Countdown to Hong Kong: Lamy submits Draft Ministerial Text
By Andrew Allimadi, Communication Officer, ECA
28 November 2005

The Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Mr Pascal Lamy, has submitted a Draft Ministerial Text in preparation for the sixth WTO Ministerial Conference, to be held in Hong Kong, China from December 13 - 18. Mr. Lamy introduced the draft on 26 November at an informal meeting of heads of delegations to the WTO in Geneva, Switzerland. Consultations are now taking place on the draft, and the WTO’s Trade Negotiations Committee will meet on Friday to discuss the text. African delegations will be scrutinizing the text for development benchmarks, as agreed by African Ministers of Trade and set out in the Arusha Development Benchmarks for the Sixth WTO Ministerial Conference.