WT/MIN(15)/ST/32  
18 December 2015  
(15-6751)  Page: 1/2  
Ministerial Conference 
Tenth Session 
Nairobi, 15-18 December 2015  Original: French  
 
  STATEMENT BY H.E. MR JEAN-LOUIS BILLON 
MINISTER OF TRADE, CRAFTS AND PROMOTION OF SMEs 
CÔTE D'IVOIRE 
First of all, on behalf of the President of the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, His Excellency 
Mr Alassane OUATTARA, and the Ivorian peop le, I would like to thank His Excellency 
Mr UHURU KENYATTA and the people of Kenya for the welcome accorded to the Ivorian delegation and to me personally, as well as for all the facilities made available to ensure the success of the 
Ministerial Conference. 
 In a global economic environment increasingly marked by the opening up of variable-geometry 
markets and dominated by a strong trend towards intercontinental free trade areas with the 
potential to marginalize developing economies even further and create more complex non-tariff barriers, it seems more than ever indispensable to restore primacy and priority to multilateralism, 
in order to ensure an overall balance in terms of economic governance and access to world 
markets.  In this context, Côte d'Ivoire would like to reaffirm its keen desire to see the negotiations within 
the WTO centred on development. Indeed, for Côte d'Ivoire, the development dimension as 
established around the notion of "Special and Diffe rential Treatment" should lie at the core of the 
WTO Agreements and the relevant provisions, which should be made more binding, more 
operational and more effective. 
 Moreover, Côte d'Ivoire still prefers the approach  based on decision-making by consensus, which 
enables all Members to participate and their concerns and interests to be taken into account. 
 From this standpoint, Côte d'Ivoire welcomes the successful conclusion of the negotiations on the 
establishment of a Monitoring Mechanism for strengthening and operationalizing special and 
differential treatment (S&DT) measures to improve the participation of the least developed and 
developing countries in world trade.  
The constant pursuit of the efficient implementati on of the Aid for Trade initiative could also 
constitute an appropriate response to the supply-related constraints and value-chain problems which the developing and least developed countries have to face. 
 
With regard to trade facilitation, having accepted  the protocol of amendment to insert the Trade 
Facilitation Agreement into the Marrakesh Agreement establishing the WTO, Côte d'Ivoire is asking the development partners to honour their commitments as set out in the provisions of that 
Agreement. 
 It will be recalled that Côte d'Ivoire has categorized the trade facilitation measures and established 
a National Trade Facilitation Committee by decree. The category A measures have been notified to 
the WTO and those of category C to the development partners.  
Moreover, it is necessary to extend the technical and financial assistance programmes to building 
the capacities of the post-crisis countries facing huge economic and commercial challenges, within the context of the development goals pursued by the WTO. WT/MIN(15)/ST/32 
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  Finally, for Côte d'Ivoire, the WTO's negotiating, agreement-administering, trade policy review and 
dispute settlement functions and the initiatives to promote cooperation between the WTO and other organizations must be maintained.  
In this connection, with a view to reaching a mutually advantageous and satisfactory conclusion 
enshrining the development dimension, in a reason able period of time, the current negotiations 
should be conducted within a multilateral, inclusive and transparent framework centred on a 
bottom-up approach. 
 
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