VOIR
AUSSI:
Communiqués
de presse
Nouvelles
Allocutions:
Supachai Panitchpakdi
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On behalf of the Integrated Framework Working Group (IFWG), I am
pleased to welcome you all to this second seminar on mainstreaming
trade into development plans and poverty reduction strategies. As you
already know, this seminar is jointly organized by the six core
agencies (IMF, ITC, UNCTAD, UNDP, the World Bank, WTO), the two
representatives of the least-developed countries and the two
representatives of the donor community.
It is yet another important step in our collective efforts to
improve on coherence and coordination in approaches, in policies, and
in technical co-operation and capacity building activities. It
provides us with the opportunity to focus on follow-up and
implementation of policies, programmes and projects to which we have
agreed in the past.
The primary objectives of this Second Seminar on Trade
Mainstreaming are to:
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examine how coordination can be improved at the country level,
in particular amongst agencies, donors and beneficiaries; and,
To provide some context to your discussions, let me underscore what
I see to be several critical points.
First, we all know that trade is the engine for growth and
development.
However, to ensure that trade works for
growth and development, trade policy and trade priority areas of
action need to be critically anchored either in overall national
development plans and/or in strategies for poverty reduction. In the
absence of the effective integration of trade into development
planning and strategies for poverty reduction, trade cannot work for
development.
The Integrated Framework, focused on the LDCs (least-developed
countries), is the principal mechanism in the international community
today for mainstreaming (integrating) trade into development
plans and strategies for poverty reduction. The current challenge in
the IF process is with implementation and follow-up to the results of
the diagnostic trade integration studies. The quality of the
diagnostic studies have been welcomed and endorsed by all participants
in the Integrated Framework Steering Committee. With regard to
follow-up, modest success has been achieved in countries like
Cambodia. In others, however, current experience suggests that the
follow-up process needs to be better systematized and made more
predictable. I hope participants will accord attention to
implementation and follow-up, under the IF process, at this seminar.
Second, we need to be ever conscious of the fact that trade
policies do not stand-alone. Mutually supportive companion policies
are also necessary.
The effectiveness of trade
liberalization and reform and the gains they yield are frequently
dependent on associated and complementary policies, such as stable
macroeconomic policies, pro-growth regulation and competition policy,
investments in infrastructure, human resource development, governance
and the rule of law. Effective trade mainstreaming is, therefore,
linked to the ability of countries to address a “behind-the-border agenda”. It also depends on developing
and sustaining a domestic trade policy set within the overall
development policy of the country. Furthermore, the efforts of
agencies, donors, and the LDCs in mainstreaming trade to the benefit
of the LDCs, need to be linked to effective improvements in market
access to enable the LDCs to take advantage of appropriate supply-side
responses that will be stimulated through trade mainstreaming.
Improvements in market access, therefore, remain indispensable.
Third, this second seminar needs to build on the results of the
first seminar.
Several points were identified which
remain essential and should, inter alia, be the focus of this
meeting. For example, participants in the conclusions at the first
seminar noted that trade should be mainstreamed into development plans
and strategies for poverty reduction because it is part of a pro-poor,
pro-growth and pro-development strategy. Country ownership is
essential. Coordination amongst bilateral donors, within and between
multilateral and regional agencies, and partnerships between the
government and private sector require improvements. The Integrated
Framework must be operated as a shared responsibility amongst donors,
recipients and multilateral agencies. The trade negotiating capacity
of the LDCs needs significant strengthening to enable them to
effectively participate in trade negotiations. The trade-related
technical assistance and capacity building needs of LDCs must be
better coordinated and “scaled-up” to enable them to
generate appropriate supply-side responses and to draw on the benefits
and opportunities created by the rules-based trading system. I would
like to urge participants to continue to focus on all these
fundamental issues.
Fourth, we need to focus and relate the outcomes of our work, such
as in this seminar, to the main goals set by the international
community.
The Johannesburg World Summit on
Sustainable Development (WSSD) was attended by well over 100 heads of
state and/or government. It was my first international meeting as
Director-General of the WTO. One point that was clearly made at the
summit, amongst several others, was that we should relate our outcomes
to already established international goals and to seek to implement
those goals, objectives and targets. It is important that we support
the achievement of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and all the
other important UN summits and international conferences of the last
decade. They constitute part of the shared responsibility of the
international community.
Trade can make an important contribution to achieving the
overarching Millennium Development Goal of poverty reduction. This is
yet another reason why the effective implementation of the Integrated
Framework is vital, and why trade priority areas of action need to be
reflected in overall country development plans and strategies for
poverty reduction.
This brings me to my fifth point namely, the urgency underpinning
the on-going Doha trade negotiations and work programme.
Let me use this opportunity to briefly
report to you on the state-of-play under the Doha Development Agenda.
The last meeting of the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC) took place
on the 3rd and 4th of this month. Chairpersons of the various
negotiating groups reported on the status of the negotiations in the
negotiating bodies. The reports clearly showed that we had made a
reasonably good start. However, it was also clear that much remained
to be done and that time is moving rapidly. I expressed concern that
the position of some delegations had not yet been sufficiently
clarified. I would like to re-emphasize several points that I made at
the last meeting of the TNC. We have now entered a substantive phase
of the negotiations and engagement. It is only by accelerating our
work and by discussing concrete proposals can real progress be made
across the board. Time frames and deadlines need to be adhered to, and
a sense of the negotiations as a whole needs to be established, and
not simply focusing on individual key deadlines.
There are key deadlines that need to be met in December. These
relate to deadlines on implementation matters, special and
differential treatment for developing countries, and a solution to the
problem of pharmaceuticals in those countries that lack sufficient
manufacturing capacity. In March 2003, the system will be confronted
with deadlines in the negotiations in agriculture, services,
non-agricultural market access and dispute settlement. Individually,
all these deadlines are important, but as I have stated, an overall
sense of the negotiations needs to be established.
We must work to ensure that we successfully conclude the DDA work
programme by the deadline of 1 January 2005. I believe that the
Integrated Framework has key contributions to make in the successful
completion of the Doha Development Agenda. These contributions will
need to be based on two key areas: a) ensuring that trade is
effectively mainstreamed into the development plans and strategies for
poverty reduction, so that trade works for the development of the LDCs
and to help reduce poverty; and, b) building the human and
institutional capacity in the LDCs to enable them to participate
effectively and meaningfully in the multilateral trading system and
the global economy. The next meeting of the TNC will be in December,
this year. I will continue to report to members and agency heads in my
meetings and consultations with them.
Let me conclude by expressing my wish for two productive days in
this second seminar. I hope that you will emerge with concrete
recommendations and outcomes that will enhance the implementation of
the Integrated Framework. |
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