. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/MIN(03)/ST/21
11 September 2003
(03-4780)
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
Fifth Session
Cancún, 10 - 14 September 2003Original:  English
KUWAIT
Statement by H.E. Mr Abdullah A. Al-Tawil
Minister of Commerce and Industry
At the outset, I would like to convey on behalf of the Government of the State of Kuwait my
sincere gratitude to the Government of Mexico for the excellent organization of this Fifth Ministerial
Conference of the WTO and for the hospitality and warm reception given to us since our arrival.  I
also extend my congratulations to the Chairman of the Fifth Ministerial Conference and the BureauDeputies, and wish them success in their endeavour.
I would also like to highlight the efforts made by the Director-General of the WTO and the
Chairman of the General Council and to congratulate them on their work.  The State of Kuwait takes
this opportunity to welcome Cambodia and Nepal as new WTO Members and expresses confidence
that both will be able to contribute toward the strengthening of the global trading system and defend
the WTO rules and disciplines.
We have taken important decisions at the Doha Conference, of which I recall the pertaining to
access to non-agricultural products, negotiations of trade in services, TRIPS Agreement and public
health, expand the negotiation on agriculture. In  addition, we have taken decisions pertaining to
implementation issues, special and differential treatment for developing and least developed countriesand the clarification of WTO rules.
Looking at the issues and decisions that were taken at the Doha Conference, we feel there is a
need to work diligently on these issues because they are affecting a wide sector of people, especially
in developing countries and the least developed countries, which are still facing some technical andadministrational difficulties in implementing WTO Ag reements.  Therefore, we have to emphasize the
need for more technical assistance and enough time in order for us to legislate the necessary laws for
the proper implementation of WTO agreements with full transparency.
The Doha Conference affirmed that the aim of conducting negotiation on trade in services is
to enhance the economic development for the trading partners and to the development of developing
and least developed countries.
Consequently, we emphasize what has been cited in paragraph 2 of Article l9 of the
GATS Agreement, which states that the liberalization process needs to take into consideration thegoals of national policies and the level of development across the various sectors.
We are aware that the services sector is the most important area where developing countries
and the least developed countries are still suffering from the weakness of their economic structure.
Therefore, the required liberalization process needs to take into consideration the national interest of
the countries involved;  noting that the State of Kuwait is one of the countries that rely on energy as aWT/MIN(03)/ST/21
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source of its national income.  Hence, we suggest the Council for Trade on Services to find a just
classification for energy-services sector.
We encouraged and fully supported the adoption of the decision on the TRIPS Agreement and
public health.  What WTO needs to affirm is the availability of affordable medicines to treat diseases.On this occasion, let me extend my gratitude to all Members for the efforts they have made to reach
consensus on those outstanding matters that would send a positive signal to the world.
Furthermore, the differences in development's levels, technological and industrial progress
between developed countries and other countries should be taken into consideration when conducting
market access negotiation on non-agriculture and agriculture products.  This insures that international
trade plays its proper role in the development for ec onomic integration between all countries.  In the
same direction, the new issues that had been adopted by the Singapore Conference:  transparency in
government procurement, trade facilitation, trade and competition and trade and investment requires
further study.  Therefore, no further burden to be added to the Member countries, especially that most
developing and the least developed countries are still facing technical obstacles in implementing the
Uruguay Agreements.
Kuwait, through its interaction with internati onal community seeks the success of all efforts
that lead to economic harmonization and positive integration of the world economy.  Furthermore,
Kuwait affirms the importance of speeding the accession of developing and the least developed
countries to the World Trade Organization.  Thus this Conference needs to put simplified and quickprocedures for the accession of countries in order to realize the globalization of our Organization.
In conclusion, we are of the opinion that at this Ministerial Conference we should exercise
our joint responsibilities, political wisdom, pragmatism and determination to achieve successful
conclusion which will result in further strengthening and improvement of the multilateral tradingsystem and bring benefits to all Member countries.
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