Parallel and Side Events Contents Page

Capacity building in trade and sustainable development

Presented by UNCTAD, UNEP, and the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC)

Surakiart Sathiratai, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Thailand, called for avoiding duplication of work between organizations, and for training developing countries to participate in the WTO process.

Koos Richelle, the European Commission, highlighted the Commission's activities on trade and environment, including: technical capacity building; promoting regional cooperation; and strengthening of developing countries' capacity in negotiations. He stressed the need to assess environmental and social impacts of trade policies.

Julian Hunte, St. Lucia, emphasized the need for fair trade and coherence between trade and the environmental and social pillars of sustainable development. He noted the challenges for small economies to remain competitive in a globalizing economy, and called for technical support and technology transfer on a concessional basis.

Ion Jelev, Romania, explained the relation between trade and environment rules and called for further cooperation between ministries of environment and trade, and between UNEP and UNCTAD.

Edward Rugumaya, Ministry of Trade of Uganda, noted that promoting trade is a strategy for eradicating poverty. He highlighted benefits of Uganda's participation in UNEP-UNCTAD capacity-building projects, including: increased market access and investment; cooperation between relevant ministries; and strengthening of coordination and research capacities.

Suivi-Anne Siimes, Finnish Minister for Development Cooperation, noted that capacity building has to respond to national needs and priorities of recipient countries, and described Finnish capacity-building activities in developing countries.

Jan Pronk, Special Envoy of UN Secretary-General to the WSSD, stressed the need for: cooperation between and within UN agencies; renewal of agencies' work programmes; input from major groups; and confronting current WTO procedures.

Rolf Boehnke, CFC, explained the Fund's capacity-building activities on generic commodity issues and described the Fund's ongoing projects.

Shafqat Kakakhel, UNEP, expressed hope for further integration of UNEP-UNCTAD cooperation, and closer collaboration with the WTO, research institutions and civil society. He advocated integrated assessments of trade and environment policies, and the need for durable capacity.

Hussein Abaza, UNEP, stressed the need for: long term country-driven activities; ownership of projects; and monitoring and evaluation of capacity-building activities.

Jorge Vigano, WTO, highlighted the WTO's increased attention to environmental concerns.

Martin Khor, Third World Network, identified fair commodity prices as the major factor for poverty eradication, and highlighted conflicts between multilateral environmental agreements and WTO rules as a major challenge to address.

Cham Prasidh, Cambodian Minister for Commerce, noted that successful mainstreaming of policies may minimize the need for official development assistance.

Discussion: Participants discussed the need for programmatic plans, capacity building of civil society and integrated assessments.