Textiles Unions express concern about trade barriers
Doha (Qatar) 12 November 2001 - Dr Kofi Konadu Apraku, Minister of Trade and Industry on Sunday complained that Ghana and some other African countries had not been able to enjoy the benefits of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) trading system because of problems they had with the implementation of the Uruguay Round (UR) of negotiations.
He said: "We need solutions to the problems associated with UR. We have been labouring to fulfil our obligations, but we have not got any where because of our weak capacity and supply-side constraints."
Dr Apraku, who is leading Ghana's delegation to the Fourth Ministerial Conference of WTO in Doha, Qatar, was speaking at the plenary session.
He said the primary responsibility for addressing these problems was that of Ghana and other disadvantaged countries but "we expect the WTO to help solve frontally those within its ambit."
There was the need for a strong collaboration in the WTOs capacity-building activities with institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the World Bank and the regional development banks under the coherence mandate.
The Minister stressed that it was logical and practical rather than tactical that "we advocate for a slimmer work programme, which would not overtax our limited capacity. We need to avoid overloading the work programme with issues of doubtful relevance to the WTO's mandate and adopt a manageable agenda."
He said the optimistic assessments and the promise of improvement in market access for developing countries following the round had been belied by the reality.
Dr Apraku said that there was the need for the faithful implementation of Special and Differential (S&D) provisions at the conference, to ensure that developing countries enjoyed the benefits in concrete terms. There was, therefore, an urgent need to address these problems in order to make WTO really development-oriented.
He said actions, "we expect, include the translation of S&D provisions into explicit legally-binding obligations; review of the agreement on subsidies and Countervailing Measures to take into account specific problems and requirement of African countries; measures for the realisation of technology transfer objectives envisaged in TRIPS Agreement and the effective implementation of Article four of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) for building services capacity and access to technology distribution channels.
Dr Apraku pointed out that in the light of current developments, WTO members should affirm the understanding that no provision of the TRIPS Agreement should stand in the way of members right to promote public health.
There was the need to remove tariff peaks and escalation, relax the application of stringent sanitary measures that restrict African exports.
He said the implementation of the Agreement on Agriculture should be geared towards meeting core development concerns, such as food security, poverty reduction, rural development and the implementation of special measures in favour of the least developed countries and the net-food importing developing countries.
The Minister said unless, "we are assisted to be able to increase our export capacity, pressure on us to further open our markets will lead to a situation where there will be no resources available to us to import, even though our markets remain open," adding, "it is our export earnings which sustain our import capacity."
Among the six-member Ghanaian delegation were Dr Matthew Kwaku Antwi, Deputy Minister of Food and Agriculture and Mr William Kofi Larbi, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
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Doha (Qatar) 12 November 2001- Leading textiles manufacturing companies in Europe have called on the European Union (EU) to push for a reduction of all world tariffs on textiles and clothing to 15 per cent or less.
In a statement issued on Sunday at the Fourth Ministerial Conference of World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Doha, the textiles group called for the prohibition of any form of non-tariff barriers, as well as the copyright protection of textiles and clothing trademarks, designs and models.
The French and European companies in the clothing and textiles sector are the second largest industrial sector in Europe and the second world largest clothing exporter after China.
The statement said the time had come for many countries in Asia as well as South America to open up their markets to French and European products, adding, "our companies will no longer tolerate the fact that the EU is set to have the lowest tariff barriers in the world in 2005, when numerous countries continue to maintain customs duties of 35 per cent to 50 per cent.
The group said the WTO Agreement on Textiles and Clothing (ATC) should not be on the agenda for bargaining at the next ministerial conference, pointing out that ATC had provision for bilateral talks in order to open up markets in a well-balanced and reciprocal way.
They said since proposals the EU made to a large number of Asian and South American countries had so far remained unanswered, it was out of the question for the EU to make unilateral concessions on the textile and clothing sector in Doha.
The Textiles group was convinced that the WTO Fourth Ministerial Conference should be an opportunity to put the records straight as regards world textiles and clothing in the 21st century, adding, "for us the three principles on which to negotiate at the WTO are: more leeway, give- and- take and fairness.
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