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The national preparatory workshop for the 5th
WTO ministerial conference, Cancun, Mexico
Held at Pamodzi Hotel, Lusaka from 21st to 22nd August 2003
Workshop report
Zambia Trade Network (ZTN), Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) and Consumer unity & trust society -
Africa Resource Centre (CUTS- ARC)
Rapportuers: Mr. Samuel Mulenga and Ms. Maimbo Ziela
smuyakwa@coppernet.zm
Posted with permission of the Zambia Trade Network
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[Complete version  - 177Kb ~ 1 min (66 pages)]
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Introduction and background
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Introduction
The WTO National preparation workshop was held at Pamodzi Hotel from the 21st - 22nd August 2003. The workshop was aimed at preparing for the fifth WTO Ministerial meeting to be held in Cancun Mexico from 10th to 14th September 2003. This is following government's invitation for civil society to input into the government's position paper. The workshop was organized by Zambia Trade Network in cooperation with the Fredrich Ebert Stiftung and the Consumer Unity & Trust Society - Africa Resource Center (CUTS-ARC).
The workshop was attended by NGOs, the media, government representatives and some representatives from donor agencies (A list of participants is attached as appendix 1).
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Objectives of the workshop
The workshop was meant to provide an opportunity for civil society organizations, the business community and other private sector participants to input into the government position paper for the forth-coming Fifth WTO meeting. This was the immediate and short term objective of the workshop. It was also aimed at helping participants familiarize themselves with WTO issues and operations. This would in turn help them come up with recommendations to government on how Government should in the future attend to issues related to world trade.
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Official Opening (Keynote Speech By Minister)
The workshop was officially opened by the Minister of Commerce, Trade and Industry, Honorable Dipak Patel. He thanked the Zambia Trade Network, The Consumer Unity & Trust Society - Africa Resource Center and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung for organizing and sponsoring the workshop and inviting him to officially open the workshop. He said that government recognized the need for not making issues like WTO the preserve of government officials, political leaders and /or the MCTI. Civil society was often closer to the people and therefore are better placed to articulate the interests of the average citizen. It was therefore necessary for the government to engage civil society and the business organisations to influence the form and content of the government paper on WTO issues. The workshop provided a fora for this purpose which also allowed the monitoring of the implementation of such National Programmes.
Honorable Patel invited the Civil Society Organisation (CSO) to contribute to other negotiations going on under ACP/EU Cotonou agreement, the SADC trade protocol, COMESA Free trade area agreements and implementation of the Africa growth and opportunity Act (AGOA). He urged LDCs to become part of the world globalisation process and to understand issues as they pertain to their individual countries. He said that government was concerned with the happenings in Geneva as little development has so far been made from the Doha Development Agenda especially relating to the Singapore issues. He lamented the fact that African states were not adequately represented and was generally illprepared. He also called on South Africa to make its position clear as to whether it represented the LDCs or the Developed countries. Lastly he commended NGO's for the role they were playing in ensuring WTO issues were made known to the public.
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Other Speeches
The speech from the Minister was followed by speeches from representatives from the Fredrich Ebert Stiftung and CUTS-ARC. In their remarks they both indicated the importance they placed on civil society's contribution to the position paper on the WTO issues. They mentioned that these issues affect everyone's every day life and it was for this reason that they felt the need to strengthen civil society's position onto government position.
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