WT/MIN(17)/ST/111  
8 January  2018 
(18-0104) Page: 1/2 
Ministerial Conference  
Eleventh Session  
Buenos Aires, 10 -13 December 2017  Original:  Spanish  
 
  
STATEMENT BY H.E.  MR EDUARDO FERREYROS KUPPERS  
MINISTER OF FOREIGN TRADE AND TOURISM  
PERU 
I would like to begin by expressing our thanks for  the kind  hospitality received in Buenos Aires . I 
congratulate you, Madam Chair, on  being assigned the task of leading our work, and would like 
you to know how excited Latin America is to see the WTO Ministerial Conference being held in 
Argentina . 
 
Our region is a n example of economic growth . Peru is one of the countries in the region to have 
experienced steady growth, and this, in turn, has positively affected the country's development 
and helped to reduce poverty . In recent decades, we have consistently implemente d a 
liberalization policy , which has entailed not only the negotiation of bilateral and regi onal trade 
agreements, but also significant unilateral actions such as tariff reduction and the elimination of 
non-tariff barriers . 
 
This liberalization has proven to be successful in our country, generating benefits that have 
boosted economic growth and brought the poverty rate down significantly . Peru has, in this way, 
managed to increase its trade with the rest of the world, and currently ranks fourth out of 
countries that have experienced the highest increase in exports . Peru also remains  a prime 
destination for investment . 
 
My country, which is committed to the multilateral trading system, firmly believes in the 
impor tance, value and utility of the WTO . We maintain a constructive position and recognize  the 
validity of the Organization's objectives, which form the basis for international trade relations . 
 
Peru has been striving for  results in the area of fisheries subsi dies for almost two decades . In the 
run-up to this  Ministerial Conference, we and a significant number of other Members made 
substantial negotiating efforts to eliminate and ban subsidies that contribute to illegal, unr eported 
and unregulated fishing, over-capacity , and over -fishing . In this way, we are contributing to goal 
number  14 of the 2030 Agenda  for Sustainable Development . We must approve a Ministerial 
Decision on this issue in Buenos Aires, one that sets out a clear and substantive work plan that 
leads to the elimination of fisheries subsidies by the next Ministerial Conference in 2019.  
 
Peru reiterates  the importance of continuing the reform process en visaged in Article  20 of the 
Agreement on Agriculture . O ur experience in recent years has proved that 
trade - and production -distorting measures do not help to increase productivity or enhance  the 
competitiveness of our exports . In the multilateral sphere, Peru therefore supports the gradual 
elimination of agricultural trade -distorting domestic support  and greater access to destination  
markets  for agricultural products . We will continue to actively participate with concrete proposals  
in an effort to achieve  outcomes on agricultural agenda issues . 
 
For Peru, it is important that the discussions and negot iations on outstanding implementat ion 
issues relating to the TRIPS  Agreement continue in the post -Buenos Aires period . We urge other 
countries to resume the negotiations on traditional knowledge, access to genetic resources and 
biodiversity with renewed vigour. 
 
Regarding trade in services, Peru has co -sponsored, together with 27 other Members, a proposal 
on disciplines on domestic regulation , which seeks to ensure the clarity, predictability and WT/MIN(17)/ST/111  
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  transparency of regulatory practices concerning licensing req uirements and procedures , thereby 
facilitating  access to markets . Our hope is  that these disciplines will boost trade in services, which 
has positive externalities for all production sectors and is increasingly important for the global 
economy . 
 
My country favours an ambitious multilateral approach that includes the exploration of new issues, 
such as criteria for the adoption of disciplines on a digital economy . These issues represent  a 
major challenge for  the international trading system . In this  regard , and in order to facilitate 
discussion on electronic commerce, we support the extension of the moratorium on the imposition 
of customs du ties on electronic transmissions . 
 
It is clear  that the significant changes in international trade in recent de cades, accentuated by the 
current circumstances , are presenting us with new challenges . As a result, Members will need to 
make a special  effort to achieve  the consensus that will not only enable the multilateral trading 
system  to be strengthened, improved and moderniz ed, but that will set our Organization firmly on 
the path to a new era  of greater world trade openness and liberalization to the benefit of all our 
peoples . 
 
I reiterate our desire to see this Ministerial Conference succeed and our firm commitm ent to 
ensuring it does so . 
 
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