WTO Member countries meeting in Hong Kong for their Sixth Ministerial Conference in December agreed to begin drafting the text of an agreement on trade facilitation early this year. The aim is to conclude negotiations, along with the other areas of the Doha Round, by the end of 2006.
SITPRO’s Chief Executive Malcolm McKinnon, who was present in Hong Kong for the Ministerial, believes this is a good outcome from Hong Kong. “Trade facilitation was one of the least contentious issues on the Ministerial agenda, but also one of the most promising as far as developing countries are concerned. We are encouraged that WTO Members at all levels of development recognise the benefits to development that can accrue from efficient and simplified border procedures. We hope that this year's negotiations will lead to an agreement that will enable such benefits to be achieved.”
Malcolm McKinnon waits to make a point at UNICE meeting with WTO Director General Pascal Lamy
While much of the press interest focused on farmers' protests outside the Conference, most of the attention inside was on agriculture, industrial goods, services and a package of measures to help the least developed countries. The trade facilitation text had been largely agreed in Geneva before the Hong Kong meeting, with the potential to be beneficial for developed and developing countries alike. Yet the mandate to begin drafting in this win-win area was only going to kick in if there was an agreed overall text by the end of the Ministerial. Most of SITPRO's efforts in Hong Kong were therefore directed towards raising awareness of the business interest in a trade facilitation agreement and the potential benefits to all WTO Members.
Further Reading
- Why SITPRO Supports the WTO Trade Facilitation Negotiations
http://www.sitpro.org.uk/policy/wto/wtowhysitpro.pdf - Guide to the WTO Trade Facilitation Negotiations
http://www.sitpro.org.uk/policy/wto/wtoguide.pdf - The full text of the Hong Kong Declaration
http://www.wto.org/english/thewto_e/ minist_e/min05_e/draft_text5_e.doc (Link to an external site - Disclaimer
) - Malcolm McKinnon’s Hong Kong Weblog
http://www.sitpro.org.uk/ceo/index.html
SITPRO will now focus on supporting the negotiations in two ways. First, we need to be in a position to advise the Department of Trade and Industry, the UK's negotiators, on UK industry's ambitions for the eventual text of a WTO agreement. To assist this we are creating a new WTO Advisory Group to operate as a task force throughout 2006. If you have an interest in the negotiations and might like to take part, please contact Shondeep Banerji (shondeep.banerji@sitpro.org.uk 
).
Secondly, SITPRO will continue the series of Boksburg Group meetings to assist developing countries to take part in the negotiations. The next meeting will take place soon in Senegal. Senegal is well placed to influence African countries in the benefits of trade facilitation, having already adopted a successful single window.
Return to SITPRO News: Issue 55, Winter 2005/2006