On 22 April twenty-seven officials, largely from least-developed countries, were welcomed to the headquarters of the World Trade Organization at an inaugural ceremony to launch the 17th Trade Policy Course held under the aegis of the WTO.

Mr. Paul-Henri Ravier, Deputy Director-General of the WTO, welcomed the organization of a training course in French, one of the Organization's three official languages. Greeting the participants, he noted the benefits to be drawn not only from the instruction they would receive in the course of three-month's training but also, and perhaps more importantly, the experience to be gleaned from three months at the Secretariat and direct contact with delegates from the 140 countries and customs territories that currently make up the WTO. Referring to the challenges facing the multilateral trading system today, Mr. Ravier emphasized that they were illustrated in part by the fact that African countries and a number of least-developed countries were so strongly represented at the 17th Trade Policy Course. Greeting officials from countries in the process of acceding to the WTO, he expressed his conviction that training activities were a key to active participation by all partners in development and to adapting the rules of the multilateral trading system. The trade policy courses were launched in 1995 under the aegis of the GATT and have become a beacon of the WTO's technical assistance activities. Three twelve-week courses are organized every year at WTO headquarters in Geneva.

  
  
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