WT/MIN(17)/ST/48  
 
13 December 2017  
(17-6933) Page: 1/2 
Ministerial Conference  
Eleventh Session  
Buenos Aires, 10 -13 December 2017  Original: English  
 
STATEMENT BY HON. JOHN BRADLY FEL IX 
MINISTER FOR COMMERC E, INTERNATIONAL TRA DE,  
ENTERPRISE DEVELOPME NT, INVESTMENT AND C ONSUMER AFFAIRS  
SAINT LUCIA ON BEHALF OF CARICOM  
Member States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are ve ry pleased to be here in 
Buenos  Aires at the first World Trade Ministerial Conference to be held in South America, a 
continent that includes two Members from our group, Guyana and Suriname. Our delegations 
thank y ou, the Government and the people of the Argentine Republic for your very warm 
hospitality and the excellent arrangements.  
 
CARICOM considers this Ministerial Conference to be of great importance, in light of the 
uncertainty and disaffection being expresse d in many parts of the global community. This has led 
to the questioning in some quarters of the principles underpinning global co -operation and 
multilateral action. This Conference provides us with a very timely opportunity to re -affirm our 
strong commitm ent to multilateralism and collective action, and in particular, to a rules based, 
inclusive, multilateral trading system, enshrined in the Agreemen ts establishing the 
World  Trade  Organisation. These Agreements explicitly recognize the need to embody provi sions 
which confer differential and more favourable treatment for developing economies. The Doha 
Development Round, the launch of which we supported, further promised that issues of particular 
concern to developing countries, including small and vulnerable  economies and least developed 
countries, would be central to our work and decisions.  
 
While we recognise that the Doha Round has made limited progress, requiring recalibration of the 
negotiating approach in the WTO, the principles regarding the centrality  of the development 
dimension in the fashioning of rules remain essential. This acknowledgement led to the successful 
conclusion of the Trade Facilitation Agreement which entered into force this year and has been 
now ratified by ten CARICOM Members.  
 
Our d elegations will work with others at this Conference to ensure that these fundamental 
principles continue to guide our future work in the WTO.  
 
This year, many small and vulnerable economies in the Caribbean, including some in CARICOM, 
notably Antigua and B arbuda, Dominica , The Bahamas,  Haiti, British Virgin Islands (BVI), Anguilla, 
Turks and Caicos suffered massive devastation and absolute destruction of critical infrastructure 
from two unprecedented hurricanes, fuelled by global warming and climate change.  
While  The Bahamas, the BVI, Anguilla and Turks and Caicos are not WTO Members, they are an 
integral part of CARICOM. The entire island of Barbuda was declared unfit for habitation. The post 
hurricane impact assessment has measured Dominica’s loss to be 20 0% of GDP.  
 
Colleague Ministers, many of these countries are faced with the herculean task of reconstructing 
their entire economies. Recovery and redevelopment, including that of their productive capacity, 
will take several years.  
 
For many of these coun tries, the timeframes associated with the UN Sustainable Development 
Goals no longer apply.  
 
It is for these reasons that the time has now come for focused global attention to be paid to the 
impact of climate change on trade and the  vulnerability of Small  States, like those in CARICOM, WT/MIN(17)/ST/48  
 
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  whose attempts to insert themselves effectively into the global trading system frequently suffers 
from the devastating effects of natural disasters.  
 
Accordingly, CARICOM calls on this Conference to support the Declarations of the Small Economies 
of the OECS and that of the Ministers of the Small and Vulnerable Economies Group, for the full 
flexibility of the multilateral trading system be deployed regarding the reconstruction measures 
that may be undertaken by the affected M embers so that these be considered compatible with the 
WTO Agreements.  
 
CARICOM welcomes the draft decision on the Work Programme on Small Economies and looks 
forward to its adoption by this Conference.  
 
Our Members have participated very actively, through  the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) 
Group, in the negotiations on Fisheries subsidies disciplines, given the importance of this sector to 
our economies. We acknowledge with appreciation the hard work and engagement of Members in 
this area. We are com mitted to finding a successful outcome which fully encompasses special and 
differential treatment for developing countries in line with the ACP Group’s proposals.  
In agriculture, we continue to place importance on the development of a Special Safeguard 
Mechanism that can be used effectively by our countries. We call for a meaningful outcome from 
the deliberations on Development including the  G90 proposals on Special and Differential 
Treatment.  
 
Electronic Commerce and Micro, Small and Medium Sized Enterpri ses are important areas that we 
recognize are critical to ensuring we keep abreast of new developments that are relevant to our 
citizens. We therefore look forward to future discussions that will deliver outcomes that would 
permit Members to address all th e relevant issues, including those related to infrastructure and 
capacity building.  
 
In closing, our delegations commit to working with other Members to ensure positive outcomes 
from this Conference, in keeping with the momentum from Bali and Nairobi and consistent with the 
development imperatives of the small, vulnerable economies in the Caribbean Community.  
 
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