PNoWB Committee on International Trade for Development
"MPs throughout the developed and the developing world have to ensure that the world trade talks focus on our global priorities be it tackling absolute poverty in the South or creating new employment rather than see a slide back behind protectionist walls or states trying to simply appease special interest groups - they all have a real responsibility in ensuring that their own national governments play a positive part in the current negotiations by raising the issue in their parliaments and undertaking effective scrutiny of the negotiation process." McKechin Ann, MP, UK, Co-Chair of the PNoWB Trade Committee
Rationale
Linking Trade to Fight against Poverty is one of the milestones to advance the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. The rationale for setting up the PNoWB Committee on International Trade for Development was to mobilise parliamentarians to push their governments for a pro-poor outcome of the Doha Trade Round and to encourage public-debate on trade-related issues.
The PNoWB Committee on International Trade was launched at an April 2004 video conference that connected parliamentarians from Brazil, Kenya and several European countries along with World bank Trade Director Uri Dadush and UN Secretary General’s Executive Coordinator for the MDGs, Eveline Hertfkens.
Download the minutes of the launching meeting
For efficiency sake, the PNoWB Committee on International Trade identified two key areas to focus on: agriculture and services and established with this respect two sub-committees on trade in agriculture and trade in services, in February 2005.
Download the launching minutes of the sub-committee on agriculture
Download the launching minutes of the sub-committee on services
The PNoWB Committee on International Trade for Development is co-chaired by Ann McKechin, MP, UK and Khalifa Ababacar Sall, MP, Senegal.
Membership has expanded to about 50 MPs from all regions and insists on joining the efforts of parliamentarians from both developed and developing countries.
Features
As part of PNoWB members’ ongoing campaign for a successful Doha outcome, co-Chairs of the PNoWB Committee on International Trade wrote on behalf of their members, to Peter Mandelson, European Commissioner for External Trade and Competitiveness. Members voiced their concerns over the lack of action and urged European Union to take the lead on achieving a pro-poor outcome of the Doha Trade Round.
Click here to read the letter of Ann McKechin MP, UK, Co-Chair and Khalifa Ababacar Sall MP, Senegal, Acting Co-Chair of the PNoWB Committee on Trade
Click here to read the response of Peter Mandelson
PNoWB Committee on International Trade urged all its members and those of PNoWB at large to put pressure on their governments to successfully complete the Doha round.
Joining similar efforts by the NATO Parliamentary Assembly and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association, the Committee has regularly informed members about the evolving Doha Development Agenda negotiations.