UNCTAD SUPPORTING ARAB COUNTRIES IN NEGOTIATING ACCESSION TO WTO
Press Release
TAD/1875
UNCTAD SUPPORTING ARAB COUNTRIES IN NEGOTIATING ACCESSION TO WTO
19990503 GENEVA, 29 April (UNCTAD) -- As part of its efforts to help developing countries and economies in transition integrate into the world trading system on equitable terms, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) is helping those countries in the process of negotiating their accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO).A brainstorming meeting for Arab countries in Amman (Jordan), from 3 to 5 May, will be the next step in this programme of work. Acceding countries participating in this meeting will be: Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Sudan. Experts from Palestine and Yemen will also attend.
The meeting will provide negotiators and trade experts with an opportunity to exchange views on their respective experiences in negotiations for WTO accession and to intensify the dialogue among them on WTO-related issues.
The discussions will focus on the negotiation of commitments in specific sectors: concessions on foreign access to markets for goods, including the agreement on trade in information technology products (ITA), and specific commitments on services, and their impact on acceding countries' economies. Market access, domestic support and export subsidies in the agriculture sector will also be discussed.
The countries in the process of accession will examine ways of participating in future multilateral trade negotiations, and have an opportunity to learn more about the technical aspects of the various subjects dealt with in the WTO.
Also on the agenda is an exchange of views on the impact on the Arab economies of the WTO Agreements on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), on Trade-Related Aspects of Investment Measures (TRIMS), on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS), and on Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT). The implications of WTO for oil and oil products will also figure at the meeting.
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Participants will be able to draw on presentations by representatives from WTO, the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), and the League of Arab States. The meeting is being organized in conjunction with the United Nations Development Programme, in association with the Jordanian Ministry of Industry and Trade.
A follow-up meeting will be organized jointly by UNCTAD and UNDP, to help Arab countries prepare for the third WTO Ministerial Conference to be held in Seattle, United States, later this year. Similar events are envisaged for other developing regions.
For more information, contact Said Guehria, Technical Cooperation Coordinator, Division on International Trade in Goods and Services, and Commodities, UNCTAD, on telephone +41 22 907 5708 or fax +41 22 907 0044 ; or Carine Richard-Van Maele, Chief, Press Unit, UNCTAD, on telephone: +41 22 907 5816/28, fax: +41 22 907 0043; or e-mail: press@unctad.org
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