RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/C/M/29 
30 January 2009 
 (09-0444) 
Trade Negotiations Committee 
17 December 2008  
 
 
 
MINUTES OF MEETING 
 
Held in the Centre William Rappard  
on 17 December 2008  
 
Chairman: Mr. Pascal Lamy (Director-General) 
  
Subjects discussed:
 
 
1. Statement by th e Chairman .....................................................................................................1  
2. Reports by the Chairpersons of th e Bodies Established by the TNC...................................4  
 
 
1. Statement by the Chairman 
1. In his introductory statement, the Chairman  said that since the last formal TNC in July 2008, 
Members had continued and intensified their work aimed at establishing modalities in Agriculture and 
NAMA.  Throughout the autumn, this work had ta ken on a new importance and urgency in the light 
of the global financial crisis, wh ich continued to deepen day by day.  From the discussion Members 
had had on 12 November at an informal Heads of  Delegation meeting on the impact of the global 
financial crisis, the importance they all attached to  resisting calls for protectionist measures and to 
countering financial chaos by further organized, regulated and balanced trade opening through the 
Doha Round had been very clear. 
2. This had been further amplified in the Declara tion by the Leaders of the G20 when they had 
met at their summit on the world economy and financial markets in Washington on 15 November.  The Leaders had underscored the critical importance of  rejecting protectionism and not turning inward 
in times of financial uncertainty, and had committed themselves to striving to  reach agreement this 
year on modalities. 
3. The declaration by the G20, coupled with sim ilar political exhortations at the highest level, 
including at meetings of APEC leaders and of LDC Ministers, had provided the political impetus 
which Members needed to advance their process aimed at establishing modalities.  As he had noted in 
the fax to delegations on 17 November, the task of Members was thus to translate the political 
commitment into convergence on substantive issues in  the short time available before the end of the 
year. 
4. Over the past weeks, the effo rts of the Agriculture and NAMA Chairs, the Chairman of the 
General Council and the TNC Chairman had been aimed squarely at this – convergence on substance.  
They had continued the tried and tested process Me mbers had used so far – bottom-up, inclusive and 
step-by-step. TN/C/M/29 
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  5. On 6 December, revised texts had been issued  by the Chairs of the Agriculture and NAMA 
Groups.  Those texts had reflected the real progress Members had made over the past months, and they had been generally well received and brought Me mbers closer to their objective.  This had been 
followed by several rounds of intensive consultations  to undertake a political testing of the chances of 
bridging the remaining substantive gaps in thre e key areas – sectorals, the special safeguard 
mechanism (SSM) and Cotton.  These had not been  the only issues still open, not even the most 
important for many delegations, but  without advancing solutions to these three, Members would not 
stabilise the modalities texts overall.   
6. At an informal TNC meeting held the previ ous Friday, he had reported that individual 
positions – and the position overall – had not changed significantly enough.  His full report at that 
informal meeting had been circulated to delegations  in document Job(08)/132.  In his report, he had 
noted that from a purely technical perspective, Memb ers had not been that far from an agreement on 
those issues.  But the assessment the Chairs and he had made was that they had not detected the 
political drive to make the moves which would give the final push to the establishment of modalities.  
7. In conclusion, he had suggested that unless this  had dramatically changed in the following 48 
hours – which had been a time frame for which some leaders had asked – the reality was that calling 
Ministers to try to finalise modalities by the end of the year would be running an unacceptably high risk of failure which could damage not only the Round but also the WTO system as a whole.  He had recognized that this situation was a disappointment fo r everyone, one that he fully shared.  However, 
Members needed to face reality and act in a way wh ich was consistent with the responsibility they all 
shared for the well-being of the multilateral trading system.  
8. Looking ahead, Members' aims should not change.  He did not believe that either the political 
will to preserve the achievements so far or even the necessity to do so would go away, even more so 
with the continuing deterioration of the economic si tuation.  On the contrary, it would also become 
more and more important to reaffi rm and defend the basic values of  the multilateral trading system 
and to respect not only the letter but also the spirit of the rules. 
9. In the light of this, he had suggested the previous Friday that Members should now focus on 
seeing how to gather the necessary political energy into the next year and he had been holding 
consultations with this focus with the Chairs and a wide range of delegations since then.  From what 
had been said in his consultations, it was clear that  the goal which all Members shared was not only to 
consolidate the progress made across the negotiations , but also to strengthen the relevance of the 
WTO as a system which was more than a forum for negotiations. 
10. In this respect, there were three underlying assumptions for work on the DDA in early 2009 
that had stemmed from his conversations with Members: 
- they had a clear DDA mandate which should remain unchanged; 
- on Agriculture and NAMA, Members had two texts on the table that were the result of 
thousands of hours of consultations.  These s hould be preserved and work should continue 
starting from them; and 
- starting in the New Year, work should continue  on Agriculture and NAMA to close the gaps 
which remained, but also there was more to th e agenda than these two issues and work should 
also benefit from new impetus on the rest of the areas. 
11. Under these three assumptions, which he belie ved were reasonably consensual, he put 
forward for Members' consideration a frame which would allow them to move on two fronts, on the 
negotiations but also on the wider front.  TN/C/M/29 
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  12. On the front of the negotiations, the Agricultu re and NAMA Chairs should resume work at 
the beginning of the year, focusing on the areas which remained open and helping Members forge 
consensus.  They would consult with delegations on how best to do this depending on the area and on 
the item.  In Agriculture, he believed that all Me mbers knew where the gaps remained and the Chair 
would be consulting on  how to bridge them.  In  NAMA, the Chair would hold similar consultations, 
but he believed it was also worth digging a bit into numbers in order to have a better sense of the 
value of what was on  the table and what remain ed to be done.  The NAMA Chair would also be 
taking this forward with delegations  at the beginning of the year.   
13. The Chairs of other Negotiating Groups would also  proceed with their work.  The nature of 
their work was different.  Some areas were alr eady text-based, others were moving towards text-
based,  some required requests and offers.  But, he suggested that they all build on the good work 
done until now from January onwards, and Members would hear the Chairs' reports shortly. 
14. Some delegations had also mentioned the id ea of some sort of early outcomes and had 
mentioned areas such as Trade Facilitation, duty-fr ee quota-free market access (DFQF), Cotton or the 
banana issue.  Trade Facilitation was the one on wh ich he had detected more consensus.  His own 
sense was that whether Members harvested it earlier or not, at the end of the day this pleaded for 
accelerating the work on these areas in the coming months, starting with Trade Facilitation. 
15. On the wider WTO front, he put forward three elements for the consideration of Members, 
which had also stemmed from discussions since the pr evious Friday.  First, he believed that the WTO 
had a particular responsibility to follow up on the tr ade measures which had been taken in the wake of 
the financial crisis.  Everyone was aware that he ha d set up an internal task force to produce regular 
updates of these measures so that Members had a be tter sense of the trade consequences of the 
financial crisis.  He was ready to report to Members periodically on developments on that front in 
writing, as suggested by Egypt on behalf of the Arab Group and by Japan, also with the support of a number of other Members.  His first report could come already in the present week. 
16. He also believed it would be useful to provide a forum where this WTO radar picture could be 
discussed collectively.  He did not believe that Memb ers needed to reinvent the wheel so they could 
use one of the existing forums in the house to this  effect –  the Trade Policy Review Body (TPRB).  
He had discussed this with the Chair of the TPRB,  Ambassador Agah of Nigeria, who had been 
agreeable to this.  They would be looking into a date during the second part of January when a first 
review among Members could be held on the basis of this radar picture. 
17. Second, he believed that Members needed to keep reviewing developments in the area of 
trade finance where the WTO's early interventions had been useful in mobilising resources for this 
important area.  Trade finance was an area whic h seriously impacted trade flows for developing 
countries and Members should remain vigilant and active. 
18. Third, he believed Members needed to have a clear roadmap for work on Aid for Trade in 
2009, culminating with the second Global Review before the summer break.  Members needed to 
keep the focus on mainstreaming trade into their de velopment policies and they also needed to keep 
pressure on the mobilization of funds, which had been  reasonably successful but where more could be 
done, in particular in view of the current financial crisis. 
19. Looking into 2009, some delegations had menti oned their desire to brainstorm over issues 
which were beyond the scope of the negotiations but  which related to areas interfacing the WTO.  He 
agreed with this.  The only point he  wished to make was that this may be a useful exercise, provided it 
did not distract Members from their main objectiv e of advancing the Round.  He suggested that 
Members returned to this in the General Council sometime at the beginning of 2009. TN/C/M/29 
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  20. A final point – in the New Year Members would also have to discuss the next WTO 
Ministerial Conference, by which he meant the regular mandated Ministerial Conference.  His own sense was that this needed not be the big jamboree th at had been seen in the past, but rather a venue 
where Members took a strategic look at the future and steps to advance the goals of the organisation.  
On this issue, the General Council Chairman would consult with Members to get their views and take 
this forward. 
21. In sum, while the year may have ended in  disappointment, Members should now gather 
themselves and work in 2009 to demonstrate that  the WTO remained as ne cessary and credible as 
ever.  The world trading system needed the Doha Round to better respond to the needs and aspirations 
of its Members.  Concluding the Round should remain  Members' focus in 2009.  But this endeavour 
took place within a more global portfolio of WT O activities in which Memb ers needed to keep 
investing.  This task started today. 
22. The Trade Negotiations Committee took note
 of the Chairman's statement.   
  2. Reports by the Chairpersons of the Bodies Established by the TNC 
23. The Chairman
 suggested that delegations wishing to take the floor did so at the end the 
present agenda item so that those statements could address both agenda items together.  He noted that 
the Chair of the Special Session of the Dispute Se ttlement Body,  Ambassador Saborio Soto (Costa 
Rica), was absent, but had circulated his written report to the TNC in document TN/DS/23.   
24. Ambassador Falconer (New Zealand), Chairman of the Special Session of the Committee on 
Agriculture , said that he believed there was no need for him to provide a long report on where 
Members were.  The first pages of his revised modalities draft effectively represented a report by him at the point at which the draft was prepared, summing up where he believed Members' were as 
reflected in the draft text.  There was nothing in that  text which he would disagree with in the light of 
the subsequent short period of time that Members had had after its issuance.  He believed that 
Members had made very considerable progress si nce July, and that if one looked coolly and 
objectively at what was in the revised draft, one w ould see just that.  He also believed that it was not 
beyond the wit of Members, somewhere, sometime, to bridge the remaining differences which had 
been reflected in the current draf t, which when compared to previ ous drafts, had been considerably 
narrowed.  This was clearly to be understood as a highly provisional judgment because areas that had 
been more explicitly marked in the draft as being under different types of disagreement were not the 
only areas that were still subject to disagreement.  It was quite clear that until everything was settled, 
other things might be reopened.  But, he believed that it was fair to say that the text represented a 
degree of potential emerging consensus which he hop ed would not be lost in the months ahead.  
25. He believed it was clear, and he  had made it so in the opening pages of the text, that where he 
believed the most effort needed to be made in the more near-term consideration of the text, were in 
the areas of Cotton, sensitive products, tariff rate quota (TRQ) creation, remaining high tariffs of 
developed countries, tropical products and preferences.  There were also a number of other things that 
delegations would undoubtedly have time to talk about.  However, he  believed that it was clear that 
those were the areas where the most re maining effort should be undertaken.  
26. He did not personally believe that there was much point dwelling on the disappointment that 
one felt.  He believed that he could only speak  for himself, but there had been so much 
disappointment over the past months and years that disappointment had become the friend of 
Members which was probably not a good thing.  But he did not believe that Members should for that 
reason shrink from the task of trying to make this work.  He did not believe that there was any reason 
why Members should not take up the pieces and star t again.  After all, nobody thought they would  TN/C/M/29 
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  come back from Cancún, Potsdam, and there ha d been a number of people who had said that 
Members would not come back from July 2006 and its suspension.  But th ere, Members had been 
crazily getting back into the ring for one more round.  All he wished to say to delegations was that 
they might be getting a bit punch-drunk, but be be lieved it was worth picking themselves up off the 
canvas and coming back in the New Year and trying  again with renewed vigour.  After all, he had 
listened not only in the WTO, but out there in the political pulpit to people saying that Members 
needed to conclude this exercise now more than ev er because of the state of the world economy.  He 
knew that there was a great danger of sitting too close to the camp fire because one started to inhale 
one's own smoke.  But he believed that sometimes if Members really believed that, and he believed 
there were grounds for really believing that, then so oner or later, if their judgement on how important 
all this was correct, and he did not believe the judgement of Members could be that wrong, they 
would find a way to do this.   
27. He did not believe that Members should shri nk from confronting the reasons why they had 
not been able to do it up to now, and try to find wo rkable solutions that dealt with those reasons.  
They should not brush them under the carpet, but try to deal with them.  He certainly believed that 
Members should undertake that as soon as they could in the New Year.  At a more prosaic level, all he 
would recommend was that early in the New Year as far Agriculture was concerned, there be an open-ended meeting.  He believed that Members need ed to revert to the bottom-up, multilateral and 
transparent exercise, go through the text in an open- ended meeting, then move back to the cycle of 
open-ended and intensive informal issue-specific work .  And, even if the political radar was off for a 
month or two, it was amazing what they, bureaucrats, could do under the radar.  It was not an excuse 
for not doing some detailed heavy work.  When the political radar was switched back on, if and when 
it was, Members might be in a better position to achieve their objective.   
28. He had mentioned a couple of issues and he had heard the reference to early harvest.  Being 
also the Chair of the Sub-Committee on Cotton, all he would remind delegations of was that if they were looking at an early harvest,  their Ministers had made a political commitment to one issue having 
priority over anything else and that priority w as substantive and time-related.  The word was 
expeditious.  If anything was at the top of the queue , for so-called early harvest, Ministers had already 
agreed what that would be and it was Cotton.   
29. Whether or not Members had an early harvest was a political decision they all needed to 
make.  But, he felt that he was honour-bound to remind Members that there was already a mandate 
which made clear what was head of the queue if they were going to do anything expeditious.  There 
was one issue that had already been identified for pr ioritarization, which had been the word that had 
been used both in the July Framework and in Hong Kong.  He urged delegations not to forget this 
when thinking about other things that they might lik e to jump to the head of the queue.  Those that 
were preparing for skiing would know what those que ues were like up there on the ski slopes more so 
perhaps on the other side of the border than on this side.  There were always people jostling to get to 
the head of the queue by fair means and foul, bu t he reminded delegations that there was one pass 
which was held for that slot and that was Cotton.   
30. The other thing that he wished to mention b ecause it was relevant also to the text and the 
working papers that had been provided with it,  and the Director-General had mentioned it as a 
possibility for early harvest, was bananas.  One of th e most considerable regrets he had had in doing 
the revised draft had been that he did not feel that he  had been able to put in there what he believed in 
July would have been the basis for an agreement between the Memb ers that were most affected by 
tropical products and by preferences.  This had b een more than anything else, an intellectual property 
issue because what went on there had been owned by  both parties rather than by the Chair.  He knew 
that they had worked very hard to try to get that d eal, but in the end they had not been able to do so 
and because the bananas issue had been sitting out th ere, yet unable to be resolved, because he felt TN/C/M/29 
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  that both the parties owned that and he needed th e consent of both to put on paper what might have 
been a potential deal, it had not been possible to do that.  
31. But the document still sat on his hard drive.  He still believed that when delegations did this 
deal, something if not identical to what was on hi s hard drive but very close to it, would be the 
outcome.  If it were possible to deal with bananas in  the near term, he was cer tain that that working 
paper could come out all the sooner,  and he believed all Members would be the beneficiaries of that.  
This and so many other things rema ined in the hands of delegations. 
32. Ambassador Wasescha (Switzerland), Chairman of the Negotiating Group on Market Access
, 
said that he had circulated on 6 December, the fourth revision of the draft modalities for the NAMA negotiations (TN/MA/W/103/Rev.3).  In the cove r note, he had signalled that the degree of 
convergence on many issues had allowed him to present a text which was almost complete.  Some 
issues where Members had not found the landing z ones yet were sectorals and requests for specific 
flexibilities by Argentina, South Africa, and Venezuela.   Since then, he had consulted in respect of the 
latter group and had stated that he intended to pursu e consultations in the present week on them.  In 
his written report, which would be a JOB document, he had outlined that for Argentina and Venezuela 
Members were still at a technical stage, and w ith regard to South Africa, the discussions had 
progressed in a way that he could take together th e different elements and put them in a proposal 
which he had done on 9 December.  This draft pr oposal could be found in his report, which should 
encourage and assist delegations to consider a nd to have their consultations domestically.   
33. Regarding future work, he saw four main points.   First, with regard to requests for specific 
flexibilities, delegations would need to continue w ith their consultations and get right down to the 
nitty-gritty details of the cases under consideration.   Here, he was referring more specifically to 
Argentina and Venezuela.  Such details facilitated not only the discussion but also the emergence of 
the appropriate solution.  On South Africa, delegati ons would also need to hold consultations in order 
to see whether a further narrowing of positions could be achieved.  
34. Second, the methodology used to address these sp ecific flexibilities might be helpful to assess 
generally the potential for individual Members of the present architecture.  He would consult on this 
issue as well.  
35. Third, on non tariff barriers (NTBs), he woul d consult with Members on how to do further 
work in this area in the beginning of 2009. 
36. Fourth, on sectorals, it was clear that Members still had a very big hurdle to jump.  On this 
subject, his assessment was that it was not clever  drafting which would do the trick and forge the 
consensus.  He would therefore explore whether an swers to the many still open questions reflected in 
his text could be found early in 2009.  He took it th at the proponents would continue in parallel their 
bilateral and plurila teral consultations. 
37. As in Agriculture, the Group would start with  an open-ended meeting in January and would 
use the same methodology – open-ended to more restricted meetings and back to open-ended 
meetings.  With regard to early harvest, he had been  looking for products that, with the start in 2001, 
could still fall under early harvest.  He had not found them in the area of NAMA unless one considered a certain number of trees that one saw in the walk in the woods which could deserve to be 
an early harvest.   
38. Ambassador de Mateo y Venturin i (Mexico), Chairman of the Special Session of the Council 
for Trade in Services , said the situation in the Services negotiations was more or less where Members 
had left it in July.  He recalled that he had s ubmitted a written report to the TNC to which he had  TN/C/M/29 
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  attached an annex on elements required for the co mpletion of the Services negotiations.  This report 
had been contained in document TN/S/34.  
39. It would also be recalled that just before he had submitted his report a ministerial signalling 
conference had been held chaired by the Directo r-General.  During that conference, a group of 
Members had exchanged positive indications on po ssible market access commitments they could 
undertake.  The sectoral coverage of the signals ha d been quite impressive.  Virtually all major sectors 
had been mentioned important infrastructural service s had been frequently hi ghlighted.  In addition, 
all modes of supply had been regularly referred to.  In particular, most participants had indicated the 
readiness to improve access conditions for mode 4 and in many instances mode 3.  Several 
participants had also expressed their willingness to close the gap between applied regimes and 
existing commitments in a number of sectors.  More over, several Ministers had given signals of new 
market access opening beyond existing regimes.   
40. The Director-General's report of that conf erence contained in JOB(08)/93 provided a 
reminder of the importance of the signalling conference in illustrating a potential outcome from the Services market access negotiation.   
41. He said that delegations had to take every effort  to build on what had been achieved in July.  
Although no Services negotiating meetings had take n place since July, his intention was to start 
informal consultations with dele gations soon after the end-of-year break to explore how best to 
proceed.   
42. Ambassador Valles Galmés (Uruguay), Chai rman of the Negotiating Group on Rules
, said 
that the previous July, he had reported to the TNC his intention to circulate new bottom-up draft texts 
on anti-dumping and horizontal subsidies, and a co nceptual roadmap on Fisheries Subsidies, as the 
basis on which to carry forward the work of th e Negotiating Group on Rules.  Since making that 
report, he had not circulated those texts, nor ha d he convened any meetings of the Group.  Although 
new texts remained necessary for th e work of the Group to progress, it had been his judgment that in 
view of the situation in the Round as a whole, he ne eded to be mindful of activities and developments 
in other areas in deciding not only the timing but  also the exact content of those texts.   
43. While he had not called any meetings of the Gr oup since his July report, he had remained in 
close contact with delegations.  Most recently, he had held a series of bilateral consultations with 
interested delegations to hear their views on the wa y forward.  Those consultations had confirmed as 
he had foreshadowed in his report to the TNC that  he should now use a different method.  Members 
needed to move from the Chair's texts to draft texts which would have to describe a gradually 
emerging consensus reflecting that new, botto m-up approach for anti-dumping and horizontal 
subsidies, and a conceptual roadmap for Fisheries Subsidies.   
44. He believed that the time had now come for him to produce these new texts, as the first step 
in resuming the substantive work of the Group.  He  therefore planned to circulate the texts in the 
following days, as soon as he had finalized them in the light of the most recent developments in the 
Round.  At the same time, he would also provide participants with an ou tline of the programme of 
meetings that he envisaged for the first part of 2009.   
45. Regarding regional trade agreements (RTAs), Members would recall that at the time of the 
previous meeting of the TNC in July, he had indi cated that the initial review of the provisionally 
adopted Transparency Mechanism on Regional Trad e Agreements could not be completed because 
Members had felt that the necessary experience with  the Mechanism had not yet been built up.  The 
Transparency Mechanism which ha d been negotiated in the Negotiating Group on Rules, was being 
implemented by the Committee on Regional Trade Ag reements (CRTA) and the Committee on Trade TN/C/M/29 
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  and Development (CTD).  The CRTA had now c onsidered 32 RTAs, while the CTD had also 
considered its first RTA under th e Mechanism in October.   
46. It was his sense that Members continued to be lieve that while experience was being built up 
gradually, especially in the CRTA and perhaps shortly  in the CTD, it remained  insufficient at this 
time to allow a review of the functioning of the mechanism to be completed.  Nevertheless, he 
believed that discussions on the functioning of the transparency mechanism should take place.  He 
therefore proposed to schedule an informal meeting of the Group early in the New Year to begin such 
consultations.  Inputs for this meeting would be greatly assisted by Members' views on the functioning of the mechanism.  He also believed that  it would be appropriate to ask the Chairs of the 
implementing bodies, the CRTA and CTD for their views, on their own responsibility, on the 
functioning of the mechanism.  In addition, he woul d also ask the Secretariat to outline its experience 
in implementing the mechanism.  These three elemen ts would help the Negotiating Group to begin its 
discussions on the functioning of the transparency mechanism on RTAs. 
47. On systemic issues relating to RTAs, he had been consulting Members.  His impression was 
that no one was disputing the fundamental importan ce of the issues and to continuing discussions on 
systemic issues.  Nevertheless, as he had argued be fore, the Group could not advance and conclude its 
work in this area without text-based proposals by Me mbers.  As time was short, he hoped text-based 
proposals from Members would been seen, as instruct ed by Ministers in December 2005, in time for 
the next meeting of the Group and to bring these negotiations to a successful conclusion. 
48. Ambassador Clarke (Barbados), Chairman of the Special Session of the Council for TRIPS
, 
said that the Special Session had held its twentieth fo rmal meeting on 29 Octo ber.  Since its former 
Chair Ambassador Manzoor Ahmad had relinquished  the post at the end of July, the Council had 
confirmed his appointment as its new Chair.  Dele gations had used this oppor tunity to make general 
statements, covering their positions and concerns, while offering comments and suggestions regarding 
future work.  In response to calls for an "inten sification of work" of the Special Session, he had 
indicated that he would hold consultations in vari ous formats in order to seek Members' views on how 
he should intensify the work.   
49. Consequently, he had held c onsultations with individual de legations during the month of 
November, and had also brought together the key sponsors of the three proposals currently on the table to discuss how to move forward.  These three proposals were contained in TN/IP/W/8, 
TN/IP/W/10/Rev.2 (the Joint Proposal) and TN/C/W/ 52, specifically paragraphs 1-3 which addressed 
issues relating to the multilateral register of geogra phical indications (GI) for wines and spirits.  In 
these consultations, the European Communities had cl arified that these paragraphs superseded its 
proposal of 2005 and its so-called "new thinking" of November 2007.   
50. The question that he had raised in these consu ltations was to what extent Members were at 
that stage willing to proceed further with technical discussions on the GI register, since a number of them had continued to raise issues of linkage a nd the need for parallelism with GI extension and 
TRIPS and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD ).  In this regard, Members were well aware 
that these two other issues were outside his mandate. 
51. He had subsequently held thr ee open-ended informal meetings on 1, 4 and 5 December.  At 
these meetings, various sponsors of the Joint Proposal and Singapore had submitted two sets of 
questions relating to paragraphs 1 to 3 of document TN/C/W/52, to which the European Communities 
had provided a response.   
52. Members would recall that his predecessor had ci rculated a report on the negotiations on the 
GI register for wines and spirits in TN/IP/18 in June .  While it continued to reflect the state of play, it 
had to be read together with these updates he had just provided.    TN/C/M/29 
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  53. It was his intention to continue this techni cal work in the Special Session in the coming 
months.  One idea would be to organize the technical discussions around the key areas highlighted in the June report.  For this purpose, he might presen t brief papers to focus discussions on these areas as 
Members moved towards a draft text on the GI re gister for wines and spirits.  The Group would 
commence consultations on these matters early next year 
54. Ambassador Teehankee (Philippines), Chairman  of the Special Session of the Committee on
 
