WT/MIN(13)/ST/24  
04 December 2013  
(13-6661) Page: 1/2 
Ministerial Conference  
Ninth  Session  
Bali, 3-6 December 2013  Original: English  
 
 STATEMENT  BY H.E. MR ANDREJS P ILDEGOVIČS  
STATE SECRETARY, MIN ISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS  
LATVIA 
First of all let me express my delegat ion's sincere appreciation to the Director General  Roberto 
Azevêdo  and to the Chairman of the General Council Ambassador Shah id Bashir  for their enormous 
efforts and hard work in steering the ongoing negotiations and preparing this conference. I also 
thank the Republic of Indonesia, and in particular President, Hon. Dr. Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono 
and Minister Gita Wirjawan for the ir kind welcome and warm hospitality.  
 
We are here at a decisive moment for our collective capability to agree on global trade provisions. 
We have not gone this far for some time. Following the last Ministerial conference two years ago, 
we agreed to have t ime to reflect on the ways forward in our work. We found matters of 
convergent importance that we agreed should be solved by the whole Membership and we saw it 
as a meaningful and reenergizing step in the process of multilateral trade negotiations. We 
devoted a lot of time and effort, and tried to do our best to prepare the decisions that we all 
anticipated and still anticipate in adopting here.   
 
We all know that our collective ability to conclude the Bali Ministerial at the level of our 
expectations woul d set the tone for our future deliberations on the negotiations and potential 
agreements on the long -standing DDA and non -DDA issues. We very much hope that the 
agreement in Bali will set the stage for further discussions on pressing issues such as ITA, 
environmental goods and climate change, as well as global value chains. The failure to do so will 
set back the multilateral trading system for an indefinite period of time.  
 
The expected Bali package is indeed no small package, it contains significant gains  for, and here I 
stress, the whole WTO community. The Trade Facilitation agreement should be an innovative and 
efficient instrument to eliminate the unnecessary red tape burden in the cross -border transactions. 
Extensive studies suggest that trade facilita tion measures would increase global trade flows and 
enable global supply chains and the reduction of regulatory barriers would increase global GDP 
close up to 5%, rather than only reducing the tariffs. The Trade Facilitation agreement will serve 
us all pro viding benefits for our business operators.  
 
Also, the decisions in agriculture will provide specific solutions and will stimulate us to engage in a 
long-term, comprehensive task according to our mandate. Similarly, our work addressing the 
concerns of the Least Developed Countries and the systemic issues vis -a-vis the Special and 
Differential provisions in the WTO rules has been encouraging. Adoption of the development 
related decisions would place us on the track to continue the work on agreement specific proposals 
and other issues of development interest.  
 
The importance of our organization is well proven by continual accessions. In this regard let me 
warmly congratulate the Republic of Yemen upon the successful conclusion of its work to join the 
WTO. We also encourage Afghanistan and other countries of Central Asia to continue with their 
efforts in becoming full fledged members of the Organisation.  
 
We will be able to increase the wellbeing of all our peoples only through genuine cooperation. We 
should be  collectively responsible and bold in our decisions. We can't afford to fail. We should think 
in the long -term and reward our efforts with expected results. We should embrace the unique role 
of the WTO offering the most accessible and inclusive framework f or us to find and develop WT/MIN(13)/ST/24  
 
- 2 - 
 
  multilateral and respected solutions. The WTO is our strong asset and should be employed by us, 
Members, in its full capacity and for the purposes that we originally created it.   
 
Here in Bali is the opportunity for us to make a pattern changing step towards the revival of the 
multilateral trade negotiations. It is an imperative for us to assess the role of the WTO in 
addressing the current global challenges, and which of those the WTO is best fit to undertake.  
 
__________