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WTO NEWS: 2001 NEWS ITEMS

27 February 2001

Declaration by the Andean trade ministers supporting the launching of a round of multilateral trade negotiations

(Unofficial Translation)

The Trade Ministers of the Andean Community wish to reiterate their Member States' full support for the multilateral trading system and express their backing to the activities being undertaken by the Director- General of the World Trade Organization to launch a new Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations at the Fourth Ministerial Conference which will take place between November 9 and 13 of the present year in the city of Doha, Qatar.

The objectives of this new round of multilateral trade negotiations must be the development, creation of employment opportunities, and improvement in the standards of living of its members, through the progressive liberalization of trade in goods and services.

For the Andean Community, one of the negotiations' key issues is Special and Differential Treatment, that encompasses much more than longer implementation periods and allows Members to maintain indefinitely some production policy instruments effectively applied in each country.

Technical cooperation is an essential element of Special and Differential Treatment. Furthermore, it is necessary to link trade liberalization topics with development funding to afford the modernization of the productive base and human resource training, in order to increase the export base of developing countries and to reap the benefits of trade liberalization.

The new Round must benefit all Members and contribute to the reduction in existing differences in levels of development.