WT/MIN(15)/ST/104  
5 January 2016  
(16-0083)  Page: 1/1  
Ministerial Conference 
Tenth Session 
Nairobi, 15-18 December 2015  Original: English  
 
STATEMENT BY H.E. MR ABDOULIE JOBE 
MINISTER OF TRADE, INDUSTRY, AND REGIONAL INTEGRATION AND EMPLOYMENT 
THE GAMBIA 
Let me join colleagues to thank the Government and People of Kenya for the warm hospitality 
extended to me and my delegation and the excellent facilities put at our disposal. Our thanks also go to the Director General of the WTO, Mr. Roberto Azevêdo and his staff for preparing and facilitating the organisation of the Conference.  Let me also welcome Liberia and Afghanistan’s 
accession to the WTO.  
 The Gambia, like other LDCs, recognizes the importance of an inclusive development-oriented 
multilateral trading system. As an LDC, development is at the heart of our membership in the WTO 
and we therefore remain focused in our efforts to achieve a balanced outcome in the negotiations. In this respect, we continue to call for flexibilities in the application of non-discriminating trade 
rules and disciplines and, the expeditious implementa tion of previous decisions in favour of LDCs 
to enhance our full and meaningful integration in the multilateral trading system.   The Gambia welcomes the progress made towards the operationalisation of the LDCs Services 
Waiver.  We appreciate the efforts and commitments of the WTO members who have granted 
preferences to enable the LDC service suppliers  access their markets.  We believe that the 
effective operationalisation of the service waiver will help the LDCs to improve on our services 
exports, which in the case of The Gambia, is one of the largest drivers of growth.  
 The Gambia also calls on WTO members and other development partners to provide the LDCs with 
enhanced technical assistance and capacity building to strengthen the domestic and export 
services capacity of the LDCs to enable us be nefit from the operationalization of the waiver. 
 We also call for the full implementation of the Ho ng Kong Ministerial Decision on duty-free, quota-
free market access for LDCs and for the removal of complicated and cumbersome rules of origin 
that hamper the ability of LDCs to effectively make use of these preferences.   
Finally, let me emphasize that Aid-for-Trade remains an important area of interest to us as LDCs 
given its strategic role in supporting the developmen t of trade-related capacities in our economies. 
The Gambia therefore welcomes the extension of the Enhanced Integration Framework (EIF) into 
the second phase and wishes to thank all the donors who made pledges at the conference. 
 The multilateral trading system remains and will continue to be the platform that avails us all the opportunity to discuss and agree on multilateral trade rules that promote fair trade and support 
our development process. In spite of the current  challenges in the negotiations, we should 
continue to be committed in DDA negotiations and be ready to give and take to reach a balanced outcome.  
  
Let me conclude by once again congratulating the Government of the Republic of Kenya for 
successfully hosting this Conference. We look forward to a successful outcome to address the 
remaining issues on the DDA. 
 
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