SEE
ALSO:
press
releases
WTO news
archives
Mike
Moore's speeches
> Fourth
Geneva Week
> Consult the Guide to downloading
files.
|
  In
addition to the full briefing these officials will receive on the
organization's recent activities, the meeting has been scheduled to
allow them to fully participate in the second Trade Negotiations
Committee on 24 April. The TNC was charged by Ministers with
overseeing the broad set of negotiations that were launched in Doha,
Qatar in November of last year.
“Geneva
Week” will focus on these negotiations — which are scheduled to
conclude on 1 January 2005 — through a series of briefing by the
chairpersons of different WTO committees and councils, and through
presentations made by experts from international organizations.
Participants will also have the occasion to attend a session of the
Committee on Trade and Development and seminar on regionalism.
Geneva
Week, launched by Director General Mike Moore in 1999, will be held
twice this year (the second meeting will be in October) and will, for
the first time, be funded directly from the WTO's core budget rather
than through trust fund contributions.
“It
is crucial for every WTO Member to have its voice heard, especially
now that we have launched comprehensive negotiations,” said Mr.
Moore. “Geneva Week is one of the tools we have put into place to
ensure that developing country Members and others who cannot afford a
permanent mission in Geneva are kept up-to-date with WTO meetings and
are thus able to truly participate in the work of the WTO. In
continuing our Geneva Week programme, we are carrying out instructions
given us by Ministers in the Doha Declaration which states in
paragraph 38 that priority be accorded to ‘small, vulnerable and
transition economies, as well as to Members and Observers without
representation in Geneva’”.
Twenty
four WTO Members and 11 Observers will attend the Geneva Week:
(Members) Antigua and Barbuda; Burkina Faso; Chad; Dominica; Fiji;
Gambia; Grenada; Guinea Bissau; Guyana; Macau; Malawi; Maldives;Mali;
Namibia; Niger; Papua New Guinea; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia;
St Vincent and the Grenadines; Sierra Leone; Solomon Islands;
Suriname; Swaziland; Togo; (Observers) Andorra; Armenia; Bahamas;
Eritrea; Laos; Samoa; Sao Tomé and Principe; Seychelles; Tonga;
Uzbekistan; Vanuatu. Representatives of a number regional secretariats
and regional development banks are also invited.
> Programme
(Word format, 2 pages; 32KB)
|
|
