Abu Dhabi : Wednesday, May 24, 2006

Within the framework of its WTO-related Technical Assistance Programme for the OIC Member Countries, the Islamic Development Bank (IDB) organized a Seminar on Trade in Services for OIC member countries, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, 22-24 Mai 2006, with the participation of Senior Experts of the concerned OIC Member Countries.

The WTO-related Technical Assistance Programme for the OIC Member countries comprises short trade policy courses of three-week duration, subject-specific seminars, workshops, symposia, consultative meetings on the eve of WTO ministerial conferences, studies on selected WTO-agreements and expert missions on accession issues and other related matters.

The seminar will focus, among other things, on explaining the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and shedding light on the latest developments on the current negotiations on the liberalization of trade in services within the framework of the Doha Work Programme. In addition, all technicalities pertaining to the preparation and submission of offers/ requests, classification and scheduling of commitments in the services sector will also be addressed.