. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/L/576 
23 June 2004 
 (04-2717) 
 Original:   English 
   
G-8 LEADERS' STATEMENT ON TRADE 
 
Sea Island Summit 2004
 
 
Communication from the United States 
  
  The following communication, dated 21 June 2 004 and addressed to the Director-General, is 
being circulated at the request of the Delegation of the United States.  
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  I have the honor to transmit to you the G8 Leader s' Statement on Trade that was issued at the 
recent Sea Island Summit of G8 Heads of Stat e.  The statement clearly expresses the strong 
commitment of these leaders to seize this mome nt of strategic opportunity to work with our 
negotiating partners and achieve a successful outco me in July.  I would appreciate if you could 
circulate the text of this statement to Members as a WTO document.  
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G-8 LEADERS' STATEMENT ON TRADE 
 
  We face a moment of strategic economic opportunity:  by combining an upturn in growth in various 
regions with a global reduction in barriers to trade,  we can deepen, broaden, and extend this economic 
expansion. 
 Trade liberalization is key to boosting global prosper ity.  It is one of the most effective ways to 
generate economic growth, and represents great  potential for development and raising living 
standards. 
 
We are committed to the multilateral trading system as the best means of achieving greater and effective trade liberalization and stronger global tr ade rules.  The WTO has played a key role in 
driving global growth, and must continue to do so.  The G-8 is committed to expanding economic 
growth, development, and opportunity by achieving am bitious results in the global trade negotiations, 
the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) of the WTO.  We are encouraged by the reinvigoration of the 
negotiations in recent weeks.  Working in coopera tion with other WTO members, we are determined 
to move expeditiously before the end of July to  complete the frameworks on key issues that will put 
these far-reaching negotiations on track toward a ra pid and successful conclusion.  We call on all 
WTO members to work constructively and swiftly so  we can meet our shared commitment to the 
DDA. 
 WT/L/576 
Page 2  
 
Our most pressing task is to focus on the core issues in the negotiations, which are drivers of 
economic development and growth:  substantially re ducing trade-distorting agricultural subsidies and 
barriers to access to markets;  opening market s more widely to trade in goods;  expanding 
opportunities for trade in services;  overhauling and improving customs rules and other relevant 
procedures to facilitate trade;  and advancing the development of all countries, especially the poorest, 
within the WTO system.  A consen sus appears to be emerging on a way forward for these issues.  We 
must ensure that we maintain a high and consistent leve l of ambition in all areas, while bearing in 
mind all members' sensitivities.  In agriculture, we are on the verge of an historic  opportunity to meet our objectives established at 
Doha for fundamental agricultural reform encomp assing strengthened rules and specific commitments 
on support and protection in order to correct and prevent restrictions and distortions in world 
agricultural markets.  The next step is to secu re the framework, by July, for these comprehensive 
negotiations on all forms of export competition, domestic support and market access.  All three pillars 
of the agriculture negotiations must be treated w ith equal ambition.  Cotton, a matter of primary 
concern to our African partners, can best be addressed ambitiously as part of the agricultural 
negotiations, while at the same time working on de velopment-related issues with the international 
financial institutions.  Movement on agriculture will help generate pr ogress in other core issues of the DDA, including 
agreement to launch negotiations on trade facilitation, as well as continuing to liberalize trade in 
manufactures and services, and strengthening WTO rules.  In addition to expanding trade between 
developed and developing countri es, it is particularly important that the DDA encourage the 
expansion of South-South trade.  Open markets and domestic reform go ha nd in hand, offering the 
best means to further integrate developing countries in to the global economy.  We must ensure that as 
we look forward, the poorest are not left behind, but that they too develop the capacity to participate 
in the global trading system.  We recognize that di fferent countries will need to move at different 
speeds towards this aim.  The progressive integration by developing countri es of trade into their development policies and 
poverty reduction strategies is crucial for their inte gration in the global economy, and will increase the 
benefits they derive from the multilateral trading sy stem.  We call on developing countries to further 
increase their efforts in this regard, and pledge to  provide strong support in the form of technical 
assistance to build trading capacity.  We are determined to seize this moment of strate gic economic opportunity.  Therefore, we direct our 
ministers and call on all WTO members to fina lize the frameworks by July to put the WTO 
negotiations back on track so that we can exped itiously complete the D oha Development Agenda. 
 
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