WT/MIN(24)/ST/64  
26 February  2024 
(24-1556) Page: 1/2 
Ministerial Conference  
Thirteenth Session  
Abu Dhabi, 26 -29 February 2024  Original: English  
 
 
STATEMENT BY H.E. MR D. J. AMANGELDIEV  
MINISTER OF ECONOMY AND COMMERCE  
KYRGYZ REPUBLIC  
Let me welcome you all at the 13th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization and 
express my gratitude to the Chairman, Mr. Thani bin Ahmed Al Zayoudi, Minister of State for Foreign 
Trade of the United Arab Emirates. We also thank the Director -General, Dr Okonjo Iweala, who was 
able to bring us all together at the high podium of the WTO.   
In recent years, the world economy has faced global turmoi l, which has exposed the multilateral 
trading system to new challenges that are gaining momentum, and we have gathered to discuss 
them today. At the same time, the global development of trade is very uneven, which has resulted 
in a difficult burden for all  of us.   
Against the backdrop of increasing global problems, it is necessary to especially emphasize that each 
WTO Member  country, depending on the level of development, geographical location and other 
characteristics, experiences these challenges in its o wn way.   
For example, the Kyrgyz Republic, located in the center of the continent, connects large markets of 
Eurasian countries through land routes. However, this beneficial geographical location is also a 
source of vulnerability for our country at the sam e time. Due to its large distance from the seaports, 
our country is heavily dependent on transit countries for its foreign trade: huge transport costs and 
narrow channels for transporting goods to distant markets serve as a serious obstacle to the 
integrat ion of Kyrgyzstan into the world economy.   
In this regard, Kyrgyzstan places big hopes for the high efficiency and smooth functioning of the 
multilateral trading system based strictly on the rules of the World Trade Organization. In this 
context, a very im portant role is played by the key WTO instrument for the unhindered and 
accelerated passage of goods flows - the Trade Facilitation Agreement, which offers effective 
conditions for accelerating the movement, release and clearance of goods, including transi t.  
Also for the Kyrgyz Republic as a landlocked country with a small -size economy, we are interested 
in discussing development aspects of the WTO reforms with a higher focus on strengthening the 
norms stipulating the special and differentiated treatment f or developing countries, especially in 
terms of granting longer time periods for implementing agreements and commitments, measures to 
increase trading opportunities for small and vulnerable economies as well as strengthening 
provisions requiring all WTO Members to safeguard the trade interests of developing countries 
especially of those developing countries which unfortunately, have unfavorable geographical 
conditions and bear high trade costs and face other barriers on their way to integrate into the globa l 
supply chains.  
In this regard, the Kyrgyz Republic actively participates in the activities of the UN Special Program 
for the Economies of Central Asia for the development of the Trans -Caspian International Transport 
Route. We welcome the Summit of Heads  of State of SPECA participants held in Baku last November, 
at which a Roadmap for the digitalization of the exchange of multimodal data and documents along 
the Trans -Caspian Transport Corridor was adopted using UN legal instruments and standards.   WT/MIN(24)/ST/64  
 
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  Special  attention to the Kyrgyz Republic will also be paid to joining the discussions of the supportive 
measures towards helping developing countries build the infrastructure to undertake WTO work, 
handle disputes, and implement technical standards.  
This Ministe rial Conference is another big try to push forward the negotiation tracks we have on our 
agenda, and we observe quite large discrepancies among the Member' s positions on them. This high 
variation of Member s' views is the major strength of WTO, but this is also the biggest challenge at 
the same time.  
The Kyrgyz Republic finds that the only opportunity the Member s can progress in the negotiation 
tracks lies in understanding of each Member  of one very important and, at the same time, a very 
simple thing. Memb ers should understand that the negotiations are necessary for all of us, and we 
need to be as flexible as possible towards each other and converge to the opinions of each other in 
negotiating the reforms, and only in this case, each of us will be better of f. The task of WTO reforms 
will be difficult since every Member' s priority is to make this process inclusive. The value of achieving 
successful results should be a number one priority for each of us.   
We also all know very well that the WTO dispute settlem ent system has demonstrated itself as one 
of the most effective and successful mechanisms for the international resolution of disputes between 
countries. The two -tier dispute settlement system has served as the "jewel in the crown " of the WTO 
due to its re markable success over many decades.   
In this regard, we see very important value in countries ' efforts to reform the Dispute Settlement 
Body, and in our opinion, Member s during this Ministerial Conference should continue the active 
pace of deep and meaningful discussions to find practical and viable solutions to the problems 
identified Member s, and to formalize the deliberation process as soon as possible with the aim of  
creating a fully and well -functioning dispute resolution system accessible to all Member  countries.   
We would like to support the proposal of the majority of Member s who expect that we will finally 
retain the traditional principles of a fully functioning dispute resolution system, including maintaining 
a two -tier dispute resolution system and the mandatory nature of the Appellate Body.   
The Kyrgyz Republic also welcomes the accession of countries such as Timor -Leste and the Comoros 
to the WTO, and supports  the ongoing process of accession to the WTO of our important economic 
partners in the region such as Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Belarus and Turkmenistan. The pace of work 
demonstrated by the several accession working groups makes us optimistic that we will b e able to 
congratulate them as full Member s of the WTO in the foreseeable future.   
The Kyrgyz Republic believes that today, more than ever, the WTO has the responsible task of 
serving as an effective platform for resolving global problems and minimizing th e consequences for 
economies. To do this, we need to be flexible in discussing the pressing issues facing the global 
trading system.   
In turn, Kyrgyzstan at the WTO platform is ready to rally together with other countries to promote 
issues of bridging the gap between us and other Member  states, in the areas of differential 
treatment, expanded access to markets for goods and services and promoting sustainable trade.   
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