WT/MIN(13)/ST/102  
27 January 2014  
(14-0426)  Page: 1/2  
Ministerial Conference 
Ninth Session 
Bali, 3-6 December 2013  Original: Spanish  
 
  STATEMENT BY H.E. MS ILEANA NÚÑEZ MORDOCHE 
VICE-MINISTER, MINISTRY OF FOREIGN TRADE AND INVESTMENT 
CUBA 
First of all, we would like to thank the Indonesian Government and people for the generous 
hospitality with which we have been received. We would also like to welcome Yemen to the WTO 
and reiterate our support for the prompt access ion of the 23 remaining underdeveloped and least 
developed countries. 
We have arrived at this Ninth Ministerial Conference with a completely unbalanced package which 
has been reduced to only three pillars: agriculture, trade facilitation, and trade and development, due to the refusal of the developed countries to fulfil the Doha mandate, and their inflexibility 
in this regard. 
The package seeks to impose a legally binding Trade Facilitation Agreement which would mainly 
benefit the developed countries, while the latter are placing heavy burdens on the developing 
countries without guaranteeing, in the form of a binding commitment, the technical and financial 
assistance needed to overcome them. Furthermore, as regards the issues advocated by the South, namely agriculture and special and differential treatment, we would only obtain watered-down, non-binding texts, some of which may even be provisional. This is unacceptable, as it would spell 
the end of the multilateral trading system to which we aspire. 
We reject the implementation of non-transparent and non-inclusive negotiating mechanisms, 
which would create pressure to impose outcomes at any cost, and would run counter to the 
aspirations of most developing countries. 
Under various pretexts, we have been encouraged to give up our demands that special 
and differential treatment be revitalized, that forg otten issues relating to implementation of the 
Uruguay Round Agreements be finally settled, and th at the mandates on matters of vital interest 
for the countries of the South be carried out. 
Instead, attempts have been made to include other issues in the Organization's work programme, 
which is totally unacceptable. Cuba reiterates it s commitment to the single undertaking agreed 
under the Doha Agenda, which must remain the only work programme until it has been fully 
completed. The Conference should support this far-reaching mandate. It is a prerequisite for this Organization to maintain its credibility in establishing fair rules that benefit all its Members, 
in particular those of the South. 
The lack of results in these negotiations is not due to outdated mandates or an inability on the part 
of the WTO to adopt new trade rules, but to the fact that the major developed countries refuse 
to undertake commitments which would revert the negative effects of the Uruguay Round 
on developing countries. 
For over 50 years, Cuba has been the victim of the harshest economic, commercial and financial 
blockade imposed by the United States of America, which is the greatest ever violation of the 
principles and rules of the multilateral trading system. It is inconceivable that the same country 
which advocates all-out liberalization is also the least compliant with trade rules and Dispute Settlement Body decisions. WT/MIN(13)/ST/102 
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  Cuba therefore reaffirms its position in defence of multilateralism and rejects the plurilateral 
approaches promoted by the developed countries in response to the alleged lack of progress 
in the WTO. These are simply an excuse to purs ue their strategic goal of narrowing the policy 
spaces of countries of the South through the establishment of new disciplines with higher 
standards, which undermine the multilateral system and unity among the developing countries. 
Lastly, Cuba reaffirms its steadfast commitment to continue working constructively with the 
other Members in defence of the interests and legitimate claims of our peoples, for a genuinely fair 
and equitable multilateral trading system. 
 
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