WTO: 2006 NEWS ITEMS

27 October 2006
DOHA DEVELOPMENT AGENDA

African Union urges trading powers to quickly restart negotiations

The Chairman of the African Union, President Denis Sassou N’Guesso of Congo, in a statement issued on 27 October 2006, urged “all WTO Members, and in particular the G-6, to break the current deadlock”. He added that “for millions of our citizens, the Doha Development Agenda represents the hope of improving their living standards and freeing themselves from absolute poverty”.

Statement by the chairman of the African Union concerning the suspension of the Doha Round of negotiations

WT/L/658
The following communication, dated 20 October 2006, is being circulated at the request of the Delegation of Benin.

The African Union deeply regrets the suspension of the WTO Doha Development Agenda last July owing to the inability of the main trading powers to show the flexibility needed to narrow the gap separating their negotiating positions and to move on towards the completion of the Round.

Africa is the continent with the largest number of least developed countries and is currently the most marginalized region in the multilateral trading system. Consequently, it is on Africa that the continuing international trade distortions are taking the heaviest toll.

International trade plays a leading role in the promotion of economic development and the reduction of poverty, and is essential to attaining the objectives of the Millennium Development Goals for Africa.

For millions of our citizens, the Doha Development Agenda represents the hope of improving their living standards and freeing themselves from absolute poverty.

WTO Members, in particular the developed countries, have a duty, a responsibility, and a moral obligation not to disappoint the African countries and their belief in the multilateral trading system by failing to honour the promises made at Doha.

The African countries cannot accept the current deadlock and the failure of the trading powers to act on the promises made to them and to the other developing countries, particularly the least developed countries, to place their interests and concerns at the heart of the Doha Work Programme.

As far as we are concerned, the failure by the major trading powers to translate their political commitment to the successful conclusion of the Doha Development Agenda — as reaffirmed in St Petersburg — into flexibility in their entrenched negotiating positions is extremely serious. Their failure to reach a compromise on the reduction of agricultural subsidies and agricultural market access lies at the basis of the suspension of the negotiations in July, only a few weeks after the St Petersburg summit, a suspension which put paid to any hope of concluding the Round by the end of this year.

Agriculture is at the heart of the Doha Development Agenda. Most Africans, and particularly the poorest among them, depend on agriculture for their subsistence. The survival of these populations is seriously threatened and their poverty aggravated by the domestic agricultural subsidies and agricultural market access barriers.

If the Doha Round is to remain faithful to the development dimension that is so fundamental to it, it must remedy this situation.

We welcome the recommendations of the WTO Task Force for operationalizing the Aid for Trade initiative.

We call upon WTO Members to work diligently to ensure the implementation of the recommendations of the Aid for Trade initiative, which, although not part of the single undertaking of the Doha Work Programme, is nevertheless an essential complement to the trade opportunities that would result from a pro-development outcome of the Doha Round.

We strongly urge all WTO Members to resume the Doha Round negotiations as rapidly as possible.

To that end, we call upon the European Union and the United States in particular to show their political commitment to supporting — not through declarations but by changing their negotiating positions — the efforts at reform and good governance that our countries have undertaken, which lie at the foundation of the economic growth recorded in Africa over the past three years.

We repeat that Africa remains committed to concluding the Doha Round, which is a priority for the development of our countries. We also reaffirm our determination to join the other Members of the WTO in working towards a resumption of the negotiations as rapidly as possible.

At this critical moment, we urge all WTO Members, and in particular the G-6, to break the current deadlock. Every additional month of trade distortions adds to the soaring economic and human cost, which has become unsustainable for our populations.