We, the Heads of State and Government of the African Union
meeting in our Second Ordinary Session in Maputo, Mozambique,
Having considered the Report of the Conference of Ministers of Trade of
AU Member States in Mauritius, June 2003 the Mauritius Ministerial
Declaration on the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the WTO; and its
Annex the “African Common Position” on the Fifth WTO Ministerial
Conference, Cancun, Mexico, 10 to 14 September 2003; as well as the
Report of the Third Ordinary Session of the Executive Council on this
issue,
Recalling the high expectations raised by the adoption of the Doha
Development Agenda (DDA) and its subsequent work programme,
Recognizing the efforts deployed by the Negotiators of our Member
States in the various bodies of the WTO,
Noting that the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the WTO is scheduled to
take place in Cancun, Mexico, from 10 to 14 September 2003,
Deeply concerned about the general lack of progress in the on-going
Round of multilateral trade negotiations, as evidenced by the missed
deadlines in respect of key issues of importance to African countries in
the negotiations,
- ENDORSE the Mauritius Declaration on the Fifth Ministerial
Conference of WTO and its annex: the African Common Position on
the WTO issues;
- DEPLORE the lack of substantial progress registered in the
negotiations on Agriculture, TRIPS and Public Health, Special and
Differential Treatment, and Implementation-Related issues;
- STRONGLY URGE WTO members to fulfil the commitments
undertaken in Doha, as contained in the mandate for the
agricultural negotiations, including through less than full
reciprocity in tariff reduction commitments, having due regard to
the principle of special and differential treatment;
- EXPRESS our full solidarity with our Member States that are
affected by subsidies on cotton provided by developed countries and
strongly support actions initiated by some of them in the WTO to
urgently remedy the negative consequences of those subsidies that
affect millions of Africa’s farmers;
- STRONGLY WELCOME proposals on preferences as contained in
the Harbinson text and CALL UPON the WTO Members to address
the issue of erosion of preferences;
- AFFIRM that the objectives of the negotiations on non-agricultural
market access are to facilitate the development and
industrialization processes in our countries; to that end, the
modalities for the actual negotiations must reflect these goals
appropriately by addressing tariff peaks and tariff escalation, taking
fully into account the special needs and interests of developing and
least-developed countries;
- REITERATE that our sub-regional and regional integration
organizations are pillars of the African Economic Community (AEC),
and are essential for the promotion of Africa’s socio-economic development and serve as the dynamic building blocks of our
effective integration into the Multilateral Trading System (MTS);
- CALL for development-friendly WTO disciplines, arising from the
Doha work programme pertaining to the clarification and
improvement of the WTO disciplines applied to regional trade
agreements;
- EXPRESS GRAVE CONCERN about the lack of transparency and
inclusiveness in the WTO negotiations and decision-making
processes. To that end, CALL for measures to ensure the effective
participation of our countries in the processes leading to the Fifth
WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancun and beyond;
- REGRET the deadlock over the issue of granting observer status to
the African Union in the WTO and, in this regard, CALL UPON all
other WTO Member States to support us in effort to secure
Observer Status for the African Union.
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