Trade and Environment,  said that in his July report to the TN C, circulated in document TN/TE/18, he 
had outlined a work programme for negotiations under paragraph 31 of the Doha Declaration.  This 
work programme continued to provide the basis for fu ture work in the area of Trade and Environment, 
subject to adjustments that would need to  be made with respect to timelines.   
55. According to this work programme, with respect  to paragraph 31(i) and 31(ii), further work 
would be needed to be carried out on the "elements of  a draft text" that had been identified, before the 
Committee engaged in text based negotiations based on Members' proposals.   
56. With regard to paragraph 31(iii), Members had been invited, pursuant to the July work 
programme, to prepare submissions "identifying envi ronmental goods of interest to them across as 
many categories as possible, and/or, environmental goods identified in any requests/offers they would 
have made to other Members".  For the purpose of assisting delegations in the preparation of 
submissions and in discussions with interested par ties in capitals, he had sent out a fax on 3 October 
which contained a "format" for these submissions.   
57. As part of the same exercise, Members had also  been invited to come forward with concrete 
proposals or ideas on tariff treatment; how to address non tariff barriers; special and differential 
(S&D) treatment; and cross-cutting issues, such as t echnical assistance, capacity building or transfer 
of technology; or make contributions relating to  any clarification of existing approaches.   
58. It was his hope that the additional time availa ble had allowed for more substantive work and 
consultations with experts in capita ls, and that delegations would be prepared to come forward with 
their submissions when work resumed next year.  In this regard, he intended to hold some 
consultations in January to be informed of the progr ess of work in capitals in response to his October 
fax.   
59. Ambassador Sophastienphong (Thailand), Chairm an of the Special Session of the Committee  
on Trade and Development , said that he had not submitted a wr itten report to the TNC because the 
state of play in the negotiations remained much the same as it had been in July.  Therefore, his report 
submitted to the TNC in July contained in TN/CTD/ 22 remained valid.  With regard to the state of 
play, while some progress had been made in terms of  providing clarifications on certain elements of 
the language relating to the Agreement-specific proposals and the monitoring mechanism, Members 
had not been able to revise any of the language an d it therefore remained the same as contained in 
Annex II and III of his July report to the TNC.   
60. He wished to bring to Members' attention that , as was the practice, he would be submitting his 
report to the General Council.  This report rela ted to the work carried out during 2008 and was 
contained in TN/CTD/23.  He would also be provi ding a more detailed statem ent on this report at the 
General Council meeting.  For the moment, he wished to highlight the way forward which was 
reflected in his July report as well as in his report to the General Council.   
61. In 2009, work would continue on all elements of  the work programme in line with the Hong 
Kong mandate.  On the Agreement-specific propo sals the Group would work towards bridging the 
remaining differences in the hope of coming up w ith recommendations for a decision.  This would 
entail completing work on the pr oposals which Members had been c onsidering over the past months TN/C/M/29 
Page 10  
 
  on the basis of the language currently on the tabl e and on any of the remaining proposals if new 
language was submitted on them.   
62. On the Category II proposals, especially those which had not been addressed as part of the 
ongoing negotiations, he would continue  to coordinate his efforts with those of the Chairs of the 
bodies addressing these proposals in the hope of coming up with recommendations to the General 
Council for a decision at the earliest.   
63. Work on the monitoring mechanism would con tinue with the objective of reaching an 
agreement on the Mechanism's scope and structure.  This work would continue on the basis of his non 
paper as well on the submissions made by Members.   
64. His intention was to resume work on all th ese elements shortly after the holiday break, 
perhaps some time during the third week of January .  The dates would be communicated to Members 
once they were confirmed.  He hoped that the inabilit y to reach modalities at this stage would not take 
away from the momentum and progress that Members had been able to achieve over the past couple 
of months.  It was also his hope that when Members returned, they would build on this progress and finally conclude this R ound of negotiations.   
65. Ambassador Sperisen-Yurt (Guatemala), Ch airman of the Negotiating Group on Trade 
Facilitation , said the Trade Facilitation negotiations had m oved forward since his last report to the 
TNC in July (TN/TF/6) and would continue on that basis in 2009.  Since July, the Group had met on two occasions, in October and December.  As a r esult of these meetings, progress had been made in 
the discussion of a number of newly revised contribu tions on all elements of the mandate and in the 
review of the textual proposals received previously.   
66. The work on Trade Facilitation would continue to  take place in a variety of configurations 
and in various formats.  The next meeting of the Group would be held during the week of 23 February 
2009, maintaining the inclusive and Member-driven nature of the Group's work.   
67. In order to maintain the scope already achie ved and make headway towards an Agreement on 
Trade Facilitation, at the coming meetings delegations  would have to continue to refine the wording 
of existing proposals so as to identify further common ground.  Delegations had to also work on 
consolidating the numerous proposals into single te xt documents.  Considerable efforts would also 
have to be made on the issues of S&D treatmen t and capacity building so as to achieve further 
progress in these crucial negotiating areas. 
68. As he had suggested earlier, the Chairman
 opened the floor to delegations. 
69. Most delegations that took the floor thanke d the Chairman and the Agriculture and NAMA 
Chairs for their efforts over recent weeks aime d at the establishment of negotiating modalities in 
Agriculture and NAMA.   
70. The representative of Côte d'Ivoire , on behalf of the African Group , once again commended 
the Chairman on the tenacity and conviction with wh ich he had continued his tireless efforts to ensure 
that this Round was successfully concluded in accordance with the mandate delegations had been 
given. 
71. This ninth Round of development-focused multila teral trade negotiations , launched in 2001, 
was undoubtedly going through a difficult patch.  And yet, at this stage, as Members reflected collectively on ways to breathe new life into the negotiations, it was important for all of them, and particularly for the African Group, to reaffirm their commitment not only to the multilateral trading system, but also to the Doha Work Programme a nd its mandate.  The African Group remained firmly  TN/C/M/29 
 Page 11 
 
 
  and constructively committed to the current negotia tions, with a view to reaching a satisfactory 
conclusion to this Round, the deve lopment dimension of which had to continue to be the focus of 
Members' concerns. 
72. He wished therefore to share the Group's a ssessment and views with respect to current 
developments, bearing in mind that substance shoul d guide and inspire this negotiating process.  The 
Group welcomed the publication, on 6 December, of the revised draft texts on Agriculture and 
NAMA modalities.  These texts were the fruit of inte nsive consultations and negotiations led by the 
two Negotiating Group Chairs.  The Group commended them for their selflessness and their efforts to 
bridge the gaps between Members' positions.  It was thanks to those efforts that, since the publication 
of the very first draft modalities on 17 July 2007, Members had been able to assess the progress made 
on certain issues and identify the grey areas that requ ired further clarification, as well as the areas in 
which there remained considerable divergence. 
73. The revised texts reflected the current state of the negotiations:  while stability had been 
reached on certain issues, uncertainty continued to prevail in some unresolved areas, and other issues 
remained contentious, to put it mildly.  The fact remained that these texts would constitute the basis 
for future negotiations when work resumed in 2 009.  However, although progress had unquestionably 
been made, the published draft texts failed to a ddress in a fair and balanced manner a number of 
subjects that were of key interest to the African Group. 
74. The Group agreed with the Agriculture and NAMA Chairs that ther e were areas where 
Members should focus their efforts in order to reach convergence as soon as the work recommenced. 
75. In Agriculture for instance, the Cotton issu e remained unresolved and the Group could not 
imagine any conclusion to the Round without a satisf actory and lasting solution in this regard.  It 
strongly urged developed countries to show positive co mmitment in an area that was so very crucial 
to developing countries and many LDCs.  If an early harvest was to be envisaged, it should be on Cotton. 
76. As far as the erosion of preferences was concer ned, the Group requested the inclusion of the 
compromise agreement concluded between the ACP, African, LDC and tropical products groups on 
the list of products eligible for preference erosion,  within the perspective of a global deal on tropical 
products. 
77. With regard to provisions on the SSM, the Gr oup welcomed the progress made on this issue, 
but noted that there was still an imbalance between  the flexibilities granted to developed countries in 
other areas and those granted to developing countries by way of S&D treatment so that they could use 
this instrument effectively as a development tool. 
78. In NAMA, sectoral initiatives and preference erosi on, including the persistent issue of the so-
called disproportionately-affected countries, were every bit as important and required a fair and 
balanced solution based on real export statistics. 
79. Another key issue in this development Round was the need for developed countries and 
developing countries in a position to do so to make  a firm commitment to providing effective DFQF 
market access for LDCs. 
80. The Group therefore urged the Chairs of the Negotiating Groups on Agriculture and NAMA 
to actively pursue the discussions on these texts in  the multilateral negotiations format in order to 
stabilize them for once and for all so that arbitration could take place at ministerial level when appropriate. TN/C/M/29 
Page 12  
 
  81. At the same time, the progress made in the Agriculture and NAMA negotiations should not 
overshadow Members' overall objectives under the D oha mandate, which called for them to move 
forward in other important areas of the Single Undertaking as well:  Rules, Services and Trade 
Facilitation.  To that end, the Chairs of th ese Negotiating Groups should publish any related draft 
texts as soon as the process resumed,  so as to speed up the negotiati ons in those areas.  The Group had 
listened to and taken note of thei r reports with great interest. 
82. It was now an established fact that the world was facing crises of all sorts:  financial, 
economic, food, climate, to mention but a few.  The WTO was not enclosed in a hermetic bubble, it was part of a system.  Consequently, the WTO and its  management as well as all those involved, in 
particular the Member countries, were entitled to take  an interest in the different manifestations of 
these crises that were afflicting their world, and to  contribute to any discussions that might lead to 
appropriate responses without straying from the Organization's objectives or weakening the Doha 
mandate. 
83. Members could not remain indifferent to the sensitive issue of food security, because what 
was at stake was peace in the world, in particular in the developing countries and in African countries.  
Suffice to remember that, as a result of the financ ial crisis and its effects on the real economy, a 
further 40 to 60 million people could fall victim to the food crisis. 
84. Turning to climate change, its impact on ag ricultural production and trade in foodstuffs and 
on human life in general showed that ecology w as now every bit as important as purchasing power 
and unemployment.  This was another area in wh ich Members were able and entitled to take an 
interest.  It was up to the Chairman to  work out the modalities and the framework. 
85. Restoring the balance of the international financ ial system was one of the major challenges of 
present times.  Here again, the impact of the financial crisis on the financing of international trade, Aid for Trade, and official development aid for the poor countries was sufficient justification for 
discussion of this issue in the WTO. 
86. The economic prosperity and development on which Members were working in the 
framework of the negotiations boiled down to in teraction and coherence among economic, financial, 
social and environmental factors.  They needed to  adopt a holistic approach to all of these matters 
without straying from the short term obj ective of concluding the Doha Round. 
87. In short, with this financial crisis servi ng as a catalyst to rethinking the world's economic, 
commercial and financial diplomacy, the Doha R ound offered the WTO a historical opportunity to 
stress the Organization's universality and to build up its credit. 
88. In conclusion, he said that the African group ur ged the Chairman to pursue his consultations 
at the highest political level and to use his recognized leadership with the leading actors to help bridge 
the gaps and reduce or eliminate the persisting di vergences and disagreements between Members, so 
that they could think in terms of creating the right conditions for holding successful ministerial 
negotiations as soon as they resumed their activities in January 2009. 
89. Finally, the African Group wished to reiterate once again its commitment to working with the 
Chairman and all Members to reach a satisfactor y conclusion to the Doha  Development Round as 
soon as possible.  He associated the Group with the stat ements to be made by Jamaica on behalf of the 
ACP Group and by Tanzania on behalf of the LDCs. 
90. The representative of Jamaica
, on behalf of the ACP Group , thanked the Chairman for his 
assessment of the situation surrounding the negotia tions and said that it bespoke of the tremendous 
efforts which he had made in recent weeks toward s the conclusion of modalities in Agriculture and  TN/C/M/29 
 Page 13 
 
 
  NAMA.  The Group commended him for those effort s and was grateful for his initiatives aimed at 
advancing the DDA negotiations into a new phase befo re the end of the year.  The Group shared his 
objectives of reaching that new phase.  It was also of  the view that this would have been critical to 
concluding the Round.   
91. Nevertheless, while it could unde rstand the disappointment of those who had invested heavily 
in having a second round of ministerial level engagement this year, the Group believed that, 
objectively, the conditions had not been conducive enough for such an engagement.  At the same 
time, Members should not give way to pessimism.  The progress which Members had achieved in 
Agriculture and NAMA, particularly throughout this  year, had created a new momentum and logically 
compelled them to pursue their objective, whic h was concluding modalities in Agriculture and 
NAMA first, and then the conclusion of the Round as soon as possible thereafter.   
92. For such a pursuit, solid working bases were needed.  Consequently, the Group had to thank 
the Chairs of the Agriculture and NAMA Negotiati ng Groups for producing their respective draft 
revised modalities texts which would allow delegati ons to continue text-based negotiations.  They 
constituted a good working basis in that regard, although the Group had serious  reservations on the 
manner in which the issue of preference erosion had b een dealt with in the Agri culture text – an issue 
to which he would return.   
93. The two modalities texts revealed the persisti ng gaps on the well known intractable issues.  
While some of them required further technical work , others were highly political in nature and thus 
required ministerial arbitration.  Whether such arbitration should have happened in December was 
now a foregone issue, but it should happen when the conditions were ripe and this was a prerequisite 
if Members wished to register real progress.  As the Chairman had reminded delegations each time, 
progress in Agriculture and NAMA were the gatewa y for advancing in other negotiating areas.   
94. The Group's preliminary analysis of the two text s had shown that the two Chairs had given a 
lot of attention, ironically, to the flexibilities bein g sought in specific areas by developed countries.  
While, in a negotiating context, one could understand the specific difficulties these countries faced in 
these areas, one needed to unequivocally ensure th at the flexibilities they sought were matched by 
those being sought by developing countries.  This wa s after all a development Round.  Otherwise, the 
imbalance in the multilateral trading system woul d simply be perpetuated and the development 
mandate of the Round would lose all its credibility.  It was noteworthy that it was precisely such an 
imbalance in the global trading system which had prompted the Round.  Therefore, balance meant 
tilting the outcome of the negotiations  in favour of development.   
95. This implied duly addressing the key concerns of developing countries, including the most 
vulnerable among them.  In this respect, the incl usion of net food-importin g developing countries 
(NFIDCs) in many parts of the Agriculture text was a step in the right direction.  However, many of 
the issues of particular interest to the AC P Group remained unresolved.  These included in 
Agriculture, Cotton, SSM, preference erosion, banan as, treatment of sensitive products for developing 
countries, and sectorals in NAMA.   
96. On Agriculture, with regard to the issue of longstanding preferences, the Group had to record 
its deep disappointment that, contrary to its exp ectations, the Chair had not been in a position to 
reflect in his text the convergence and understanding r eached in this area, toge ther with the issue of 
tropical products, in the context of the July mi nisterial meeting.  Although the ACP Group had 
understood that this convergence ha d been conditional on a satisfactor y resolution on bananas, it was 
only legitimate to expect that this would have b een duly recorded in a revised modalities text, even 
while maintaining its linkage with a resolution on bananas.   TN/C/M/29 
Page 14  
 
  97. The Group had spent a considerable amount of time and energy throughout this year for such 
a convergence to be reached.  The absence of an y new text in the core modalities or in an 
accompanying document implied that all these efforts at various levels, including at the ministerial 
level in July, may have been in vain.  The Group w as committed to ensuring that this did not happen.  
From an ACP perspective, the Group did not intend to  restart negotiations based on the 10 July text.  
This would be unacceptable as delegations had prog ressed beyond that stage.  Members could not 
pretend that nothing had happened, in particular , regarding the issue of overlapping products which 
the Group had negotiated arduously and in good faith.   
98. As matters stood, the Group had some critical systemic concerns on this issue.  These 
included the following:  
- on what basis would there be future engagement? 
- what would happen to the Chair’s understandi ng of the convergence reached between the 
ACP Group, the preference-granting countries and the tropical products proponents, especially in a context where Members might f ace uncertainties in the fu ture as to the main 
actors who had been involved in those negotiations?  
- who was the guardian of this institutional memo ry and when would it appear as written text? 
- on what basis would the banana issue be resolved  and what of its linkage with the issue of 
preferences? 
99. The Group needed early and reassuring responses to  these questions which were vital to its 
core interests.  Otherwise, they would continue  to pervade the negotiations as destabilizing factors 
both in terms of the process and in substance.  As the Group had said since the beginning of the 
Round, addressing the issue of preference erosion had to  form an integral and indivisible part of the 
overall balance of the outcome of the Doha Round.  The Group, therefore, could not be expected to 
join any consensus in the absence of  an acceptable package on preference  erosion.  In this respect, it 
trusted that the Chair in his usual wisdom would reconsider this issue and provide it with viable 
alternatives, as a basis for its continued engagement.   
100. The Group deeply regretted that the Cotton dossi er had witnessed no movement at all.  As 
always, it continued to stand by the Cotton 4 and su pported the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration on 
this issue.  It therefore requested  that when delegations resumed th eir negotiations, the Cotton issue be 
addressed as a matter of priority.  This woul d enable the Group to gauge the balance within 
Agriculture and between Agriculture and other negotiating areas.   
101. The Group was also concerned by the approach take n by the Chair with regard to the issue of 
SSM.  Its understanding, throughout  the consultative processes, had been that SVEs would receive a 
more favourable treatment, as in other parts of  the text, once the modalities for non-SVEs and non-
LDC developing countries had been agreed.  Hen ce, the question raised by the Chair in his 
accompanying paper on the SSM left the Group perple xed, to say the least.  The Group, therefore, 
once again, underscored the importance of the SSM to  many small, vulnerable, ACP countries.  In 
that regard, it reiterated, unambiguously, that as it continued to support a special treatment for LDCs, 
it, in like manner, fully supported the ne ed for a more flexible SSM for SVEs.   
102. In NAMA, the Group was deeply concerned about de velopments in sectorals.  It continued to 
maintain that sectoral initiatives should be voluntary, as well as the exclusion from such initiatives for 
products of export interest to ACP countries, partic ularly textiles and clothing, fish and fish products 
and gems and jewellery.  After having fought so ha rd and for so long on one front to secure some 
market access opportunities for these products, the Group could not accept that these opportunities  TN/C/M/29 
 Page 15 
 
 
  were snatched away from it on another front.  It woul d therefore, continue to resist any attempt at 
eroding the small gains it had secured in what was s upposed to be a development Round.  The Group 
had serious concerns with sectorals and theref ore wished to participate in any multilateral 
consultations that would take place on this issue.   
103. The Group also noted that new numbers had been  proposed for target averages for SVEs in 
the revised draft modalities text.  It reiterated its continued support to the SVEs in pursuance of the 
appropriate target averages that would respond to these countries’ development concerns.   
104. In addition, there were a number of other i ssues in NAMA which were of concern to the 
Group and it wished to support the statements made  on these issues by the African and LDC Groups.   
105. Regarding the possibility of early harvest in certain areas, the Group supported the 
Agriculture Chairman that Cotto n was the prime candidate.  However, on issues such as Trade 
Facilitation, there was still a lot of work to be done  especially on the technical assistance and capacity 
building pillar and it ur ged that Members proceed with caution.   
106. The Group was not making impossible demands.  The vulnerable nature of its economies, the 
negligible size of its share in world trade and the specific additional challenges it faced in a context of 
global crisis had not shaken its commitment to  the multilateral trading system, nor had they 
diminished its will to conclude the Round as early  as possible.  The Group was as determined as ever 
to join all creative forces in conducting the negotiati ons in a fully transparent and inclusive manner.  
In that context, it had unfailingly displayed tremendous flexibility throughout these long years on the very many complex issues on which Members had been negotiating.   
107. The Group also wished to urge that recognition be given to the enormous strain that these 
negotiations had had on sm all delegations.  All its limited resources had been stretched to the limit.  
Due account should be taken of this when Members recommenced in 2009.   
108. Nevertheless, the Group was convinced that the year 2009 remained a window of opportunity.  
Changes in governments should not delay or hold work hostage.  At the dawn of the New Year Members should all focus their efforts on completi ng a round that genuinely deserved to have the 
word "development" included in its title.  It had to respond to developmental needs.  This was all the 
more important as the world faced an ever deepen ing global economic crisis.  The Round should not 
be completed merely as a means of taking some  countries out of recession, at the expense of 
developing countries, especially those which were more vulnerable.   
109.  The Group reiterated its commitment to the Round, to its timely conclusion and to ensuring a 
truly fair and balanced outcome.  It would therefor e continue to work with the Chairman, the Chairs 
of all Negotiating Groups and other Members to en sure that the negotiations achieved the desired 
objectives.  In that connection, the Group supporte d the proposals outlined by the Chairman in his 
opening statement and believed that negotiations at the level of Geneva had to resume as early as 
possible.  Negotiating groups had to address the re maining technical issues in Agriculture and NAMA 
to lay the conditions for political decision-making.   Importantly also, negotiations on text-based 
proposals and drafting from the Chairs had to be accel erated in the other areas.  Above all, the TNC 
had to provide the Chairman with a mandate to pur sue his consultations at all levels, including the 
political level, to disentangle th e politically sensitive issues.   
110. Finally, the Group wished to reiterate its s upport for the positions of the African Group, the 
G-33, the LDCs and the SVEs, and its endor sement of the statements of these groups.  TN/C/M/29 
Page 16  
 
  111. The representative of Tanzania
, on behalf of the LDCs , associated his Group with the 
statements made by Côte d’Ivoire  on behalf of the African Group and Jamaica on behalf of the ACP 
Group. 
112. He said that the Group recognized with appreci ation the efforts that the Chairman and the 
Chairs of the Agriculture and NAMA Groups, as well  as other colleagues had undertaken particularly 
since July 2008, aimed at making significant progress towards successful conclusion of modalities in 
the two issues.  Despite feelings of uncertainty among Members about the conditions on the ground in 
relation to the mini-ministerial which the Chairman  had planned to convene in the present month, but 
had now been postponed, the determined efforts ha d inspired an added greater sense of urgency and 
heightened anticipation in the intensified negotiatio ns.  His view was that Members were better off 
now than in July. 
113. He believed that this had pr ovided yet another opportunity for Members to constructively 
reflect individually and collectively on the issues still outstanding.  The shared desire and commitment of the LDC Group was to  keep the DDA alive, for the u ltimate achievement of a fair and 
balanced outcome, building on the gains achieved so far.  As Members knew, the Group was yearning 
for a successful conclusion that wo uld translate the multilateral trading system into a generator and 
facilitator of economic growth a nd development for the meaningful integration of developing 
countries, particularly LDCs, into the global economy.   
114. In this regard, the Group wished to suppor t the Chairman's proposals for continued 
consultations and negotiations as soon as possible be ginning early next year.  In the meantime, it 
thanked the Chairmen of the Agriculture and NAMA Groups for their revised texts which it generally 
found to be a basis for further negotiations.  Ho wever, as it was still analysing the two texts, the 
Group wished to submit preliminary comments and views from the perspec tive of its specific 
development interests.   
115. On Agriculture, the Group appreciated that th e language on DFQF market access that had 
been agreed by LDCs, and which had appeared in the Chair’s report of 12 August 2008, had now been 
replicated in the Agriculture text  as requested by them.  However, paragraph 27 in NAMA text on 
capacity building measures, which was very importa nt to LDCs to implement DFQF market access, 
had not been reflected in the Agriculture text a nd the Chair had already agreed to include this 
paragraph in his text.   
116. Secondly, on SSM, the Group appreciated that the new text had now shown clearly under 
paragraph 5 (a) of the separate document on SSM, that  LDCs would have a more  flexible arrangement 
as originally conceived in the third revision of text  of July 2008.  It was the Group's hope that LDCs 
would be accorded access to the SSM without prohib itive conditionalities and limitations, to enable 
them to apply necessary remedies as enshrined in the LDCs Maseru Declaration.   
117. Thirdly, on Cotton, the Group wished to reitera te the importance of this issue, and would 
therefore welcome efforts at addressing it ambitious ly, expeditiously and specifically as per the Hong 
Kong Ministerial Declaration.  Th e Agriculture Chairman had just reminded Members of the priority 
on Cotton.   
118. Fourthly, on food aid, the Group welcomed the Chair’s proposed language particularly on the 
monetization of non-emergency food aid for development.   
119. On NAMA, the Group welcomed that the langua ge on DFQF market access that had been 
submitted by it had been stabilized.  It noted especia lly that paragraph 14 exempted LDCs from any 
tariff reduction as contained in the July text.  Th is was consistent with the Hong Kong Ministerial 
Declaration.  The Group was also appreciative of th e maintenance of the provision in paragraph 27 on  TN/C/M/29 
 Page 17 
 
 
  capacity building measures which were very crucia l for enabling LDCs take advantage of the DFQF 
market access.   
120. However, he wished to draw to the attenti on of Members that Annex 4 which retained the 
language of the NAMA Chair’s August report, granti ng disproportionately affected country treatment 
to Bangladesh, Cambodia and Nepal for identified A nnex 3 tariff lines, had not yet gained consensus 
within the LDC Group and therefore remained unr esolved.  In the interest of enhancing the 
opportunity for possible solution, he wished to reiterate what he had earlier proposed that this issue be addressed by a wider involvement beyond the LDCs Group, including by the TNC Chairman. 
121. On the SACU issue, the Group supported the provision on South Africa/SACU seeking more 
flexibilities, and additional capacity building measur es for other SACU members including Lesotho as 
the only LDC in the Customs Union.   
122. NTBs were another issue covered in paragraphs  23-26.  The Group supported the “horizontal 
mechanism proposal” regarding elimination of NTBs.  It requested for provision of targeted technical 
assistance to identify and to address the NTBs and related measures.   
123. Regarding sectorals, the Group wished to see language ensuring that sectoral initiatives did 
not harm the export interests of LDCs due to erosio n of their preferences.  An effective mechanism 
should be established to monitor and mitigate or even prevent negative effects on LDCs.   
124. While aware that the issues still outstanding posed an immense challenge, the Group still 
believed that a successful conclusion of the Round was possible.  This made even more sense 
considering the higher level of awareness of their shared interests that Members had gained through 
the seven years experience.  He found the statements that had been made by va rious delegations to be 
encouraging and hoped they would be followed by conc rete actions instead of mere promises that had 
been heard many times before.   
125. The representative of Brazil
, on behalf of the G-20 , said that the Group wished to state its 
views on the current situation of the Agriculture negotiations and on the Doha Round.  It saw at present a fundamental gap in the political willingness to conclude a deal.   
126. The G-20 remained of the view that this de velopment Round should redress the fundamental 
distortions in agriculture international trade rules.   Agriculture was the engine of this development 
Round.  The results in Agriculture would determine th e level of ambition in other areas, particularly 
in light of paragraph 24 of the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration.  It came then as a surprise that, since July 2008, the gap between Agriculture and NAMA had increased.   
127. Chairman Falconer's December 2008 draft moda lities should constitute the natural basis for 
future negotiations.  Efforts to close gaps and refi ne the text should be the product of a multilateral, 
transparent and bottom-up process.  However, the G- 20 wished to stress two points.  First, that 
unbracketed numbers on overall trade distorting s upport (OTDS) and product-specific disciplines 
represented conditional positions a nd could only be definitively settled when Members assessed the 
overall balance of the negotiations; second, that it had observed with great concern the continuous 
reduction of the level of ambition in Agriculture, pa rticularly on market access and domestic support.  
Layers of exceptions had been a dded for developed countries – in pr eserving high levels of "water" in 
domestic support entitlements; in failing to move ahead on Cotton, a central issue for a truly 
development agenda; in increasing the number of se nsitive products; in avoi ding tariff capping and 
full and fair tariff simplification; and in creating new TRQs.   
128. The Group regretted that inflexibility and lack of leadership had prevailed precisely when 
they had been most needed, when the world economy faced its most severe crisis in 70 years.  The TN/C/M/29 
Page 18  
 
