CHRIST CHURCH, BARBADOS â The Fifth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference came to an end in CancĂșn, Mexico, September 14. However, the âendgameâ was not the result WTO members had hoped for. The CancĂșn summit closed with no consensus on key items on its agenda. Members failed to bridge their differences. Divisions amongst members proved too deep. âThere were fundamental differences over key issuesâ. The Director-General of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (RNM), Ambassador Dr. Richard Bernal, made these remarks, September 14, at the close of the CancĂșn summit.
World Trade Organisation
Today the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization in Cancun, Mexico, at which all Caribbean Countries were present, ended without agreement on the many key issues. Billed as a Conference to advance the Doha Development Round of Trade Negotiations, the Conference collapsed on the key issues for developing countries such as agriculture, non-agricultural market access, small economies and special and differential treatment, as well as on the so-called Singapore issues â investment, government procurement, competition policy and trade facilitation measures.
MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA â Caribbean Ministers with responsibility for trade met with United States Trade Representative (USTR) Robert Zoellick and World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General Supachai Panitchapdi in Montego Bay, Jamaica on June 2 and 3, respectively, during the Twenty-Fourth Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government, convened July 2 to 5. Both sessions were chaired by Chairman of COTED and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade of St. Kitts & Nevis, Hon. Sam Condor. Hon. K.D.
MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA â A meeting to prepare CARIFORUM member states for the Fifth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference, September 10 to 14, in Cancun, Mexico, came to a close today. The meeting, entitled_ Caribbean Region Pre- Cancun Meeting, was held June 16 to 19; organized by the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (RNM), in collaboration with the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Netherlands-based ACP-EU Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Co-operation (CTA).
CARICOM Ministers at the Fourteenth Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) which met in Georgetown, Guyana on 31 January - 1 February 2003 expressed deep concern regarding the challenge to the European Union (EU) sugar regime launched by Brazil/Australia at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) in September 2002. This challenge, if successful, would be disastrous for CARICOM Countries whose economies depend vitally on their sugar industries. Ministers considered this challenge as the most serious threat to CARICOMâs most important agricultural crop.