Kuwait is working in full harmony with WTO - Minister
KUNA (Kuwait News Agency)
01 December 2009
GENEVA - Kuwait's Minister of Commerce and Industry Ahmad Al-Haroun said Tuesday that the Kuwaiti government and the private sector have been working in full harmony ensuring respect of its obligations as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). He added, in his speech to the 7th WTO Ministerial that he would like to highlight the following issues which are of special importance in Kuwait at this time. "First, from a geo-economic standpoint, the State of Kuwait is a bustling harbor situated in a strategic location. Therefore, the Kuwaiti society and its State were founded on the basis of free trade, therefore ties between free trade and Kuwait are very close and extremely important," said Minisetr Al-Haroun. Al-Haroun said that in addition, the outstanding democracy of Kuwait was based on adhering to the fill dimension of economic and political freedoms.
As a result, he said, the Kuwaiti trade system became very open to international trade. Second: Kuwait is fully cooperating with the WTO in its pursuit to liberalize its trade in services. Furthermore, it is currently considering the introduction of reforms to its existing commercial and economic legislations to ensure compatibility with the WTO requirements. "In this context, I am pleased to inform you that the Kuwait National Committee, in charge of following up the implementation of the WTO agreements, has recently formed a high level technical team to examine all aspects of these reforms," he said. He said that the third issue is that he believes that Kuwait needs technical assistance from the WTO in order to improve its capacity to meet its obligations towards its membership in the Organization. "We hope to have the opportunity at a later stage to examine possible solutions to this matter," he said. In addition, Al-Haroun said that the consequences of the Global Financial Crisis are still felt.
"I would like to note that Kuwait has taken precautionary measures, in line with international guidelines and at the early stages of this crisis, to deal with its repercussion on the banking sector through the facilitation of access to liquidity in the banking systems as of October 2008," he said. He said that furthermore, a number of measures were taken in the framework of promoting trust in the banking sector.
"On the global level, we hear calls echoing for protectionism while we witness an increasingly diminishing role of the private sector," he said. He stressed that the State of Kuwait definitely does not concur with these remarks. "Moreover, it calls on the WTO to play an active role to impede these protectionist tendencies and to defend the principles upon which it was established," he added. Al-Haroun said that this can only be achieved by enforcement of the law in the world trading system and by responding to urgent needs and to the fair requests of developing nations. "Finally, I would like to reiterate Kuwaits support to the introduction of the Arabic Language as an official language of the WTO. It is clear that the presence of the Arabic language in the WTO would remove serious obstacles imposed on trade by the lack of translated documents and absence of interpretation during meetings and conferences," said Al-Haroun.
The 7th WTO Ministerial continues today in two working groups, while the NGO community will hold meetings all through the day in an adjacent building to that of the conference venue.
KUNA (Kuwait News Agency) 2009
KUNA (Kuwait News Agency)
01 December 2009
GENEVA - Kuwait's Minister of Commerce and Industry Ahmad Al-Haroun said Tuesday that the Kuwaiti government and the private sector have been working in full harmony ensuring respect of its obligations as a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO). He added, in his speech to the 7th WTO Ministerial that he would like to highlight the following issues which are of special importance in Kuwait at this time. "First, from a geo-economic standpoint, the State of Kuwait is a bustling harbor situated in a strategic location. Therefore, the Kuwaiti society and its State were founded on the basis of free trade, therefore ties between free trade and Kuwait are very close and extremely important," said Minisetr Al-Haroun. Al-Haroun said that in addition, the outstanding democracy of Kuwait was based on adhering to the fill dimension of economic and political freedoms.
As a result, he said, the Kuwaiti trade system became very open to international trade. Second: Kuwait is fully cooperating with the WTO in its pursuit to liberalize its trade in services. Furthermore, it is currently considering the introduction of reforms to its existing commercial and economic legislations to ensure compatibility with the WTO requirements. "In this context, I am pleased to inform you that the Kuwait National Committee, in charge of following up the implementation of the WTO agreements, has recently formed a high level technical team to examine all aspects of these reforms," he said. He said that the third issue is that he believes that Kuwait needs technical assistance from the WTO in order to improve its capacity to meet its obligations towards its membership in the Organization. "We hope to have the opportunity at a later stage to examine possible solutions to this matter," he said. In addition, Al-Haroun said that the consequences of the Global Financial Crisis are still felt.
"I would like to note that Kuwait has taken precautionary measures, in line with international guidelines and at the early stages of this crisis, to deal with its repercussion on the banking sector through the facilitation of access to liquidity in the banking systems as of October 2008," he said. He said that furthermore, a number of measures were taken in the framework of promoting trust in the banking sector.
"On the global level, we hear calls echoing for protectionism while we witness an increasingly diminishing role of the private sector," he said. He stressed that the State of Kuwait definitely does not concur with these remarks. "Moreover, it calls on the WTO to play an active role to impede these protectionist tendencies and to defend the principles upon which it was established," he added. Al-Haroun said that this can only be achieved by enforcement of the law in the world trading system and by responding to urgent needs and to the fair requests of developing nations. "Finally, I would like to reiterate Kuwaits support to the introduction of the Arabic Language as an official language of the WTO. It is clear that the presence of the Arabic language in the WTO would remove serious obstacles imposed on trade by the lack of translated documents and absence of interpretation during meetings and conferences," said Al-Haroun.
The 7th WTO Ministerial continues today in two working groups, while the NGO community will hold meetings all through the day in an adjacent building to that of the conference venue.
KUNA (Kuwait News Agency) 2009