Africa brainstorms on technical details of WTO negotiations
By Andrew Allimadi, Communication Officer, ECA
05 July 2005

United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) organized a trade experts’ brainstorming meeting for African countries; to discuss the technical details of the Doha Development Round negotiations at the World Trade Organization (WTO). The Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) took active roles at the meeting, which was held in Nairobi, Kenya from 29th June to 1 July.

African delegations clarified technical issues related to the WTO negotiations on agricultural and non-agricultural market access. Many delegates expressed concern that African countries have not benefited fully from previous rounds of international trade negotiations. Therefore in order to ensure that the Doha Round leads to a truly developmental outcome, it is important to carefully scrutinize the devil in the detail of all proposals.

Mustapha Sadni-Jallab of ECA made a presentation to the meeting identifying the objectives Africa has set itself in the current negotiations; and then used a quantitative analysis to illustrate the potential impact of liberalization as currently being discussed at the WTO. The meeting emphasized that Africa needs to address supply-side constraints, especially due to inadequate infrastructure, to benefit from any improvements in market access. Delegates expressed concerns about past problems of adjustment in their productive sectors as well as potential new adjustments related to the erosion of preferences and possible reduction of tariff revenues. They called for improved trade related technical assistance especially that focusing on concrete problems faced by African exporters. The final report is being compiled by UNCTAD and will be available on the ECA website soon.