AITIC INITIATIVE ON TRADE-RELATED CAPACITY BUILDING AND GREATER PARTICIPATION IN THE INTERNATIONAL TRADING SYSTEM

We, the undersigned Ministers,

Re-affirming our commitment to a fairer and inclusive multilateral trading system;

Recognising the urgency and importance of strengthening the capacity of certain developing countries and economies in transition and, in particular, least-developed countries to participate effectively in the WTO and the international trading system;

Recognising also the difficulty faced by these Members and Observers in participating effectively in the WTO when they have only a small, resource-constrained mission in Geneva or no resident representation at all there;

Sharing the aspiration that all Members and Observers be appropriately represented in Geneva as soon as possible in order to participate effectively in the WTO;

Acknowledging the effectiveness of the assistance provided to such Members and Observers in the meantime by the Swiss-funded Agency for International Trade Information and Cooperation (AITIC), the growing demand for such assistance and the efforts made to meet this demand, inter alia through the setting up of a Non-Residents Unit and the preparation of a Development Plan;

Recognising that this demand may best be met by a broadening of the funding base, and of the governance structure of the agency, with the full collaboration of other trade-related organisations;

Decide to set up immediately a Task Force, to consider the feasibility of transforming AITIC into an Intergovernmental Organisation or by any other means to improve the financial and functional basis of AITIC taking into account other organisations and their mandates;

Invite the Task Force to make a progress report on the occasion of the UN International Conference on Financing for Development;

Call on others to join this effort.