WT/MIN(15)/ST/96  
5 January 2016  
(16-0070)  Page: 1/2  
Ministerial Conference 
Tenth Session 
Nairobi, 15-18 December 2015  Original: French  
 
  STATEMENT BY H.E. MRS PELATE NIYONKURU 
MINISTER OF TRADE, INDUSTRY AND TOURISM 
BURUNDI  
I t  i s  a  g r e a t  h o n o u r  t o  t a k e  t h e  f l o o r  b e f o r e  t h i s  a u g u s t  a s s e m b l y  o n  t h e  o c c a s i o n  o f  t h e  
Tenth WTO Ministerial Conference here in Nairobi, Kenya.  We would like first of all to extend our sincerest thanks to the Government and people of Kenya 
for the perfect organization of this Conference and for the warm welcome they have given us. 
As an African country, and particularly a country of the East African Community, we are also delighted at the choice of your country to host and organize the Tenth WTO Ministerial Conference, 
a first for the African continent. 
 We would like to associate ourselves with the delegations that took the floor before us in 
addressing our sincere congratulations to Liberia and Afghanistan for completing an important 
stage leading to their accession with the WTO. We would like to assure them that we stand ready 
to cooperate with them in our effort to become more fully integrated in international trade.  
As a least developed, and above all a landlocked country, Burundi faces a considerable number 
of challenges when it comes to integrating into the multilateral trading system. In order to do so, it needs to build up its export supply capacity and thoroughly alter its economic structures. 
 
To that end, Burundi has opted for an open trade policy focused on improved regional integration 
as a priority in the Strategic Framew ork for Growth and Poverty Reduction. 
 
The most recent WTO review of our trade policy in 2012 highlighted the considerable progress that our country has made in improving its business climate, facilitating trade, and promoting and developing trade and investment. 
 
While the efforts already made are appreciable,  it would appear that Aid for Trade remains 
insufficient to meet our needs. It is therefore important that special attention be given to the least 
developed countries in view of the numerous structural constraints that drastically limit their 
supply capacity as well as their technical and financial capabilities.  
Our sincere thanks go to all of the donors that provided us with considerable support in dealing 
with supply side constraints to ensure our smooth integration in multilateral trade. We particularly appreciate the support given to our country through the Enhanced Integrated Framework programme, a very successful initiative that is well-suited to the needs of the LDCs and has 
already yielded concrete results in the area of export supply capacity building and job creation, 
thereby contributing to poverty reduction.  
Burundi is convinced that the Doha Development Agenda is and remains the cornerstone of the 
ongoing WTO negotiations. The Doha Development Agenda must retain its relevance, since the WTO is a multilateral framework, and as such the only system that guarantees fair and durable 
trade rules. 
 WT/MIN(15)/ST/96 
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  We also believe that for the LDCs, agriculture plays a key role, not only for reasons of food 
security, but also and above all in connection with the deliberate choice to adopt a policy of industrialization that will enable the LDCs to build up their supply capacity by adding value to 
the different resources and other commodities currently exported as raw products. 
 
In short, the delegation of Burundi supports the proposals put forward by the ACP Group, 
the African Group and the LDC Group. 
 
We wish the 10
th WTO Ministerial Conference every success. 
 
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