OIC trade officials preparing for next WTO talks

OIC trade officials preparing for next WTO talks

Zakki P. Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Trade officials from the Organization of the Islamic
Conference (OIC) member countries started gathering here on
Monday for a three-week course on global trade policy and the
multilateral trading system.

The Ministry of Finance's secretary-general, Agus Haryanto,
said that the course was meant to equip the participants with
sufficient knowledge about the issues so that would be better
prepared to face the next series of World Trade Organization
(WTO) negotiations.

"A lack of knowledge about global trade policy is responsible
for much of the inability of developing countries to make their
case forcefully," said Agus in his speech during the course's
opening ceremony.

The three-week course is being organized by the Islamic
Development Bank (IDB) in collaboration with the WTO, the
government of Indonesia and the Non-Aligned Movement Centre for
South-South Technical Cooperation (NAM CSSTC).

Aside from Indonesia, which is a member of the OIC, the 32
trade officials participating in the course come from 21 other
OIC member countries -- Afghanistan, Albania, Azerbaijan,
Bangladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Gambia, Guyana, Iran, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgistan, Malaysia, Maldives, Mozambique, Nigeria, Pakistan,
Sierra Leone, Suriname, Tajikistan, Turkey, Uganda and
Uzbekistan. The OIC has 57 member countries.

The course will cover all topics concerning the WTO, including
basic principles of the multilateral trading system, market
access, trade facilitation, agriculture, anti-distortion
measures, dispute settlement, accession to the WTO, Trade Related
Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) agreements, government
procurement and competition policy.

All those delivering the course are from the Geneva-based WTO
secretariat.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs' director for multilateral
trade and industry, Mohamad Oemar, said that the course was
important as the OIC members were generally developing and least
developed countries.

"The course also provides technical assistance for countries
planning to join the WTO," he said, adding that some OIC member
countries were not yet members of the WTO.

An economic research and statistics division counselor from
the WTO, Bijit Bora, stressed that developing countries needed a
"greater" voice to ensure that their interests were accommodated
in WTO negotiations.

"In order to gain that greater voice, we need to have a
stronger base. In that context, the WTO provides a broad range of
technical assistance," he said.

Since the establishment of the organization, the developed
countries played a dominant role in the WTO talks until the 2003
summit in Cancun, Mexico, where several developing countries,
including India, China, Brazil and Indonesia, managed to resist
pressure from developed countries to accept their agenda. The
meeting ended in deadlock.

During the WTO general council session in Geneva last July,
developing countries managed to get the developed countries to
accommodate some of their interests.