WTO: 2006 PRESS RELEASES
Press/444
1 July 2006
TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE
Spain donates 342,000 euros to WTO technical assistance
The Spanish Government, today, signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the WTO over a contribution of EUR 342,000 (approximately CHF 532,000) to finance technical assistance and training activities in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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Lamy’s speeches
WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy and the Spanish Secretary of State for
Tourism and Trade, Mr. Pedro Mejía, signed the Memorandum of
Understanding on the contribution by Spain on 1 July 2006.
“I thank Spain for its generous contribution which will enable us to
respond to developing countries' desire to contribute more actively to
the WTO debate,” said WTO Director-General. “Many of the WTO’s
developing countries are Spanish speaking. We can help them to gain a
lot from capacity-building tools that are part of the WTO’s technical
assistance programme, such as
regional trade policy courses that were introduced in 2002 and have
since been held for the Latin American and the Caribbean region.
“This contribution is part of Spain's commitment to the Multilateral
Trading System in a way that, through technical assistance activities,
recipient countries in Latin America and the Caribbean can benefit from
it,” said Pedro Mejía, Spanish Secretary of State for Tourism and Trade.
The pledge will be used to finance training activities, included courses
in Latin American and the Caribbean undertaken in cooperation with the
Latin-American Integration Association (ALADI),
the Inter-American Development Bank (IBD), the Institute for the
Integration of Latin America and the Caribbean (INTAL), Georgetown
University in Washington, DC and the Organization of American States
(OAS).
With this new pledge, the contribution of Spain to WTO technical
assistance and training activities since 2001 amounts to CHF 2.3
million.