15 Dec 2015

Minister of Trade and Industry, Mr Vincent Seretse, has attended the 10^th World Trade Organisation (WTO) ministerial conference in Nairobi. 

According to a press release from the ministry, the meeting was preceded by the SADC Committee of Ministers of Trade (CMT) and the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) ministers responsible for trade on Sunday and Monday respectively. 

The release states that the meetings were for the purposes of preparing for the MC10 with a view of coming up with common group positions. 

It further states that the WTO ministerial conference is the highest decision making body in the WTO and convenes every two years, hence this year’s conference being a watershed as it will determine the future of the multilateral trading system. 

The release explains that MC10 will take decisions on the outstanding issues in the DOHA Development Agenda (DDA) among them those of particular interest for Africa in Agriculture on domestic support. 

It will also come up with a work programme post-Nairobi for advancing the DDA outstanding issues and a decision on how to address new issues which are at particular interest to developed countries. 

The conference ends on Friday. Ends