Brussels, 12/09/2002 (Agence Europe) - ACP countries associated with the Union through the Cotonou Agreement, and the WTO have agreed to strengthen their relationship, notably, by concluding a memorandum for co-operation. This was decided by Jean-Robert Goulongana, Secretary General of the ACP group and Supachai Panitchpakdi, the new Director General of the WTO during their meeting on Tuesday in Geneva.
During this meeting, Jean-Robert Goulongana called for special and differentiated treatment rules to be put into place to support ACP countries, which were contained in the Ministerial declaration at Doha. He stressed the need to take into account the disparities between the situations of developing countries, with ACP countries effectively being among some of the poorest. He also stressed the urgency of strengthening WTO and UDC technical assistance and specifically called for two things: implementation of a technical co-operation programme for helping ACP diplomatic missions in Geneva to ensure the follow-up of post-Doha multilateral trade negotiations (July 2002-2004); support for the ACP Group in preparing for the fifth WTO Ministerial conference (Cancun, Mexico). The WTO Director General gave assurances that he would take into account the worries of the ACP about strengthening capacity and indicated that WTO aid to UDC countries would cover: training in WTO trade policies; a new grants programme that will begin in January 2003; the opening of an African WTO office; substantial resources for ACP countries for preparing for trade negotiations at the Cancun Ministerial conference. Supachai Panitchpakdi also indicated that his secretariat would help the ACP group in negotiations for economic partnerships with the European Union that are compatible with WTO rules on regional trade agreements. Jean-Robert Goulongana invited the WTO Director General to take part in the ACP Trade Ministers meeting, which will be held before the fifth WTO Ministerial conference.