WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/MIN(01)/ST/117
12 November 2001
(01-5721)
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
Fourth Session
Doha, 9 - 13 November 2001Original:  French
CHAD
Statement by H.E. Mr Mahamat Saleh Adoum
Minister of Commerce, Industry and Handcrafts
Let me begin by expressing, on behalf of the Chadian delegation which I head and on my own
behalf, my heartfelt thanks to the Government and people of Qatar for their warm and brotherly
welcome and for the hospitality we have enjoyed ever since we arrived in this beautiful country.
I would also like to thank the Secretariat of the World Trade Organisation for the excellent
organization of this Conference.
Finally, our thanks go to the Director General of the WTO, Mike Moore, and to his
colleagues, whose competence and constant availability have contributed to reinforcing the credibility
of the World Trade Organization over the past two years.  We also commend them for their
considerable efforts in putting together a draft Ministerial Declaration which constitutes a basis for
negotiation.
As we have stressed on other occasions, Chad is committed to the objectives pursued by the
Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization.  This commitment is reflected inthe trade liberalization measures that we have taken in the area of both goods and services.
With respect to trade in services in particular, we have gone beyond the commitments
assumed when we joined the WTO by further liberalizing telecommunications and banking services.
Access to the Chadian market has thus greatly improved.  The fact is, however, that the
advantages that LDCs such as Chad expect from the multilateral trading system have not  materialized
and my country, like most other countries in its category, remains poorly placed within the system.
Consequently, it is urgent that the Fourth WTO Ministerial Conference should place the issue
of the integration of developing countries in general and the least-developed countries in particular at
the centre of its work.
How do we turn the multilateral trading system  into an instrument capable of promoting
economic development?  It seems to us that the facilitation of LDC integration in the world economywith a view to eliminating endemic poverty shou ld serve as a backdrop for discussions in this
important Conference.
In our view, the greatest challenge facing us is still duty-free access to the markets of
developed country Members for products from the developing and least developed countries.
On the subject of essential medicines, we are dealing with a matter of life or death.  This
Conference must send a clear message to the world that nothing in the TRIPS Agreement can preventWT/MIN(01)/ST/117
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Members from taking measures to protect public health.  In other words, the Agreement must be
interpreted and implemented in such a way as to support the right of WTO Members to protect public
health and to ensure that everyone has access to medicines.
We should then improve the production capacity of the LDCs by facilitating the transfer of
technology, which should be made binding.
To enhance the WTO's capacity to integrate the LDCs in the global economy, we call upon
this Conference to suggest measures to make the provisions relating to special and differential
treatment operational through a Decision that would render them legally binding.
Moreover, we reaffirm our wish to ensure th at existing trade preferences are maintained,
while at the same time stressing that any new preference granted would not undermine the current
terms and conditions of preferential access.
Because they lack both the technical and financial means, the LDCs are finding it more and
more difficult to honour their WTO commitments.  We have therefore decided to urge the developedcountry Members of the WTO to implement their obligations and commitments in the area of capacity
building in the developing countries and the least developed countries.
Over the past few years, we have been able to observe a certain incoherence between the
activities of the Bretton Woods Institutions and the WTO that has aggravated the already enormousproblems facing the LDCs, inter alia,  in honouring their WTO commitments;  indeed, the
implementation of WTO commitments has to take place alongside the implementation, every bit as
important, of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP).
We would therefore like to stress the importance of strengthening the coherence of the present
and future activities of those institutions.
At the same time, we are in favour of the full implementation of the Declaration on the
Contribution of the WTO to Achieving Greater Coherence in Global Economic Policy Making.
Most of the Uruguay Round Agreements provided for various forms of assistance by the
developed countries to the LDCs in implementing the results of the Round.  However, much to our
regret, the assistance has rarely been forthcoming.  We continue to believe that without that
assistance, the LDCs cannot participate effectively in  the multilateral trading system and hence in the
global economy.
Added to this lack of assistance is the foreig n debt burden of the LDCs.  Indeed, the question
of the LDCs participating in the global economy  and the multilateral trading system cannot be
properly tackled unless a definitive solution is found to the overwhelming burden of foreign debt
carried by the LDCs, which renders any development effort hopeless.
Consequently, we must analyze with the utmost  urgency the relationship between trade, debt
and development, with a view to reducing the debt substantially if not simply eliminating it
completely.
I do not wish to end my statement without addressing the chapter devoted to the new issues
and to the difficulties facing several countries upon their accession to the WTO.
While we recognize their importance, we do not feel that this is the right moment to negotiate
any of these issues, be it trade and competition policy, trade and the environment, trade and
investment, or electronic commerce, whose possible inclusion in our agenda is mentioned more andWT/MIN(01)/ST/117
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more frequently, since the objectives that we set when the WTO was created have not resulted in the
benefits expected, inter alia , by the LDCs.
As regards accession of countries to the WTO, Chad can only observe with a certain amount
of bitterness that any country wishing to accede to the WTO is faced with long and cumbersomeprocedures and a lack of clear and objective rules.  For the LDCs, WTO Members should facilitate the
accession process by providing conditions that take account of their level of development, of the
Uruguay Round Decision on Measures in Favour of the Least Developed Countries and of the basic
principles of special and differential treatment, a nd help them by providing financial, technical and
other assistance, including institutional assistance and capacity building.
On the occasion of its accession to the WTO at this Conference, I congratulated our friends
and brothers of Chinese Taipei on behalf of the President and Head of State, the Government and the
People of Chad.  Indeed, our country has always expr essed the with that Chinese Taipei should accede
to the WTO, a step which will undoubtedly give the Organization a new impetus.
We firmly believe and hope that, "Inchallah", at the issue of this Fourth Ministerial
Conference, concrete measures will be foreseen to implement whatever resolutions are put forward.
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