  WTO should have given an unequivocal contribution through the reform and the strengthening of the 
rules-based multilateral trading system.   
129. The G-20 had been, was and would be ready to  engage.  As it had done so far, the Group 
would continue to show pragmatism and to provide  its contribution to the negotiations.  The G-20 
expected other Members to do the same.  This wa s the only way for Members to achieve a balanced, 
ambitious and development-oriented outc ome in the Agriculture negotiations.   
130. Speaking on behalf of Brazil
, he said that it was deeply regrettable that Members had not been 
able to complete the modalities this year.  Duri ng the General Council meeting in May, Brazil had 
stated that the successful conclusion of the Round w as both visible and desirable.  At the present, as 
President Lula had recently indicated, the successf ul conclusion of the Round was no longer an 
opportunity but rather a necessity.  In the midst of a financial crisis, its repe rcussions would extend far 
beyond trade.  Many countries, developed and de veloping, had emphasized the urgent need to 
conclude these negotiations.  Many developing co untries, particularly the least-developed among 
them, had stressed that the gains accruing from the e limination of trade-distorting subsidies and other 
barriers, as well as from the DFQF initiative, w ould be far greater than those deriving from any 
financial assistance. 
131. The first priority in the new year should be to  resume the negotiations with a view to their 
early conclusion on the basis of the texts that Members had before them.  They should adopt a forward-looking attitude.  It was of the utmost impor tance that all parties engaged constructively and 
remained open to real and good-faith negotiations .  At the same time, understanding the cause of 
failure was a necessary step in seeking workable solutions.  Ther e was no doubt that the maximalist 
and uncompromising attitudes on the part of a fe w had not been helpful or productive.  Excessive 
ambition, with Members seeking additional concessions  at a late stage, had set Members back by 
upsetting the delicate balance achieved in July.  This had to be avoided at all costs in the future.  
Developing countries could not be made to pay a disproportionate price for the Round.  They had continuously emphasized that ambition in Agricultu re would determine the ambition in other areas 
particularly NAMA.  Agriculture remained at the he art of this Development Round.  He also wished 
to stress the need for concrete results on all outst anding development issues, in particular DFQF, 
S&D, implementation issues and Cotton.  
132. Finally, he wished to come back to the Chai rman's report on the issues that he had submitted 
to Members for consideration.  He noted that he had submitted a frame with two fronts, one on 
negotiations another one on the wider front.  On  negotiations, for Agriculture and NAMA and the 
other areas, at this point in time Brazil was in fu ll agreement with the suggestions that he had put to 
Members.  
133. On the early outcomes, in particular the Chairman had mention Trade Facilitation, DFQF, 
Cotton and bananas, he would simply say that th is was an area that deserved deep reflection, 
particularly on the basis of the impact that it might have on the Single Undertaking.  Nonetheless, he 
wished to make two points:  first, that any early outcome had to be development-friendly and 
development-oriented;  and second, that Cotton, as ha d been stressed by the Agriculture Chair, should 
be at the head of the queue. 
134. On the wider WTO front, Brazil agreed with th e three points that the Chairman had put to 
Members:  the follow-up on trade measures, the deve lopments in trade finance, and the road-map for 
work on Aid for Trade.  He would note, however, as the Chairman had, the ideas mentioned by some 
regarding the need to work on areas that interfaced w ith the WTO.  Brazil fully agreed with the view 
that this should not become a distraction from the DDA work.  He wished to add that, as far as Brazil 
was concerned, this initiative if it ever came to  be, should not be an av enue for introducing new  TN/C/M/29 
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  elements in the negotiations of the Round.  Having  said that, he was pleased to say that Brazil was 
ready to continue to work in a constructive and forward-looking basis with all the other Members. 
135. The representative of Indonesia , on behalf of the G-33 , said that the Group acknowledged and 
appreciated the Chairman's efforts in steering the Doha Round negotiations process.  It assured the 
Chairman of its commitment to continue its constr uctive engagement to contribute to finding logical 
and reasonable compromises, with a view to achievi ng a balanced and fair solution to the outstanding 
issues of the negotiations.   
136. The Group also thanked the Agriculture and NAMA Chairs for their new draft texts.  It was 
clear for the Group that the draft texts were faithful to  the facts and reflected the reality of the current 
state of play.  For the Group, the two draft text s were good bases for further intensive work.  There 
were a number of positive and encouraging elements  that should be preserved.  However, a number of 
elements and issues remained to be further techni cally developed, improved and finalized before a 
political decision could be made.   
137. The G-33 underscored that the negotiations pr ocess was substance driven and should remain 
as such.  Being flexible and taking painful compro mises from each side were keys to advancement 
and conclusion of the negotiations.  In this resp ect, it was a fact that through the course of the 
negotiations, and even recently, the G-33 had demons trated movement of positions, tabling new ideas 
as well as being flexible and constructive.  If this  was not the case, the Gr oup believed that the two 
issues of special products (SPs) and especially SSM would not have evolved this far in the current 
negotiations.   
138. On SSM specifically, the Group reiterated that it would remain constructive in finding the 
much expected balanced and fair  compromises.  For the G-33, the underlying principle of the SSM 
was that it should be simple, effective and not burde nsome.  Most importantly, as a trade instrument, 
it had to meet its objectives in providing the neces sary safeguards for the small and vulnerable and the 
poorest of developing-country Members.  To a certain  extent, the fourth revision of the Agriculture 
draft text had managed to capture some of these underlying principles.  Nevertheless, much more 
significant elements of the SSM merited further continuous and intensive work.   
139. The two issues of SPs and SSM were not only of interest to certain developing countries, but 
it should be understood that they responded to the in terests and needs of the majority of developing 
countries, whether or not they were members of th e G-33, LDCs, SVEs or RAMs.  With this kind of 
framework, it was not an exaggerated demand that the G-33 sought for the much awaited balanced 
and fair outcome on SPs and SSM as well as on the DDA.   
140. The Round was a development round.  The devel opmental benefits should be shared in a 
balanced and fair manner by all interests, whethe r in NAMA or the Agriculture pillars of market 
access, domestic support and export competition.  Th ere should also be fairness and balance between 
interests and needs of a merely commercial nature and of providing political comfort to the small and 
vulnerable, and the poorest.  Dema nds and positions should not go be yond the mandate, and therefore, 
the negotiations should be kept within  the agreed negotiating mandates.   
141. To the Group's regret, the fairness and balance which was expected and should be delivered 
from a development round, was not yet fully reflected at  this point of time.  The G-33 agreed that time 
was not on the side of Members.  However, it should  not be a constraint for all Members to continue.  
As an immediate next step, Me mbers should once again re-double their efforts in achieving this 
common goal of a development round within the agreed mandates. 
142. Speaking on behalf of Indonesia , he said that Indonesia shared th e sense of regret that despite 
the strong call by the G20 and APEC leaders, Member s would not be able to conclude modalities on TN/C/M/29 
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  Agriculture and NAMA before the end of the year.  The great efforts and constructive mindset shown 
since the previous September seemed to have been  inadequate to bridge the remaining gaps that 
persisted in Agriculture and NAMA, particularly on sectoral initiatives.   
143. The inability of delegations to meet the leaders' request was a collective responsibility.  
Therefore it was now sensible for delegations to focu s on the next steps.  The Doha Round had to be 
on track and Members needed to re-engage as soon as possible.  As the world economy was facing the 
worst recession, Members had to quickly solve the issues at hand with the hope that confidence would 
return and the multilateral trading system could pl ay its role in contributing to global economic 
recovery.   
144. Members needed to preserve the progress made so far and further consolidate that progress, 
using the new draft modalities texts as the basis for the next stage of negotiations.  They needed to 
resume substantive work in early 2009 and negot iate in a bottom-up, transparent and inclusive 
manner.  The negotiation had to be faithful to the development mandates Members had agreed to 
since Doha, and not to go beyond that.   
145. The representative of Australia
, on behalf of the Cairns Group , said that Group was deeply 
disappointed at the failure to conclude modalities this  year.  It was regrettable that, despite the recent 
statements from the G20 and APEC leaders the previous month, the political will to close the 
remaining gaps and to show the n ecessary flexibility had faltered.   
146. Despite this setback, it was clear that Member s had made useful progress in the Agriculture 
negotiations since the summer.  The new revision of  the Agriculture text provided a basis on which 
key outstanding issues could be resolved when there was sufficient political will to do so, bearing in 
mind that progress achieved so far was conditiona l on everything coming together as a modalities 
package.   
147. The multilateral work had to continue under the guidance of the Chair.  The Cairns Group 
committed itself to active and constructive participa tion in this work so that Members could find 
solutions that delivered a balanced outcome in all areas of the DDA, consistent with the mandate.   
148. The Group reiterated the centrality of Agricultu re in the negotiations.  There could be no 
successful outcome to the Round without a substantia l package of reforms in Agriculture.  Members 
had before them an opportunity to take an importa nt step towards ending the discrimination against 
Agriculture in the world trading system.  The Group remained committed to an ambitious Doha 
Round outcome that delivered significant agricultura l trade reform, and built substantially on the 
gains of the Uruguay Round.   
149. The representative of Burkina Faso , on behalf of the Cotton Four  (C4), supported the 
statements made by Côte d'Ivoire  on behalf of the African Group, Tanzania on behalf of the LDCs, 
and Mauritius on behalf of the ACP Group. 
150. Determination to conclude the negotiations by the end of the year had been shared by all 
Members.  All of them were disappointed that they  had had been unable to achieve that target.  The 
question arose then – what had triggered the failure to give substance to their resolve.  He did not 
believe that there was cause for despair, because Members had been  very close to the goal though 
they did not succeed in reaching the finishing line.  Wh at they needed to do now was to consider what 
strategy to adopt for the pursuit of the negotiati ons.  He wondered whether they should simply sweep 
aside elements which they regarded as having been agr eed so far and start again from scratch.  Indeed, 
that would not be a very wise course to take.  He suggested that they try to capitalize on what they 
saw as points of convergence in order to forge ahead.  The Chairman had just put forward a number of  TN/C/M/29 
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  working hypotheses – which the C4 endorsed – for as early as January 2009, drawing on the latest 
Agriculture and NAMA texts of 6 December. 
151. The C4 commended the New Zealand authorities fo r taking the salutary decision of retaining 
Ambassador Falconer at his post in Geneva, ther eby sending a strong signal for concluding the 
negotiations without delay. 
152. As far as Cotton was concerned, while the issue had not been able to be addressed at the mini 
ministerial meeting last July and remained one of the very few topics that had not undergone any 
change in the draft modalities of 6 December, bila teral and quadripartite cons ultations had been held 
between the C4 and its different partners.  Some  had even gone as far as to wonder whether it had 
been the SSM or the Cotton issue that had induced  the deadlock in the negotiations in July and 
perhaps at the present as well. 
153. In any case, the C4 reaffirmed its commi tment to the following key principles: 
- In accordance with the Hong Kong mandate , the Cotton issue had to be addressed 
ambitiously, expeditiously and specifically.  The C4 had always requested an early harvest for 
the Cotton issue and, naturally, they could onl y endorse the proposal made by the Agriculture 
Chair, which had been supported by other delegations as well. 
- Any decision with no positive impact on the in ternational cotton market would not be taken 
into consideration by the C4. 
154. The C4 wished to thank all the various gr oups – African, ACP and LDC groups, the G-20, 
and almost the entire membership – for their unfailing support in this struggle to find a favourable solution to the difficulties faced on a daily basi s by tens of millions of cotton growers. 
155. The representative of Barbados
, on behalf of the SVEs , said that his Group acknowledged the 
Chairman's tireless efforts and those of the Ch airs of Agriculture and NAMA towards bridging 
differences and continuing the progress towards fi nal modalities.  Regrettably, despite significant 
efforts on their parts and declarations from the G20 and other groupings, Members were not there yet.  
It might be easy to focus on what had not been ach ieved, but it was preferable that Members focused 
on where they were, how far they had come and ho w they were going to complete the task.  The 
revised texts in Agriculture and NAMA, although s till containing some areas of concern, reflected 
progress and were good bases on which to continue the negotiations early in the New Year.   
156. In the revised Agriculture text, some of the proposed modalities on the SSM remained of 
concern.  The SVE proponents supported the statemen t made by Indonesia on behalf of the G-33.  
Within a development round, with clear developmen t mandates, and with the upheaval in the world 
trading system, instruments such as the SSM would be important for developing countries to 
safeguard food and livelihood security.   
157. The Group noted that since July there had b een no discussion on SSM flexibilities for SVEs.  
The Group looked forward to constructive engageme nt early in 2009 on the SSM for developing 
countries, including the required flexibilities for SVEs.   
158. Members had to be careful to preserve the gains achieved thus far.  It was critically important 
that all Members, and in particular those in leader ship positions, made the requisite efforts to ensure 
that the significant progress achieved thus far, would,  in 2009, be consolidated into final modalities as 
part of the Single Undertaking.  2009 would be a very difficult year for many economies.  The 
challenges posed by the financial crisis, the slowdown in growth and productive output would 
continue, with particularly acute difficulties for sm all, vulnerable economies.  The WTO had to play TN/C/M/29 
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  its part in stabilising the global economy by way of continuous improveme nts in the rules based 
trading system.  A successful, development orient ed conclusion to the Doha Development Round 
would be an important contribution to such an endeavour.   
159. In conclusion, he said the SVEs supported th e procedure the Chairman had outlined with 
respect to the process to be followed next year, in pa rticular the continuation of the work in all of the 
negotiating areas under the Single Undertaking.   
160. The representative of the European Communities
 said that the Chairman had made the 
difficult judgement call that political conditions were not such as to enable the ministerial meeting to 
be convened yet.  Like others, the EC was disappoint ed but not discouraged.  It believed that, in the 
current economic climate, it was even more urgent to press ahead with the DDA.  In many areas, it 
had accepted some difficult compromises to allow the overall package to move forward.  The decision 
not to proceed with the ministerial now should not prevent Members from pressing hard for modalities in 2009.   
161. But Members also needed to do the right things now.  As a first step, they needed to preserve 
the Chairs' texts.  The EC did have some remain ing areas of difficulty, but it accepted these texts as 
the future frame within which solutions could be fo und to other remaining issues.  This was obviously 
the case for NAMA and for Agriculture, but key decisions were also required in other negotiating areas.  
162. The EC therefore also expect ed that the negotiating process would soon deliver further 
progress on Services, and that Members would advance work on the three TRIPS issues, as well as Trade Facilitation and Rules.  Much technical work  still needed to be done in these areas.  The EC 
was open to ideas of looking at possible early outcomes in areas like Trade Facilitation.   
163. Given the difficult economic environment which all countries faced at present, Members also 
needed to secure the progressive trade openness agenda  of the DDA in this interim period.  Businesses 
already faced uncertainty about their 2009 order books.  Therefore the very least was that WTO 
Members should provide them with some certainty as to conditions they would face in their export 
markets.   
164. The best insurance policy in this respect woul d obviously be to conclude the Round.  But 
pending this, the EC believed that some kind of sta ndstill mechanism, in the spirit of what had been 
agreed by the G20, should be considered.  Some  kind of reasonably simple, political undertaking, 
combined with monitoring, would suffice.  The Ch airman's suggestion to use the TPRB for this was 
acceptable to the EC. 
165. Members had achieved real convergence building on the July package.  Therefore, as the 
Chairman had said, Members had to press on, craft the compromises, continue adding to the body of 
convergence which was there, and seek to complete the Round as rapidly as possible.   
166. The representative of Uruguay
 said that the events of the prev ious week, the brief end of year 
break, and the current world economic situation were three good reasons why Members had been 
called upon to reflect at the present meeting on the future  of the process.  More than ever before, all of 
them should be precise and clear on what they wanted to do, why they wanted to do it, and how they wanted to do it. 
167. In this respect, his delegation agreed with those who had said that Members should remain 
focused.  But he wondered on what they should be fo cussed.  First of all on their objective;  secondly, 
on the ministerial mandates they had been given;  and thirdly, on the texts before them and the texts to 
come.  TN/C/M/29 
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  168. Members had to be equally clear in reaffirm ing that their objective unquestionably remained 
the conclusion, the early and successful conclusi on, of the Doha Round of multilateral trade 
negotiations.  Two thirds of the world economy ha d gone into recession or would go into recession, 
and the rest had begun to decline.  They would all feel the impact, not only economic, but also social 
and political.  In short, these historical circumstan ces were in themselves sufficient reason for trying 
to conclude, as soon as possible and without any wave ring or interruption, the task that lay before 
them, namely completing the Round. 
169. No current or future government anywhere in  the world should cease to prioritize this 
objective – in a responsible manner – over the next few months.  It would continue  to be a priority for 
Uruguay, in any case, as its President personally had reaffirmed in this very building. 
170. While in order to achieve this objective, Memb ers had to be aware of the political situation 
that now prevailed and would continue to prevail thr oughout the year in many of the capitals, here in 
Geneva they could not allow themselves to interrupt their work or to be distracted from their task. 
171. He wondered how these objectives could be achieve d.  In his delegation's view, there were 
two elements involved.  Members should resume thei r work in all areas of the negotiation with the 
previous regularity, restoring the order and pace of work in the regular bodies of this Organization, 
above all the Ministerial Conference.  On this l ast element, as well as on the monitoring of trade 
policy and the eventual reflection on the relations hip between trade and other issues, he would 
elaborate on this the following day in the appropria te body, namely the General Council.  However, 
he did wish to stress at the present meeting that by recovering this regularity in all bodies and in all 
areas, Members would achieve an important intermed iate political target, one which had very much 
eluded them this year:  with this regularity they w ould all be able to determine more clearly what was 
on the negotiating table and, most of all, what were the opportunity costs of completing this Round 
rapidly, as circumstances required. 
172. The representative of the United States  thanked the Chairman for his unflagging and patient 
efforts over the past several weeks to help Memb ers move the negotiations toward their goal of 
modalities.  They were closer than ever before – Me mbers were within sight of that goal, even though 
it had proven just beyond their collective reach to date .  The US would continue to stretch, along with 
others, until they had modalities within their grasp.   
173. His delegation also thanked the Chairs of th e Agriculture and NAMA Groups for providing 
Members with excellent revised papers.  In it s view, these papers were a good reflection of the 
progress that Members had made, and they framed ve ry clearly the as yet un resolved issues that 
required further negotiation and political decisions .  Therefore, although Members were not where 
they had all hoped to be by this TNC meeting, th ey were positioned well to move forward in the new 
year.   
174. This was where the focus of Members needed to be in January – on the DDA.  The primary 
focus had to be to conclude the DDA.  It was the most important thing that this organization could 
contribute to dealing with the current economic cris is.  Not that DDA modalities, or even a DDA final 
agreement, would undo the damage done by over-ext ended banks and insurance companies.  But the 
long-term health of the global economy, and the trad ing system’s role in its recovery, did require 
continuing liberalization of trade through ma rket openings and appropriate rules.   
175. To borrow from the name of a well-known toy re tailer, “Negotiations R Us”.  That was the 
job and the mission.  Members needed to keep at it.  It was fine to say that that was the task.  But he 
wondered how Members would go about it effectively.  His delegation believed that the plan that the 
Chairman had outlined was the most sensible and promising approach and supported it.  TN/C/M/29 
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  176. Specifically, his delegation agreed on the need to have a more robust, public monitoring by 
the WTO of new trade measures, in order to s upport the G-20 leaders’ co mmitments to resist 
protectionist measures.  Not only would such a system  provide a degree of peer pressure to avoid such 
measures, but it also would better inform all Memb ers about policy responses to the economic crisis 
that might require substantive work by this organiza tion in the future to ensure that global trading 
rules kept pace with developments in the real world.  His delegation supported the Chairman's 
proposal for implementing such a mon itoring mechanism through the TPRB.   
177. Speaking of monitoring, given the large number of regional and bilateral trade agreements 
that were being negotiated, all Members needed to intensify the scrutiny of such arrangements, both in 
negotiating them and in using the newly establishe d procedures in the WTO to review them.   
178. His delegation also agreed that it was appropriate  for all of the Negotiating Groups to resume 
their work early in the new year.  His delegation a ppreciated the reports by the Chairs and their plans 
for proceeding with work.  It looked forward to thei r consultations on how best to move issues in each 
of the respective Groups.   
179. In NAMA and Agriculture, work had to start from th e revised texts.  In particular, delegations 
needed to address the remaining unresolved issu es and not get bogged down debating the precise 
language of the texts.  In the vi ew of his delegation, a major impe diment to completing modalities had 
been the high degree of uncertainty about how flexibilities would be used or what would be the precise shape of various non-formula elements of market access, such as NTBs or sectorals in 
NAMA.  It would be very helpful to work together to  flesh out those elements in order to give greater 
predictability and comfort to all Members about what  each was giving and getting in the negotiations.   
180. Members also needed to build on their work in Services and other key areas of negotiations 
such as Fish Subsidies, Trade F acilitation, and environmental goods and services.  These would be 
important ingredients in any final Doha agreemen t, so they should not let these topics languish.   
181. In addition to the work in Geneva, there was a lot of homework that all Members needed to 
do in their respective capitals.  All Members needed to be working with domestic stakeholders on the 
remaining issues, so that they were in a position to negotiate the final issues in modalities, and the 
issues in the other negotiating areas, with confiden ce that they would have support and understanding 
for the agreements that emerged.   
182. Even as Members concentrated on negotiating the elements of the existing mandate – and he 
wished to add, parenthetically, that Members ha d to respect that mandate – there were certain 
complementary activities that they had to continue to promote actively.  Perhaps the most important 
of such activities was Aid for Trade.  In that regard , he was pleased to inform Members that in fiscal 
year 2008, which ended on 30 September, the US had increased its annual spending on Aid for Trade 
to US$2.3 billion, an increase of 60 per cent from the pr evious year.  This brought it very close to the 
target that it had announced in Hong Kong of doubling its aid to US$2.7 billion by 2010.   
183. As for addressing newer issues that had arisen since Members had launched the DDA, his 
delegation agreed on the importance of the WTO keep ing abreast of new developments affecting the 
trading system.  It had no objection to discussing such developments and new issues, including how 
the WTO should best respond to them.  However, Memb ers had to take care not to get distracted from 
their current negotiating mandate – it was already challenging enough, as they had all seen.  He said 
that Members should not make it even more complicat ed and, therefore, less attainable by loading 
additional issues onto it.   
184. Finally, he wished to assure the Members that  his delegation was working closely with the 
transition team of President-elect Obama to ensure that early attention was given to the DDA by the  TN/C/M/29 
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  incoming Administration.  The enduring interests of the US required a vibrant and effective WTO and 
successful conclusion of the DDA that opened mark ets for agricultural and manufactured goods and 
for services and addressed other trade-distorting measures.   
185. The representative of Mexico  said it was regrettable that Members had not been able to 
establish modalities, but now it was time to look ahead. 
186. The important thing was to focus on the future, a nd in particular on the way in which to bring 
the negotiations to a successful conclusion.  Neve rtheless, Members could not but acknowledge that 
they had lost a valuable opportunity to conso lidate major economic reforms and secure what the 
Chairman had termed a global insurance policy against protectionism. 
187. In this connection, it should be noted that, as of July of this year, the cost of the Round had 
risen considerably.  It was not only a matter of how  much Members were foregoing in terms of gains, 
but also of how much they stood to lose if they decided to apply such WT O-consistent measures as 
increasing tariffs to bound levels, gr anting new subsidies, and establishi ng bound levels in regard to 
the current opening up of trade in services, to mention but a few of the issues at stake. 
188. In a recent essay, Patrick Messerlin had underscored the rise in the potential cost of the July 
failure in the light of the financial crisis.  Th e loss could reach hundreds of billions of dollars, not 
counting that of the estimated gains of US$50 billio n to 70 billion that a successful outcome of the 
July meeting would have generated. 
189. According to this study, if Members increased their tariffs to the levels bound in the Uruguay 
Round, the cost in terms of global welfare woul d range from US$135 billion to 350 billion.  If one 
added to that how much was being foregone for no t completing the Round, the price of Members' 
short-sightedness would be in the range of US$205 billion to 420 billion.  The discrepancy between 
the current opening up of trade in services and bi ndings made in the WTO was considerable, and a 
decision by the Members to revert to the latter w ould entail losses of further hundreds of billions of 
dollars.  The Mexican delegations had estimated that  this loss could be between two and three times 
that in goods.  If the protectionist scenario were to prevail, unlikely though that might seem, the 
magnitude of the trade crisis would rival that of the current financial crisis. 
190. Therefore, the mere fact of consolidating cu rrent market access levels for goods and services 
would have represented an enormous gain.  Hence th e importance of the G20 and APEC leaders' call 
for "standstill", which was an issue of great importance for Mexico. 
191. Looking to the immediate future, his delegation was in total agreement with what had been 
proposed, entailing that Members: 
- monitor, through the Secretariat, any new tr ade restrictive measures that Members might 
impose, including WTO-consistent measures.  Mexico supported the suggestion that the 
Trade Policy Review Body be the forum for di scussion of the effects of such measures. 
- preserve the achievements made in seven years of  collective effort in the WTO in all of the 
negotiating areas.  This required, amongst ot her things, preserving the Agriculture and 
NAMA texts as a negotiating basis, without forgetting the importance of outcomes of the first 
six months of the year in other areas. 
- reinitiate activities in each of the Negotiati ng Groups as soon as the end of year break was 
over.  It was of fundamental importance to continue to progress in all areas. TN/C/M/29 
Page 26  
 
