. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/MIN(03)/ST/4
10 September 2003
(03-4743)
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
Fifth SessionCancún, 10 - 14 September 2003Original:  English
QATAR
Statement by H.E. Sheikh Hamad Bin Faisal Al-Thani
Minister of Economy and Commerce
First, I would like to express my appreciation to the Government of Mexico for hosting the
Fifth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization in this beautiful city of Cancún.  I
would also like to congratulate you as the Chairman of the Fifth Ministerial Conference and your
deputies for the outstanding preparations of this meeting.  In addition, we welcome Cambodia andNepal as new WTO Members.
It is an honour and privilege for the State of Qatar to participate in  this event that will
hopefully stimulate the progress of the Doha Development Agenda by bridging the gap between
different trading blocs.
We believe that a successful conclusion to the Doha Round is very constructive for the global
economy and will benefit all Members.  Therefore, my country made a strategic decision to continue
to work with its trading partners to ensure that the mission of the WTO is achieved and further
reinforced, most notably for developing countries.
Promoting international trade has always been an essential part in our economic policy.  As a
result of Qatar's trade liberalization and economic reform, the annual report of the World Bank
indicates that Qatar's openness index in 2002 was about 89 per cent, which is considered one of the
highest in the entire world.  While Qatar continues to promote international trade by making its
market accessible to most foreign goods and services, we expect other nations to remove trading
barriers on the goods that are vital to our economy, particularly on petrochemical related goods.
With regard to the impact of trade on the en vironment, Qatar has been promoting efficient,
low carbon, and low pollutant-emitting fuel (such as natural gas) .  NGOs and envi ronmental groups
share Qatar's point of view that cleaner energies add value to the global environment.  Therefore, we
ask the WTO to define and classify environment-friendly goods and services including energysources.
About two years ago the WTO hit a mileston e by launching the Doha Round.  The Doha
Development Agenda aimed not only to remove barriers in highly protective economic sectors and to
write new rules for globalization in areas such as investment and competition policy, but mostimportantly to help developing and least-developed countries.  For example, the words "development"
and "developing" were mentioned 63 times in the Doha Declaration.
My Government welcomes the adoption by the General Council of the decision on the
implementation of paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS agreement and public health.At the same time, we believe that the WTO is facing a great challenge to successfully conclude otherWT/MIN(03)/ST/4
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unresolved issues of the Doha Round such as market access to non-agricultural products,
implementation of the agreements, negotiations of trade in services and differential treatment for
developing and least-developed countries.
Because the coming rounds of trade negotiations involve advanced socio-economic topics, we
ask WTO to continue providing technical assistance to the developing and least-developed countries.
Technical assistance is vital in building developing nations' capacity to negotiate in trade rounds and
to liberalize their economic institutions.  At the same time, we advise developing countries to take
WTO technical assistance very seriously as they add value to their expertise.  For example, we in
Qatar had benefited from regional seminars that covered various trading topics.
We also ask WTO Members to expedite the accessions process of other trading nations that
seek to join the WTO.  In particular we support the accession of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Lebanon,
Sudan, and Algeria.  These countries are essential trading partners with almost all WTO Members.
Besides, recent economic reforms in these countries have been very constructive and positive for the
global economy.  We believe that these countries are qualified to join the WTO without additional
commitment beyond the provisions of the Uruguay Round Agreements.
Unfortunately, we find that regional governmental organizations from developing and least-
developed countries are not given opportunities to participate in WTO activities.  In particular, we ask
the WTO to grant the League of Arab States an observer status.  The League can be very constructive
in enhancing the capacity of its members to reform their economic institutions and liberalize theirtrade policies.
At the end we wish the Chairman of this Conference and his associates the best of luck in
coordinating the activities in this event, and we l ook forward to participating in making this important
event a fruitful one for the global economy.  Thank you for listening.
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