Xinhua | March 30, 2004
NAIROBI, March 29 (Xinhua) -- Trade representatives from 12 African countries will meet in the Kenyan capital Nairobi Tuesday to chart ways of reviving the collapsed World Trade Organizations (WTO) talks, organizers said here on Monday.
The two-day meeting, organized by the Geneva-based International Trade Center (ITC), will be a "Dialogue for Africa" aimed at helping African countries shape trade policies and negotiating positions at global trade talks, said ITC Executive Director Denis Belisle at a news conference.
The meeting will be held on March 30-31 at Nairobi's Windsor Golf Hotel and bring together business and government representatives from 12 countries of east and southern Africa.
Top business figures from Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe and the host Kenya will have a podium to plan how they can best work together to promote the continent's interests in the WTO talks.
Speaking at the briefing, Kenyan Permanent Secretary of Trade and Industry Ministry Alex Keter said, "We in Africa, as developing nations, are keen to see the trade round revived."
WTO Deputy Director-General Kipkorir Aly Azad Rana said that Africa is served better by the multilateral trading system that the WTO manages than it could be by bilateral or regional trade agreements which have flourished around the world since Cancun.
He will hear reports on the current state of the WTO negotiations from the body's top economist and a representative of UNCTAD, the United Nations trade and development agency.
The Nairobi meeting is the first in a series planned for different regions over the coming year by the ITC to bring together developing country business leaders and trade negotiators.Xinhua:
