. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(05)/ST/95 
16 December 2005 
 (05-6092) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Sixth Session Hong Kong, 13 - 18 December 2005 Original:   English 
 
  
RWANDA 
 
Statement by the Honourable James Musoni
 
Minister of Commerce, Industry, Investment Promotion, Tourism  
and Cooperatives  
  1. Allow me to express my appreciation and that of  my delegation to the Special Administrative 
Authority and the people of Hong Kong, China for the excellent organization of this Sixth Ministerial 
Conference and for the warm hospitality extended to us since our arrival in this beautiful city.  I also 
commend the Chair of the General Council, the Direct or-General and the Secretariat of the WTO for 
their remarkable role in ensuring the suc cess of the preparation of this Conference. 
2. Let me also take this opportunity to congratu late Saudi Arabia and Tonga upon their joining 
the World Trade Organization. 
3. The purpose of the Doha Development Round is  to expand the trading opportunities for all 
WTO Members, poor or rich, small or big, while ensuring the full integration of all economies in the multilateral trading system.  Globalization and the in terdependence it is creating mean that we all 
stand to gain from liberalized trade much as we can lose through restricted trade of whatever nature, 
whether through subsidies, export credits or other trade distorting practices.  There is no doubt that 
Members have their offensive and defensive interests that can sometimes be in conflict.  The crucial 
issue, therefore, is how to show the necessary flexib ility to accommodate each ot her's interests so that 
we can achieve the needed converg ence for a win-win outcome.  It is my hope that this Conference 
will give a clear mandate to our negotiators in Geneva to deve lop modalities that can address the 
specific concerns of developing a nd the least developed countries.  In doing so, our generation will 
have contributed to correcting the unbalanced tr ade rules arising from the conclusion of the Uruguay 
Round. 
4. Rwanda is keen on seeing the realization of a fa ir and rules-based multilateral trading system 
and we will spare no effort in our contribution to the achievement of this objective.  Indeed, when 
Rwanda joined the WTO in 1996, just two years after the genocide that disrupted the economy and deeply affected our export potential, our decision was guided by the belief that a fair multilateral 
trading system could benefit a weak economy like ours.  Our expectations were propounded by the 
resolve of the WTO Membership to make the Doha Round a development one.  Today, we are 
rebuilding our social fabric and production base, including our export capac ity.  We are convinced 
that the success of this Round will complement our effort towards the achievement of poverty 
reduction and sustainable development. 
5. The export composition of Rwanda and other many least developed countries is still 
dominated by few primary products whose prices have been declining.  Statistics show that the LDCs 
share in world trade in non-primar y goods is below a meagre 1 per cen t and about 0.4 per cent in trade 
in services.  It is therefore worth noting that given the long-run tendency for relative commodity prices to deteriorate, the terms of trade of our weak  economies will continue to worsen if they remain WT/MIN(05)/ST/95 
Page 2  
 
 locked in primary sector export production.  The poor  performance of our economy is the result of the 
lack of capacity to transform, insufficient human capital, missing capital markets, lack of 
infrastructure and the supply-side constraints whic h undermine our ability to integrate in the world 
trading system.  These have been compounded by  trade practices elsewhere which have not only 
increased trade distortions but also weakened our market access benefits.  Our exports face stringent 
non-tariff barriers, such as rules of origin, technical  barriers to trade, as well as high tariffs, tariff 
peaks and tariff escalations. 
6. As we all know, the majority of WTO Members are developing countries.  There is need, 
therefore, to place their needs and interests at the heart of this Development Round.  LDCs in 
particular should secure a share in the growth of world trade commensurate with their economic 
development requirements.  This would enable th em to transform their economies from the category 
of least developed to that of developing countries and later to developed coun tries.  Such graduation 
should be our shared objective with a clear end date. 
7. To this end, this Ministerial Conference should aim at achieving the following: 
 (i) A clear framework for trade capacity- building through enterprise competitiveness 
enhancement and trade relate d infrastructure development; 
  (ii) developed countries and some devel oping countries should undertake a binding 
commitment to provide duty-free and quota-free for all products to all LDCs with simplified rules of origin on a long-term and predictable basis.  This is extremely vital 
for our economy to encourage national production and to attract foreign direct 
investment with a predictable market access fo r their exports.  This will be one of the 
major development benchm arks of this Round: 
  (iii) the removal of supply-side constraint s and a balanced outcome of this Round on 
Agriculture and NAMA as well as Services; 
 
 (iv) the provision of policy space with respect to Trade-Related Investment Measures 
(TRIMS) such as the local content requirement.  LDCs should be allowed to maintain TRIMS as well as to adopt new TRIMS for a necessary period of time for the purpose 
of national industrial development; 
 
 (v) a meaningful aid for trade package to  support production and to address many other 
trade-related constraints, to be implemen ted with adequate funding, and in grant 
form.  We highly appreciate the pledges already made and most importantly we would like to be involved in defining its  operationalization.  Aid for trade should 
indeed contribute to make more benefici al the mechanism of duty-free and quota-free 
by supporting production, processing, marketing and distribution. 
 8. Finally, allow me to end my remarks by re-emphasizing the need for flexibility and 
compromise in order for these negotiations to lead to a win-win outcome.  In light of this let me echo 
the words of guidance that my President, HE Pa ul Kagame, shared with the Members when he 
participated in the WTO 10
th anniversary symposium.  He said, I quote "... the search for compromise 
is of paramount importance.  Let no one think th at flexibility and predisposition to compromise is a 
sign of weakness or sell-out". 
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