. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/MIN(03)/ST/51
11 September 2003
(03-4817)
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
Fifth Session
Cancún, 10 - 14 September 2003Original:  English
ALBANIA
Statement by H.E. Mr Ilir Ciko
Deputy Minister of Economy
Two years ago three thousand innocent people lost their life and showed to the world that we
are still vulnerable to the evil's actions.  Today we pay tribute to all the victims of the 11 September
tragedy, their families, to the heroes who sacrificed their lives in the war against terrorism and wenever forget that much has to be done to achieve our common goal:  a safe and better world for the
future generations.
Two years ago we made a promise to three billion people all around the world - the World
Trade Organization would be a forum where everyone's voice would be heard and efforts to reducepoverty and achieve sustainable development in the world will prevail.  Today we see tangible results
of this joint commitment and hope for the lives of those who are watching us in here. Today is the
time we need to move from separations to synergy,  from affirmations to actions, from promises to
prosperity.
Albania is a clear example of how the World Trade Organization could contribute for the
development.  Although a recently acceding Member, Albania has opened its market towardsinternational trade and foreign investments.  The experience of Albania has proven that trade
liberalization in all its aspects, by means of the facilitation of tariff and non-tariff barriers, the
reduction of trade-distorting subsidies, the facilitation of licence procedures of trade activities and the
fulfilment of WTO rules, together with a stable macroeconomic environment is a key for economic
growth and sustainable development.
Membership in the WTO is a strong commitm ent for the law enforcement and an important
factor for the stability of the macro and microeconomic environment.  In this respect, Albania is
making every necessary effort to comply with the commitments taken during the accession
negotiations and is elaborating a contemporaneous legal framework in compliance with the WTOprinciples and Agreements.
The Albanian accession to the WTO marked the first and indispensable step for its integration
into the international dimension.  It constitutes at the same time a challenge for the implementation of
deep reforms and integrating economic policies th at are being successfully implemented.  The
advancement in trade reforms is successfully mate rialized in terms of regional cooperation and
integration with eight Free Trade Agreements recently signed with South Eastern European Countries.
These agreements aim at increasing export potentials towards our countries by complying with
international standards and quality of goods as well as the attraction of foreign direct investment.
Although in their initial implementa tion steps, these Agreements have provided positive effects in the
growth rate of export volume for the negotiated goods.WT/MIN(03)/ST/51
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Significant progress has been made by Albania towards the integration into European family
and the intensification of relations with our main trade partner, the European Union.  The launch of
the negotiations for the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the European Union is
considered by the Albanian Government as an important milestone in this process and as the
beginning of a long and complex road toward deeper economic and trade, as well as institutional andlegal reforms.
Reforms recently undertaken by Albania go even further than the WTO boundaries.  The very
liberal commitments related to agricultural and non-agricultural products market access, are beyond
the levels agreed upon during the negotiations of the Uruguay Round.  Albania is a small country to
affect the global trade but even the smallest changes in the global trade rules, could have profound
effects in the Albanian economy.
On the agricultural products market access, as a recently acceding country, Albania is
requiring flexibility on the modalities for reduction on these issues:
1. Exemption of low duties from further reduction commitments;2. providing for lower tariff reduction and longer implementation period for new
commitments;
3. providing a grace period - recent acceding Members should begin the implementation
of new commitments several years after the beginning of implementation period for
all Members;  or, several years after the end of accession implementation period,
whichever is later.
Since its accession, Albania was in favour of the liberalization and elimination of
trade-distorting domestic subsidies in agriculture, and submitted a schedule that served also as a
model for other countries.  But as a country with an economy in transition where the agriculture sector
still provides a very important sh are in the GDP, being at the same time a base for the development of
agro-processing industry, we esteem that the subsidies that fall under the category Green Box
measures are still very important for the increase of efficiency in this sector.  Therefore, provisions on
flexibility are useful for the beginning of the implementation period as well as the length of this
period.
On trade in services, Albania has made very liberal commitment during the membership
process;  that is why we invite other Member countries to undertake further liberal step in their actual
commitments.
Last but not least, I would like to take this opportunity to thank, on behalf of the Government
of the Republic of Albania, the Mexican authorities and the WTO Secretariat for the outstanding
organization of the Fifth Session of the WTO Minist erial Conference.  I also would like to extend my
compliments to the WTO Director-General, the Chai rman of the General Council and all the Members
for the effort they have made to achieve progress on negotiations related to sensitive but importantissues.  This is a crucial step towards the fulf ilment of the tasks jointly undertaken in the Doha
mandate.
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