WT/MIN(15)/ST/100  
5 January 2016  
(16-0074)  Page: 1/1  
Ministerial Conference 
Tenth Session 
Nairobi, 15-18 December 2015  Original: English  
 
STATEMENT BY H.E. MS LIISA OVIIR 
MINISTER OF ENTREPRENEURSHIP 
ESTONIA  
First - like most of us, who are for the first time here I would like to start with congratulations to 
the Government and the people of Kenya for hosting this first WTO ministerial on the soil of Africa 
and thank you wholeheartedly for your great ho spitality we have been able to enjoy.  
 
Estonia, as a small country, firmly believes in th e strength of a multilateral, ruled based system 
that sets the boundaries for trade. In the ever-globalising world, we are all increasingly interconnected and need the WTO to lead the global path to economic growth and greater 
prosperity of all nations. 
 At this stage when we celebrate the 20
th anniversary of our organisation and reflect back we have 
to be frank and acknowledge that we have not been very successful in coping with the pace of real 
life. It is especially true when it comes to core business of rule setting and agreeing in the new disciplines like digital trade that are quickly beco ming everyday part of our nations and peoples. 
 
Using this occasion we welcome the modernised ITA agreement that surely will provide new 
opportunities for advancing global trade and digita l services. Estonia is already one of the world’s 
most digitally adept societies and a hotbed for software innovation that has hatched companies 
like Skype or TransferWise. 
 We need more flexibility, give and take, goodwill from all members to ensure that we will achieve 
success here in Nairobi. As Ministers, we have to show leadership and ingenuity in agreeing in the 
trade rules, just on the level and in the manne r our businesses back home show ingenuity in 
utilising the new opportunities globalisation has provided.  
Doha development agenda and its focus on the special needs of developing countries and 
especially the LDCs and the success thereof is cruc ial to ensure that everybody would benefit from 
trade.  We welcome the Trade Facilitation Agr eement but we should do more, much more.  We 
have the export competition proposal in front of us that would especially benefit the developing 
and most vulnerable economies and we do hope we can come to a fair and balanced agreement on this.  
 
In recent years, many of our nations have resorted to regional and megaregional trade 
agreements. Yes, these bilateral deals do help our businesses to explore new markets thus alleviating their thirst to engage in more and fr uitful trade but regional trade agreements provide 
no systemic substitution to what this organization should be stand and was created for.  
 We are all proud of the different functions the WTO plays, including dispute settlement and trade 
policy review but we also need to make sure the negotiating function of this organization will be 
restored and moreover that it will be ambitious and successful.  With these words, I wish us all every success here in Nairobi and express my hope we will be able to return home with a message 
to the world that we have made progress, meaningful progress. 
 Lastly may I use this opportunity to welcome the new members of this organization – Liberia, Afghanistan and also Kazakhstan. 
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