West African Countries Strategize On International Trade Negotiations
By Andrew Allimadi, Communication Officer, ECA
15 March 2004

The Trade and Regional Integration Division (TRID) of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) organized an Ad-hoc Expert Group Meeting on the impact of international trade negotiations on the West African sub-region, which took place from the 7th – 8th March in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The meeting was organized in collaboration with the ECA’s sub-regional office in West Africa (WA-SRO) and UNDP.

The meeting was opened by Burkina Faso’s Minister of Trade, Ms. Benoit Ouattara, who stressed his country’s commitment to increased international trade and regional integration in Africa. He thanked the ECA for the initiative in organizing the meeting and said the whole West African sub-region is keen to fully engage in multilateral trade negotiations.

Participants identified key areas of importance for West African countries in the current phase of negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO) and defined strategies for future talks; and discussed modalities for ensuring that current multilateral trade negotiations for a new Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between African countries and the European Union; and negotiations at the WTO remain coherent. The meeting also identified specific areas where further collaborative research was needed from regional and international organizations that would allow Africa to positively contribute to the modalities stage of the WTO negotiations leading up to the 6th Session of WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong in December.

ECA presentations

ECA staff made several presentations to the meeting. Stephen Karingi and Remi Lang presented the conclusions of an ECA study assessing the likely impact of EPAs on African countries; and Nassim Oulmane made two presentations, one on the key issues of both the Doha Round and the Economic Partnership Agreements negotiations, and the second one on the main results obtained in the WTO July Package.

The meeting was attended by policy-makers from the sub-region, experts from ECA, UNDP, ECOWAS, UEMOA (WAEMU), The World Bank, private sector actors and civil society organizations.

- Outcome of the meeting

- List of participants