WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/MIN(03)/W/20
12 September 2003
(03-4838)
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
Fifth Session
Cancún, 10 - 14 September 2003Original:  English
AU/ACP/LDC JOINT POSITION ON DEVELOPMENT ISSUES
Communication from Mauritius
The following communication dated 12 September 2003, has been received from the
delegation of Mauritius.
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Special and differential treatment
AU/ACT/LDC countries express concern over the lack of tangible progress in dealing with
S&D work in the DDA.  In as far as the Annex is concerned, the proposals contained therein, while
welcome, are neither of economic value nor provide policy space for their countries in the conduct of
their trade policy.
Ministers insist that the Draft Cancún Text:
• Should accurately reflect the lack of progress in dealing with S&D work.  As such
Annex C should not be adopted as the proposals contained therein are of no economic
value and do not provide any policy space for developing countries;
• should reaffirm that the Committee on Trade and Development in Special Session, as
established by the TNC, is the appropriate body to deal with S&D issues;
• should detail actions on all S&D proposals and set early deadlines to accomplish
them;  and
• agreement-specific proposals should be addressed as a priority in post-Cancún work
before embarking on cross-cutting issues.
Implementation issues
The text admits that a number of issues and concerns remain outstanding.  Being a
long-standing agenda pursued by developing counties, the lack of progress, despite the political and
negotiating capital expended by developing countries, illustrates the lack of willingness by the
developed countries to engage on issues of interest to developing countries.WT/MIN(03)/W/20
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AU/ACP/LDC Ministers call for the:
• Completion of the work on implementation issues by the negotiating groups as a
matter of priority;
• setting up of a negotiating group, under the auspices of the Trade Negotiations
Committee, to address all remaining outstanding implementation issues and put
forward decisions for adoption by March 2004;
• the protection of traditional knowledge systems.
Small economies
The Draft Cancún Text, inter alia , reaffirms the commitment on the Work Programme on
Small Economies and urges Members to adopt measures that would facilitate the fuller integration of
small, vulnerable economies into the multilateral trading system.  In this regard, Ministers should
direct that Members adopt substantive, results-oriented trade related measures in favour of small,vulnerable economies no later than 1 January 2005.
Trade, debt and finance
Ministers call for a more focused work programme to be undertaken by the Working Group
and instruct it to make recommendations for concrete action by 31 March 2004.
Trade and Transfer of Technology
Ministers call for a more focused work programme that will include the identification of
elements for a possible multilateral agreement.  Further, Ministers instruct the Working Group to
submit to the Sixth Session of the Ministerial Conference clear recommendations on decisions that
would allow for increased flows of technology to developing countries.
Technical cooperation
At Doha, Ministers confirmed technical assistance and capacity-building "as core elements of
the development dimension of the multilateral trading system".  Developed countries undertook to
provide technical assistance and capacity support to developing and in particular, least-developed
countries.  Ministers call for a reaffirmation of the Doha mandate and call on the development
partners to adequately finance all technical assistance programmes on a demand-driven basis.
Further, Ministers call for the delivery of targeted technical assistance and capacity-building supportto address the special needs of AU/ACP/LDC countries in post-war and conflict situations.
LDCs
The implementation of the work programme on LDCs and the rejuvenation of the Integrated
Framework are two important elements to pursue on th e relevant part of the draft text.  Moreover, the
conflicting mandates of the six core agencies need to be flagged for prompt action if the objective of
the integration of LDCs into the multilateral trading system is to be attained.  In this respect, Ministers
call for the improvement of the Integrated Framew ork and closer coordination between the six core
agencies.  Ministers also reiterate the need to grant bound duty-free, quota-free market access forLDC products in developed country markets.
Ministers also call for the removal of brackets in paragraph 24 of the Draft Ministerial Text.WT/MIN(03)/W/20
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Commodity issue
The long-term decline and fluctuations of th e prices of commodities, and the continued
dependence of the AU/ACP/LDC countries on few commodity exports, makes it imperative that they
pursue an agenda on this subject in the WTO, with a view to finding a lasting solution to this matter,which is at the core or their development problematic.  In this regard, Ministers call on the Committee
on Trade and Development to continue its work in this area and present recommendations to the
General Council by December 2003, with the proposal by Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania as the basis
of this work.
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