Sudan, China sign protocol on WTO accession

Sudan, China sign protocol on WTO accession
BBC Monitoring Service – United Kingdom
Published: May 26, 2007

Text of report by Sudanese news agency Suna website

Khartoum, 24 May: Today, at the Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China in Geneva, the bilateral negotiations protocol between the Republic of Sudan and the People’s Republic of China was signed within the framework of Sudan joining the World Trade Organization (WTO), after the two sides concluded bilateral negotiations regarding access to markets for trading goods and services.

Badr al-Din Sulayman, the national negotiator for Sudan’s admission to the WTO, signed on behalf Sudan, and Ambassador Sun Zhenyu, Permanent Representative and Ambassador to WTO, signed on behalf of China.

Ambassador Babikir Muhammad Tum, deputy chairman of the economic committee of the National Council, attended the signing along with representatives from the Finance and Foreign Ministries and a representative from the state protocol office.

It is worth noting that the supply of goods made by Sudan in the context of its efforts to join the WTO covered 14 pages that contain 9,706 tariff commodities, in addition to the services offers, which consisted of 18 pages that comprised the 12 basic sectors; business, communications, construction, environmental education, financial services, health, transport, and so forth.

The agreement and supplements associated with it will be deposited to the WTO Secretariat, which is considered confidential. The mandate issued by the Government of Sudan was also deposited with the national negotiator for signing the accession protocol.