Meeting with ministers and senior officials in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, World Trade Organization Director-General Roberto Azevêdo discussed the importance of regional and multilateral trade efforts to help drive Africa’s economic integration, growth and development.
On the meeting with ministries and senior officials in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, the Director-General, Roberto Azevedo met with Burkina Faso’s President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré. He also met with the President of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU), Abdallah Boureima, at the group’s meeting for trade ministers, attended by Harouna Kaboré, Minister of Trade and Industry (Burkina Faso); Shadiya Alimatou Assouman, Minister of Industry and Commerce (Benin); and Mr Iaia Djalo, Minister of Trade and Industry (Guinea-Bissau).
At the West African Economic and Monetary Union gathering, the Director-General discussed how work at the multilateral level, including at the World Trade Organization, could complement the economic integration efforts spearheaded by the respective union’s countries. He gave a round-up of ongoing initiatives by the World Trade Organization to help build trading capacity in the region, and highlighted discussions in Geneva aimed at making the organization more responsive and agile, including on issues where the respective union’s members have shown great interest, such as agriculture, cotton, fisheries subsidies and e-commerce.
Speaking at the meeting, the Director- General said that Progress to help strengthen the trading system at all levels would be a big step in helping to tackle the uncertainty caused by escalating trade tensions
“Multilateralism and regional initiatives are two complementary ways for the respective union’s members to benefit from trade. This is key to support their strategies for growth, diversification, and development. Building appropriate capacity is essential here, and the World Trade Organization is working with the respective union’s members to ensure that these needs are met” he added.
“At the World Trade Organization, the respective union’s members play a constructive role on many fronts. It’s important to keep that momentum, especially as World Trade Organization members are starting to look for deliverables at our 12th Ministerial Conference in Kazakhstan next year” he pointed out.
“Progress to help strengthen the trading system at all levels would be a big step in helping to tackle the uncertainty caused by escalating trade tensions. This uncertainty is having a real economic impact, as it is leading businesses to defer investment, in turn weakening prospects for growth and job creation. Global cooperation is essential to help reverse this trend. We must all work together to that end.” He stated.
The Ethiopian Herald Sunday Edition 3 November 2019
BY MEHARI BEYENE
