WT/MIN(13)/13  
 
3 December 2013  
(13-6605)  Page: 1/2  
Ministerial Conference 
Ninth Session 
Bali, 3-6 December 2013  Original: English  
 
 MINISTERIAL DECLARATION OF THE INFORM AL GROUP OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES 
The following communication, dated 2 December 2013,  is being circulated at the request of the 
Delegation of Dominican Republic on behalf of  the Informal Group of Developing Countries. 
 
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We, Ministers and heads of delegation of the Informal Group of Developing Countries, comprised of 
120 members, met in Bali on 2 December 2013 on the occasion of the 9
th WTO Ministerial 
Conference (MC9). 
 
We express our deep gratitude and congratulations to the Government and people of Indonesia for their hospitality and excellent work in organizing and hosting this important conference. 
 
We congratulate Mr. Roberto Azevêdo on his appointment as Director General of WTO and are very pleased that he comes from a developing country. We express our deep appreciation for his excellent leadership and efforts in preparing MC9. 
 
We recognize that the WTO continues to be an instrumental element in world trade. We, however emphasize that the WTO was not created just to pursue trade liberalization. The objectives of the 
organization as set out in the preamble of the Marrakesh Agreement make reference to raising 
living standards and ensuring that developing countries, especially the LDCs, secure a share in the growth in international trade commensurate with  the needs of their economic development. 
 
We reaffirm the importance of the effective integration of developing economies into the Multilateral Trading System so that all WTO Members can equally benefit from global trade. In this regard, we welcome the output of the 4
th Aid for Trade Global Review held in July 2013 and we 
encourage the effective operationalization of Aid for Trade. We thank donors for their continued 
support to the Aid for Trade initiative and the WTO’s Global Trust Fund, and urge them to increase their disbursements, while highlighting the importance of increasing their commitments. 
 
We strongly advocate the reinforcement of the WTO's technical assistance and capacity building functions including, among others, increasing capacity in developing countries to use the dispute 
resolution mechanism. 
 We believe that the WTO has proved its worth as a bulwark against traditional forms of protectionism. Its dispute settlement mechanism continues to be of great value to Members. 
Nevertheless, in a few cases affecting developing countries the lack of effective compliance with 
the Dispute Settlement Body´s recommendations and rulings is of great concern. Since this mechanism is a key part of the system we must make sure that it fulfills its objectives and works 
well for everyone, including for the poorest and sm allest. It is therefore important for the WTO to 
continue its efforts to review the dispute settlement mechanism with a view to improving its effectiveness and its usability by the developing countries. 
 
We are of the view that while some parts of th e WTO work well, its rule-making and negotiating 
functions need to be improved so that it can fulfill its objectives in a more effective way.  In order to strengthen the Multilateral Trading System our work after MC9 must aim at delivering on the 
hope and promises of the Doha Development Agen da without forgetting any of its elements. We WT/MIN(13)/13 
 
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  continue to stand firmly behind the principles under which this round was launched including, 
developmental issues at the center of the work, transparency and inclusiveness.  We are also of the view that a proliferation of protectionist measures, including non-tariff barriers, 
together with existing trade distorting subsidies gr anted by some Members, particularly in the field 
of agriculture, can cause great prejudice to develo ping countries. We are especially concerned with 
those measures affecting agricultural exports since many developing countries, particularly the 
small vulnerable economies and the LDCs, have a concentration of poverty in their rural areas. 
That is why the WTO shall focus its efforts without delay on the continuation of the reform process in Agriculture as set out in Article 20 of the Agre ement in Agriculture and in accordance with the 
Doha Mandate and the 2005 Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration. 
 
We call the attention of WTO Members in order to  support the efforts of Landlocked Developing 
Countries (LLDCs) to promote a better integration and greater participation of those countries in 
the Multilateral Trading System. Additionally we call upon for effective measures in order to 
address the special problems faced by LLDCs which result in higher trade transaction costs, administrative delays and cumbersome procedures that significantly hamper their competitiveness. 
We take note of the efforts undertaken by LLDCs in drafting a successor to the UN Almaty 
Programme of Action.  We reaffirm the relevance of the Work Pr ogrammme on Small Economies contained in 
paragraph 35 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration and paragraph 41 of the Hong Kong Ministerial 
Declaration. We recognize the importance of the Work Programme and the provision of the 
measures necessary to facilitate the full inte gration of these economies into the Multilateral 
Trading System. We welcome and support the elemen ts of the future work of the Work Programme 
on Small Economies.   
We believe in the importance of accessions to th e WTO. Accession procedures should have clear 
rules, pre-established objective criteria and a symmetric bargaining structure in negotiations possibly by setting benchmarks for market access. Those processes should be accelerated and carried out without political impediment. We insist that acceding countries should not be asked to 
make commitments that go beyond their level of development and current WTO rules; in this 
context the principles of special and differential treatment and non-reciprocity should be applied. We underscore the need to facilitate and accele rate accession of the LDCs to the WTO. We 
welcome, in this regard, the adoption of the General Council’s Decision of 25 July 2012 on LDCs 
accession and urge the full implementation of all aspects of this Decision. The Informal Group urges Members to provide substantial assistance  during the accession process and after the 
accession stages.  
 We welcome the conclusion of Yemen’s accession negotiations to the WTO and look forward to seeing Yemen take its seat as a full-fle dged WTO member in the very near future. 
 
We regret that Inter-Governmental Organizations were not invited to participate in MC9 and call upon Members to expeditiously start consultations on guidelines regarding the observer status of 
IGOs in WTO and report progress to the General Council. 
 We regret that despite the hard work and va luable endeavors by members and the Director 
General consensus could not yet be reached on the proposed Bali package. However, we take note 
of the progress achieved to date, and encourage all Members to continue their efforts towards a conclusion of a balanced Bali package in the near future.  
We the Ministers and heads of delegation of the Informal Group of Developing Countries reaffirm 
the aim to conclude the Doha Development Agenda, within a reasonable timeframe, as the core of our work post-Bali. We are united in our commitment to continue to forge a rules-based 
multilateral trading system that has development as its center and responds to the needs and 
expectations of the majority of its Members.   
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