ALMATY PLAN FOR LANDLOCKED COUNTRIES ANTICIPATES CANCUN TRADE MEETING

ALMATY PLAN FOR LANDLOCKED COUNTRIES ANTICIPATES CANCUN TRADE MEETING

(Received from a UN Information Officer.)

ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN, 29 August -- Wrapping up an international ministerial conference on the needs of low-income landlocked countries which he termed “a grand success”, United Nations High Representative Anwarul Chowdhury said that the toughest negotiations earlier in the week had to do with improved trade status for these nations.

“During a week of intensive negotiations, international trade and trade facilitation issues provoked serious debate”, Mr. Chowdhury, who is the Secretary-General of the conference, said at a press briefing today.  “A good part of the intensity of interest owes to the conference of trade ministers of the World Trade Organization upcoming in Cancun in only two weeks.  This meeting will take up many of the issues we discussed in Almaty.”

The Almaty Programme of Action “takes note of the request of the landlocked developing countries for special access for their products in world markets”,
Mr. Chowdhury said.  “Establishment of this principle is one of the primary benefits that the Programme will provide for these nations.”

The action plan also refers to the need for special attention to the accession of these countries to membership in the World Trade Organization (WTO).  More than one third of the world’s 30 landlocked developing countries are not yet members of the WTO.

Other provisions of the Programme of Action successfully negotiated in the central Asian city of Almaty include an international partnership for improved transport infrastructure in the landlocked countries and their transit access neighbours, and policy guidelines for streamlining the passage of landlocked export goods through the transit nations.

Due to heightened costs and prolonged duration of time affecting both exports and imports of landlocked developing countries, economists estimate that their economic growth rates are diminished on average by 0.7 per cent per year.

More Follow-Up

The Office of the High Representative for the Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing Countries and Small Island Developing States will oversee follow-up of the Almaty agreement, not only in donor, transit access and landlocked countries but also within the United Nations system and among other international agencies, Mr. Chowdhury said.

The Almaty agreement will next be reviewed at an upcoming meeting of ministers of the landlocked countries, in New York in October of this year.

The Programme of Action is the outcome of the International Ministerial Conference of Landlocked Developing Countries and the Donor Community on Transit Transport Cooperation, taking place 28 to 29 August in Almaty, Kazakhstan.  Eighty-three countries and 23 international, regional and subregional agencies are represented at the United Nations meeting.

For more information, contact Tim Wall of the United Nations Department of Public Information, tel.: 1-212-963-5851, e-mail: wallt@un.org.

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