Mauritius hosts Commonwealth regional course on trade negotiation skills
Posted by African Press International on May 30, 2008
Publisher: Korir, africanpress@getmail.no source.apa
A five-day intensive course on Trade Negotiations Skills for English-speaking African countries organized by the World Trade Organization (WTO) opened Thursday at Le Meridien Hotel, in Pointe aux Piments, 20 km from the capital Port Louis.
Speaking at the opening session, the Mauritian Secretary for Foreign Affairs, Anand Newoor pointed out that the course is designed to allow participants acquire good skills to enable them to negotiate for their governments in sub-regional, regional and multilateral negotiations.
Newoor added that the challenge of developing countries is not just to increase their share in world trade but also to shape multilateral trade rules that condition the international trading environment.
He further declared that a more equitable sharing of the gains from trade would emanate from a rule-based trading system which provides members the opportunities to engage constructively in trade negotiations.
Dr Dickson Yeboah, a resource person for the training course and counselor at the WTO Institute for Training and Cooperation pointed out that participants should be able to analyse and take position on issues such as liberalization of tropical products, the safeguard mechanism and trade preferences which are particularly important to African countries. He further pointed out that negotiating skill is critical at the level of the WTO, COMESA and SADC trade regimes.
“By participating in the WTO negotiations, developing nations should put all their weight in rectifying the inequalities and imbalances that have accentuated in the multilateral trading system over the last five decades”, pointed out Dr Yeboah.
Delegates from South Africa, Kenya, Nigeria, Zambia, Mauritius, Uganda, Malawi, Ghana and Botswana are taking part in the course.
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API
