WT/L/881  
 
16 January 2013  
(13-0276)  Page: 1/3  
General Council  Original: English/French  
 
 JOINT CONFERENCE OF THE AFRICAN UNION 
MINISTERS OF AGRICULTURE AND TRADE 
26-30 NOVEMBER 2012 
ADDIS-ABABA (ETHIOPIA) 
The following communication, dated 12 January 2013, is being circulated to delegations at the 
request of the Delegation of Lesotho. 
 
_______________ 
DECLARATION ON WTO ISSUES 
We, the Ministers of Trade of the Member States of the African Union meeting in Addis Ababa on 
the 29thand 30th November 2012 in the Joint Conference of the AU Ministers of Agriculture and 
Trade under the theme, “Boosting Intra-African Trade: A key to agricultural transformation and ensuring food and nutrition security”; 
 
Deeply  concerned at the continuing stalemate in the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) following 
11 years of costly negotiations to our countries with no significant progress in respect of 
development issues in the areas of interest to Af rica in the DDA since the outcome of the 8th WTO 
Ministerial Conference in 2011;  Recalling  that development is – and must - remain at the core of the DDA, with agriculture and 
cotton retaining its paramount importance within the DDA for African countries; 
 Underscore  that the inception of the DDA negotiations and their focus on the development 
imperative was -amongst others-premised on the need to redress the imbalances inherent in the 
Uruguay Round Agreements;  
Deeply concerned  by the potential negative impact of plurilateral initiatives and approaches 
being introduced by some members at the WTO, seriously and fundamentally affecting the DDA mandate and the WTO’s principles of inclusiveness and multilateralism;  
Concerned  that since the Seventh Regular session of the AU Conference of Ministers of Trade, 
Ghana in December 2011, the Global Economy’s re covery from the onslaught of the 2008 financial 
and economic crisis remains uneven and that with the slowing global output growth, the forecast 
for world trade expansion has been downgraded for both 2012 and 2013; all the while affected by 
the continued volatility of food and agricultural commodity prices.  
Desirous  to reaffirm principles that would guide Africa’s future engagement at the WTO; 
 Hereby,  
1.  Reaffirm  the positions adopted in the Accra Declaration on WTO Issues of 2011; 
 
2.  Welcome  the follow up outcome adopted by the General Council on 25th July 2012 further 
to the Decision on Accession of LDCs by the 8th WTO Ministerial Conference to strengthen, 
streamline and operationalize the 2002 guidelines; 
 WT/L/881 
 
- 2 - 
 
  3.  Call upon  WTO members to adopt measures and decisions aimed at simplifying accession 
procedures for acceding developing countries; taking into account their levels of development and protecting the total transparency of said procedures; 
 
4.  Further welcome  the development oriented outcomes of the Istanbul Programme of 
Action for LDCs for the decade 2011-2020 and the outcome of the UNCTAD XIII Quadrennial Conference held in Doha, Qatar, April 2012 in favour of developing countries; 
 
5.  Stress  the importance of the DDA and re-commit to conclude it in accordance with the 
existing mandate and on the basis of progress ac hieved so far, with the Single Undertaking 
central to the outcome; 
 
6.  Re-emphasise  the need for a fair and balanced outcome of the DDA, which must 
prioritize development as its main deliverable, preserve negotiated flexibilities beneficial to 
developing countries and be anchored on the principles of shared values, inclusiveness, 
transparency and bottom-up approach; 
 
7.  Underscore  that – in breaking the current stalemate in the DDA negotiations – any 
provisional agreement resulting from the adop tion of WTO Doha Mandate’s paragraph 47, 
must first deliver on the development issues and result in meaningful progress on issues of 
importance, including – but not limited to – agriculture, cotton, issues of interest to LDCs, 
Special and Differential Treatment (S&DT), and implementation issues; 
 
8.  Re-emphasize  the positions held by the WTO African Group on Trade Facilitation, 
specifically that it is not a self-balancing, win-win and a monolithic pillar in the DDA 
negotiations; 
 
9.  Further re-emphasize  that obligations and measures being negotiated in the Trade 
Facilitation consolidated text must be accompanied by requisite binding technical and financial assistance and capacity building provisions; 
 
10. Underscore  that agriculture remains central to Africa’s agenda at the WTO. We 
emphasize the urgency and the need of addressing tariff peaks and tariff escalation in agriculture, which inhibit value addition and job creation and overall development in Africa. 
We reiterate our concerns regarding food securi ty in the continent, and support efforts by 
Net-Food Importing Developing Countries (NFIDCs) in respect of agriculture related rule-making at the WTO; 
 
11. Further underscore  that any WTO Members’ consensus on a provisional agreement – the 
so called early harvest – must be preceded by a consensual framework that will provide necessary safeguards and guarantees to ensure that all areas of the DDA negotiations will 
be concluded; 
 
12. Strongly object  to any attempt to link non-trade issues or add new issues to the DDA, 
before development issues such as agriculture (including cotton), LDC issues, Special & 
Differential Treatment (S&DT) and implementation related concerns are satisfactorily addressed and the DDA is fully exha usted and successfully concluded; 
 
13. Strongly caution  against attempts to undermine the spirit of cooperation inherent in the 
multilateral approach to negotiating the DDA and call on Members of the WTO to refrain from disturbing the delicate balance in the acquis of the DDA; 
 
14. We caution  against any new narrative which in our view is inconsistent with – and 
undermines – the Doha Development Mandate. We also caution WTO Members to refrain 
from subjecting some agenda items of the DDA to plurilateral negotiations that have the 
effect of further marginalizing the majority of developing-country economies in the Multilateral Trading System; 
 
15. Take note  of and call for, continued positive engagement in the work currently 
undertaken in the Committee on Trade and Development (CTD) Special Session on S&D and efforts to fully operationalize and stre ngthen the mandate of the CTD as a the WTO 
focal point for development; WT/L/881 
 
- 3 - 
 
   
16. Reiterate  our insistence that DDA outcomes incorporate adequate demand- driven 
financial and technical assistance and sustainable capacity building as an integral part of S&D treatment under all WTO Agreements; 
 
17. Call upon  our development partners to continue the support they provide under the Aid 
for Trade initiative, particularly to LDCs and small and vulnerable economies in Africa;  
 
18. Take note  of the current mid-term review of th e Enhanced Integrated Framework (EIF) 
and urge that the EIF should be consolidated and continued without major changes to its current framework; 
 
19. Recall  the outcome of the 8th WTO Ministerial and the attendant Decisions on; TRIPS non-
violation situation complaints, the Work Programme on electronic commerce, work 
programme on small economies, Transition period for LDCs under Article 66.1 of the TRIPS 
Agreement, Preferential treatment to services  and services suppliers of LDCs and Trade 
Policy Review Mechanism and urge Members to ensure their full implementation with a 
view to achieving their legitimate aims and objectives as set stated therein;  
 
20. Commend  the tireless efforts deployed by the African Ambassadors Group in Brussels in 
defending Africa’s interests in EPA negotiations; 
 
21. Request  the African Union Commission and the UN Economic Commission for Africa to 
undertake analysis on the envisaged CFTA vis-à-vis  WTO rules with a view to boosting 
Intra African Trade and other pertinent issues of interest to African economies;  
 
22. Further request  the African Union in collaboration with the African Groups in Geneva, 
Brussels and Washington to meet at least once a year to review the negotiating positions 
at the continental level with a view to harmonizing and consolidating them. 
 
__________