News

November 10, 2001, Doha Ministers of 8 recently acceded countries – Albania, Croatia, Georgia, Jordan, Kyrgyz Republic, Lithuania, Moldova and Oman met in Doha on November 10, 2001 to share their concerns regarding market access and related commitments in the light of the 4th WTO Ministerial Conference. Countries, recently acceded to the WTO, express support to the New Round of negotiations and are in favor of balanced liberalization and consider it as a key principle of globalization. At the same time, ministers of recently acceded countries express a common concern regarding negotiations leading to the new commitments and their interaction with the commitments made recently during the accession process, - countries have already made substantial market access commitments, sometimes going far beyond those that had been made during the Uruguay Round, therefore, these commitments and further commitments resulting from the New Round might have serious consequences on their economic development creating imbalance and reasoned concern for recently acceded WTO members. Underlining the importance of launching the New Round of negotiations, ministers of Albania, Croatia, Georgia, Jordan, Kyrgyz Republic, Lithuania, Moldova and Oman jointly stress unavoidable need for a flexibility and appropriate accommodation of their concerns in the Ministerial Declaration and further process of the negotiations.