  - preserve the negotiating mandate and avoid intr oducing new topics that would further delay 
the establishment of consensus areas. 
192. With regard to the Ministerial Conference, his delegation believed it should take up issues 
related to the Doha Round negotiations, togeth er with other issues under the WTO which were 
related to its development.  As the Chairman had said, it should not be a big jamboree, with large 
numbers of people accompanying the Ministers – it should be austere and business-like. 
193. Mexico remained committed to  the multilateral trading system and hoped for a swift and 
successful conclusion to the negotiations. 
194. The representative of Argentina
 said that in 2009, Members should redouble their efforts to 
conclude the Round.  However, th ey would have to bear in mind that the political, economic and 
financial context had changed significantly.  There we re certain measures and issues which, in a crisis 
situation, needed to be closely examined. 
195. Members should focus on making progress in the Doha Round without being distracted by 
other issues which, however important they might be, were not an immediate priority.  The TNC 
should continue its work, and leave the General Counc il to deal with other matters that might emerge. 
196. Beginning with the second half of the presen t year, Members had essentially focussed on 
trying to agree on Agriculture and NAMA modalities.  Although they had not succeeded, the texts should be useful in continuing the negotiations w ith a broader participation of Members and the 
greatest possible transparency. 
197. Although many technical issues remained in Agriculture and NAMA, Members should not 
place too much weight on that aspect.  They all kn ew that in order to achieve real progress on the 
modalities, what was needed was a number of important political decisions. 
198. As he had mentioned, Agriculture and NAMA ha d so far monopolized Members' attention, 
but during the forthcoming stage they would have to approach the Round as a single whole and resume serious work on the other subjects which we re outstanding.  Among other things, this meant 
that they would have to have new texts in the area of Rules and on Anti-Dumping, and his delegation 
agreed with what had been said by Jamaica, speaking on behalf of the ACP, to the effect that all the 
other informal agreements reached should also be circulated in writing;  in other areas, Members 
would have to drop demands that went beyond th e mandate;  and they woul d have to maintain a 
balance in the overall ambition without losing sight of  the fact that this was the Development Round. 
199. One should not exclude the possibility of a result early in 2009 on the subjects of interest to 
developing and least-developed countries.  In this  respect, the mandate of the Hong Kong Ministerial 
Conference was clear in giving priority to the Cotton issue and DFQF.  Finally, the work begun on 
Aid for Trade should be intensified, bearing in mind, in particular, the difficult circumstances facing developing and least-developed countries in the coming year. 
200. The representative of Japan
 associated his delegation with many previous speakers in 
expressing disappointment at not having been able to  agree on modalities this year.  As to next steps 
for the Round and for the wider WTO format, Jap an supported what the Chairman had said.   
201. Regarding the Round, he said that  thanks to the intensive consu ltations by the Agriculture and 
NAMA Chairs since September, the negotiations  on outstanding issues had made considerable 
progress.  Japan appreciated the efforts made by th e Chairs and the Chairman.  Members needed to 
keep the negotiations moving forward based on th e achievements they had made so far.    TN/C/M/29 
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  202. The two revised texts in Agriculture and NAM A and the working documents in Agriculture 
were important, as they reflected the work in prog ress.  They, however, included issues that Members 
had hardly had a chance to discuss, and that, in partic ular in Agriculture, Japan needed to continue to 
discuss.  Those issues needed to be resolved.   
203. On NAMA, in order to appreciate the value of what was already on the table, one possibility 
could be to hold workshops among industries, acad emia and governments regarding the effects of 
trade liberalization including the sectoral tariff elimination on the world economy as well as on major 
economies.   
204. On Rules, Members needed to fully resume work .  Specifically, texts should be issued by the 
end of the year, and the negotiations needed to be advanced from the beginning of next year.  In this 
regard, his delegation welcomed the Chair’s indica tion that he intended to issue his texts in the 
following days.  Japan looked forward to examini ng his texts and was fully committed to engaging in 
the negotiations.   
205. On Services, Members needed to reflect on the timing and the negotiation  format from the 
viewpoint of how they could best elaborate on the outcome of the signalling conference in July.   
206. Under the present serious economic and financ ial situations, Members could not simply 
afford to let the Round drift.  They needed to maintain the momentum of the Round through 
maximum efforts toward a comprehensive, balanced and early conclusion of the DDA.   
207. Regarding the wider WTO front, Japan supported suggestions made by the Chairman, 
regarding particularly those concer ned with increased transparency of trade measures.  The leaders in 
Washington and Lima in November had made commitmen ts not to raise new barriers to investment or 
to trade, including export restrictions, for the ne xt 12 months.  Japan called on all Members of the 
WTO to share the commitments as an urgent and prioritized agenda.   
208. The representative of Canada  said that Canada shared the dismay being felt by other Members 
at the missed opportunity to conclude modalities this  year.  Nonetheless, it could not dwell over what 
could have been.  Members needed to reflect on ho w best to move forward, and in a manner that 
would provide greater certainty.  In the current circ umstances, they needed to  prove to the world that 
the WTO was ambidextrous.  Members should procee d with the conclusion of the Doha Round, but 
also demonstrate the important role the Organisa tion had in managing the global trading system.   
209. As far as the negotiating process was concerne d, the current situation had led some to 
question elements of the approach to the negotiatio ns.  His delegation believed in the old adage that 
"if it ain't broke, don't fix it".  But it also believed that Members would be remiss not to re-examine 
whether the current approach was the most conducive to getting results.   
210. Delegations had twice urgently, this year, prep ared for meetings of Ministers to conclude 
modalities.  While they could tell themselves that  progress had been made, the bottom line remained 
that their collective capacity to deliver remained  in doubt.  He asked how many times Members could 
sustain interest and commitments without starting to  question the credibility of the endeavour.  The 
last thing delegations wished was to start eroding interest in WTO issues for their political leaders, at 
a time when political willingness was most  needed to get a breakthrough.   
211. With regard to the question of waiting for the "perfect timing", he said that at present and 
following past set-backs, some had suggested that "the  timing wasn't right".  The irony, was that if 
Members waited for the "perfect timing" they coul d be waiting forever.  There would always be 
considerations external to the negotiations – an election in Member X, another consideration in 
Member Y – the list was endless.  The timing for significant steps in the negotiations might never TN/C/M/29 
Page 28  
 
