JOHANNESBURG - The Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Rob Davies and Deputy Minister Bulelani Magwanishe have arrived in Marrakesh, Morocco to attend the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Informal Ministerial Gathering.
The meeting, which is hosted by the Kingdom of Morocco, is part of a series of preparatory meetings leading to the 11th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC11) to be held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in December 2017. The meeting will provide a platform for exchange of views and guidance on possible outcomes at MC11.
This meeting follows the Informal Africa Ministers of Trade meeting that was jointly hosted by South Africa and the African Union Commission (AUC) on 18 September 2017 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
The Ministers reiterated their commitment to the development mandate of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) and agreed that Africa should seek outcomes that provide policy space for Africa to pursue integration and industrialisation to drive the process of structural transformation across the African continent.
The Ministers also agreed on the need to ensure that the outcomes achieved at the multilateral level do not undermine the continent’s development integration agenda that encompasses market integration, industrial development and infrastructure development.
On the side lines of the WTO Informal Ministerial Gathering, Minister Davies and Deputy Minister Magwanishe will also have several bilateral meetings and a meeting of the African Ministers of Trade that will be attending the informal gathering.