WT/MIN(15)/ST/53  
18 December 2015  
(15-6780)  Page: 1/1  
Ministerial Conference 
Tenth Session 
Nairobi, 15-18 December 2015  Original: Spanish  
 
STATEMENT BY H.E. MR FRANCISCO ALBERTO LIMA MENA 
AMBASSADOR, PERMANENT REPRESENTATIVE 
EL SALVADOR  
El Salvador is honoured to participate in this Tenth Ministerial Conference which is of such 
paramount importance to our Organization and being held for the first time in Africa. Special recognition and gratitude go to the Government and people of Kenya for their hospitality, 
warmth and the magnificent arrangements made for the holding of this Conference. 
Once again El Salvador reiterates its commitment to the rules-based multilateral trading system, 
which offers clarity and predictability to all its participants. It is important to highlight our 
accomplishments over the past 20 years and the WT O's contribution to the growth of world trade 
in goods and services, including through the historic Trade Facilitation Agreement that has been reached. Although our country has bilateral or regi onal trade instruments, we insist that they do 
not replace but instead complement WTO agreements. 
This Ministerial Conference offers us the oppo rtunity to send the message that despite the 
challenges facing the world, it is possible to achieve concrete outcomes designed to address the concerns of all Members, in particular the smallest and most vulnerable. In the short time that we 
have available, the objectives set for this Ministerial Conference will be attainable only with 
political will, a sense of realism and pragmatism on the part of all. It is critically important for the outcomes of this meeting to include agreemen t on clear guidelines for the work of this 
Organization over the next two years, in other words, until our next meeting. 
As we have stated on other occasions, although we have made progress in attaining the 
Millennium Development Goals, it has not been  enough to counteract poverty and inequality, 
which have been compounded by the economic and financial crises as well as other economic and 
social challenges which we must continue to address. We reiterate the need for a WTO contribution to the search for solutions to help overcome these situations. 
El Salvador attributes special importance to strengthening the day-to-day work of our 
Organization. More specifically, as part of th e Group of Small, Vulnerable Economies, given 
El Salvador's characteristics and level of market participation, we welcome the decision on the Work Programme on Small Economies, which we expect to adopt in the course of this meeting. 
We also wish to underscore the importance of this Organization's negotiating function and hope to 
be able to finalize the outstanding Doha Development Agenda issues in a balanced, fair and equitable manner, including the topic of agriculture, which is of major importance to my country. 
It should be underscored yet again that it is nece ssary for the principle of development to remain 
central to our discussions and for the flexibilities already negotiated for countries like mine to serve as the basis of future discussions. 
Lastly, although we are open to considering the discussion of new issues that fall within the remit 
of this Organization, we do not believe that this is the only way to maintain its validity and 
relevance. Our citizens will gauge the importance of this Organization by the capacity of Members to reach agreements in all those areas that boost the development of our countries in a manner 
consistent with our realities. 
We welcome the Conference's approval of Membership for Liberia and Afghanistan. 
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