WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/MIN(99)/ST/61
1 December 1999
(99-5257)
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
Third Session
Seattle, 30 November - 3 December 1999Original:  French
SENEGAL
Statement by H.E.  Mr. Khalifa Ababacar Sall
Minister of Commerce and Handicrafts
 May I first of all, on behalf of His Excellency Mr Abdou Diouf, President of the Republic of
Senegal, the Senegalese Government, and the Delegation accompanying me and on my own behalf,
express our deep gratitude and appreciation for the warm welcome and attention that we havereceived since our arrival in the beautiful city of Seattle.
It is a real source of satisfaction to us Senegalese that this Conference of the World Trade
Organization is taking place in the United States of America, a country that is a great friend of
Senegal, connected to Africa by historic links which have generated exemplary relations ofcooperation, based on mutual interest and active solidarity.
The United States has proved to the rest of the world the virtues of "commercial diplomacy",
the features of which are trade in goods and services and, above all, an attachment to the principles of
the multilateral trading system.
Allow me also to take this opportunity to offer our warm congratulations to Mr. Mike Moore,
who has been at the head of our Organization for some months.  These congratulations also go to the
newly appointed Deputy Directors-General.
The celebration of the 50
th anniversary of the multilateral trading system and the holding of
the Second Ministerial Conference of the WTO in Geneva in May 1998 were the occasion for us to:
- Reaffirm the increasingly important role of trade in the development of countries and
the rapprochement  of peoples;
- Underline the need to lift trade barriers;- Deplore the marginalization of most of the developing countries;- Express the need for balance, fairness and justice in taking into account the interests
of all the WTO Members.
I for my part would like today to stress certain recent facts which confirm that the
implementation of the WTO Agreements must remain our prime concern.
In spite of the immense efforts made in almost all countries to improve the national
environment, Africa's share in world trade has fallen to less than three per cent.WT/MIN(99)/ST/61
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Similarly, the developing countries' share in world trade in 1998 fell for the first time in over
a decade.
In addition, from 1995 to the present, the developing countries in general and the African
countries in particular have shouldered the heavy burden entailed in implementation of the WTOAgreements.  The consequence of this, which can never be over-emphasized, has been an increase in
their imports while their exports encounter certain obstacles such as tariff peaks, tariff escalation and
technical standards.
Finally, the implementation of certain WTO Agreements still poses numerous problems for
our countries.  These should therefore be examined in depth in order to eliminate distortions and
imbalances.
Hence we feel that our current priorities should be taken into account, and these include the
following main issues:
- Immediately addressing implementation c oncerns, before launching a new round of
trade negotiations;
- Extending transitional periods for developing countries in the context of the
Agreements on Customs Valuation and on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights;
- Improving the quality of technical cooperation and including it in the regular WTO
budget;
- Increasing the possibilities of access for our goods and services to the markets of our
main partners and strengthening our national capacities with a view to making better
use of the opportunities provided by the multilateral trading system;
- Developing sub-regional and regional groupings, since integration constitutes an
essential link capable of boosting the corporate spirit and individual capacities.
In this regard, I am pleased to emphasize that some of our countries have embarked on a
massive project of regional and sub-regional construction.
The aim of these initiatives is to enable economic activity to take place not only in a wider
framework but also in a modern legal context similar to the one that OHADA, the organization for the
harmonization of African business law is trying to establish in West Africa.
Naturally, the creation of these spaces makes a strong contribution to consolidation of the
multilateral trading system.
It would therefore be desirable for the WTO to extend to these groupings the attention it gives
to the States of which they are composed.
From our point of view, shared by the other Members of the West African Economic and
Monetary Union, such an approach is capable of enhancing the expected impact of technical
cooperation.
In addition, our Conference must pay special attention to the 48 least-developed countries, 33
of which are in Africa.WT/MIN(99)/ST/61
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The international community's tr eatment of them should therefor e be in keeping with their
situation, in an endeavour more particularly to pave the way for them to real and positive change.
As to the question of debt, it represents on average four-and-a-half times the value of the
export earnings of some of our countries.
If we want trade liberalization and the strengthening of the multilateral framework to
contribute towards better integration of the developing countries into the global economy and
international trade, trade and development must be freed from the burden of debt.
Again, to take greater account of all the above, the new round of multilateral trade
negotiations, which we regard as the development round, should therefore:
- Give real meaning and substance to the prin ciple of special and differential treatment;
- Give our countries even greater importance and display stronger solidarity;
- Open up developed country markets, in particular by removing tariff and non-tariff
barriers and inappropriate trade conditionalities;
- Readjust current interests within the WTO because if, as Mr. Renato Ruggiero, the
former Director-General, said, the challenge of the last 50 years was to manage adivided world, the challenge now is to ma nage an interdependent world, and our
institutional and mental landscapes must change.
In short, we must take full account of the concerns of public opinion in our countries, which,
having already been affected by the impact of the Uruguay Round Agreements, is following
developments in the multilateral trade negotiations with a great deal of apprehension.
This is the way for us to improve the image of the WTO vis-à-vis the people of our countries
and engage in  fruitful dialogue between the Organization and civil society.
Lastly, I should like to reaffirm our faith in the multilateral trading system as a factor for
growth and stability.
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