WT/MIN(15)/ST/82  
21 December 2015  
(15-6809)  Page: 1/2  
Ministerial Conference 
Tenth Session 
Nairobi, 15-18 December 2015  Original: Spanish  
 
  STATEMENT BY H.E. MR ALEJANDRO DAVALOS 
VICE-MINISTER OF NEGOTIATIONS, INTEGRATION AND TRADE DEFENCE 
ECUADOR  
I would like to begin by thanking the Government and the people of Kenya for their hospitality and 
by congratulating them on the excellent organization of this Conference.  I wish Members every success in reaching a favourable conclusion to our work in Nairobi, with 
results that reaffirm the validity of the multilater al trading system and show how political will from 
Members is all that is needed to move the Doha Development Round work programme negotiations forward. 
 
May I also take this opportunity to greet the Director-General of the WTO, Mr Roberto Azevêdo, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kenya, Ms Amina Mohamed. I would also like to congratulate 
Afghanistan and Liberia on their recent accession to the WTO. 
 Ecuador joins other countries and international organizations in calling for strategies and policies that further the development objectives set forth in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable 
Development. 
 In this context, Ecuador is currently devising an d implementing strategies to generate an economy 
based on knowledge, green growth and job creation. 
 Regarding the issues currently under negotiation, I would first like to comment on the Nairobi 
Ministerial Declaration drafting process. 
 In this respect, the continuation of the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) is of vital importance to Ecuador. 
 
The Doha Ministerial Declaration remains valid and clearly indicates that the needs and interests of the developing countries will be placed at the centre of the work programme, so that developing 
and least developed countries can benefit from the increase in opportunities and progress brought 
about by the multilateral trading system.  
It should be recalled that under this mandate, progress has been made on issues such as the 
structure of flexibilities for developing countri es, least developed countries, recently acceded 
Members, and small and vulnerable economies, amongst others.  
This special and differential treatment deriving from the Doha mandate is essential not only for 
creating better market access opportunities, but for ensuring fairer competition and becoming successfully integrated into the international trading system. 
 
Such flexibilities will enable our countries, within the framework of the various negotiations, for instance in the case of agricultural and non-agri cultural goods, to shift from an extractivist 
economy to an economy that exports goods proc essed to a higher level incorporating greater 
levels of knowledge, innovation and technology , to the benefit of consumers and producers 
worldwide.  WT/MIN(15)/ST/82 
- 2 - 
  Only in this way will we be able to reduce the existing asymmetries between WTO Members, which 
should lead to fairer and more development-oriented multilateral trade.  Ecuador therefore reaffirms its commitment to, and support for, the Declarations and Decisions 
that we adopted in Doha and all subsequent Declarations and Decisions. We are also committed 
to, and support, the continuation, post-Nairobi, of work that keeps development at the heart of the negotiations and that respects the principles of  special and differential treatment and less than 
full reciprocity. 
 Furthermore, I feel it is vital to comment on the following aspects of the current negotiations:  
1. For Ecuador, the Special Safeguard Mechanism has become an indispensable tool for 
tackling the distortion that exists in agricultural trade due to the application of measures such as export subsidies. 
 
2. WTO Members like Ecuador have made heavy tariff commitments in the field of market 
access. We therefore need tools at hand to protect our production sectors, which are 
made up of small-scale producers dependent on the income from their sales, as well as 
policy space to adopt food security measures. 
 
3. This policy space could also be obtained th rough the proposal put forward on an earlier 
occasion by the G-90, which would make it possible to improve the special and 
differential treatment contained in some of the covered Agreements. 
 
4. Ecuador also feels it is time that developed country Members assume their responsibility 
to eliminate export subsidies and reduce domestic support measures, both of which 
create serious and unfair distortion in world agricultural trade and production. 
 
5. Furthermore, we request that the exception regarding the granting of export subsidies 
by developing countries, as specified in the Hong Kong mandate in relation to the provisions of Article 9.4 of the Agreement on Agriculture, be ratified. 
 
6. Lastly, the adoption of effective and practical methods of special and differential 
treatment for all levels of negotiation is vital for ensuring the effective participation 
of developing countries in international trade, while addressing their specific needs. 
 I will end my statement by reiterating the import ance of special and differential treatment as 
a tool that makes it possible to adopt and maintain policies that focus on national development 
programmes.  We should always remember that our discussions here in Nairobi this week not only concern 
words, technical matters or issues that simply require a political decision. 
 What is at stake, and what we should feel resp onsible for, is the future of millions of people, 
the possibility of decent work, the chance for a young person to carve out a promising future, 
the ability of a father to feed his children or of a mother to ensure an education and a better future 
for her family. 
 
We must not, at any point or under any circumstances, lose perspective; trade should not be used as an instrument to create wealth for a select few, but rather as a tool to ensure the development of many. 
 
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