WT/MIN(15)/11  
WT/GC/177  
8 December 2015  
(15-6492)  Page: 1/2  
General Council  Original: Spanish  
 
  STATEMENT BY THE ALBA COUNTRIES 
COMMUNICATION FROM ECUADOR 
The following communication, dated 7 December 2015,  is being circulated at the request of the 
delegation of Ecuador on behalf of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, the Republic of Cuba, the 
Republic of Nicaragua and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.  
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  I am delivering this statement on behalf of the Plurinational State of Bolivia, the Republic of Cuba, 
the Republic of Ecuador, the Republic of Nicara gua and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, 
member countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of our America (ALBA).  
We would first like to thank you for your report on the "state of play". 
 Our delegations would like to express their concern about the current state of the negotiations and 
the way in which work is being conducted in the run-up to Nairobi. 
 We are aware of how complicated the situation is, in general, but believe that if this Organization is to be coherent and credible in the eyes of the world, it must reaffirm the Doha Development 
Round mandate, as well as the declarations and decisions adopted in Doha and at subsequent 
Ministerial Conferences, and the Doha Round must be concluded on this basis. We cannot, in an 
effort to please a small number of Members, correct and change the Doha text, or throw away 
14 years of multilateral and collective work, leaving behind an unfinished Work Programme that 
places development at the centre of our concerns, particularly in an Organization where the majority of Members are developing countries. 
 
We also feel that until the Doha Round is concluded to everyone's satisfaction, we will not be able to accept the notion of broadening the WTO agenda to include new or other issues, especially when key aspects, such as agricultural reform , remained unresolved after more than 20 years. 
 
With only a few days to go until Nairobi, we are concerned that our work in areas in which there is some potential for progress, will be sent, unfinished and unclear, to the Ministerial Conference, 
where it is hoped that Ministers will decide on a considerable number of key issues, in accordance 
with a format and process that has not been defined. We must make the most of the time left in Geneva this week to work and move forward on these issues as much as possible. Any document 
submitted to the Ministers for consideration, in any area of the negotiations - including in relation 
to the draft Ministerial Declaration - regardless of its state of completion, must be endorsed by the 
Membership and marked with the relevant document symbol. At this stage, we do not know which documents we are going to submit to our Ministers as a basis for preparing their positions. 
Inclusivity and transparency will also be as valid in Nairobi as they are in Geneva, and we must be 
careful if we want to avoid any last-minute "surprise" results.  
Turning to specific issues, we would like to make the following comments: 
 With regard to agriculture, we are very concerned to see the negotiations on export competition 
heading in the wrong direction, disrupting the balance that was achieved in the fourth revision, 
after eight years of tough negotiations. We reiterate that efforts are being made to alter the text so as to provide more flexibilities to developed countries than to developing countries, as occurred WT/MIN(15)/11 • WT/GC/177 
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  in the Decision on the administration of agricultural  tariff quotas adopted in Bali, but this time with 
wider implications, because we would be amending the Agreement if a result were achieved. We note with concern that the sensitivities of many developing countries are not being taken into due account, while those of developed countries are. In this context, we reaffirm our support for 
Cuba's proposal on export credits, which is su pported by a considerable number of Members, and 
reiterate that it should form part of any outcome in this sub-pillar.  
We are also concerned about the lack of comm itment shown by some Members when discussing 
and negotiating the two G-33 proposals, which a ddress legitimate developing-country needs. 
For our delegations, all the issues covered by th e agricultural mandate are on the table and must 
be addressed in parallel, without prioritizing an d without prejudice to what might be achieved 
in Nairobi. 
 Regarding services, we have attended the meetings held, and most Members, including the African 
Group, the ACP Group and many individual develo ping countries, which together account for more 
than 80% of the Membership, have said that they are not prepared to accept a text on transparency in domestic regulation as an outcome in Nairobi. A text unconnected to the 
2009 draft agreement on this subject is not a bala nced one and makes no sense, and yet is being 
insisted upon, which would mean taking a non-negotiated text with no substantive content to Nairobi.  
As regards trade and development, the ALBA countries welcomed the G-90 initiative to push 
forward a series of reforms aimed at ensuring compliance with the mandate of Paragraph 44 of the Doha Declaration. What is currently on the table gives us nothing meaningful to present to our 
Ministers in Nairobi in terms of development, and what we do have is disproportionate to what is 
being discussed in other negotiating groups.  
Special and differential treatment is an integral part of the multilateral trading system. It is one of 
the basic principles of this Organization, and the developing countries have waited 14 years for the provisions to be strengthened and consolidated in a significant and, of course, definitive manner.  
We are therefore deeply disappointed about the course taken by the negotiations on the G-90 
proposal, which have been reduced to a bare minimum in terms of both content and scope, due to the lack of openness and flexibility shown by developed countries. 
 
With regard to rules, the recently submitted tr ansparency proposals do not represent an outcome 
in favour of development and we cannot favour a short-term result on this basis. 
 
The ALBA countries would like to reiterate their commitment to ensuring a successful Ministerial Conference in Nairobi, but not at any price. For this reason, we ask everyone to remember that any results achieved should be acceptable to all, not only to a small group of Members, and should 
make a real contribution to development. 
 
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