AFRICAN FINANCE MINISTERS SET JULY TARGET FOR TRADE CONCESSIONS

AFRICAN FINANCE MINISTERS SET JULY TARGET FOR TRADE CONCESSIONS

(Reissued as received.)

KAMPALA, 23 May (ECA) -– African Ministers of Finance, Planning and Economic Development have ended their annual conference demanding that rich countries remove obstacles holding up international trade negotiations by July.

Complaining that Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries had done too little to remove high tariffs and trade-distorting subsidies to their farmers, the ministers said in their closing statement:  “These issues are a litmus test of their commitment to Africa’s development.”

They called for full momentum to be restored to the World Trade Organization (WTO) through the adoption of meaningful frameworks in agriculture, non-agricultural market access and other relevant areas.

Talks in the WTO’s Doha Development Round stalled last year in Cancun, Mexico, after disagreements about how far and how fast rich countries should give developing countries greater access to their markets.

The WTO secretariat aims to have a general framework package agreed for the negotiation by the end of July.

Ministers also voiced concern that the world trading system has not been conducive to Africa’s efforts towards producing manufacturing exports.

They strongly recommended that OECD countries lower barriers to African industrial goods and said they would only be prepared to reduce their own tariffs after significant improvements in access to OECD markets.

The ministers praised the United States legislation known as AGOA (African Growth and Opportunity Act) for opening a window to African goods to be sold in the United States.  They agreed to write to the United States Congress to express their concern over delays in passing legislation that would extend the provisions of AGOA from 2008 to 2015.

The conference ministerial statement also called for more attention to be paid to Africa’s need for substantial debt relief, particularly for post-conflict countries and middle-income countries in special circumstances.

Middle-income countries, such as Nigeria, are presently not eligible for the Heavily-Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt relief facility.

Press Advisory

The full ministerial statement and other conference documents, speeches and papers can be accessed at http://uneca.org

The Conference of Ministers ended Saturday, 22 May 2004, in Kampala, Uganda.  Ministers remain in Kampala to attend the annual meetings of the African Development Bank.

The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and the African Development Bank jointly host a symposium on Monday, 24 May, on the theme:  The Missing Link in Growth and Sustainable Development:  Closing the Gender Gap.

Finance ministers praised ECA which organizes the annual meeting of Africa’s Finance, Planning and Economic Development Ministers for being a leading voice on Africa’s development and said they were impressed with progress achieved over the last eight years of reform by ECA.  The conference urged member States to step up financial contributions to ECA through the United Nations Trust Fund for Africa.

The theme of next year’s Conference of Ministers will focus on the Millennium Development Goals and the challenges of meeting them by 2015.

For information, contact Akwe Amosu, Senior Communication Adviser, ECA, tel: (Kampala) +256 71 412400, e-mail: amosu@uneca.org

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