UN General Assembly
2003

countries for the African Union and its programme, NEPAD. We also welcome the initiatives taken by development partners to increase public assistance, relieve debt and provide for improved access to markets. Guinea welcomes also the useful arrangements planned by the United States, the European Union and Japan to combat the HIV/AIDS, malaria and 9 tuberculosis pandemics, as well as food insecurity. These efforts, which we encourage, were undoubtedly strengthened by the recent agreement at the World Trade Organization (WTO) enabling the poorest countries to have access to generic drugs and thus to tackle the health tragedy of 6 million deaths annually as a result of those three pandemics alone. My delegation, however, regrets the lack of consensus at Cancún at the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the WTO. We remain convinced that the international community will continue the debate, aiming at further integration of the weaker economies into the world trading system. We need to do our utmost to ensure that globalization is better managed and less iniquitous. The common good must be at the heart of our concerns.