WT/MIN(15)/ST/11  
18 December 2015  
(15-6730)  Page: 1/2  
Ministerial Conference 
Tenth Session 
Nairobi, 15-18 December 2015  Original: Spanish  
 
  STATEMENT BY H.E. MR ALEXANDER MORA 
MINISTER OF FOREIGN TRADE 
COSTA RICA 
I would like to thank you and my esteemed colleagues for entrusting me with the task of helping 
to lead this meeting along the right path. I have come here backed by the moral authority of a small country with great ambitions. This is an excellent opportunity for us to draw inspiration from the resounding success achieved last week at the climate change negotiations in Paris, a process 
led by Christiana Figueres, a Costa Rican with the same high ideals as those I represent here 
today. There is a well-known African proverb: if you want to travel fast, travel alone; if you want to travel far, travel together. We have come to Africa precisely to forge a future that will take us 
far, travelling together. 
 Costa Rica has been a keen student within this Organization: we have learned quickly from the 
good practices of others, we have identified opportunities for growth and taken advantage of 
them, we have done a good job of internationali zing our economy and we have successfully linked 
up with global value chains.  
The multilateral trading system has had a decisive effect in helping Costa Rica to integrate into the 
global economy and thus facilitate our economic growth and development. Today, Costa Rica is 
demonstrating the value of the Uruguay Round Agreements and ready to reaffirm the value of the 
work being done by their regular compliance, capacity-building and dispute settlement bodies, 
which are helping to make international trade flow transparently, safely and predictably on the basis of clear rules agreed by all their Members. 
 
This Trade Organization must be as dynamic and versatile as the subject matter it regulates, in order to be able to respond – with fairness – to the very diverse needs of our societies. However, our efforts in the area of negotiations have been insufficient and this has led to the greater 
proliferation of a broad range of bilateral and re gional agreements, which have encouraged trade 
outside the WTO.  
The last 14 years have shown that we need to devise a better way of organizing ourselves around 
the negotiating table. To speak of guaranteeing exceptions for some, even though there are no 
rules that have been agreed for all, is, to say the least, questionable from the legal standpoint and 
tends to undermine the certainty offered by the rules of the multilateral system. 
 Costa Rica believes in the importance of special and differential treatment because countries have d i f f e r e n t  c a p a c i t i e s ,  a n d  w e  a l s o  b e l i e v e  t h a t  i t  s h o u l d  b e  a d j u s t e d  t o  e a c h  c o u n t r y ' s  p a r t i c u l a r  
levels and requirements. We are therefore read y to support a package for the Least Developed 
Countries in Nairobi. This group was formed with objective economic and development criteria and with non-static grading criteria. The neediest require, here and now, that we all be flexible on their 
behalf. 
 Apart from the case of the LDCs, the "developing co untries" category does not reflect the reality in 
levels of development. Special and differential trea tment without distinctions is the elephant in our 
negotiating rooms that we are all observing in silence. It is, perhaps, the main obstacle to the success of the Doha Round negotiations.  WT/MIN(15)/ST/11 
- 2 - 
  Sufficient time and political will is needed to create a model for differentiating between developing 
countries that makes the system more robust: one with objective admission and grading criteria; one that is both dynamic and sustainable; and one that results in fairer treatment across the membership of the WTO. 
 
This remodeling will enable us to make indispensa ble that which is already urgent, with regard to 
modernizing our working agendas and introducing topi cs which will actually enable us to forge the 
future together. That we should not be talking ab out the digital economy in the WTO is ironic; that 
w e  s h o u l d  n o t  b e  m a k i n g  b e t t e r  u s e  o f  t h e  o p portunities offered by global value chains is 
lamentable; that we should not be promoting investment around the world is paradoxical; that we should be talking about tariff reduction and market access but not about competition is like 
removing one of the legs of a table and expectin g it to stay balanced; and that we should be 
disregarding the fact that climate change is the common enemy is making us all more vulnerable.  
We want this Organization to have an agenda that is both versatile and effective, both diversified 
and focused on the centrality of trade, capable of  leading to new multilateral agreements and fit 
for overcoming any obstacles that may stand in our way. For this redesign, which is both 
necessary and not to be put off, you may always count on Costa Rica. 
 It is time to take hard decisions and accept risks,  to break out of artificial comfort zones. We must 
innovate. One of the critical factors in the success of the COP21 was an African negotiating tactic 
called an "indaba", which calls for a creative search for solutions among small groups of members 
in relation to a common problem. It consists in talking frankly about everyone's "red lines" while making proposals for reaching a consensus and seeking the common good. We will never succeed 
in achieving a different result by continuing to use the same methods. Let us be bold and creative. 
Our peoples are eagerly awaiting the prosperity that  this Organization once promised. If we don't 
do it ourselves, then who will? And if we don't do it now, then when? 
 
__________