. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/MIN(03)/ST/80
12 September 2003
(03-4841)
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
Fifth Session
Cancún, 10 - 14 September 2003Original:  English
CROATIA
Statement by H.E. Mr Ljubo Jur čić
Minister of Economy
On behalf of the Government of the Republic of Croatia, let me begin by thanking the
Mexican Government for the warm hospitality and excellent organization of this Conference in the
beautiful setting of Cancún.
Almost two years ago in Doha, we agreed on launching a new round of multilateral trade
negotiations with a hope that it will bring benefits and contribute to the growth of our respective
economies and increase the standard of living for our people.  Being a small and open economy with
large market access opening already undertaken upon its WTO accession, Croatia supported the newRound.
Since the beginning of the new Round, there has been some progress in negotiations,
however, there is still a long way to go.  Concerning the preparatory process for Cancún, the
procedure used by the Chairman of the General Council and the Director-General appears to be the
only possibility at this stage.  We can go along with the format of the Draft Ministerial Text being
used as a basis for further work and negotiations in this Conference.  On the substance, we still haveconcerns and difficulties in some key areas.
Let me first welcome the adoption of the Decision on the implementation of paragraph 6 of
the Doha Ministerial Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health.  This is a significant
step that undoubtedly contributed in creating a better atmosphere before this meeting.
Our position in this round of negotiations is based on the fact that Croatia has recently
become a WTO Member.  In this process, we have  made extensive market access commitments in the
key areas of agriculture, non-agricultural market access and services.  This has been clearly
recognized in paragraph 9 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration.  In many aspects those commitmentswent far beyond those agreed in the Uruguay Round.
It is therefore our strong belief that such a specific situation of Croatia and other recently
acceded Members should be fully taken into account and adequately reflected throughout the
negotiations.  This is why several specific proposals have been made in the areas of agriculture andnon-agriculture market access requesting that any future agreements contain adequate and meaningful
specific flexibility provisions for recently acceded countries.
With regard to the format of the negotiations and eventual decisions on the issues of
agriculture and non-agricultural market access, we sh are the view that the realistic way to go would be
to agree on a framework and subsequently work on modalities.  However, the texts of Annexes A and
B on recently acceded Members as they strand right now are sources of important concerns for mydelegation.WT/MIN(03)/ST/80
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Let me recall the proposal on agriculture made by a group of recently acceded Members from
August 2003 (document JOB/(03)/170) on the necessity to include specific flexibility provisions
related to their future commitments in any Cancún agreement.  On market access, such provisions
would exempt low duties from further reduction commitments, provide for lower tariff reductions,longer implementation period for new commitments and a grace period before the implementation of
new commitments.
Moreover, any solution agreed for a special safeguards instrument should be accordingly
applicable to recently acceded Members.  Otherwise only seven or eight WTO Members would not
have recourse to any such safeguard instrument.  Flexibility provisions for recently acceded Members
in the form of grace period and longer implementation periods should accordingly apply to domesticsupport reduction commitments.
Croatia believes that the current basic architecture for domestic support disciplines should be
maintained.  We can not agree with proposals aiming at the elimination of Blue Box.  The same goes
for reduction commitments on domestic support that would impede the continuation of our domesticreform and the pursuit of legitimate non-trade concerns.
On NAMA, the joint negotiating proposal of recently acceded countries from March 2003
(document TN/MA/29) as well as our subsequent statements call for specific provisions on lower
tariff reductions including a higher coefficient in formula, longer implementation period and a graceperiod before the implementation of new commitments.  Moreover, the sectorial tariff elimination in
the case of recently acceded countries can only be voluntary.  We would also have extreme difficulties
to go along with the elimination of the so-called nuisance duties, as this would penalize countries that
have already significantly liberalized their markets.
Concerning other areas of negotiations, Croatia will continue to be actively engaged and
contribute to their successful outcome.  In this respect, let me state our particular interest in the
services negotiations.  We also attach importance to the Singapore Issues and rules negotiations.
There is no doubt that we have a difficult task ahead of us in the next few days.  However,
with sufficient level of tolerance, readiness to  take into account the interest of others and to
compromise, we should be able to reach a satisfactory outcome of this Conference.  Let me assure youthat Croatia is ready to contribute its share.
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