The Lebanese capital today and tomorrow will host the Arab Ministerial Meeting in preparation for the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) to be held in Qatar next November.
The meeting will be held at the United Nations Headquarters in Beirut with participation of the Secretary-General of the League of Arab States, Mr. Amr Moussa, trade ministers, Arab ambassadors, international and Arab high-level experts. Representatives from the WTO, World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO),the Islamic Development Bank, the Arab Knowledge and Management Society (AKMS), the League of Arab States, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA), will participate in the meeting.
Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh, President of AKMS, will present the point of view of the Arab private sector in light of the multilateral trading system.
During the meetings of Arab experts for the preparation of Doha conference, Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh demanded that the League of Arab States must sponsor the founding of an Arab union of service industries as is the situation in developed countries. This union will represent the interests of the service sector, support the government's Arab negotiator, as well as represent the Arab region in the International Union for Services Industry.
He also called for the formation of an Arab coalition entitled as the assembly of the League of Arab States. Mr. Abu-Ghazaleh said that this assembly must be forced on the WTO and work to grant the League of Arab States an observer status in the WTO despite the opposition from the United States and Israel. He also stressed the importance of establishing a unit specialized in the WTO affairs in the League of Arab States Headquarters in Geneva to achieve coordination, support and consultation between the representatives of Arab governments and concerned international organizations.
Ms. Mervat Tallawy, Executive Secretary of ESCWA, Mr. Rubens Ricupero, Secretary General of UNCTAD, Mr. Amr Moussa, Secretary General of the League of Arab States, and Mr. Basil Fuleihan ,Trade Minister of the Republic of Lebanon, will all talk during the opening session of the meeting.
The topics included in the schedule will be tackled in six sessions; each session will be chaired by an Arab minister. The first session will be specialized to study and discuss the reports of previous meetings on the preparation of the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the WTO, and during which the Ambassador Fayza Abul Naga, Mr. Mohammed Ma’moon Abdul Fattah and the Ambassador Nasser Ben Jelloun, will speak.
The second session will deal with the position of the Arab countries from joining the WTO. ESCWA experts will talk, during this session, about the status of the Arab States already members in the WTO and of other countries willing to join the UNCTAD and the WTO. An expert from the League of Arab States will deal with the situation of the Arab states which are not members of the WTO.
A session will be devoted to discuss the interests of the Arab countries, including the private sector, under the multilateral trading system. This session will deal with the following aspects: services, implementation of agreements and other topics. Experts from ESCWA, UNCTAD, the WTO, the League of Arab States, and Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh from the private sector, will speak in this session.
Another session will be also dedicated to discuss the current negotiations in the WTO, and it will include topics related to the services sector, agriculture sector as well as trade facilities. Many will talk during this session which are; the Moroccan Ambassador Nasser bin Ben Jelloun Al-Ta’imi , the Ambassador Fayza Abul Naga, the Malaysian Ambassador M.Sabramanian, and a representative from the WTO.
The closing session will discuss the possible results of the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the WTO. Presentations will be made by ministers and experts from the WTO, UNCTAD and ESCWA.
Mr. Talal Abu-Ghazaleh stressed that we must employ any new round of negotiations to discuss topics that achieve our vital goals, which means that we must get use of the Fourth Ministerial Conference held in the State of Qatar. He also added that an Arab coordination before and after the ministerial meeting is important.