[afro-nets] Developing countries voice concerns at WTO General Council

["Claudio Schuftan" <claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn>]

Developing countries voice concerns at WTO General Council
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Cross-posted from: Third World Network 

http://www.twnside.org.sg

Published in SUNS #6164 dated 18 December 2006

At the last WTO General Council meeting in 2006, held on 14-15 December in Geneva, many developing countries and their groupings made statements on the state of the Doha negotiations. They stressed the importance of respecting the development dimension as central to the Doha negotiations. All the major groupings of developing countries - including the G20, G33, NAMA-11, the African Group, LDC Group, ACP Group and small and vulnerable economies - made statements at the General Council meeting.

A common theme in most of the statements was that the developed countries must make the main move to re-start the negotiations in earnest, that the development dimension is crucial, and that in the rush to meet deadlines, there should be no compromise with the principle that the Doha negotiations must put the developing countries' needs and interests at the centre.

In his report to the General Council, TNC Chair Pascal Lamy said that "an increasing level of engagement" is starting to appear in consultations by the Chairs of the negotiating groups. He stressed the "need to maintain the rhythm of the informal work ... to exploit the window of opportunity in the first quarter of next year".

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Claudio Schuftan
mailto:claudio@hcmc.netnam.vn