Southern Agenda Phase II: Regional Consultation on Trade and Environment in Southern and Eastern Africa


9th – 10th June 2004 • Co-organised with IISD; ACTS; TRALAC

The first phase of the Southern Agenda project sought to gather and present Southern perspectives on the trade and environment link, building on consultations with developing country trade policy representatives in Geneva (click here for further details).

Phase II, which builds upon the results of Phase I, aims to respond to the opportunity offered by the Doha mandate, to strengthen the capacity of trade negotiators, key national policymakers and regional actors in developing countries to determine priorities for promoting and negotiating proactive positions which reflect their own ‘Southern Agenda’ on environment and trade in the multilateral trading system

The project is based on six regional meetings — of which the Stellenbosch consultation is the fourth — that aim to bring forward regional priorities in trade and environment. The consultations, which are designed for approximately 20 expert participants, will feed into a Geneva-based process involving WTO negotiators, in order to ensure equitable and sustainable trade policies and agreements that truly reflect regional priorities for environment.

Through providing a space for focused discussions, this consultation aimed to establish:

(a) The most important concerns and priorities for the South in general, and the region in particular, in terms of the current trade and environment agenda in the WTO;

(b) Innovative options that would meet the South’s, and the region’s, trade and environment concerns in the immediate and ongoing trade and environment negotiations; and

(c) The form and contents of a longer-term trade and environment agenda that the South can own and advance as its own.

Programme

9 June

19:30 Welcome Dinner

10 June

09:00 - 9:30 Registration

09:30 - 10:00 Introductory remarks (Evans Kituyi, ACTS, and Frieda Lloyd, TRALAC)

10:00 - 10:40 Presentation of the Southern Agenda framework

Trade and Environment in the WTO agenda: context, challenges and prospects from Marrakech to Doha
Mark Halle

Results of the first phase of the Southern Agenda
Adil Najam

#1. What are the most important concerns and most pressing priorities for the South in general, and the region in particular, in terms of the current trade and environment agenda in the WTO and especially with regard to the Doha Mandate (i.e., the entire Doha mandate and not just the CTE issues)?

#2. What innovative options can be envisaged that would meet the South’s, and the region’s, trade and environment concerns in the immediate and ongoing trade and environment negotiations (i.e., in the current round)?

#3. Thinking about the longer term trade and environment debate (i.e., future rounds), what would be the form and contents of a trade and environment agenda that the South can own and advance as its own?

10:40-11:10 Discussion

11:15 - 11:30 Coffee Break

12:00-12:30 Discussion

11:30 - 12:00 Presentation of Background Paper (George Sikoyo, ACTS)
12:00 - 12:45 Discussion

12:45 - 14:00 Lunch

14:00 - 15:00 Discussion (continued)

15:00 - 15:15 Introduction of methodologies for group sessions

15:15 - 17:00 Discussion in working groups

17:00 - 18:00 Plenary discussion of working group results

19:30 Dinner

11 June

09:00 - 09:30 Trade and Environment in the WTO: Challenges and Opportunities (Ricardo Melendez-Ortiz, ICTSD)

09:30 - 10:30 Questions and discussions

10:30 - 12:30 Discussion in working groups

12:30 - 14:00 Lunch

14:00 - 16:00 Plenary discussion of consultation results

16:00 - 17:00 Synthesis and Conclusions

17:00 - Wrap-up.

Participants

Riundja ALI KAAKUNGA
Deputy Director - International Trade
Ministry for Trade and Industry
Namibia

William BABIGUMIRA
Senior Trade Promotion Officer
Uganda Export Promotion Board
Uganda

John D. CHIDZOMBA
Private Consultant
Zimbabwe

Rob DAVIES
Member of Parliament
South Africa

Saliem FAKIR
IUCN - World Conservation Union
Country Office South Africa

Jan GLAZEWSKI
Environmental Lawyer
University of Cape Town
South Africa

Dirk HANSOHM
Director
Namibian Economic Policy Research Unit
Namibia

Jurgen HOFFMANN
Senior Trade Advisor
Agriculture Trade Forum of Namibia
Namibia

Nicholas Dlamini KITIKITI
Economica International Consultants
Zimbabwe

Ernest Alexander MUWAMBA
ACapacity Building Manager
Zambia Chamber of Small & Medium Business
Zambia

Deborah NYARUNDA
Uganda Fish Processing & Export Association
Uganda

Michelle PRESSEND
Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
South Africa

Lucas Ndewonaona SARONGA
Minister Plenipotentiary
Permanent Mission of Tanzania to the WTO

Sudhir SOOKLAL
Department of Trade & Industry
South Africa

Anthea STEVENS
IUCN - World Conservation Union
Country Office South Africa

Lala STEYN
IUCN - World Conservation Union
Country Office South Africa

RIAZ TAYOB
Seatini
South Africa

Jessica WILSON
Environmental Monitoring Group
South Africa

Organisers

Ricardo MELENDEZ ORTIZ
Executive Director
ICTSD
Switzerland

Mark HALLE
Director for Trade and Investment
IISD
Switzerland

Adil NAJAM
Associate Professor
Tufts University
United States

Heike BAUMULLER
Program Manager
Natural Resources
ICTSD
Switzerland

Hugo CAMERON
Senior Associate
ICTSD
Switzerland

Evans KITUYI
ACTS
Kenya

George Sikoyo
ACTS
Kenya

Tessa MANUELLO
TRALAC
South Africa

Lee PADAYACHEE
TRALAC
South Africa