full breadth of the world's interests."

In his address at the Opening Ceremony of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting taking place in Malta from 25 to 27 November 2005, the Secretary-General said:

"I applaud the gestures we have seen this year from the developed world, in pledges to ease debt burdens and increase aid. But the applause will be muted until we see delivery, delivery, delivery. One cannot ask developing countries to give in the Doha Round when they cannot yet count what they have not received.

"This is a test of Commonwealth leadership. The Commonwealth accounts for one-fifth of global trade, and represents the full breadth of the world's interests. We don't just represent, in fact, we are the spectrum from the poorest and most vulnerable to the wealthiest and most secure. We have a right and a responsibility to show leadership. If we can give the WTO the shot in the arm it requires, then our organisation will have shown again its global worth."

 

Click here for full text