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The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies and Deputy Minister Mr. Bulelani Magwanishe will attend the Informal Meeting of African Union Ministers of Trade on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) issues on 18 September 2017 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The meeting, which is jointly hosted by the African Union Commission and the Government of the Republic of South Africa, is part of a series of preparatory meetings leading to the 11th WTO Ministerial Conference to be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in December 2017.

The Informal meeting follows the Declaration adopted by the AU Ministers of Trade Meeting in November 2016, which re-emphasised the need to pursue integration and industrialisation to drive the process of structural transformation across the African continent. The Ministers also agreed on the need to ensure that the outcomes achieved at the multilateral level do not undermine the continent’s development integration agenda that encompasses market integration, industrial development and infrastructure development.

The Informal meeting in Addis Ababa provides an opportunity for AU Ministers of Trade to consider recent developments in the negotiations at the WTO and aims to formulate positions on priority issues for Africa as well as on new issues currently being proposed in the WTO, such as e-commerce and investment facilitation.

The outcomes of this meeting is expected to coordinate African positions for the 3rd Mini-Ministerial WTO meeting scheduled to take place in Marrakech, Morocco, in October 2017.

Issued by Separtment of Trade and Industry