11:25 AM Nov 4, 1996

SADC OPPOSED TO MULTILATERAL INVESTMENT FRAMEWORK

Arusha 1 Nov (TWN) -- Trade and Industry ministers of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), while acknowledging the important role of FDI in development, are concerned that the proposal to negotiate the investment issue within a multilateral framework was "inappropriate".

It would put developing countries at a disadvantage as it would erode national sovereignty in making investment decisions, the SADC Ministers said, according to a press release issued at Arusha at the end of the Second Extraordinary Meeting of SADC Trade and Industry Ministers.

The Ministers agreed to present a joint SADC statement at the forthcoming Singapore Ministerial Conference of the WTO.

The SMC, the Ministers said, should focus on reviewing the implementation of the agreements concluded at Marrakesh in 1994, as well as on giving impetus to the built-in agenda of the WTO.

The Ministers, the press release said, expressed concern that the inclusion of new issues will overload the WTO agenda and could exacerbate the difficulties involved in the implementation of existing obligations and in effectively dealing with the unfinished business in the built-in agenda.

On trade and investment, the Ministers acknowledged the important role played by foreign direct investment in development. "Ministers were however concerned that the proposal put forward, mainly by developed countries, to negotiate the issue of investment within a multilateral framework was inappropriate and would put developing countries at a disadvantage as it would erode national sovereignty in making investment decisions."

The WTO agreements on TRIMs and GATS provide a framework for dealing with investment issues that have a direct and distorting effects on trade.

On the trade and labour standards, the SADC countries noted that no consensus had emerged in the preparatory process on linking trade and labour standards. While labour standards is an important issue for the socio-economic development, the issue is best dealt with in the context of the International Labour Organization Conventions to which SADC countries are signatories.

SADC, the Ministers said, is committed to the enhancement of labour standards as an integral element of socio-economic development. But SADC is concerned that the inclusion of the issue in the WTO may provide a pretext for it to be used as a protectionist measure.

The Ministerial meeting had been preceded by a seminar of senior officials on the outcome of the Uruguay and how SADC countries could maximise benefits. The seminar also focused on the forthcoming SMC.

On the trade and environment issue, SADC was particularly concerned with dumping of toxic waste in member States territories and the potential use of environmental policies and measures for protectionist purposes.

SADC consists of Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.