WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/MIN(03)/ST/115
13 September 2003
(03-4907)
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
Fifth Session
Cancún, 10 - 14 September 2003Original:  English
SIERRA LEONE
Statement by H.E. Dr Kadi Sesay
Minister of Trade and Industry
I thank you and your Government for hosting this Ministerial Conference and for the
excellent arrangements and hospitality.
Sierra Leone hopes for a successful outcome of these deliberations, an outcome that should
engender a spirit of mutual cooperation, mutual interest and mutual benefits for both developed and
developing countries.
Sierra Leone and other developing countries participate in the multilateral trading system with
the expectation that globalization would lead to our economic development and trade benefits will
reach many people in our countries and so alleviate poverty.  We are interested in a system that will
make our people richer and not poorer.
But since the Uruguay Round Agreement, the much  hoped for turning-point for many of the
economies of developing countries has not been realized.  The predicted gains have proved to have
been far shorter than expected.  Foreign direct investment into LDCs has been negligible.  Similarly,gains in terms of faster growth, greater employment opportunities and reduced levels of poverty have
been less than satisfactory.
Nearly two years ago in Doha, we launched the Doha Development Round of trade
negotiations and the Doha work programme in which we saw elements that could usher in a newbeginning to address issues of particular interest to developing countries.
Regrettably, the development dimension envisaged under the Doha work programme has not
lived up to expectations.  Looking back at progress made so far, my delegation joins others in
expressing their dissatisfaction that, notwithstanding the fact that we have taken up the challenge andinevitably moved ahead to reform our economies in line with the tenets and principles of
globalization, we still experience instances of lack of progress in addressing the problems of market
access, domestic supply constraints, finance and the required technical assistance that will ensure that
developing countries see the benefits of globalization.
Progress on the issues of market access for our agricultural products, through the removal of
export and domestic subsidies by the developed countries and the enhancement of supply capacity in
the agricultural and industrial sectors, are important to the people of Sierra Leone.
As a country, Sierra Leone has gone through very difficult moments in ending eleven years of
rebel war with untold human and physical destruction.  The war also had a debilitating effect on social
and economic activities.  But peace has now been restored and peaceful democratic elections held.WT/MIN(03)/ST/115
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Sierra Leone is now making significant strides in consolidating the peace, pursuing policies geared
towards the rehabilitation and reconstruction of its infrastructure, the reintegration of ex-combatants,
resettlement of refugees and the internally displaced.  We have successfully undertaken prescriptive
economic recovery measures resulting in a 7 per cent economic growth, 2 per cent rate of inflation
and a stable currency.
Whilst Sierra Leone has made tremendous political and macroeconomic progress in less than
two years following the end of the war, the country however faces peculiarly serious trade-related
post-conflict constraints of reconstructing the devastated infrastructure and building human and other
supply capacity that will enable us to take advantage of increasing market access opportunities that
will lead the country's integration into the multil ateral trading system.  And for this, I wish to
especially record our appreciation for the positive capacity-building initiatives that are now beingconsidered for Sierra Leone by various organizations including the WTO, UNIDO, the
Commonwealth Secretariat, the European Union and the ITC.
The commitment by the developed countries to eliminate distortions in world agriculture
caused by their policies of export and domestic su bsidies is the needed solution to resolving the
differences between the developing countries and our developed allies.  The high level of protection
in the developed countries' agriculture has seriously eroded the ability of our farmers to compete
fairly.
Market access opportunities for developing countries' agricultural commodities are therefore
being implicitly denied.  This makes special a nd differential treatment for agriculture in the
developing countries imperative.  For Sierra Leone, special and differential treatment is needed to
enable us to catch up with other countries as we have just emerged from an eleven-year war.  The
dismantling of barriers to agricultural trade is th erefore the key issue for the resolution of the problem
which has inhibited the capacity of African countries to compete and has led to an erosion of ourability to add value to raw materials.
Agriculture has very deep consequences for the development of Sierra Leone.  Almost
70 per cent of the population is engaged in the sector.  Earnings from our agricultural and tropical
produce are of priority to domestic savings and subsequent industrial growth.  Thus there is a need to
remove the imbalances in the present system.  My delegation therefore welcomes the current positive
pronouncements and moves on the removal of export and domestic subsidies by some of our keydevelopment partners.
We are disappointed at the seeming lack of progress made in areas such as transfer of
technology and trade, debt and finance.  These are issues of extreme significance to developing
countries.
Sierra Leone, like many other least-developed countries, continues to experience serious
external debt problems.  We are faced with the problem of mobilizing development finance to support
our post-conflict development and poverty allevi ation that will enable us meet the Millennium
Development Goals.  The financial problems currently experienced by many African countries can beattributed to market access problems, declining trends for world commodity prices, the slow
industrialization pace of African economies due to the imbalances in the multilateral trading system,
problems of transfer of technology and the digital divide.
In spite of the many debt initiatives, Sierra Leone, like many other countries, has not found an
exit from the debt trap.
We therefore support the view that a holistic approach should be adopted to address these
issues.  We would like to see joint efforts between the WTO, the World Bank and the IMF inWT/MIN(03)/ST/115
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addressing global economic polices and the focus on mainstreaming trade in our development
process.
At Doha, we expressed reservations to the inclusion of the Singapore issues in the programme
of work of the WTO and the current round of negotiations.  The point was made that the Singaporeissues needed further clarification and that any decision on the commencement of negotiations on
them would require an explicit consensus on the modalities in this Ministerial Conference.  It remains
clear that there still exists significant differences in the views of Members on many elements.  This
being the case, we would continue to note the desire for this issue to be discussed but at a more
appropriate time after sufficient clarifications have been made.  Meanwhile, we wil1 join others in
developing a framework for future negotiations.
What we want to achieve in this Session is a multilateral trading system that is not only
pro-growth but also pro-poor and emphasizing poverty  reduction.  We want to continue to work in a
WTO that is transparent and all-inclusive and one that effectively ensures compliance on issues of
rights and obligations for all Members - both rich and poor.
Sierra Leone wants to ensure that the benefits of globalization and liberalization reach the majority of
its citizens so as to alleviate poverty and help consolidate the peace that we now enjoy.  We want to
see an effective system that will lead to market access for our products.
To enable us to produce competitive products, Sierra Leone needs capacity-building both in
terms of the rebuilding of infrastructure and human resource development.
Though we have expressed disappointment in the lack of progress made in some areas of
extreme significance to developing countries, we believe in this Ministerial Conference's decisive
political guidance what will ensure meaningful progress.  To this end we welcome the recent decisionon TRIPS and public health that would make poor countries access cheap generic drugs for
HIV/AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis and other diseases.  We hope that the system that is being put in
place will address the urgent legitimate needs of our people without it being stifled by bureaucratic
procedures.
We strongly support the initiative taken by African countries on cotton subsidy and
commodity price stabilization.
My delegation is confident that under your astute leadership, the development work
programme will remain in focus and that by the end of this Fifth WTO Ministerial Conference, we
would collectively have found significant solutions to some of the contentious issues.
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