Brussels, 08/05/2002 (Agence Europe) - Ministers from OECD countries will be meeting in Paris on 15/16 May to discuss prospects for the global economy, the multilateral trading system, how to ensure international economic transparency and sustainable development for all. The Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt will be chairing the OECD Council and he held a press conference in Brussels on Wednesday with the OECD Secretary General Donald Johnston where they outlined the main points on the agenda
Verhofstadt stressed the importance of discussing the economic upturn; the WTO: for the first time the OECD will be discussing the issues on the Doha agenda. The non-members Brazil, Chile, Indonesia and Russia have been invited to join the discussions in Paris. On the development of Africa, Guy Verhofstadt stressed the importance of the new economic partnership for African development (NEPAD), an African initiative enshrined by the Organisation of African Unity Summit in Zambia in July with an eye on the June 2002 G8 Summit in Canada. Verhofstadt said that Belgium's proposal for cutting poor countries' debt would again be tabled (along with other ways of mopping up the debt), adding that financial issues shouldn't be focussed upon, but a framework had to be worked out by which the richest countries could take part in the NEPAD initiative.
Donald Johnston said that the OECD Council would assess the extend to which the economic upturn was holding out. He said that the OECD members were unanimous in their observations of the beginnings of an upturn in the global economy and "the US is once again going to be the locomotive" he added. He said there were reasons to be cheerful over Japan, but the new protectionist pressures were of concern (referring to the US steel measures). Ministers are bound to want to want to discuss the steel dispute, said Johnston, but the issue had already been discussed by the OECD's steel group (simply concluding that the restructuring of the global steel industry had to continue).