Tue Sep 29, 2009
(Post by CAAI News Media)
PHNOM PENH (Reuters) - Trade representatives from some of the world's poorest countries met in Cambodia on Tuesday to look at what the country has gained from being a member of the World Trade Organisation, as aid donors urged them to join, too.
"Cambodia's WTO accession and its national development and poverty reduction strategies complement one another," Chiedu Osakwe, director of the WTO's Accession Division, told the meeting, which ends on Wednesday.
"The results are evident, all around us and impressive," he said of Cambodia's economic growth, which was over 10 percent a year until the global crisis. Its GDP per capita rose to $550 in 2007 from $390 in 2004 when it joined the WTO, he said.
Much of that was due to the success of its garment sector, which has benefited from access to overseas markets and is its biggest export earner.
Roy Mickey Joy, chief negotiator for Vanuatu's WTO accession, said his country began negotiating with the WTO in 1995 but suspended the talks in 2001 because of the conditions wanted by some bilateral partners and the demands of the WTO itself.
"Cambodia is sharing experiences and the lessons they went through to assist us to join the WTO," Joy told reporters.
"This round table, for us, is very timely and is very important, as we draw lessons from Cambodia on the process of accession to the WTO," Joy said.
The meeting was attended by representatives of the WTO, the European Commission, United Nations agencies and the World Bank. Among the countries represented were Afghanistan, Laos, Sudan and Liberia.
(Reporting by Ek Madra; Editing by Alan Raybould)
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