WT/MIN(15)/ST/72
21 December 2015
(15-6792)  Page: 1/2
Ministerial Conference 
Tenth Session 
Nairobi, 15-18 December 2015  Original: English
 
STATEMENT BY HON. GIDEON DLAMINI 
MINISTER FOR COMMERCE, INDUSTRY AND TRADE 
SWAZILAND  
My delegation would like to congratulate the Co untry, Government and People of Kenya on hosting 
the 10th WTO Ministerial Conference on African Soil, for the first time since the WTO was established. My delegation is also most grateful for the warm and friendly hospitality extended to us since we arrived in Nairobi. In the organization’s 20th year, we feel honoured to share this 
milestone with a sister country and my delegation wishes to express its full solidarity and support 
for the success of this Conference.  
My delegation wishes to associate itself with statements already made by the African and ACP 
Groups to reaffirm the Doha Development Agenda (DDA), and the Declarations and Decisions adopted at Doha and at the Ministerial Conferences held since then. We further reaffirm the 
negotiating mandates, developmental principles and objectives of the DDA and reiterate our full 
commitment to conclude the DDA negotiations on these bases.  The DDA framework under which this round of negotiations was established is fundamental to the most vulnerable in this organization because it embodies the notion  that trade is not merely an end in itself but a means 
to development and prosperity. So long as tr ade does not deliver on inclusive growth and 
development, it shall remain an empty promise to the poor. It is therefore deeply regrettable that 
there has been a lack of meaningful progress in the DDA negotiations, and particularly that mere 
lip service has been paid to the development issues in the Doha Work Programme. 
 Agriculture remains of paramount importance for African countries in pursuing their developmental 
objectives. However, despite all efforts to advance the negotiations and achieve a balanced 
outcome across the three pillars of agriculture negotiations that were employed by the Membership, and especially by the countries that stand to benefit most from a change in prevailing multilateral rules, such as those in the African Group and ACP; it is lamentable that we have been 
unable to reach convergence on the core issues, and reform agriculture, the most trade-distorted 
sector in the context of WTO rules.  
My delegation recognizes the work done to try and harvest an outcome in the Export Competition 
Pillar of the negotiations for Nairobi. We sorely regret that even as part of a small package, members have failed to find convergence and this pillar remains hanging.  On return to Geneva, 
my delegation therefore strongly emphasizes th e need for continued and sustained work on the 
other two pillars of agriculture, namely Domestic Support and Market Access, to bring them to a level of maturity commensurate with the Export Competition Pillar, in order to achieve a balanced outcome across all areas of agriculture negotiations to redress the imbalances inherited from the 
Uruguay Round. In this regard, Swaziland calls for stronger flexibilities in the agricultural 
negotiations to address the needs of Net Food Importing Developing Countries (NFIDCs) and adopt specific measures with a view to fully implementing the Marrakesh NFIDC decision. 
 
My delegation strongly underscores the centrality of development in the work of the WTO and stands firmly behind the principles under which the DDA was launched, especially, Less than Full 
Reciprocity and Special and Differential Treatment (S&DT) for Developing Countries, in particular 
for Least-Developed Countries (LDCs), Small and Vulnerable economies (SVEs), and Net Food-Importing Developing Countries (NFIDCs). In this regard, Swaziland stresses the importance of protecting and building on progress achieved so far in the DDA negotiations, especially the WT/MIN(15)/ST/72 
 
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  preservation of flexibilities so far stabilized across the spectrum in Agriculture, NAMA and in 
Services for these special groups.    The lack of significant progress and combative reception by many Developed Members on the 
original Agreement Specific proposals submitted by the G90 Group of Developing Countries, has 
been noted by my delegation. Many of those S&D specific proposals address the industrialisation 
concerns of my country and give us the policy space to be able to implement policies that protect 
and grow our nascent industries, in line with Afri ca’s Industrial Development Agenda 2063, as well 
as the African Union’s agenda on boosting intra- Af rica Trade.  However, to show flexibility and to 
move to middle ground, the G90 revised the initial 25 proposals three times to accommodate the concerns of other Members by reducing their ambi tion, tightening their scope and streamlining the 
wording to provide clarity and reduce Members’ concerns. Even given this constructive flexibility, it 
is particularly discouraging that members could not agree to a considerable number of the S&D proposals that have been on the table for almost two decades. My delegation expresses hope that 
the proposals that have been brought for decision in Nairobi and encapsulated in the text of the 
Chair of the Committee on Trade and Development in  Special Session(CTD SS), will be harvested. 
M y  d e l e g a t i o n  w o u l d  a l s o  s t r o n g l y  s u p p o r t  t h a t  o f  t h e  2 5  s p e c i f i c  p r o p o s a l s ,  t h o s e  w h e r e  
agreement has not yet been reached in this Minister ial decision, be taken up in the (CTD SS), with 
a view to achieving agreement on all by 2016.   Before concluding my statementallow me to congratulate the Republic of Liberia as well as the 
Islamic Republic of Afghanistan on the occasion of their formal accession to the WTO at this 
Ministerial meeting. I would also like to recognis e that MC10 serves as the first Ministerial meeting 
for Seychelles and Kazakhstan as fully-fledge d members of the organisation. Further, my 
delegation reaffirms its full solidarity with all African Countries, particularly LDCs, that are 
currently in the process of accession to the WTO.  
In closing, my delegation recognises and applauds  the achievements of this organization over the 
last two decades, especially in providing tran sparency in its regular bodies. We welcome the 
adoption of the Trade Facilitation Agreement as well as the Protocol Amending the TRIPS 
Agreement, both of which my Government is in the active process of ratifying, and we reiterate 
that the WTO shall remain the primary forum to ne gotiate Multilateral Trade Rules. In this vain, 
my delegation urges that post-Nairobi, all issues remaining unresolved , be addressed and concluded under the auspices and principles of the DDA and we  caution against attempts to 
reinterpret, change, or as recently proposed by some members in this house, abandon the agreed 
mandates or deviate from the agreed principles in the negotiations.  
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