From Africa Recovery, Vol.13#2-3 (September 1999), Watch page

WTO/UNCTAD
African negotiators set for trade talks

While globalization and liberalization of the world economy have created opportunities for well-prepared economies, "Africa has been among the regions that have not fared well," Ms. Lalla Ben Barka, Deputy Executive Secretary of the UN Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), noted at a 21-23 July meeting of African trade experts and negotiators in Addis Ababa. Africa's share of world trade, she pointed out, today stands at just 2 per cent.

The meeting, organized by the ECA in collaboration with the Organization of African Unity, World Trade Organization (WTO) and UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), sought to help African countries prepare their negotiating positions for two major upcoming international gatherings: the third WTO ministerial conference in the US city of Seattle during 30 November-3 December, and the tenth session of UNCTAD in Bangkok, Thailand, 12-20 February 2000.

Meeting participants agreed that in Seattle, African countries will press for having a development dimension built into future trade agreements, greater transparency in the WTO's operations, and special and differential treatment for least developed countries acceding to WTO agreements, including flexibility in the tariff reductions expected by such LDCs.

At UNCTAD-X in Bangkok, they will recommend greater cooperation between UNCTAD, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund at the country level to help translate policy ideas into practical programmes. The UNCTAD session also should mobilize support for widening the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) debt relief initiative to include more countries, as well as to take into consideration development indicators in determining eligibility. "It is clear that without a substantial reduction in the level of external debt," declared a statement of the Geneva-based African negotiators, "the marginalisation of Africa will continue."

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