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Small Country Parliamentarians Meet In Canada

9 September 2004

 Quebec City
 The meeting was held in Quebec City
The role of legislature in promoting the regional economic integration of small countries was one of the issues addressed by parliamentarians and officials who convened in Canada for a two-day conference.

The 24th 'Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference for Small Countries' was held in Quebec City, Canada, from 31 August to 1 September 2004. Organised by the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA), the meeting was attended by 112 delegates from 20 small countries and territories with populations of up to 400,000 people. They included members of parliament and legislature, clerks and other parliamentary officials. 

During the conference, participants reaffirmed that small countries were particularly vulnerable to environmental factors such as climate change and rise in sea level. They stressed that small countries were victims of environmental circumstances beyond their control and called on the international community to provide special assistance to conservation. 

Delegates also debated how parliamentarians could help implement the Barbados Programme of Action (BPOA) on the Sustainable Development of Small Island Developing States (SIDS). BPOA was adopted in 1994 at the UN Global Conference on the Sustainable Development of SIDS in Bridgetown, Barbados. It sets out specific measures to be taken at the national, regional and international levels in support of the sustainable development of SIDS. 

A session at Quebec City was devoted to the trade concerns of small countries and to the possibility of strengthening their ability to withstand fluctuations and shocks in the global markets. 

"Participants expressed concern about Paragraph 35 of the World Trade Organisation's (WTO) Doha Declaration. This clause recognises the economic vulnerability of small economies but has not provided for the creation of a special category within the WTO for them. Thus, they are precluded from special treatment," said Dr Eliawony Kisanga, Deputy Director in the Commonwealth Secretariat's Economic Affairs Division (EAD), who attended the conference.

"The delegates called for an urgent reconsideration of this matter in view of the continuous problems that small, vulnerable economies face in coping with trade liberalisation." Dr Kisanga oversees EAD's Small States, Environment and Economic Management Section.

The Small Countries Conference -- which is usually held alongside the annual CPA Parliamentary Conference -- is the longest-running forum on the concerns of small jurisdictions. The first one was held in 1981.

 

CNIS - the Commonwealth News and Information Service Issue 200 8 September 2004

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