Egypt wrapped up on Sunday a first meeting with a number of African trade ministers over talks related to unifying African positions in negotiations with the World Trade Organization (WTO) over various issues, including subsidization, development, trade liberalization and storage of food commodities.
The meeting, chaired by Trade and Industry Minister Mounir Fakhry Abdel Nour, was attended by WTO director Roberto Azevêdo, as well as the trade ministers of Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal and South Africa.
Abdel Nour said that besides discussing the WTO’s 2015 agenda, the ministers agreed upon the multi-party trade system as the best propeller of economic development, also reiterating on the development agenda agreed in the 2001 WTO ministerial meeting in Doha as the axis of the organization’s operations.
The meeting also discussed the African states’ position in light of the latest WTO round of meetings in Bali, Indonesia, with an emphasis on the need for an action plan to implement recommendations made during the two rounds in Doha and Bali.
