Trade facilitation can reduce the overall cost of international trade transactions through the internationally agreed alignment of key trade and transport procedures and documents.

The issue of the relationship between the trade provisions of these agreements and those of the multilateral trading system has been discussed at length by the World Trade Organization Committee on Trade and Environment.

A number of external trade agreements have been negotiated in Africa.

Foreign media report that the United States and Canada have reached a framework agreement on the North American Free Trade Agreement.

They had brought with them 100 trade and investment proposals, negotiated commercial deals and identified trade prospects as well as joint venture investment projects.

105. The least developed countries accounted for only 0.3 per cent of world trade.

(b) Accession to the World Trade Organization and problems of non WTO members, particularly those of least developed countries

The United States, Canada and Mexico have concluded a trilateral trade agreement, and it will bring new opportunities to 500 million people.

It believed that the environmental standards agreed upon in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) and the World Trade Organization (WTO) should be based on the principles of non discrimination, transparency and predictability.

The agreement reached brings basic telecommunications into the framework of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS).

Strongly emphasizing the importance of providing all members of the World Trade Organization with the opportunity to engage fully and effectively in the process of multilateral trade negotiations and in other activities within the multilateral trading system in order to facilitate the attainment of balanced results with respect to the interests of all members,

Any future arrangement should not conflict with the obligations of the World Trade Organization but should rather assist it in building consensus on forest related aspects of trade and environmental policies.

UNDP, as part of the Integrated Framework for Trade related Technical Assistance, supported

African nations have been a part of the recent proliferation of bilateral and subregional preferential trade agreements.

Agreement was reached on the launching of negotiations regarding the question of trade concessions, one of the four questions which were left, by agreement, outside the scope of the Doha Programme of Action investment, competition, trade and environment and trade concessions.

3. In this regard, the Trade and Development Board reaffirms the outcomes of the Mid term Global Review and the ninth session of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development as they relate to trade and trade related issues of least developed countries.

In 2004, cross Straits trade volume reached 78.3 billion United States dollars.

Trade among developing countries is now growing faster than their trade with developed countries and accounts for over 40 per cent of the total trade of the South.

Agreed conclusions 452 (XLV) Trade and investment in LDCs opportunities and constraints in

Recognizing that trade in commodities is a fundamental component of international trade,

In that connection his delegation welcomed the framework agreement adopted in 2004 by the countries members of WTO, for it had broken the Cancún deadlock and allowed the multilateral trade negotiations to be renewed within the WTO context.

He emphasized that all countries hoped to reach an agreement in the short time left before the WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong (China) that would be favourable to world trade as a major driving force for development.

To foster the integration of the least developed countries into the multilateral trading system, the States members of WTO had adopted a comprehensive, integrated action plan designed to foster trade and attract development, and thereby to end the marginalization of those countries.

10. Calls on the members of the World Trade Organization to expeditiously implement the guidelines to facilitate and accelerate the accession of the least developed countries to the World Trade Organization, which were adopted by the General Council of the World Trade Organization on 10 December 2002

The issue of the cost of trade facilitation measures was raised several times, and fears were expressed that the gap between LDCs and developed countries would increase because of the lack of available financial resources to implement trade facilitation measures.

Ukraine welcomed the agreements reached by the WTO General Council in the trade negotiations under the Doha programme of work the momentum gained must be used to secure satisfactory results in the multilateral trade negotiations and an international trading environment conducive to development for all.

The next step in UNCTAD s Trade Point strategy then became to move from this pre transactional role of Trade Points to a fully transactional role, which would turn the Trade Point network into the first global instrument for electronic commerce.

However, the Least Developed Countries Report 2004 made it clear that the trading system remained inequitable, that LDCs still faced persistent trade deficits and that agriculture continued to dominate most LDC economies, with market distortions introduced by some WTO members (such as domestic subsidies, export incentives and tariff increases) preventing LDCs from fully benefiting from international trade.

The treatment of least developed country products would be decided during World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiations, where all WTO members were represented.

With political will a global deal on Aid, Trade and Debt Relief is possible.

Likewise, early and successful conclusion of the Doha Development Round of Multilateral Trade Negotiations, with improved access to developed country markets, ambitious trade liberalization for agricultural goods and especially for commodities, as well as WTO compliant regional trading arrangements, are urgently needed.

(a) Trade and investment in LDCs opportunities and constraints in the multilateral trading system

(a) Trade and investment in LDCs opportunities and constraints in the multilateral trading system

Making trade a more effective mechanism for poverty reduction in the least developed countries requires (a) mainstreaming trade in poverty reduction and national development strategies (b) increased international financial and technical assistance for building production and trade capacities in the least developed countries and (c) a more enabling international trading environment.44

35. Trade in services is a dynamic sector, whose share in world trade now amounts to 20 per cent.

(a) Trade and investment in LDCs opportunities and constraints in the multilateral trading system 10

Most of the growth of intra developing country trade had been in manufactures.

For trade to become a catalyst for development, however, the least developed and landlocked countries needed increased trading opportunities with unhindered market access.

He noted that most customs agencies faced similar problems when it came to illegal trade in chemicals, which included the lack of specialized knowledge, the difficult task of dealing with chemicals in transit, and the need having to deal with the financial issues that surroundinged confiscation of illegally transported chemicals.

Recently UNCTAD TPDC has been working towards moving Trade Points from the pre transactional to the transactional stage.

Note Extra trade with countries outside CIS intra trade with the member countries of CIS.

NEWTON, MASSACHUSETTS On December 7, representatives from the World Trade Organization s 159 member countries reached agreement on the first multilateral trade deal in the WTO s 19 year history. Although the Trade Facilitation Agreement dubbed the Bali package, after the Indonesian island where the meeting took place did not address the most pressing North South trade issues, it remains an important economic and political milestone.

WTO and the international trading system should facilitate the access of developing country commodities to developed country markets and thereby mitigate the impact of crises.

While the proportion of this trade that is illegal is difficult to determine, it is estimated that the financial cost of the illicit global wildlife trade runs into several billion dollars and that its environmental costs are immeasurable.

UNCTAD participated in the second preparatory committee (Dakar, 5 8 May 1998), and discussions were under way for UNCTAD to participate in the fair to be held in Dakar in 1999 on issues related to cooperation, trade and trade facilitation.