WT/MIN(13)/ST/126  
20 February 2014  
(14-1072)  Page: 1/1  
Ministerial Conference 
Ninth Session 
Bali, 3-6 December 2013  Original: English  
 
STATEMENT BY H.E. MR. TAWFIQ AL-RABIAH 
MINISTER OF COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY 
KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA 
[Assalamu alaikum] 
 On behalf of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, I would like to express our heartfelt appreciation to the Government of the Republic of Indonesia for hosting the Ninth WTO Ministerial Conference with 
such success at this momentous time for the multilateral trading system. Let me also use this 
opportunity to thank the former WTO Director General, Pascal Lamy, for his service to the Organization, and to welcome the new Director-General, Roberto Azevêdo, and congratulate him 
on his appointment. 
 Saudi Arabia would like to thank the Director General and the member countries negotiators for 
their efforts and the considerable progress that has been achieved over the past weeks, although a 
Bali Package has not been reached. However, we are confident that with continued hard work, the 
goal can still be achieved.  
Right now, it appears that we are standing at a crossroads, and we will choose success or failure of 
the Doha Development Agenda based on the direction of our next steps.  
I know that the lack of achieving a Bali Packag e could be understood to reinforce the view that 
multilateral trade negotiation has lost its way and that alternatives must be sought – but Saudi Arabia does not think giving up is an option at this time. Although the prospects for entering into 
bilateral and plurilateral free trade agreements may seem attractive to some countries in the short 
term, such arrangements cannot address key problems of priority interest to developing countries in the long term, such as global trade remedy abuse, agriculture subsidization and protectionism, and maintaining and improving global market ac cess. Therefore, negotiations outside the WTO 
should not delay, and cannot justify distraction from, the conclusion of the DDA. Saudi Arabia, as 
an active Member of the WTO and of the G20, is  committed to doing everything possible to ensure 
a positive result with the central goal of advancing development interests, and we hope other 
Members will think and act collectively as next steps are taken. 
 Regardless of the current state of the DDA, we must acknowledge that fairness and inclusiveness 
are fundamental requirements of any successful  international system. There has been much 
discussion about inclusiveness at the WTO and the positive result of interaction among the WTO, non-Member countries, and other international inter-governmental organizations. In this connection, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia considers that the requests of Palestine and the League 
of Arab States for observer status to the WTO sh ould be approved without further delay. Along the 
same lines, we all know that languages help countries and stakeholders to interact with and understand complex systems like the WTO.  For this reason, Saudi Arabia firmly supports the 
addition of Arabic as an official language of th e WTO in order to broaden and deepen its benefits 
by encouraging more active participation in WTO affairs.  
Once again, thank you Mr. Chairman for your leadership, and for providing all possible support to 
reach a positive outcome at this Ministerial Conference.  
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