SELA and World Bank organize Seminar
en Agricultural Trade

Caracas, 2 March. - The World Bank and the Permanent Secretariat of the Latin American Economic System (SELA) will be hosting the Seminar “Agriculture and the new issues of the WTO: interests, options and strategies for Latin America and the Caribbean” in Caracas on 7 and 8 March.  

Trade and agriculture ministers of the SELA member states, experts in agricultural trade of the region and high level officials of Latin American and Caribbean integration organizations, including among others ECLAC, Andean Community, CARICOM, ALADI, IICA and the FAO and UNCTAD.  

The agenda of the seminar indicates that Venezuela’s Minister of Production and Trade, Luisa Romero; Permanent Secretary of SELA, Ambassador Otto Boye; Peruvian Ambassador and Chairman of the Agricultural Committee of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Jorge Voto-Bernales; and a World Bank representative will be participating in the opening session, scheduled at 8:45 AM on Wednesday, 7 March.   

The World Bank and SELA both feel that the results of the next WTO Agriculture Round and new multilateral trade conversations will have significant implications for the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean.   

In this regard, the workshop will contribute in assisting the countries of the region in the evaluation of their interests and options as well as in the formulation of strategies to build up their positions for the negotiations that are expected to begin shortly in the framework of the WTO.  

The identification of individual action programmes and/or projects to secure the benefits of gradual trade liberalization for the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean will also form part of the activities to be pursued by the workshop.   

This seminar forms part of both the SELA Permanent Secretariat 2001 Work Programme, which provides for analysis and follow-up of the multilateral trade negotiations’ implications for the countries of the region, and the World Bank “Integrated Research and Training Programme for Developing Countries’ Participation in the WTO Agriculture Negotiations.”  

The venue for this seminar will be Salón Manzanares at the Hotel Gran Meliá Caracas located on Avenida Casanova in Sabana Grande. 

http://www.sela.org
sela@sela.org
   SELA,  Permanent Secretariat
Torre Europa, Fourth floor, Urb. Campo Alegre, Av Francisco de Miranda,
Caracas 1060- Venezuela
Tlf: (58) (212) 955.71.11 Fax: (58) (212) 951.52.92