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Commonwealth Secretariat press release

Commonwealth launches new initiative to put development back into WTO trade talks

2 February 2005

"We are launching a major initiative to generate serious, sustained, high level political engagement on the World Trade Organisation trade talks over the coming year," said Commonwealth Secretary-General Don McKinnon today, ahead of a high level trade event to be held at the Commonwealth Secretariat on 7 February 2005.

This event - the first in a series of high profile initiatives - will include presentations by the European Union Commissioner for Trade Peter Mandelson; the United Kingdom's Minister for Trade Douglas Alexander; the Barbados Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Ambassador Trevor Clarke and the Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, Kamalesh Sharma. It will also be attended by London-based Commonwealth High Commissioners.

 "The Commonwealth represents one third of the global population and its membership cuts across every single key grouping around the WTO table, including the G20, G90, the Quad, the Cairns Group and so on. It is strategically placed to generate a strong consensus on trade that can then be carried forward in the wider WTO," he added.


"The WTO talks cannot take place any longer in a negotiating silo. The trade negotiations need to have human security and development at their very heart. A trade deal that might appear to be in the immediate economic interest of a country could very well harm the long-term security interests of the world. That is why political involvement at the highest level is not only desirable, but imperative."

Note to Editors:

For media enquiries, please contact Mwambu Wanendeya on + 44 20 7747 6382.. The Commonwealth G 20 members are Australia, Canada, India, South Africa and the United Kingdom. G90 members include the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) and some additional African and Pacific countries. The members of the Quad are Canada, Japan, the European Union and the United States of America. The Cairns Group of 17 major agricultural countries includes Australia, Canada, Malaysia, New Zealand and South Africa.

 

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ISSUED BY THE COMMUNICATIONS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS DIVISION
Commonwealth Secretariat Marlborough House Pall Mall London SW1Y 5HX United Kingdom
Tel: +44 (0)20 7747 6385/6 Fax: +44 (0)20 7839 9081
Email: info@commonwealth.int