WT/MIN(24)/ST/118  
26 February  2024 
(24-1677) Page: 1/2 
Ministerial Conference  
Thirteenth Session  
Abu Dhabi, 26 -29 February 2024  Original:  English  
 
  
STATEMENT BY HON. MR MANQOBA B. KHUMALO (MP)  
MINISTER OF COMMERCE, INDUSTRY AND TRADE  
ESWATINI  
Please allow me on behalf of the Kingdom of Eswatini to congratulate the Government and People 
of the United Arab Emirates in hosting the 13th WTO Ministerial Conference. My delegation is most 
grateful for the warm and friendly hospitality extended to us since our arrival in this beautiful city of 
Abu Dhabi. The thirteenth session takes place as we mark the 30th anniversary since the 
establishme nt of the WTO. We feel honored to share this great milestone with a sister country and 
we wish to express our full solidarity and support for the success of this Conference.  
My delegation wishes to reaffirm the principles and objectives enshrined in the Ma rrakesh Agreement 
and underscore the importance of the rules -based, open, fair, inclusive, equitable, and transparent 
multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core. We commend the WTO Director -General, 
Dr Ngozi in advancing the multilateral agenda, particularly the fisheries subsidies negotiations. 
During this Conference we look forward in seeing meaningful progress on other issues including 
inter alia Agriculture, NAMA, Services, TRIPS waiver, Trade and Industrial Policy, e -commerce, Trade 
and Envir onment and Aid for trade.  
My delegation wishes to associate itself with the statements made by the African and OACP Groups 
to reaffirm the Doha Development Agenda (DDA), and the Declarations and Decisions adopted at 
Doha and at the Ministerial Conferences held since then. The DDA framework under which this round 
of negotiations was established is fundamental to the most vulnerable in this Organization because 
it embodies the notion that trade is not merely an end in itself but a means to development and 
prosperity, particularly to our SMEs, women and the youth. So long as trade does not deliver on 
inclusive growth and development, it shall remain an empty promise to the poor. It is therefore 
deeply regrettable that there has not been much progress in the neg otiations since our last gathering 
in June 2022 in Geneva, particularly on the development issues which are fundamental to developing 
countries including LDCs.  
Agriculture remains a priority in pursuing the developmental objectives of most developing count ries 
and about 70% of the rural poor derive their livelihood and incomes from this sector in Eswatini. 
However, despite all efforts to advance the negotiations and achieve a balanced outcome in the key 
areas of the agriculture negotiations by the Membershi p, and especially by the countries that stand 
to benefit most from a change in prevailing multilateral rules; it is lamentable that we have been 
unable to reach convergence on the core issues, and reform agriculture, the most trade -distorted 
sector in the context of WTO rules.  
An outcome on agriculture that builds on the Decisions taken at MC12, prioritizing food security is 
very critical, hence the work of the Working Group on Food Security, that was established along with 
the work programme mandated by Paragraph 8 of the MC12 Ministerial Declaration on the 
Emergency Response to Food Insecurity must continue. In addition, the continuation of the reform 
process in agriculture must meaningfully address the food security concerns of Least Developed 
Countries(L DCs) and Net Food Importing Developing Countries (NFIDs). Further, it is fundamental 
to preserve the policy space for developing countries under Article 6.2 of the Agreement on 
Agriculture to unlock their productive capacity and pursue industrial & rural d evelopment, 
agricultural transformation, and livelihood objectives.  WT/MIN(24)/ST/118  
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  My delegation strongly underscores the centrality of development in the work of the WTO and stands 
firmly behind the principles under which the DDA was launched, especially, Less than Full  Reciprocity 
and Special and Differential Treatment (S&DT) for Developing Countries, in particular for Least -
Developed Countries (LDCs), Small and Vulnerable economies (SVEs), and Net Food -Importing 
Developing Countries (NFIDCs). In this regard, Eswatini s tresses the importance of protecting and 
building on progress achieved so far in the DDA negotiations, especially the preservation of 
flexibilities so far stabilized across the spectrum in Agriculture, Fisheries Subsidies, NAMA and in 
Services for these sp ecial groups.  Many of those S&D specific proposals address the industrialization 
concerns of my country and give us the policy space to be able to implement policies that protect 
and grow our nascent industries, in line with Africa’s Industrialization Deve lopment mandate, as well 
as the African Union’s agenda 2063 on boosting intra -Africa Trade and in the implementation of the 
African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).  
The reform of the WTO is critical to ensure that the rules based multilateral trading system remains 
relevant and also that pressing global challenges such as food security, pandemic responses and 
climate change mostly affecting developing countries are addressed. We reaffirm the need for a WTO 
reform process that would include proposals fr om all Members in a fair, transparent, inclusive and 
non-discriminatory manner. We also recall the importance of the development dimension as an 
integral part of any reform of the WTO. Concerning the TRIPS waiver, Eswatini supports the proposal 
on the exte nsion of the Waiver to also cover therapeutics and diagnostics, as soon as possible 
considering the emergence of new COVID -19 variants which endangers human life, particularly in 
most developing countries’ economies. The escalation of discriminatory measur es and non -tariff 
barriers on exports from developing countries, particularly Technical Barriers to Trade, Sanitary and 
Phytosanitary measures, and onerous private standards imposed by developed countries in the 
disguise of climate change cannot be ignored  and needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency. 
Eswatini would fully support capacity building and technical assistance programmes for developing 
countries under the Aid for Trade initiative to address such concerns.  
Before concluding my statement, allow me to congratulate the Comoros and Timor -Leste on the 
occasion of their formal accession to the WTO at this Ministerial gathering. Also, my delegation 
reaffirms its full solidarity with all African Countries, particularly LDCs, that are cu rrently in the 
process of accession to the WTO.  
In closing, my delegation recognizes and applauds the achievements of this Organization over the 
past three decades, especially the adoption of the Fisheries Subsidies Agreement which my 
Government is in the active process of ratifying, and we reiterate that the WTO shall remain the 
primary forum to negotiate Multilateral Trade Rules. In this vain, my delegation urges that all issues 
remaining unresolved, be addressed and concluded under the auspices and princ iples of the DDA 
and we caution against attempts to reinterpret, change, or as recently proposed by some Members 
in this house, ABANDON the agreed mandates or deviate from the agreed principles in the 
negotiations. Eswatini remains fully committed and stro ngly believes in the multilateral trading 
system and the principles on which it was established.  
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