Brussels, 05/11/2001 (Agence Europe) - Preparations for the 4th WTO Ministerial Conference (in Doha from 9 to 13 November) and future trade negotiations with the European Union were at the heart of the discussions between ACP (African, Caribbean and Pacific countries) Trade Ministers when they met for the fourth time in Brussels on Monday and Tuesday under the chairmanship of Hidipo Hamutenya, Namibia's Trade and Industry Minister. The meeting opened on Monday afternoon with an exchange of views between the ACP Ministers and their three guests: Mike Moore (WTO Director General); Rubens Ricupero (Secretary General of UNCTAD) and Pascal Lamy (European Commissioner for Trade). The discussions were divided into three parts: a) the agenda of the WTO summit; b) "How to Inject the Development Dimension into the Multilateral Trading Agreement"; and c) "The Interface between the ACP-EC Trade Relations" and the "EC's approach to the Multilateral Trading System".
Most of Tuesday will be dedicated to adopting the ACP declaration for Doha and preparing for the ACP/EU negotiations that are due to start in September 2002 with the aim of signing new trade agreements that comply with WTO rules (implementation of the ACP Action Plan, Draft Procedural Guidelines and ACP Configuration for EPA negotiations (the ACP regions will be negotiating the future Economic Partnership Agreements with the EU).