  appear perfect and Members might simply have to accept that fact.  As a result, his delegation agreed 
with the Chairman that Members now had to pro ceed systematically throu gh all issues based on the 
three assumptions outlined by the Chairman.   
212. In the NAMA negotiations, Canada considered it necessary to delve deep er into the issues 
that were unresolved.  It was onl y when Members had a better understa nding of the issues and were 
able to identify what was at stake for them and wh at was on the table from others that there would be 
sufficient confidence to move ahead.   
213. In the Agriculture negotiations, very productiv e work had been done.  Progress had been 
achieved.  Canada stood ready to continue the work  and urged all Members to remain dedicated to 
this effort until convergence was achieved.   
214. During the previous six months, the focus of Members had been primarily on the Agriculture 
and NAMA negotiations.  While this approach had been sound, given the paramount importance of 
Agriculture to the Round and the parallel linkage of  ambition to NAMA, it had yet to pay dividends.  
His delegation believed that it was time for Members to  return to the full DDA agenda and to work on 
the other negotiating areas as the Chairman and th e Chairs had suggested.  His delegation would 
support a chair-led process to proceed with text -based negotiations on Rules and Trade Facilitation, 
move to the preparation of revised offers in Se rvices, as well as pursue the work programme in the 
other areas.  The goal of Members should remain a successful outcome of the DDA in the context of a 
single undertaking.  
215. Turning to the global economic crisis and cohere nce in global economic policy, the previous 
month, G20 leaders in Washington and APEC leaders in Peru had called upon WTO Members to 
move a step closer to concluding the Doha Round.  Their expectation had been that the multilateral 
trading system would do its part in providing a response to the global economic turmoil.   
216. Sadly, the message delegations were sending back  was that they had not pulled their weight.  
But what had been lost in that message was that  the WTO was more than just a forum for trade 
negotiations.  The leaders were also committed to a standstill – a commitment not to raise new 
barriers to trade.  There was clearly a role for th e WTO as the guardian of an orderly trading system,  
entrusted with the responsibility of ensuring a well f unctioning trading system as an integral part of 
achieving coherence in global economic policy making.   
217. One obvious role for the WTO was to create a barometer of protectionism, by stepping up and 
exercising greater leadership to survey and mon itor policy developments and risks to the trading 
system in the context of the present difficult globa l economic situation.  This surveillance activity 
should not only help Members to identify potential threats to trade and open markets but provide 
benefice policy initiative as well.  By providing great er transparency and a better understanding of the 
trade challenges faced by Members, they would be in  a better position to resist protectionist pressures, 
help to boost confidence for traders and collectivel y assume the responsibility of maintaining a strong 
and robust multilateral trading system.   
218. His delegation agreed that the TPRB should be used to oversee this important work which 
would be complementary to the regular activities of surveillance of individual Members' trade policies 
and their impact on the multilateral trading system.   
219. With regard to other work, as had been displa yed by recent economic events, global financial 
markets and economic conditions were  truly interlinked.  A crisis commencing in one part of the 
world could have an adverse world-wide effect.  As  a truly multilateral trading system, his delegation 
believed that it was time for Members to bring the WTO into the 21st century.  It believed that the 
WTO could multi-task.  Along with its focus on tr ade negotiations, the WTO should continue to  TN/C/M/29 
 Page 29 
 
 
  examine other increasingly important global trade-relate d issues.  His delegation agreed that the Chair 
of the General Council should initiate informal cons ultations to identify issues and develop a work 
programme for the February General Council meeti ng.  In addition, as his delegation had said in 
November, work in the Working Group on Trade,  Debt and Finance should be reinvigorated to 
examine challenges on trade financi ng posed by the credit crunch.   
220. His delegation also agreed that Members shoul d pursue their important work on Aid for Trade 
and be prepared to report on their efforts at the up- coming Global Review in the first half of 2009.   
221. On the Ministerial Conference his delegation agreed that Members should reflect on the 
desirability of holding a regular Ministerial Conference as mandated in the Agreement establishing the WTO.  In recent years, thei r entire focus for ministerial atte ntion had been driven by the 
negotiating agenda.  Without diminishing the importance of the DDA, the WTO was more than a 
negotiating forum.  Regular ministerial engageme nt on the management of the multilateral trading 
system would certainly contribute to keeping the orga nisation healthy and relevant to policy makers.   
222. The representative of Venezuela
 thanked the Chairman and the Chairs for their statements.  
The information that the Chairman provided to dele gations was always transparent and to the point.  
He wished to take as a starting point a relevant comment made by the delega tion of Canada, who had 
very rightly said that delegations should re-exami ne the reasons why they had failed.  If one was 
talking about agriculture, one might say that one ha d tilled the soil, put down the fertilizer and sowed 
the seed and yet had been unable to reap any harvest.  Many of these things had to have their basis in 
delegations having started with some false assump tions.  He wished to comment about what had 
happened and he would speak quite  frankly and somewhat bluntly. 
223. In July, when delegations had been working on  the modalities, they had been sold the idea 
that the world was waiting to see what would happen here.  That had been a false assumption.  Very 
few people had in fact been waiting to see what woul d occur.  Delegations had also been sold the idea 
that the Round was going to save the world from the cr isis.  At the time, every effort had been made 
to reach agreement within the Organization from a technical standpoint, with sufficient political 
strength to justify it outside these four walls.  Th is had not proved possible.  The collapse might 
perhaps have prompted the idea of lack of extern al political support in favour of what was being 
negotiated here.  And so it had b een decided to seek allies outside the Organization.  There had been 
visits to Presidents, Ministers, trips to attend the G20 and APEC meetings, a seeking out of those 
following up on the Monterrey Summit, and an attemp t to create from the outside a political climate 
favourable to the Round.  This ha d proved equally insufficient.  Here again everyone had been 
working on the wrong basis.  There had been strong  political support, a well-constructed phrase that 
had emerged from the G20.  The G20 had had one key concern, as expressed by President Sarkozy, 
President Lula and President Bush, which had been to redesign and restructure the financial system.  
None of this had led to anything, the financial sy stem remained more or less the same or might well 
have further deteriorated after what had happened with regard to  Mr. Madoff.  The G20 had done a 
few things for the financial system, which had been to  agree to a lower interest rate and to disburse 
billions of dollars in subsidies to boost demand.  It  was important to emphasize, and this was what had 
also given rise to the current illusion, that new fo rm of heresy known as protectionism.  Protectionism 
had to be avoided and overcome.  But those w ho had said so were practising protectionism by 
throwing billions into subsidies for the automotive industry and the banks, and this would be followed 
by the aeronautical industry, the airlines and subseque ntly the retailers, because it appeared that there 
was good protectionism, i.e. subsidization,  and bad protectionism, namely tariffs. 
224. Another assumption was that Members were going to avoid the impact of the crisis.  He did 
not believe that this would be so easy.  The Vi ce-Governor of the Bank of  England, an expert 
institution in matters of financial and economic crisis  worldwide, had recently stated in the Financial 
Times that the world was facing the most acute ec onomic crisis in human history.  He wondered TN/C/M/29 
Page 30  
 
  whether the WTO would be able to reduce the impact of this crisis.  If it could not, the least it could 
do was try. 
225. He believed that the financial crisis was bri nging to the fore situations that would have 
repercussions on trade.  If one looked at the inte rnational reserves of the majority of developing 
countries and small economies, one could see that there had been a major currency flight, ongoing 
devaluation of these countries' currencies, a continui ng rise in unemployment rates, and a shortage of 
financing – a critical problem for trade.  If th ere was no lending among the banks themselves, they 
would be even less eager to lend to farmers and industrialists, particularly  those from developing 
countries and small economies.  The world was experi encing a shortage of financing that would have 
– and already did have – a disastrous impact on tr ade.  He urged delegatio ns to look at a very 
significant trade index known as the Baltic Index, a nd they would see to what extent global trade and 
trade activity was falling and would continue to fall. 
226. He believed that Members were working with  new realities now.  As some Ministers and 
Ambassadors had said, the world had and was conti nuing to suffer a major economic earthquake that 
had begun in mid 2008, a financial tidal wave that ha d turned on its head the reality they had been 
working with six months ago.  This was what had induced many a loss of flexibility, a hardening of 
positions and growing antagonisms.  Venezuela wish ed to be constructive, and what it asked for 
above all was understanding on the pa rt of developed countries in the light of the new circumstances 
that developing countries and small economies were  and would be experiencing.  His delegation 
wanted to redouble its efforts and urged everyone  to do the same.  And first and foremost, as 
Canadian had said, it wanted to re -examine the reasons for the failure.   He wondered if the issues, the 
method – the concentric circles, Green Room and walk  in the woods approach – would be sufficiently 
transparent.  He wondered if it would no t be better to opt for bottom-up methods. 
227. His final point was that Venezuela was committ ed to a trade agreement that was fair and 
above all had a favourable impact  on development, and it appreciated the Chairman's efforts. 
228. The representative of Turkey
 said that his delegation acknowle dged the Chairman's hard work 
and endeavour to pave the way for a successful outcome  in the negotiations.  It was certain that the 
Chairman's efforts would not be wasted.  Multilate ral negotiations were like marathons.  They took 
time and resilience to reach the finish line.   
229. He said that the Chairman's statement had hi ghlighted that the recent intense consultation 
phase had fallen short of providing the final resu lt.  His delegation was disappointed but not 
desperate, especially after having seen the level of maturity in both the Agriculture and NAMA texts.  
It agreed with the Chairman that Members now needed to concentrate on the next phase of the 
negotiations.   
230. He wished to highlight some key points regard ing the substance and the process.  First, his 
delegation commended the tireless efforts of the Ag riculture and NAMA Chairs and he expressed his 
delegation's appreciation to them for producing recent revised texts.  Such texts were "musts" of any 
negotiations.  These were needed not only to base ne gotiations on at ministerial level but also to 
secure a level of comfort by preserving the points of  convergence.  Compared to previous texts, the 
recent ones were cleaner and more stable.  His delegation believed that these texts demonstrated the level of progress in the negotiations and depicted accurately where Members were.  They also constituted a good basis for reaching a final deal.   
231. Second, his delegation subscribed to the view s expressed by Indonesia on behalf of G-33.  
The recent talks on SSM, sectorals and Cotton had not succeeded in bridging differences among some 
limited number of countries.  Therefore, at this st age, his delegation urged all Members to engage to 
narrow those differences.    TN/C/M/29 
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  232. On SSM, some progress had been made in recent months and Members were not far from 
reaching a consensus.  His delegation was not fully in formed of the details on the latest state of play 
on this issue.  However, it was concerned with some  aspects of the mechanism.  It reiterated that the 
SSM should be simple, operable, and effective.   
233. Third, Members had given priority to Agricu lture and NAMA negotiations in the second half 
of this year.  In order to conclude the Round in 2009 , they had to expedite work in other areas as well, 
to honour their commitment for a single undertaki ng package.  His delegation believed that the 
Chairman's approach facilitated further and me aningful negotiations in those fields.   
234. His delegation supported prioritizing some areas in the upcoming negotiations as proposed by 
the Chairman.  Facilitating trade by agreeing on certain principles other than reducing tariffs, would 
improve market access and thus contribute to the expansion of global trade and to the enhanced 
participation of developing countries in the multilate ral trading system.  His delegation believed that 
substantial work needed to be done in Trade Fac ilitation that would create a nd generate a big impetus 
to the multilateral system.   
235. DFQF market access was one of the most importa nt areas particularly for the LDCs.  Any 
progress in this area would be totally in line w ith the mandate given to delegations in Doha – 
development.   
236. His delegation agreed with the Chairman that the issues which he had depicted as those of 
wider front were complementary to the cardinal task of finalizing the modalities.  It would give a new 
vision, increase creativity in work in WTO as well  as provide a forum for the introduction of fresh 
ideas.   
237. His delegation agreed with the Chairman and with other Members that some trade measures 
and regulations taken recently vis-à-vis  the ongoing financial crisis which were not in line with WTO 
commitments should be reported by the TPRB.  As hi s delegation had underlined at the highest level, 
protectionism could only be avoided by collective efforts.    
238. On the process, his delegation was encouraged by the Chairman's recent concentric circle 
meetings on certain subjects.  It urged him to enha nce that kind of format while moving forward.  
Those meetings should ensure the representation of full spectrum of Members’ views and interests.  
His delegation was aware that this stage of negotia tions required focusing on some problematic areas.  
Therefore, it knew the reasons behind the choice the Chairman had made regarding the process.  But it had to voice its concern that the views and interests of Members had to be taken into account at every 
level.   
239. At this point, a well-functioning TNC mechanism became a minimum essential.  After all, the 
consent of everyone would be needed to conclude  the Round.  In this respect, there should be 
adequate informal TNC meetings in order to test th e results of those concentric circle meetings with 
Members and to create an environment for interaction with the rest of the Members.  It was important 
to bring out the collective wisdom of the membership after all.   
240. His delegation favoured a substance-driven pr ocess.  Therefore, Members should not bind 
themselves with artificial deadlines.  In order to  finalize the Round, Members needed to keep the 
momentum achieved especially in the second half of this year.   
241. The representative of Singapore
 said that her delegation fully supported the Chairman's 
statement and the next steps forward.   TN/C/M/29 
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  242. The failure to finalise modalities by the end of  the year simply reflected the reality of 
negotiations.  The Chairman had been prudent that  the risk of failure had been unacceptably high, 
insofar as not just the Round, but the WTO system would have been affected.  To finalise modalities, 
there needed to be a re-assessment of what was really at stake at this critical juncture, not in the 
negotiations, but in the global economy.   
243. Members might have been in this situation before  but they should not pretend that it could be 
business as usual for the following year.  Much progr ess had been made, and they needed a clear and 
credible work plan on which to resume their work early next year.  In this respect Singapore supports 
the Chairman's approach on the next step forward and had three main points to make.   
244. First, and undoubtedly, preparing the ground for modalities agreements based on the latest 
negotiating texts for Agriculture an d NAMA remained the main priority  of Members.  But they also 
needed to press ahead and show progress in ot her negotiating areas especially Rules, TRIPS and 
environmental goods and services.  To this end, her delegation welcomed the efforts and leadership of 
the respective Chairs' to build on these issues.   
245. Second, Members should consider areas where their work programme could be accelerated.  
In particular, they should target the delivery of  meaningful outcomes, especially for less developed 
countries.  In this respect, provisional agreemen ts on Trade Facilitation as well as implementation of 
the DFQF agreement would send a strong signal  that the WTO was committed to delivering 
outcomes.   
246. Third, the WTO needed to show its relevan ce to real time issues such as the unprecedented 
downturn in world trade, undoubtedly exacerbated by issues such as the shortage of trade finance and 
also protectionist measures.  Her delegation was pl eased to note that the Director General would be 
reporting on the current state of world trade, new measures taken that could constrain its growth and 
the possible role for the WTO.  In this regard, the Chairman's proposal to  use the TPRB as a possible 
forum to discuss these reports collectively was a good one.   
247. The representative of Malaysia
 said that like others, his delegation was disappointed that 
Members could not achieve modalities by the end of 2008.  As the consultations the Chairman had 
undertaken had shown, it was prudent not to proceed  with inviting Ministers to Geneva given the 
potential risks to the DDA and the WTO.   
248. On how Members should proceed in 2009, the Chairman had mentioned three assumptions.  
His delegation could not resist but express part icular support when the Chairman mentioned 
"assumptions", for it was arguably the most important tool of the economics profession.   
249. Members needed to preserve the agenda agreed to in Doha.  Now was not the time to re-
consider what was on the agenda if Members were to conclude the Doha Round anytime soon.  To do 
so risked setting Members back many months, if not years. 
250. The Chairs' texts also needed to be preserved.   They were a record of what Members had 
achieved over the past seven years.  They shoul d be the basis of how Members moved forward 
although they had some concerns or another on the texts.  The Chairs would no doubt be inviting 
Members to address these outstanding issues in th e respective Negotiating Groups when delegations 
reconvened early in 2009.   
251. On the question of possible early outcomes,  the Agriculture Chairman had reminded 
Members of what they had agreed in the contex t of the July 2004 Framework and the ministerial 
decisions in Hong Kong in December 2005.  His delegation's impression from the Chairman's report 
on the consultations in the run-up to a possible mi nisterial green room meeting recently, the question  TN/C/M/29 
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  of Cotton would not have been the cause of a breakdown as compared to sectorals and the SSM.  
Members should therefore place particular fo cus on this subject early in 2009.   
252. Malaysia welcomed the proposal for the TPRB to regularly review developments in the 
international trade arena in the following months.  Th is was part and parcel of the remit of the WTO.  
It was an essential priority in the context of the current economic environment.  His delegation 
understood that it was not the Chairman's intention for it to be a name and shame exercise, rather it 
was to highlight the positive as well.   
253. The representative of South Africa  said that his delegation agreed with the Chairman on the 
direction to continue with the negotiations on all ar eas of the Single Undertaking; to build on the texts 
of the Chairs in Agriculture and NAMA and to base further work on the Doha mandate especially its 
development dimension.  South Africa supported the call for an early harvest on Cotton, DFQF 
market access and other issues of concern to the poorest members.   
254. On the South Africa/SACU issue, his delegati on appreciated the engagement of Members on 
this issue and thanked the NAMA Chair for his help ful facilitation.  South Africa’s specific situation 
had not been clearly understood before.  The engageme nt had helped to clarify and raise awareness.  
In this regard his delegation was pleased that deve loping countries had all been able to understand the 
issue: in particular, India and Brazil had fully suppor ted its proposal for 16 per cent half cuts and 3 per 
cent no cuts.   
255. South Africa had displayed good faith throughout  the negotiations and although it had faced 
intense scrutiny it had made available all the neces sary information to its trading partners, sharing 
information on its tariff structure and sensitive sectors.   
256. South Africa had been treated as a developed country in the Uruguay Round and had made a 
significant contribution.  As a result, the starting point of South Africa’s overall contribution in this Round in Agriculture, NAMA and Services would be highe r than most other developing countries.  In 
NAMA this was most acute due to the average bound rate of South Africa being almost half that of the developing-country average and the use of the Swiss formula which cut deeply into its applied 
rates.  The depth of the cuts into South Afri ca’s applied rates was roughly twice that of other 
comparable developing countries.   
257. It was for this reason that South Africa require d specific flexibilities to moderate the severity 
of these cuts and to ensure that its contribution was mo re or less similar to other developing countries.   
258. The balance which had been struck in July, alth ough contested and not agreed by all, had set 
the level of ambition for developed and developing countries.  In Sout h Africa’s view this balance had 
been skewed against developing countries.  Nevert heless, it had been willing to move towards the 
coefficient of 22 that had been set in July, pr ovided there had been an appropriate package of 
flexibilities to accommodate South Africa’s sensitivities.   
259. His delegation had argued that the current arch itecture in the modalities, of three menus, was 
inappropriate and that a different approach was requi red to serve South Africa’s specific reality.  In 
addressing this, South Africa had been at pains to ensu re that the outcome would be roughly similar to 
that provided for other comparable developing countri es.  It had made great efforts to explain and 
seek their understanding for its situation and the proposal  that it had tabled.  It was for this reason that 
his delegation believed the proposal it had put on the table was entirely legitimate and reasonable.   
260. The US and the EC had argued that no cuts, for the most sensitive sectors in South Africa that 
would have to suffer deep cuts due to the Swiss fo rmula, was a break with the architecture, and would 
have systemic effects.  This was not convinc ing.  Developing countries had expressed support for TN/C/M/29 
Page 34  
 
