Malawi says it fully supports ratification of trade international protocols aimed at easing of access to the sea by landlocked countries.
Speaking in Nairobi, Kenya at a Land Locked Least Development Countries (LLLDC) meeting during the 10th World Trade Organisation (WTO) conference, Minister of Industry and Trade, Joseph Mwanamvekha, said on its part, Malawi is in the final stage for the ratification of the Agreement on Trade Facilitation (ATF) which is aimed at facilitating the smooth transit of goods to the sea by landlocked countries.
Mwanamvekha said given geographical challenges faced by landlocked countries such as Malawi, such trade facilitation instruments are critical.
“Malawi fully endorses the objectives of the Agreement on Trade Facilitation.
“We have already finalised all the necessary steps leading to the acceptance and ratification of the protocol for ATF and is just awaiting endorsement by our authorities as protocol dictates,” disclosed Mwanamvekha.
“We, therefore, call upon our development partners to guarantee that our requests for technical and financial assistance will be considered as detailed in the national schedule of commitments,” he said.
Mwanamvekha said it is widely acknowledged by many that LLDCs, including Malawi, face unique and daunting challenges in their endeavour for economic development.
He said challenges such as lack of territorial access to the sea, isolation and remoteness from world markets, and high transport and transit costs experienced by LLDCs, pose serious constraints to the overall socio-economic development, including trade competitiveness for LLDCs.
“These specific problems have contributed to entrenched poverty in many LLDCs and greatly limit their effective participation in multilateral trading systems. Unless the s t ructural problems facing LLDCs are adequately addressed, there is a real risk of relative lack of integration in the world economy,” said Mwanamvekha.
He said land-locked developing countries are among the poorest in the world and that to deal with their challenges, the countries and their coastal neighbours need to enter into transit agreements that define the conditions, obligations and rights under which the parties will use the transit facilities.
“I am saying all this because in other instances, we have noticed that some unilateral changes take place without any proper consultations between the parties in the agreement, thereby creating unnecessary non-tariff barriers that are detrimental to the private sector participation in trade,” he said.
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