High-level brainstorming meeting for African Trade Negotiators preparatory to the fourth WTO Ministerial Conference : Conclusions and recommendations

Abstract

A High-level Brainstorming Meeting for African Trade Negotiators Preparatory to the Fourth WTO Ministerial Conference was held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia from 26 to 29 June 2001. The Meeting was jointly organized by the OAU General Secretariat and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), and in collaboration with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the African Economic Research Consortium (AERC) and the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The Meeting was convened in conformity with the decision of the Third Ordinary Session of OAU/AEC Ministers of Trade held in Cairo, Egypt, in September 2000 and the relevant decisions of the OAU Council of Ministers held in Tripoli, Libya in February 2001 which, inter-alia, called for a detailed assessment, from an African perspective, of progress on the state-of-play on the issues in the work programme of the WTO, as the basis of the preparation of African countries for the Fourth WTO Ministerial Conference scheduled to be held in Doha, Qatar, from 9 to 13 November, 2001. In this regard, the convening of the Meeting was opportune in view of the preparatory process at the WTO. It was envisaged that the outcome of the Meeting would be transmitted to the Fourth Ordinary Session of OAU/AEC Ministers of Trade that is scheduled to be held in Abuja, Nigeria, from 17 to 21 September 2001.