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Director General of the WTO. The ACP Group endorses the candidature of Dr. Jaya Krishna Cuttaree, (Mauritius) for appointment as Director General of the WTO and solicits the support of the entire WTO Membership.
COMMUNIQUE OF THE ACP COUNCIL OF MINISTERS
At its 80th Session held in Brussels, Belgium from 29 November to 3 December 2004 the Council of Ministers of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States considered, inter alia, the important issue of the appointment of the next Director General of the World Trade Organization. Ministers noted that the process for the submission of candidatures for the post formally started on 1 December 2004, and will be completed on 31 December 2004. It is to be noted that the membership of the ACP Group comprises seventy-nine (79) countries drawn from a large cross-section of the developing world. Fifty-six (56) of its members are also members of the World Trade Organization (WTO), with the remainder being at various stages of accession. The ACP Group has in recent years played a key role in the WTO. During the negotiations leading to the July 2004 Framework Agreement on the Doha Development Agenda, the Group was Instrumental in getting the Round back on track by helping to forge consensus on certain critical issues in order to sustain the multilateral trading system. The ACP Council of Ministers also noted that since the inception of the GATT and its successor, the WTO, no member of the three constituent regions of the Group (Africa, Caribbean and Pacific) has ever occupied the post of Director General of the Organization. The Group, therefore, has a legitimate expectation to fill the post. The Group has among its members, personalities with wide experience and knowledge, capable of providing leadership of the WTO at this critical time, when the organization is actively involved in the negotiations of the Doha Development Round. In my capacity as President-in-Office of the ACP Group, and on the basis of the mandate given to me by the 80th Session of the Council of Ministers, I have the honour to announce that Dr. Jaya Krishna Cuttaree, Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Trade, & Regional Cooperation of Mauritius, who has been nominated by the Government of Mauritius for the post of Director General of the WTO, has the full support and endorsement of the ACP Group. Minister Cuttaree has held important positions at the political and professional levels in Mauritius. He has also served in UNESCO and the former Organization of Africa Unity (OAU). He is an active participant in the ACP Council of Ministers. He served as its President in 2002. He has also been keenly involved In WTO issues and participated actively in the last two WTO Ministerial Conferences in Doha and Cancun. During the Cancun WTO Ministerial Conference, Minister Cuttaree, in his capacity as the Ministerial coordinator of the African Union Ministers of Trade, co-chaired the G90 Group comprising the ACP Group, the African Union and the LDC Group. Moreover, he was instrumental in the organization of the G90 Ministerial meeting in Mauritius in July 2004, the platform of which contributed to the successful conclusion of the July Doha Development Agenda framework. Furthermore, Minister Cuttaree has been actively involved in a number of trade issues in the context of regional integration groupings, including in the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and South Africa Development Community (SADC). Minister Cuttaree is a prominent personality from a developing country within the ACP Group. His thorough knowledge or the needs, specificities and interests of this diverse group and indeed of the entire WTO membership allows him to better appreciate their trade and development needs. This is vital to foster sustainable development as well as sustained growth of world trade with a view to achieving the objectives of the WTO. The ACP Group is honoured to endorse the candidature of Minister Jaya
Krishna Cuttaree, for appointment as the next Director General of the
World Trade Organization (WTO) and, in this respect, solicits the valuable
support of the entire WTO Membership.
Keith Desmond Knight, QC, M.P.
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