WT/MIN(13)/ST/29  
5 December 2013  
(13-6668)  Page: 1/2  
Ministerial Conference 
Ninth Session 
Bali, 3-6 December 2013  Original: English  
 
STATEMENT BY MS AMINA MOHAMED  
CABINET SECRETARY MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND INTERNATIONAL TRADE 
KENYA 
On behalf of the Government and the people of  Kenya I would like to express our heartfelt 
appreciation to the government and the people of Indonesia for accepting to host this Ministerial 
Conference, and for the warm hospitality and excellent facilitation that has been extended to me and my delegation since our arrival. 
 
Let me take this opportunity to recognize the good work that has gone into the preparatory 
process for this Conference and to hope that we will be able to use this time to concretely move 
forward. The leadership shown by you, Director -General Roberto Azevêdo, and the Chairman of 
the General Council, Ambassador Shahid Bashir (Pakistan) is appreciated.  
The 9th WTO Ministerial Conference comes at a time when members need to seriously consider the 
challenge of relevance for a WTO that twelve year s after the launch of DDA negotiations has yet to 
conclude them. In this time, the landscape of trade and development has changed significantly, 
mostly for the better where Kenya and our region are concerned, but there is still an urgent need 
for a deeper integration of developing and least developed countries into the multilateral trading 
system. Kenya is therefore disappointed that no agreement has been reached either on the Bali 
Package or the post-Bali Work Programme. 
 
The missed deadlines have been missed opportunities that were intended to improve the lives of millions of our people. I know you will join me in observing that we cannot continue negotiating 
forever, not when scarce resources are dedicated to managing delegations in Geneva even while 
issues of employment creation, income growth, an d raising of the living standard of our people 
remain elusive.  
Our collective membership should be the guarantor of a predictable and transparent global trading 
environment whose proper functioning is key to al l of us achieving our economic growth goals. 
Concluding the DDA negotiations would mean that the development component promised during 
Doha Ministerial Conference has been achieved. Foll owing through on our promises is imperative if 
the WTO is to maintain its prestige and standing among our citizens and the business communities that drive trade and economic growth in our countries and across our borders. 
 
After twelve years of negotiations, it may not be possible to tie all the strings here in Bali. For example, how can we narrow the wide divergence on trade facilitation to achieve the balanced outcome within the agreement and the other issues in the Bali package? On Agriculture, surely we 
will struggle to truly address food security challeng es that are directly linked to the livelihoods of 
many poor people in the developing countries using a temporary solution when we should promote policies that offer predictability and transparency. Regarding development, we are now paying 
more attention to the monitoring mechanism instead of the actual mandate on strengthening the 
special and differential treatment provisions. A wise man once said a "journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." Perhaps the time has come for Ministers to provide guidance rather 
than negotiating amongst us in less than 4 days, and expect positive results on all the outstanding 
issues.  Let us begin by safeguarding the gains achieved in the negotiations so far particularly in 
Agriculture and Non Agricultural Market Access (NAMA). Then let us start the journey to concluding WT/MIN(13)/ST/29 
 
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  DDA by noting how much has changed in a dozen ye ars and agreeing not to lose sight of the key 
principles of negotiations that have served us well in the past. Kenya for one has undertaken deep reforms, particularly in ensuring the efficiency of import chains. A container of goods offloaded in Mombasa used to take 18 days to reach Uganda; it now takes 3 days after the last few months of 
determined reforms. Such success must now be matched by increased opportunities and capacity 
in our exports if we are indeed to have a global trading system committed to the principle of taking "fully into account the principle of special and differential treatment for developing and 
least-developed countries." 
 The same principle, in addition to the commitments we have made to ensure sustainable development, applies to the challenge of food security. We promised that we would move forward 
w i t h  e n s u r i n g  " u n t i e d ,  i n - k i n d  f o o d  a i d  a n d  m o n e t i z a t i o n . "  F a r m e r s  i n  c o u n t r i e s  w i t h  d i r e  f o o d  
security problems should not be impoverished by food aid thus sustaining poverty and emergencies. This is an item that we can get some real movement on here in Bali and it will have 
the virtue of directly allowing markets to cont inue serving the needs of the poorest and most 
vulnerable.  
While making such explicit recommendations, we reaffirm the importance of single undertaking, 
transparency and inclusiveness as the basis of our engagement. Whereas the Doha declaration provides for flexibility to provisionally conclude negotiations in some areas and implement them on a provisional basis, it also provides that early agreements shall be taken into account in assessing 
the overall balance of the negotiations and thus still respecting the single undertaking principle. 
 As we work together here in Bali, let us look ahead for the next opportunity to put more wins on 
the board. Our minimum expectation is that we wi ll agree on a concrete post-Bali Programme that 
will help us to continue down the road to concluding the DDA negotiations. This will allow us to re-affirm the creditability of the WTO as an institution governing the rules of international trade. 
 
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