CAPE VERDE JOINS THE WTO AS MEMBERS LOOK AHEAD TO 2008

Cape Verde is the newest member to accede to the WTO, following approval on 18 December by the General Council, the WTO's top permanent decision-making body. Director-General Pascal Lamy welcomed Cape Verde's accession as "adding another valuable member to the family" and bringing the WTO "another step closer to universal membership."

Also at the last General Council meeting of the year, WTO members and the Director-General once again reiterated their commitments to reach a successful conclusion to the Doha Round by the end of 2008.

Cape Verde joins the WTO

Cape Verde has been negotiating its membership to the WTO since 1999. Before it can claim its status as the 152nd member of the organisation, the country will have to ratify the deal approved by the General Council, which outlines certain necessary adjustments to the country's trading regime. Thirty days after ratification, the accession process will be completed.

In a statement before the General Council, Lamy called Cape Verde's membership "another sign of confidence" in the WTO and the multilateral trading system. The Director General also pointed to the timeliness of the accession, which comes on the heels of Cape Verde's graduation from its status as a least developed country (LDC) to a developing nation. From this point on, Lamy added, Cape Verde will embark on a "predictable and stable basis for growth and development."

In response to the General Council's approval, Cape Verde's Minister of Economy, Growth and Competitiveness, José Brito, said that the membership was essential for the nation's insertion into the global economy. He furthered that the accession "will bear fruit and would allow us to move forward with the realisation of our national agenda for socioeconomic transformation."

Also at the General Council this week, Liberia's request from June 2007 to begin the process of accession was accepted. A Working Party that will oversee Liberia's application will be established imminently.

Looking ahead to 2008

In a briefing to Members at the General Council, Lamy said that establishing modalities in agriculture and industrial market access would pave the way to a successful conclusion of the Doha Round. Achieving this by next year's end, however, would require agreeing on these modalities in early 2008.

The Director-General appealed to WTO members to focus on substance, timing, and pace at this stage of the negotiations. He acknowledged that negotiations on all issues areas (i.e., those beyond agriculture and industrial market access) were progressing forward, but he called on Members to continue to step up the pace. Despite the high level of commitment, challenges remained, said Lamy. "We are closer to our goal but it is not yet done," he added.

In their individual statements delivered to the General Council, the majority of the 40 Members that spoke echoed Lamy's sentiment and repeated their commitment to the Doha Round and its conclusion. Members reiterated the round's mandate and called on negotiators to make certain that the final outcome was fair, balanced, and development oriented. Uganda, speaking on behalf of the African group, appealed to all WTO Members to regard the Doha Development Agenda and its successful outcome "as a public good for all human kind rather than a vehicle for advancing national mercantilist interests."

Members also appealed to one another to work constructively and in a problem-solving mode to ensure that the negotiations advance. While Members may be keen to move onto the next step in the negotiations, focusing on actual commitments-particularly in terms of agriculture and industrial market access-they agreed to take one step at a time, waiting for the chairs of the negotiating groups to first produce their revised texts. The dominating feeling thus was one of "wait and see." As the Ambassador to Singapore put it, "We're living on borrowed time."

Members are expected to break for the next few weeks, returning to work in early January. Lamy said that revised texts on agriculture and industrial market access should be circulated by the end of next month in advance of the World Economic Forum's annual meeting in Davos, Switzerland. For the moment, Members are likely to use the holiday break for reflection and preparation for the challenges of the coming year.

ICTSD reporting.