BACKGROUND AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
At the World Trade Organization's (WTO) 4th
Ministerial at Doha in November 2001, 142 member states committed
themselves to a "Development Round". The 5th
Ministerial at Cancún in September 2003 will take stock
of progress.
The Committee announced its inquiry on 26 November
2002, inviting organisations and individuals with relevant experience
and expertise to submit written evidence. In undertaking this
inquiry, we have sought to avoid replicating work done elsewhere
by academic, governmental and other institutions which have the
resources to conduct original research.
We received 32 written memoranda from Government
Departments, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), UN agencies,
firms, business and industrial organisations, trade unions, religious
bodies, South African and Bangladeshi parliamentary bodies, academics
and concerned individuals. We held seventeen evidence sessions,
and have taken evidence in both Brussels and Geneva as well as
Westminster. We also met developing country Ambassadors in Geneva,
and representatives from a range of US and international organisations
in Washington D.C. and New York.
We are grateful to all those who gave evidence to
the inquiry, and to those who assisted us in other ways. We
would like to thank especially the following individuals and organisations
who gave evidence: the Rt Hon Baroness Amos, Secretary of State
for International Development and her DFID officials; the Rt Hon
Patricia Hewitt MP, Secretary of State for Trade and Industry
and her DTI officials; DEFRA officials; His Excellency Mr Meles
Zenawi, Prime Minister of the Federal Republic of Ethiopia; His
Excellency Mr Ransford Smith, Ambassador and Permanent Representative,
Permanent Mission of Jamaica to the United Nations, Geneva; Dr
Rob Davies and his South African Parliamentary colleagues; Commissioners
Pascal Lamy (Trade), Franz Fischler (Agriculture), and Poul Nielson
(Development and humanitarian aid) and the officials from the
European Commission; Dr Supachai Panitchpadki, Director-General
of the WTO and his colleagues; Carlos Fortin, Deputy Secretary-General,
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and
his colleagues; NGOs including the Catholic Agency for Overseas
Development (CAFOD), Christian Aid, Oxfam, Save the Children,
and the World Development Movement; the Advisory Centre on WTO
Law; the South African Sugar Association; the African Caribbean
Pacific (ACP) London Sugar Group; the Ethical Trading Initiative;
Co-operative Retail and Sainsbury's; and the Food and Drink Federation.
We would also like to thank our Specialist Adviser,
Sheila Page of the Overseas Development Institute. But we stress,
as ever, that the views contained in this report are ours alone.
In addition we are grateful for the informative and balanced updates
on developments in Geneva provided by the International Centre
for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) and the International
Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD).
We would like to thank finally those organisations
and representatives from developing countries who have engaged
with our inquiry in one way or another. In the face of many competing
priorities, we appreciate their efforts very much and look forward
to more input from developing countries in future inquiries.
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