WT/MIN(13)/ST/112  
11 February 2014  
(14-0830)  Page: 1/2  
Ministerial Conference 
Ninth Session 
Bali, 3-6 December 2013  Original: English  
 
STATEMENT BY H.E. MR WALID AL-HADID 
AMBASSADOR 
JORDAN  
Allow me at the outset to express the gratitude of the Government of Jordan for the efforts 
exerted by the Indonesian Government in hosting this Ministerial Conference in cooperation with 
the WTO Secretariat, and for the warm welcome extended to us.  
I would also like to welcome the new members to the WTO; Lao People's Democratic Republic, 
Tajikistan and Yemen. Their membership sends a strong message about the importance of the multilateral trading system and the vital role the WTO plays in global trade. 
 
It has been five years since the world economy entered into a financial crisis. Although the crisis originated in the developed economies, its effects are now global, with particularly serious 
implications for the economies of the developing countries. Reduced foreign investment and 
reduced demand for imports of commodities and labor-intensive products are having profound effects on developing countries.  
The nature of the crisis forced governments to intervene in different ways to stimulate the 
economy, infuse liquidity in the banking system, support enterprises and maintain consumer confidence and expenditure.  
 
As a result, the world economy stabilized and witnessed unbalanced recovery guarded through increased protectionist measures. In fact, the latter measures raised concerns on their impact to 
restrict or have the potential to restrict global trade and impede economic growth, and the need to 
regulate global trade and strengthen the mu ltilateral trading system while “addressing” 
development needs and priorities of the deve loping countries has become outstanding. 
 
The Multilateral Trading System should address the impact of global fluctuations on the needs of 
developing countries within the Doha Agenda. Hence, the WTO members are invited to intensify work on the development aspects of the current negotiations, and facilitate the needed technical 
assistance especially to small and vulnerable countries and low- income countries to allow them to 
fulfill their national development requirements an d respond to the ambitions of their peoples for a 
better, more equitable and coherent world. 
 
Our gathering today is a key message of the important role of the World Trade Organization in governing the rules of the multilateral tradin g system and achieving the needed economic 
recovery, job creation and development that we all seek.  
 
Hence, we remain strongly committed to the rules and principles of the World Trade Organization 
to curb harmful protectionist measures, reduce barriers to global trade and enhance market access 
conditions especially to export s of developing member states. 
 While we deeply regret the impasse the Doha Development Round is witnessing, we remain 
ambitious to finalize some key elements of this  round embodied in the “Bali package”. The Texts 
before us show that we all made big concessions, in a serious effort to reach an agreement, so we must maintain what we have reached in Geneva and not to waste the efforts that have been made in previous years. 
 WT/MIN(13)/ST/112 
 
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  Jordan is a strong believer in the multilateral trading system and is committed to contribute 
towards the strengthening of a free and fair glob al trade in close cooperation with WTO members 
in addition to any regional arrangement.   
Since its accession to the World Trade Organization in the year 2000, Jordan has taken significant 
steps in fulfilling its commitments despite the extensive concessions made to join the organization as a Recently-Acceded Member. In this context, Jordan supports the communiqué submitted by 
the RAMs Group referring to the exceptionally significant and extensive commitments made by the 
group members upon accession as compared to those made by members that joined the WTO during previous rounds of negotiations, and reflecting the group's concerns on the current workflow of the negotiations within the DDA. Jordan requests Member States to seriously consider 
them during the negotiation process.  
 On a parallel track, Jordan falls under the small and vulnerable economies (SVEs) and as a Net 
Food Importer Developing Country calls for additional flexibilities within the agriculture 
negotiations to assure food security elements for developing countries.   
Moreover, the successful negotiations on Trade Facili tation is one of Jordan’s priorities to ensure 
the harmonization of legislation and improve the efficiency of supply chain logistics as well as development and technical adjustment requirements. An agreement on Trade Facilitation that fully 
takes the needs and priorities of developing count ries will produce significant economic gains for 
all WTO members including developing countries. Steady increase in trade, greater export 
diversification, enhanced foreign investment and improved national competitiveness are few of the many expected gains. 
 
On accessions issue, Jordan calls on Members to work on expediting the accession process for States and separate customs territories, and strongly supports the request of Palestine, as a 
separate customs territory, for observer status in the WTO's General Council and its subsidiary 
bodies. The Arab countries members of the WTO are striving to play a more active and constructive role in the WTO as we realize the growing importance of the multilateral trading system.  There are 13 WTO Arab Member States, and another seven Arab countries seeking 
accession:  namely Algeria, Comoros, Iraq, Leba non, Libya, Sudan and Syria; and we strongly 
urge WTO Member States to expedite and facilitate their accession.  
In this context, Jordan seizes this opportunity to reaffirm the importance of having Arabic as an 
official language at the WTO and calls on Member States to positively consider adding Arabic as a working language in the WTO, as this will significantly increase the involvement and contribution of 
Arab Member States to the work of the WTO.  
 Objective guidelines for granting observer status to IGOs in the WTO would contribute to the inclusiveness of the WTO membership. Jordan believ es that it is the time to consider a set of 
revised guidelines applying transparent, unified and objective criteria for granting observer status 
to IGOs in the WTO as reiterated by the Arab Gr oup Initiative of 2012, including the request of the 
League of Arab States. 
 
We wish this Conference the success that we seek, and look forward to having a balanced package for the benefit of all. 
 
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