. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/MIN(01)/ST/61
11 November 2001
(01-5636)
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
Fourth SessionDoha, 9 - 13 November 2001Original:  Spanish
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Statement by H.E. Mr Hugo Guiliani Cury
Minister of Industry and Trade
This meeting is being held at what is a difficult time the world over.  Nevertheless, we are
here to participate constructively in the World Trad e Organization negotiations.  However, if we think
back to past events and then consider the present situation, we have to admit that the Organization still
lacks equitable solutions for the developing countries.  This is clearly making it lose credibility in the
eyes of many countries.  If the outcome of the Doha Ministerial is to be successful, it must, ofnecessity, be understood that multilateral trade has to operate as a two-way system.
The draft Ministerial Declaration which is being presented in Doha promotes issues of interest
to developed countries and leaves those raised by lesser-developed ones unresolved.  For example, in
the case of agriculture, no mention is made of the need to abolish tariff peaks, tariff escalation,subsidies or export credits.  Nor has the proposal to create a development box, put forward by several
countries, been taken into consideration.
The question of implementation has been discussed at length without any immediate solutions
to the large number of problems pending.  In this respect, we note that they have been included in the
mandates for future negotiations.
Special and differential treatment will not form the subject of negotiations and it has been
considered preferable to keep the matter under review, without undertaking to develop an
understanding that would make it binding.
Nor is there a proposal to set up working groups to examine the relationship between trade,
debt and finance and between trade and transfer of technology, as our countries have requested.
The Dominican Republic has opened up its economy and, as a result, enjoyed strong growth
averaging 8.5 per cent over the last ten years – the highest in Latin America.  Within this strategy, one
of the sectors displaying the greatest momentum is the free-trade zone export sector.  The followingfigures highlight its importance in our economy:
- Exports by this sector in 2000 totalled US$4.8 billion, or 83 per cent of total exports;
- this sector accounts for more than 20 per cent of all jobs in our economy.
Can a country undertake to dismantle its economy's most dynamic sector which, in just a few
years, has come to generate 83 per cent of its foreign exchange earnings?  Can a country abruptly
close down a productive sector which accounts for more than 20 per cent of all jobs in its economy?
I personally feel that this is impossible and it is th is very impossibility which dictates our standpoint,
one shared by many other countries which, to a grea ter or lesser extent, are in the same situation.WT/MIN(01)/ST/61
Page 2
How then can we possibly be expected to dismantle, no later than 2007, a sector which has
proved the best instrument we have ever had in terms of attracting foreign investment, diversifying
exports, creating jobs and preventing the flow of migrants from the Dominican Republic to the
United States?  We reaffirm here the need to extend, under Article 27.4 of the Agreement on
Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, the transition period for free trade zones until 2018.
The message that we wish to put across is a clear one:For the Doha Ministerial to prove successful, the World Trade Organization must
appropriately address the concerns of developing countries and, at the same time, tackle the
protectionist pressures which still prevail in developed countries.
In such a delicate and politically sensitive situation as this, the Dominican Republic will be
unable to join any consensus to launch a new round of negotiations unless it is granted the time-frame
that it, along with a large number of countries, has called for.
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