Singapore issues face opposition

GENEVA: The chair of the WTO general council is bent on supporting and including the Singapore issues in the Cancun ministerial draft despite 77 nations objecting to it at the informal heads of delegation meet on Friday. He took the side of the EC ambassador Carlo Trojan, who insisted that the Doha declaration stated that it was ministers, and not heads of delegations based in Geneva, that would decide and launch negotiations on the Singapore issues at Cancun to be decided and launched at Cancun.
However, the African nations refuse to be dominated, and have called for a continuance of the study process on the Singapore issue, and formally opposed the taking up of the Singapore issue in the Cancun draft ministerial at the HODs meet at the WTO on Friday. The African nations, also formally placed a draft ministerial text for the Cancun meeting.
Kenya was put forward by the HODs of 11 countries, who called for a continuation of the study process of each of the four issues. Kenya’s Ambassador Amina Chawahir Mohammed, put forward the proposal on behalf of Botswana, Benin, Kenya, Mauritius, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. It reflects the stand and decisions taken by the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific states, which are 77-member strong, in Brussels on August 1.