WT/MIN(13)/ST/58  
 
5 December 2013  
(13-6714)  Page: 1/3  
Ministerial Conference 
Ninth Session 
Bali, 3-6 December 2013  Original: English  
 
STATEMENT BY HON. AMADU BUKARI SOROGHO 
MEMBER OF PARLIAMENT AND CHAIRMAN OF THE PARLIAMENTARY 
 SELECT COMMITTEE ON TRADE, INDUSTRY AND TOURISM 
GHANA 
I t  i s  w i t h  g r e a t  p l e a s u r e  a n d  h o n o u r  t h a t  I  a d d r e s s  t h i s  a u g u s t  C o n f e r e n c e .  O n  b e h a l f  o f  t h e  
Government and people of Ghana, let me at the outset, express my appreciation to the Government and people of Indonesia for hosting the 9
th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC9). This 
gesture reflects once again Indonesia’s commitment to the cause of development and the 
multilateral trading system.  We appreciate very much your hospitality and will take back to Ghana 
fond memories of our stay in Bali. 
 
I also commend the Chairman of the General Council, the Director-General, the various Chairs of Committees, team of facilitators, negotiators from Member States and the WTO Secretariat for 
working hard in preparations for this Ministerial. 
 The importance of trade to the growth and development of any nation has been become 
unquestionable. Trade, certainly, has the potential of ensuring economic growth and lifting millions 
of people out of poverty. The aims of the Doha Round agreed at Doha in 2001 remain as valid as 
they ever were. We all know that the objectives it embodied - growth, development, opportunity - 
are more vital than ever. As a result, the trem endous amount of work that has produced the 
various draft texts on the table has certainly not been for nothing.  
 Consequently, at the 8
th WTO Ministerial Conference, we gave guidance to our Ambassadors and 
Experts to fully explore areas where it was possible to reach early agreements whiles taking steps 
to conclude the entire round of negotiations pr ogressively. Our negotiators came up with some 
areas where agreements could be reached for early harvest in Bali. These areas include some aspects of Agriculture bothering on food security, the administration of tariff rate quotas and 
export competition; trade facilitation;  some development and least developed (LDCs) specific 
issues.  
The proposals on agriculture, especially on food security, were fully supported. The issue of food 
security is of a crucial interest to Africa. Africa is  already challenged when it comes to food security 
as a result of factors such as undeveloped agricultural sectors, lack of support services, market 
access barriers, subsidies among others.  
 It is an acknowledged fact that effective trade facilitation reforms can bring about considerable benefits to countries. It is in this spirit that Ghana believes that although developing countries 
(DCs) are not the demandeurs of the Trade Faci litation in the WTO Doha Development Agenda 
negotiations, they remain positively engaged to reach a satisfactory and balanced outcome. Several countries, including Ghana, have unilaterally embarked on trade facilitation initiatives and 
so there is no doubt about how positively it can inure to a country. However, the issue at stake is 
the binding nature of the agreement to be concluded at the WTO without an equally binding assurance that developing countries and LDCs would be provided with the required technical, 
financial, and capacity building assistance as enshrined in Annex D of the July 2004 Framework 
and Annex E of the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration of December 2005. This demand is absolutely necessary and developing countries should continuously push for it since trade facilitation measures can be overly-burdensome financially. 
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  The Doha Round has the potential to reverse the ma rginalization of LDCs and help them to meet 
the Millennium Development Goals. Issues of importance to LDCs, including duty-free quota-free access with flexible rules of origin, cotton and services waiver must be given priority in the continuing effort to advance the Doha Work prog ramme. There is, however, the need for LDCs to 
first resolve their internal differences. This needs to be backed up with practical measures to 
enable LDCs to make use of new opportunities. In that regard, the Enhance Integrated Framework programme and public-private partnerships should be strengthened so that targeted programmes 
can be implemented to ensure that LDCs be nefit from market access opportunities.   
 It is unfortunate that, despite the intensificatio n of negotiations since the new Director General 
assumed office in September 2013, the early harvest Doha package for Bali also faced daunting 
challenges and could not be multilaterised as a stepping stone to conclude the Round. Members 
are urged to stabilize elements in the early harvest package in order to move the negotiations forward and not back track. 
 
There is no doubt that the WTO is a great global asset. It has contributed tremendously to the expansion of the global economy since its creation in 1995. This is a system with three legs - 
implementing existing agreements, settling disput es and negotiating. As a forum for negotiating 
trade rules and settling disputes the WTO remains irreplaceable. Although implementing existing 
agreements and settling disputes are functioning qu ite well, there is a sense among many that the 
WTO has lost its negotiating way. How long can it stand on only two? The WTO’s negotiating role 
has not only faltered but is gradually being weakened as the action has moved elsewhere leading 
to the surge in plurilateral, preferential and bilateral trade agreements. Dispute settlement has 
become correspondingly more dominant. And at the policy level an organization once noted for a 
pragmatic and businesslike approach risks becoming a talking shop where delegations rehearse 
well-worn speeches because there is little incentive to do otherwise.  
Reinvigorating the negotiating role of the WTO is crucial to the longer-term credibility of the 
organization. This is not to neglect all the other important work of the WTO, from resisting protectionism to building trade capacity in developing countries. This work is vital and it must be enhanced, in co-operation with other agencies. The central need, though, is to refocus on the 
areas where the WTO adds its unique value and which are badly in need of revival. 
 This situation can be turned around. The starting point is to refocus on the core mandate of the 
WTO and not reinvent it since it is in the Marrakesh Agreement. This is an organization centred on 
trade. We weaken it if we encourage mission creep or allow its focus to become blurred. Of course, the WTO exists in a wider context. That is why a system which works to break down trade barriers 
and open opportunities at a global level is so impo rtant. That is the asset we all have in the WTO 
and we must be prepared to invest time, energy and commitment in it. The reality is that we need a WTO that is capable of negotiating, and negotiating on issues that really matter. The WTO should be at the centre of international trade debate and negotiations because only the WTO is founded 
on the principle of non-discrimination in trade and only the WTO offers global rights – and 
obligations - to its members.  
The responsibility for breaking the deadlock in the Doha Round negotiations does not lie with a few 
Members. All Members have to be prepared to make the necessary trade-offs if the Doha Round is to be concluded. Clearly the leading trading nations have a particular responsibility given their 
weight in world trade, but the WTO is about responsibilities - and opportunities - for all. It is 
imperative for all of us to ensure that the comprehensive Doha Round is concluded by the 11
th 
Ministerial Conference (MC11) if we want the round to be still useful. We may all be eager to send a signal that the WTO is alive by agreeing to a decision. My only plea is that we send a signal that 
shows the WTO as being positively-alive and not negatively. And this positive signal can only be 
achieved if development remains at the centre of whatever package that the Doha Round would produce.    
 
A successful conclusion to the Doha Round and a reinvigorated multilateral trading system would deliver opportunities to all participants, including the smallest, weakest and most vulnerable 
economies. The development imperative remains crucial. We must take a dynamic approach to 
fulfilling it, bringing developing and least develope d countries fully within reach of the new trading 
opportunities that can help them to alleviate poverty and put their economies on the path of sustainable growth and development.   
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  I would like to conclude by congratulating the Government and people of Yemen on its accession 
to the WTO as the 160th Member State and wish the country all the best in its integration into the 
multilateral trading system.   
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