MEETING IN GENEVA FROM 13 TO 15 NOVEMBER

12:37 PM Oct 18, 1996

MEETING IN GENEVA FROM 13 TO 15 NOVEMBER

WORLD TRADE ORGANIZATION, THE WTO ANNOUNCED FRIDAY.

The WTO secretariat is organizing this meeting, and financing the attendance.

The WTO press release said that the heads of the UN Conference on Trade and Development and the WTO had met informally Thursday to discuss the meeting and the two secretariat will collaborate in this behalf.

There are 48 countries classified as LDCs by the UN, and of these 29 are members of the WTO and will be attending the meeting. The other LDCs, including those seeking accession, have not been invited.

The WTO Director-General, Mr. Renato Ruggiero made a proposal to the G-7 countries (at their Lyon summit) proposing that all the exports of the least developed countries should be given duty free access.

However, the G7 did not agree. Since then reportedly the European Union has said that it might consider doing something for the LDCs in sub-Sahara, but not all LDCs.

The EU according to other reports wants to exclude Bangladesh and other Asian LDCs, who could prove to be the new generation of 'tigers' who are seen as potential threats to the EU domestic sectors and enterprises.

Both Ruggiero's proposals, as formulated, as also the effort to confine it to the sub-Saharan African LDCs (who the EU figures would never be able to mount a successful competitive effort) would run foul of the WTO rules. Most of the sub-Saharan African LDCs already benefit from some duty free access under the Lome accord. This has not much helped them -- since they basically face many structural problems, including debt burden, as well as lack of productive investments that could produce exportable products.

Currently, the chairman of the WTO's Committee on Trade and Development (Morocco's Amb.Benjelloun-Touimi) is reportedly working on a hortatory declaration to be adopted at Singapore. But it is not clear what it would achieve, beyond being anything more than another piece of paper to be carried home by the representatives of these countries.