ECA Partakes in AU Meeting of African Trade Ministers

By Andrew Allimadi, ECA
01 June 2004

The Trade and Regional Integration Division (TRID) of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) participated in the deliberations of the Second Ordinary Session of the Conference of the African Union Ministers of Trade, which took place in Kigali, Rwanda from the 24th to 28th May 2004. The director of TRID, Hakim Ben Hammouda, delivered a statement on behalf of the Executive Secretary, Mr. K.Y. Amoako, reiterating the importance of multilateral trade to sustainable development of African economies; and urging African countries to focus negotiation strategies on agriculture, cotton, non-agricultural market access, TRIPs and public health, the development dimensions and Singapore Issues. A full copy of the statement is available on the website.

In addition, the division presented two papers titled: “Process of the creation of the African Common Market: A Global Perspective by ECA”; and “Post-Cancun Strategy and The Way Forward for Implementing the WTO Doha Trade Agenda.” TRID also facilitated the drafting of the Kigali consensus, which was adopted by the ministers at the conference. Other TRID staff who took part in the meeting were Abdoulahi Mahamat, Ambassador Peter Robleh, Cornelius Mwalwanda and Stephen Karingi. All papers are available of the website.