WT/MIN(24)/ST/49  
26 February  2024 
(24-1529) Page: 1/2 
Ministerial Conference  
Thirteenth Session  
Abu Dhabi, 26 -29 February 2024  Original: English  
 
  
STATEMENT BY H.E. MRS CHAM NIMUL  
MINISTER OF COMMERCE  
CAMBODIA  
First and foremost, I would like to extend my sincere appreciation to the Government of the United 
Arab Emirates and the World Trade Organization for organizing this 13th WTO Ministerial Conference. 
After the unprecedented success of MC12, the world, is once again, places a lot of hopes and 
expectations on all of us here for the next 4 days in Abu Dhabi to deliver decisions of great 
significance that would shape global tra de landscape for many years to come.   
This 13th Ministerial Conference is a momentous Ministerial where the WTO welcomes, for the first 
time since 2016, two new Members, the Union of the Comoros and the Republic of Timor -Leste. 
Cambodia would like to congr atulate both of these countries for their successful accession, and we 
would like to extend our warmest welcome to them to the WTO family. We stand ready to work 
together with Comoros and Timor -Leste in all endeavours to ensure smooth post -accession 
undert akings and for them to take full advantage of the WTO for the development of their countries.   
The years preceding this Ministerial Conference have seen the world economy continue to struggle 
to recover evenly from multifaceted crises including COVID -19 pa ndemic, geo -economic 
fragmentation, and conflicts around the world. These crises continue to have significant impact on 
global economies, particularly the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). While trade remains an 
important driver for LDCs ' growth, the LDCs ' share of global export has been stagnating for the past 
10 years at less than 1% with the COVID -19 pandemic even rolled back the progress that have been 
stringently achieved in the previous decade.   
This Ministerial has been unofficially dubbed "the refor m Ministerial " and I can fully subscribe to the 
notion that the reform of the WTO is needed to make this esteemed Organization relevant, effective, 
and fit for the purpose of the 21st century. Indeed, reform of the WTO should be looked at from all 
perspect ives and not only from the angles of the larger economies. The WTO should be used as a 
global public goods and we need to leverage this goods for the benefit of all people and to leave no 
one and no place behind .  
To ensure the WTO provides inclusive benef its to all Members, we need to fully reinforce 
development as the core purpose of the WTO and as the standing guiding principle of all our 
negotiations in this house. It is imperative that the agenda of the LDCs be brought to the forefront 
of all our delib erations and Members should extend the utmost flexibilities and understandings of 
the unique challenges faced by this most vulnerable group of countries. Cambodia is pleased of the 
WTO General Council decision on extension of unilateral duty -free and quota -free preferences in 
favour of countries graduated from the LDC category adopted on 23 October 2023. We hope to see 
Members exercising further flexibilities to accommodate the LDCs ' request in Annex 2 of the smooth 
transition proposal.   
The adoption o f the Fisheries Subsidies Agreement at MC12 had been a landmark achievement. It 
took more than 20 years for the WTO to fulfil its mandate as assigned by the 2030 Agenda for 
Sustainable Development. But our tasks do not stop there. WTO Members have collecti ve 
responsibility to safeguard the life under the seas and the sustainability of our oceans. We need to 
be steadfast in our resolve to complete the comprehensive disciplines of fisheries subsidies as soon 
as possible without waiting for the final deadline.  The longer we wait, the longer time we leave for WT/MIN(24)/ST/49  
 
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  overfishing and overcapacity activities to go on unchecked, thus further deteriorating much needed 
marine resources which many of us rely upon for our food source and livelihood. In this regard, WTO 
Members  should carefully pay attention to the LDC Group 's position on these disciplines as the LDCs 
are not the main contributor to overfishing and overcapacity and therefore should be provided with 
appropriate and effective special and differential treatments to  allow the LDCs to access these 
essential resources for their development.   
We need to continue the momentum on the follow up discussions on decisions in favour of LDCs 
including services waiver, rules of origin, and duty -free and quota -free. Specifically,  we took note of 
the significant progress of the discussion on preferential rules of origin in the form of the Committee 
on Rules of Origin decision adopted in April 2022 that provides the roadmap to achieve full 
implementation of the Nairobi Decision on p referential rules of origin for LDCs. It is critical that WTO 
Members continue to place greater importance on these LDC -specific issues to promote and upscale 
LDCs' trade, allowing them to fully leverage Multilateral Trading System and to utilize trade to drive 
and raise their economic profiles for inclusive and sustainable development of their countries. At this 
Ministerial Conference, Members should continue to  acknowledge the practical needs of these 
provisions and to continue to engage on follow up acti ons to fully operationalize these provisions.   
As I have mentioned, the LDC Group places critical importance on WTO reform issues. I would like 
to place on record that the LDC Group 's proposal on WTO reform has been progressive. We have 
taken note that a n umber of reforms in the monitoring and deliberative functions, in line with our 
proposal, have been implemented as part of reform by doing. However, other critical reform areas 
have yet to gather satisfactory momentum, especially on Dispute Settlement Syst em reform, which 
Members have been mandated to address to have a fully and well -functioning dispute settlement 
system accessible to all Members by 2024. With trust among WTO Members is at a premium, to 
achieve the task we have at hand, WTO Members need to be open and flexible by taking into account 
concerns of all Members. The reform process should be formalized, and the discussions be carried 
out under the multilateral structures to ensure inclusiveness and transparency in order to build this 
much needed c onfidence with a view to achieving positive outcomes later this year.   
In addition, our expectations would extend also to addressing key agricultural issues, resolving 
TRIPS -related issues, integrating environmental considerations, fostering new developmen t 
initiatives, and accelerating digital trade for a more inclusive future. These steps are crucial in 
ensuring a fair, balanced, and inclusive trade system that not only promotes economic growth but 
also safeguards the environment, public health, and SMEs.   
I would like to conclude that Cambodia places great values on the rule -based Multilateral Trading 
System. It is our strongest desire to have a stronger, relevant, effective, and fit -for-the-purpose 
WTO, so that it can continue to serve as a global public  goods for the benefit of all Member countries 
regardless of the level of development. To achieve this, we need all Members to rise up to the 
occasion to address differences together and in a collective way by keeping an open mind and be 
pragmatic, exercis e flexibility and restraints and try to resolve issues through constructive 
engagement. I would like to reemphasize that Cambodia would like to see a successful 13th 
Ministerial Conference and we will work constructively with all Members throughout this MC 13 to 
achieve that.   
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