Brussels, 07/10/2005 (Agence Europe) - The Institut français des relations internationales (IFRI) is to hold a conference in Paris on 28 October with the support of the European Commission, on the theme: Trade for Development: the Future of Special and Differential Treatment (SDT) of Developing Countries.
Work will be opened during the morning by Christine Lagarde, French Trade Minister, on: - the future of trade preferences: what is at stake for developing countries? Speeches will be by Dani Rodrik of Harvard University, Stefano Inama of UNCTAD, Hervé Guyomard of INRA (who will present a case study on selected agricultural products in EU/ACP relations); and on - Coping with the threat of preference erosion. Participants will include Peter Kleen, former Director of the Swedish National Board of Trade, and Bernard Hoekman of the World Bank.
During the afternoon, two sessions will be on: - Differentiating developing countries in the WTO: the challenges of SDT for emerging economies: political foundation and technical modalities with Patrick Low of the WTO and Martina Garcia and Raed Safadi of the OECD, as well as Anne-Sophie Novel and Jean-Marie Paugam of IFRI; - The political dimension: what future for the principle of differentiation? With Jean-Marie Metzger of the OECD. Guest speakers include Peter Allgeier, Deputy US Trade Representative, and Ujal Singh Bhatia, Indian Ambassador with the WTO. (IFRI, 27 rue de la Procession, 75740 Paris Cedex 15. Tel.: 33-1-40 61 60 00. Fax: 40 61 60 60 http://www.ifri.org )