WT/MIN(17)/ST/97  
 
4 January 2018  
(18-0061) Page: 1/2 
Ministerial Conference  
Eleventh Session  
Buenos Aires, 10 -13 December 2017  Original: English  
 
STATEMENT BY HON. LAUTAFI FIO SEL AFI PURCELL  
MINISTER OF COMMERCE , INDUSTRY AND LABOU R 
SAMOA 
 
We the Ministers and Heads of Delegations of the Pacific Group met in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 
09 December 2017 in the margins of the Eleventh WTO Ministerial Conference:  
 
Extend our sincere thanks to the Government and people of Argentina for the warm welcome and 
gracious hospitality of this beautiful country.  
 
Recognise that this Min isterial Conference is taking place in a period of growing challenges in the 
global economy and in particular, a step back from multilateralism  is likely to put at risk the future 
of the WTO and its contribution to global economic prosperity.   
 
Re-affirm the importance of preserving the rules -based multilateral system of the WTO that 
provides an open, transparent and predictable system that promotes the rights and interests of all 
Members, particularly the small Members, noting that the Pacific Group are S mall Island 
Developing States (SIDS) and constitutes LDCs and SVEs, which attach great importance to trade 
as a vehicle to achieve robust development and enhance our integration into the global trading 
system.  
 
Acknowledge the need to make the rules -based  system more equitable and accessible for Small 
Island Developing States in order for them to fully benefit from the opportunities created by the 
multilateral trading system and to facilitate their integration into the global economy.  The Pacific 
Group co mmends the ongoing work to address the participation of SVEs in global value chains and 
supports the continuing and re -invigoration of work under the mandate of paragraph 35 of the 
Doha Declaration to frame responses for the full integration of small  econo mies like the Pacific into 
the multilateral trading system to facilitate their successful integration. Such work should try to 
holistically address the economic and environmental vulnerability of SVEs to trade given the threat 
of climate change.  
  
Express  disappointment at the unwillingness of some Members to address the development 
concerns of developing countries, including SVEs and LDCs across many areas of the Doha 
negotiations and in particular, on the development proposals submitted by the G90. These  
proposals aim to promote value -adding activities, economic diversification and industrialisation as 
well as to promote international competitiveness by strengthening compliance with international 
standards. The Pacific Group whose share of global trade av erages 0.04% remains in the margins 
of the global trading system and look to flexible and equitable rules that will enhance their trade.   
The Pacific Group calls on members to engage constructively on these proposals to address the 
genuine development con cerns of developing countries and LDCs.  
 
Express concerns that development and in particular, the link between trade and development is 
now in question in the WTO.  The Doha Development Agenda which was intended to deliver 
development benefits to developin g countries and LDCs, remains elusive, despite the re -iteration 
at every Ministerial conference of the centrality of development and special and differential 
treatment as an integral part of the negotiations.  The Pacific Group underlines the point that tr ade 
is not an end in itself, but a means to an end – that trade is a means to deliver development 
benefits, as enshrined in the Marrakech Agreement.  This is also reflected in the SDG Agenda 2030 
in which trade is not a standalone goal but an enabler or ve hicle to achieve many of those goals.  WT/MIN(17)/ST/97  
 
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  The Pacific Group renews the call for the WTO to ensure that the small and vulnerable economies 
like the Pacific are not left behind or left outside the multilateral trading system.  
 
Commend the progress on the fisheries subsidies negotiations, noting the significance of this 
resource sector to the food, livelihoods and the economic development of the Pacific Group. The 
Pacific Group urges Members to bridge remaining differences on the  proposed incremental 
outcome on the most destructive subsidies to fisheries resources being submitted to this 
Conference. Subsidies to IUU fishing fuels overfishing and subsidies to fishing of overfished stocks 
are both destructive to fish stocks and shou ld not be tolerated. An outcome on these two issues 
would contribute to achieving the Doha as well as the Hong Kong mandates and the 2030 
Sustainable Development Goal 14.6 which mandates the elimination of harmful fisheries subsidies 
by 2020.  However the Pacific Group underlines that further negotiations on overfishing and 
overcapacity in the post -Buenos Aires work should provide appropriate special and differential 
treatment to enable Small Island Developing States to fully develop their fisheries resourc es in 
future and preserve the rights of coastal states to their resources as well as appropriate transition 
periods and implementation assistance.   
 
Express concerns that the Geneva process has not been able to complete its work or agreed to any 
area in t he core Doha issues for Ministers to endorse at this Eleventh Ministerial Conference. 
Ministers are now faced with the challenge of reaching consensus on many issues that are open 
ended and are plagued by huge divergences in positions. We urge Members to w ork together to 
bridge the gaps in their positions and show flexibility for the few issues that may be possible to 
reach agreement on at this Conference and leave others that require more time to the future work 
programme for post -Buenos Aires.   
 
Emphasis e the importance of continuing negotiations on the remaining elements of the Doha 
issues post -Buenos Aires to deliver development outcomes and that negotiations including on the 
core areas of Agriculture, Services and NAMA, should also provide appropriate and effective 
flexibilities for LDCs and SVEs. In addition, future work should include the continuation of the 1998 
Work Program on E -commerce to address the digital divide and development concerns of 
developing countries and LDCs, as well as continuing di scussion on how to facilitate the 
participation of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise (MSMEs) into global trade.  
 
Support the Declarations made by the ACP and LDCs.  
 
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