WTO Ministerial Conference 13-18 December 2005 - Hong
Kong
Special
focus by the United Nations Office of the High Representative
for Least Developed Countries, Landlocked Developing
Countries and Small Island Developing States
At their meeting held in Asuncion, Paraguay, in August 2005,
the ministers responsible for trade of the Landlocked Developing
Countries (LLDCs) adopted a common position and priorities to
be pursued at the Sixth WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong
of 13 – 18 December, 2005. They agreed to call for, among
others:
• Strengthening and operationalisation of the freedom
of transit provided for under GATT rules of 1994
• Simplification and harmonization of transit rules.
• Technical assistance and support for capacity building
for trade facilitation.
• Technical and financial assistance for physical infrastructure
development, including development of transit transport facilities.
• Greater market access for the agricultural and non-agricultural
products of small and vulnerable economies
• Elimination of tariff and non-tariff barriers to the
agricultural products of LLDCs
• Elimination of market distorting export subsidies for
agricultural products
• According LLDCs special and differential treatment to
compensate for their geographical disadvantages Read
the full text of the Asuncion platform here
