./.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/MIN(03)/ST/431
11 September 2003
(03-4804)
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
Fifth SessionCancún, 10 - 14 September 2003Original:  English
SOUTH AFRICA
Statement by the Honourable Alexander Erwin
Minister of Trade and Industry
South Africa believes that the task we face here in Cancun is highly achievable - because all
of us know the critical decisions we must take in this Conference, if the WTO is to remain true to its
purpose of promoting global economic prosperity in which all can benefit, especially the poor and
marginalized in the world.
There have already been too many missed opportunities, and history will judge us harshly if
we are to allow Cancun to fail to put the world trade system on a course that will fulfill the hopes of
millions of people in the developing world for a share in the fruits of the globalized world economy.
In 1994, the Uruguay Round produced an imbalanced outcome for developing countries. We
tried to correct that in Singapore in 1996, and we made some progress.  We failed dismally in Seattle
in 1999. In Doha we gave ourselves another chance, and raised the hopes of the poor and
marginalized by adopting a Development Agenda .
Here in Cancun we must prepare to harvest, and we have scored a historic victory with the
agreement on Trips and Public Health concluded in Geneva just days before Cancun. South Africa
believes that, unless we act with a greater degree of common purpose and a sense of urgency, thecause of development will once again be set back, with negative implications for the developing
world, and indeed for the global economy.
Because of the many missed opportunities, our agenda has become crowded by too many
issues. Many of them are driven by powerful interest s in the rich countries seeking to preserve their
unfair privileges.
But we dare not be confused that the central and overriding task we face in this negotiation is
to decisively address the fundamental structural imbalances in the current world trading system. For
South Africa and the developing countries, this is a fight about social and economic justice, and it is afight inside the WTO, and not outside in the streets, as has fashionably become depicted by the media.
It is therefore inevitable that agriculture, and the outcome in this area, is decisive in whether
we succeed or fail in Cancun.  It is through addressing the inequities in the current global agricultural
trade regime that we can begin to seriously address the widespread poverty in which so many millionsof our people live in the developing world, and in Africa in particular.
Beyond the preferences that have enabled us to begin to trade, what the poor need is to be
able to trade on a fair and level playing field, and in a meaningful and sustainable manner.  True,
                                                     
1 This document cancels and replaces the document wi th the same symbol circulated on 11 September
2003.WT/MIN(03)/ST/43
Page 2
preferences have been an important starting point; but to be told to remain content with a system of
selective preferential treatment for a handful of commodities is to be denied the opportunity to realize
the full potential and comparative advantage of our economies, many of which are richly endowed
with natural and human resources.
With the success we achieved in Doha, we have it is truly within our means to make a
decisive break, and fulfill the promise of development through multilateral cooperation under the
WTO.
The moment is right. And with the growing alliance of developing countries around the G21,
the alignment of political power is also right.  The G21 represents the vision and the leadership that
the world and our people have long hoped for in the face of the challenge of addressing theimbalances and inequities of the current agricultural trade system, and in ensuring global economic
prosperity in which all can benefit, in the developing and developed worlds alike.
The approach of the G21 is not a South versus North approach, but represents real advance in
addressing the development challenge and achieving justice in agricultural trade and the worldeconomy, in which both the North’s and South’s people have an interest.
Our task in Cancun should, and can, be approached as a matter of common purpose and
collective interest of the world.  But the opponents of fair trade and real progress are opting for divide
and rule tactics against developing countries - dividing us on the basis of those included and excludedin preferences, on the basis of those more developed and less developed, and on the basis of the
continents from which we come - all this to distract us from the central task of attacking an unfair and
iniquitous trade system, and to delay the necessary and urgent changes that we must agree to in this
conference.
They will succeed if, as developing countries, we fail to recognize that our power in this
negotiation lies in uniting behind the common goal of a freer and fair global trade system, which will
advance our economic development, and which is within our grasp.
We dare not let this happen, and we dare not let Cancun be yet another missed opportunity.
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