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Mr. Chairman,
My delegation would first like to express its appreciation for the work of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, especially its recent report on the 41st Session of the Commission. The high quality of the report is indicative of the dedication and hard work of the Secretariat.
We welcome the new Chairman of the Commission, Mr. Rafael Illescas Ortiz of Spain. We appreciate his able guidance of the Commission’s work during the last session and wish him success for his future work.
We would also like to thank and express our best wishes to Mr. Jerneg Sekolec, the former Secretary of the Commission, who retired on 31 June 2008 for his excellent work for the Commission, and welcome Mr. Renaurd Sorievl, the new Secretary of the Commission.
Mr. Chairman,
My delegation would like to congratulate the Commission for completion of its work on the draft Convention on Contracts for the International Carriage of Goods Wholly or Partially by Sea. The ever increasing container transportation business, entailing door-to-door container delivery, had mandated this work. The draft Convention aims to clarify and establish responsibility of the carrier, obligation of the carrier, liability of the carrier, obligation of the shipper and transport documentation. These are extremely important aspects of the draft Convention. We hope it will not only reduce cost of the international trade but will also help remove the existing legislative gaps for transportation of containers. We also acknowledge the draft Convention will reduce need of bilateral national treaties on this subject.
In the area of Arbitration and Conciliation we have taken note of the work done by the Working Group on Arbitration and Conciliation. The progress made by the Working Group in the revision of the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules is encouraging. We have noted that specific provision on treaty-based arbitration in the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules have been excluded from the scope of the current work of the Working Group. We support the Commission’s work in this regard, however, we also support the view that all work on the revision of the UNCITRAL Arbitration Rules should be guided by the principle of consensus.
The Commission’s role in promoting legislative implementation of the Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Award or the New York Convention is very important from the stand point of unification and harmonization of international trade law. We have taken note of the Commission’s efforts on the implementation of the New York Convention by Member States. The persistent efforts of the Commission have promoted better understanding and wide-spread implementation of the Convention.
Mr. Chairman,
International trade is life-line of the world economy. To ensure smooth growth of international trade, removal of artificial obstacles and legal impediment mainly faced by the developing is a must. A consensus approach to develop the international legislation and their fair implementation are key to progress. In this regard the UNCITRAL Commission has played an important role in the development of legislation and capacity building. We hope the Commission will ensure a consensus based approach for unification and harmonization of the international trade law and will also try to enhance the capacity building opportunities for the developing countries.
I thank you