SEE ALSO:
press releases
WTO news
Mike Moore's speeches
Renato Ruggiero's speeches,
1995-99 br>
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Signed by Mr.
Renato Ruggiero, Director-General of the WTO, and Mr. James Wolfensohn, President of the
World Bank, at the World Bank's headquarters in Washington, D.C., the agreement focuses on
three main elements. First, it provides the basis for carrying forward the WTO's
Ministerial mandate to achieve greater coherence in global economic policy making by
cooperating with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The WTO
Secretariat and the World Bank are expected to consult and exchange views on all matters
of common interest. Second, the agreement calls for
improved communication between the two institutions through the exchange and sharing of
information, thus ensuring that interests of Members are integral to the thinking of each
organization. The WTO and the World Bank will share access to their respective databases,
undertake joint research and technical cooperation activities and exchange reports and
other documents.
Third, the
Agreement accords observer status to the World Bank and the WTO to attend meetings of each
other's decision-making bodies. Thus, the WTO may attend the Annual Meetings of the World
Bank's Board of Governors and sessions of other appropriate bodies. The World Bank may
attend the WTO's Ministerial Conference, the General Council and other relevant committee
meetings.
The Agreement
provides the WTO Secretariat with access to World Bank information, including the Bank's
Economic and Social Database (BESD) and the World Debt Tables, the World Bank Atlas and
World Development Indicators, its Trends in Developing Economies and its African
Development Indicators. This information is essential to the work of the WTO's Trade
Policy Review Body, the Committee on Trade and Development and the Sub-committee on Least
Developed Countries. In turn, the World Bank will have access to the Integrated Database
of the WTO and to WTO Members' schedules of market access commitments and concessions in
goods and services.
This
agreement and the one signed in December 1996 between the WTO and the IMF establish new
grounds for cooperation and coherence in global economic policy making, an area where the
WTO, the IMF and the World Bank each have distinctive roles. |
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