Geneva - Angola expressed its solidarity with East Timor’s commitment to join the World Trade Organisation (WTO) during the fourth meeting of the Working Group created at the end of 2016.
The Permanent Representative of Angola to the Office of the United Nations and other International Organisations in Geneva, Margarida Izata, recalled that Angola has witnessed the Timorese strong commitment at all levels of its administration, in order to responding to the legal and organic reforms required by this Organization in the structures of trade in goods and services.
According to a note reached ANGOP Friday, the Angolan diplomat congratulated East Timor, while praising the excellent friendship relations between Angola and East Timor.
Angola also congratulated the new President of that country, José-Ramos Horta, “with whom Angola maintains a long fraternal relationship of solidarity during the common struggle for national independence”.
At this 4th meeting of East Timor's WTO accession working group, Angola highlighted the government's decisive efforts to review domestic support and export subsidies policies in order to be fully aligned with the WTO's core rules in these areas.
Margarida Izata stated that East Timor follows the WTO rules for trade in services with regard to its laws, regulations and organizational structure, with the necessary measures taken to adopt the sanitary and phytosanitary requirements demanded for all free international trade. goods, particularly with regard to the production of primary food.
The diplomat added, on the other hand, that “despite some minor discrepancies, which are easy to resolve, the Angolan delegation can only commend the government of East Timor for its hard work in recent months with the aim of advancing and concluding negotiations on accession to the WTO, incorporating the organization's core international trade rules into national legislation as well as commercial and political practices.
Angola fully recognizes that East Timor's accession to the WTO is an important commercial policy objective enshrined in the programme entitled "East Timor's Vision for 2030", a strategic development plan necessary to help the country achieve faster economic growth, diversification and transformation into an upper-middle income economy with a healthy and well-educated population.
The diplomat said he believed that the integration of East Timor into the multilateral trading system is an important step that should be accepted by the WTO as soon as possible, preferably in early 2023, as it will benefit the transcontinental perspective of the WTO.
Furthermore, the Ambassador recalled that Angola is in the Presidency of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP), so reiterated the support of this group of countries and encouraged the rapid accession of East Timor to the WTO.
Likewise, the official recognized the central role of the WTO as an organization committed to free and fair international trade and as a catalyst for economic recovery after the pandemic crisis and other critical situations in the world.
Finally, the Angolan delegation reiterated Angola's full support for the final approval of East Timor's accession and its full integration into the WTO.