  South Africa's proposal.  In addition, the EC a nd the US and other deve loped countries had sought 
and already obtained huge flexibilities and specifi c carve outs for their sensitive products in 
Agriculture and had as a consequence lowered the am bition of the Round.  In some cases these carve 
outs had reduced access to their markets and reduced the possibility of reforms in global markets that 
had impeded the development of Africa for decades.  The US had obtained specific flexibilities for the 
Blue Box, to address its specific situation, and had demanded a different base period.  On OTDS,  the 
numbers emerging out of the July meetings would not require the US to make any cuts in its applied 
rates.  And, a proposal to address the plight of th e cotton producers had yet to emerge from the US.   
261. In Agriculture, developed countries were also de manding no tariff caps for their tariffs that 
were above 100 per cent, even for products that we re not sensitive.  They were also demanding an 
increased number of sensitive products than agreed in July and additional TRQs that would further 
limit market access into their markets by developing countries.  The balance struck in July was thus 
being further skewed against developing countries like South Africa.   
262. In sharp contrast, South Africa's offer in NAM A sought to make a considerable contribution, 
cutting applied rates across a wide swathe of its tariffs, including its most sensitive sectors.  In 
Agriculture too, South Africa had made major reforms since its new democracy and would be 
committing these in this Round.  In addition, South A frica had made a very significant set of offers in 
Services bringing its level of commitment in this Rou nd far in excess of all its comparator countries.   
263. However there were limits to how far it coul d go in a development Round.  South Africa 
could not be expected to contribute far in excess of the level of ambition set by the developed 
countries in July.  South Africa could not be expect ed to also contribute far in excess of all other 
comparator developing countries.  It had already had to suffer an injustice in the Uruguay Round and 
made greater commitments than all other devel oping countries because it had been required to make 
commitments as if it were a developed country.   
264. Arguments made that the modalities for South Afri ca should remain within the architecture of 
the current modalities for other developing countries and concerns about a spillover effect could not 
be used as an excuse for not providing South Africa the flexibilities it required to address its 
development needs.  Moreover these arguments could not  be used to seek greater market access from 
South Africa that was far in excess of the current level of ambition set by developed countries in July, and the balance that Members were now striving to st abilize.  It was also not fair that South Africa 
should be required to yet again make a contribution far in excess of its comparator countries, and no 
consideration be given to the fact that three SVEs and one LDC would also be making the same 
contribution as South Africa and would need to share these flexibilities.  Thus in this context, the 
refusal of the majors to consider the proposal  of South Africa in NAMA to address its specific 
situation was not helpful.   
265. Furthermore, his delegation did not see any lin k between the level of ambition set by the 
formula and flexibilities with the sectorals.  Sectorals were a voluntary and supplementary modality 
and would be considered on their merits after Memb ers had concluded the nego tiations on the formula 
and flexibilities.   
266. In addition, South Africa had not been involved in the negotiations on the anti-concentration 
clause (ACC) in July.  Thus its particular concerns  and needs for at least three of its most sensitive 
clothing and textile sectors to be excluded from th e operation of the ACC had to be addressed.   
267. His delegation remained committed to continuing to work with Members to find a fair and 
acceptable solution to the South Africa /SACU issue ear ly in the New Year.  It was also committed to 
working hard towards the conclusion of the Round as a whole in the New Year.  In this regard, his 
delegation fully supported the stat ements made by the G20, the Cairns Group and the Africa Group.  TN/C/M/29 
 Page 35 
 
 
  268. The representative of Switzerland  said that in broad terms, her delegation supported the 
approach proposed by the Chairman and could agree with the different proposals made.  A lot of hard 
work had been done and a lot of positive activity c ould be registered in the negotiations in the 
previous months and weeks in Geneva.  Intens ive discussions and real engagement had allowed 
Members to come close to each other, at least on the technical level.  Unfortunately a deal on 
modalities on Agriculture and NAMA before the end of the year had not been possible.   
269. Much progress had been achieved this year.  In particular on Agriculture and NAMA 
Members had draft modalities which were very advan ced.  They reduced substa ntially the unresolved 
questions, which Members needed to tackle in order to get to a result.  This did not mean that her 
delegation was fully satisfied with their content.   Switzerland had reasons to be critical of these 
modalities, as it would have to pay a heavy price on Agriculture without getting as much as it would 
need in NAMA to come to a bala nced result.  This being said, Switzerland was very much committed 
to a result in the Doha Round, as it had demonstrated by always engaging and compromising on the most sensitive issues.  A result was not only needed for individual countries, but also for a sound rule-
based trading environment, for the world econom y and for jobs in all Member countries.   
270. She wondered where Members would go from this point.  Members would have to continue 
their work as from the beginning of next year.  Th ey had to capitalize on the progress achieved so far 
and make sure that what was presently on the table was not lost.  There were still quite a number of 
technical issues which needed further work and wh ich Members could tackle without delay.  Maybe 
less in Agriculture than in other areas of negotia tion such as NAMA, Services, TRIPS-related issues, 
Trade Facilitation, Rules and Trade and Environmen t.  Her delegation would welcome early outcomes 
in a field like Trade Facilitation which was of ut most importance for business and economic operators 
all over the world.   
271. In her delegation's view, two el ements were now needed.  Firs t, Members needed as soon as 
possible a renewed political signal in order rea ffirm their commitment to a rapid and successful 
conclusion of the Doha Round.  The Davos info rmal ministerial gathering Switzerland would 
organize at the end of January could be a first oppor tunity to gauge the political will.  At the same 
time, Members also needed to take a more broa der approach to ensure that progress was achieved 
more evenly on all subjects under negotiation and mo re particularly on Services and TRIPS-related 
issues.  Her delegation therefore welcomed the inten tion of all Chairs to resume their work without 
delay early next year.  The objective had to re main to finalize the modalities on Agriculture and 
NAMA and to advance rapidly on the other issues of the Single Undertaking.  A balanced negotiation 
outcome for all Members was needed.   
272. Looking at the broader picture, she said that Members needed to restore confidence not only 
between themselves but also with their economic opera tors.  In particular, the private sector had to see 
that Members were progressing, and that they were r eally committed to enhancing trade.  Therefore, 
Members should live up to what the G20 Leader s had stressed in Washington on 15 November and 
refrain from raising new barriers to investment or  to trade in goods and services, or imposing new 
export restrictions.   
273. Switzerland supported the initiative the Chairman  had taken with the setting-up of a task-
force.  It looked forward to studying his first repor t.  Furthermore, her delegation agreed with the 
Chairman that the TPRB was the right fo rum for dealing with this issue.   
274. Regarding the question of the next regular mi nisterial meeting of WTO as an organization, 
Switzerland as host country of WTO was ready to we lcome Ministers in Geneva.  Ideally, such a 
meeting could take place by the end of next year, after modalities had been agreed.   TN/C/M/29 
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  275. To conclude, she said that as WTO Members, they all had a common responsibility for open 
trade to which they all had to live up.  In this sense, she hoped that at the end of 2009 Members could 
say more than in 2008 on the WTO and urged delega tions to together make 2009 a successful year for 
WTO and for the Doha Round.   
276. The representative of Honduras
 thanked the NAMA and Agriculture Chairs for the efforts 
they had made to present Members with new text s, which his delegation regarded as a good basis on 
which to build in the work ahead.  Honduras ha d worked with the SVE group to achieve more 
effective integration of the country in world trade.  It had joined forces with the G-33 for that purpose, 
both regarding the SSM and on the issue of SPs. 
277. His delegation would therefore like to draw atte ntion to the statement by Barbados on behalf 
of the SVEs because the question of flexibiliti es for SVEs under the SSM had not been discussed 
since July.  His delegation hoped that a construc tive debate on the flexibilities required by the SVEs 
under that mechanism would take place in 2009. 
278. Although Honduras was committed to the multilateral trading system, there were some areas 
of vital importance to its agricultural sector in wh ich there had been no political will to provide a 
satisfactory solution.  Nor had it received any resp onses so far as to how such a solution would be 
implemented, in particular to the agreemen t on bananas concluded by the EC on 27 July. 
279. Having accepted the arrangement as a standalone agreement, the EC had changed its mind 
and had made the agreement contingent upon modaliti es when the very text of the July agreement 
stipulated that it was not linked to the modalities.  It  should be noted that the findings of the Appellate 
Body's Report on the Second Recourse to Article 21.5 of the DSU by Ecuador had quite clearly 
established the illegality of the EC's regime.  Knowi ng that 13 banana rulings had been issued against 
the EC and after more than a decade of failure to comply, Members had yet to hear the EC duly 
confirm that it was prepared to bring its re gime into conformity without further delay. 
280. In the light of the Appellate Body's determin ation, Honduras believes that the EC should take 
a greater interest in resolving the banana issue, a nd the July agreement provided the solution.  The EC 
should not lose sight of the fact that the agreement represented an enormous concession on Honduras' 
part because the first cut was scheduled for 1 Janua ry 2009, whereas the EC had maintained an illegal 
regime in effect since 1 January 2006.  The agre ement was on the table, and the EC should find a way 
of honouring it, with or without a Doha agreement,  by fully complying with the terms in which it had 
been negotiated. 
281. The current financial crisis was making the Honduran economy more vulnerable, and it was 
therefore in search of responses to clear cut issu es deriving from the multilateral trading system.  
Failure to comply on the part of one of the la rgest Members of this Organization weakened and 
eroded the credibility of the institution. 
282. The representative of Ecuador  supported the statement by Brazil on behalf of the G-20.  
Ecuador had always insisted on inclusiveness and tran sparency in this negotia ting process.  It believed 
that formats such as the "Green Room", open to just a few delega tions, could not be regarded as 
inclusive or representative of the entire Membership, nor could it accept that decisions concerning its country be taken there. 
283. Unfortunately, the process had been neither in clusive nor transparent in recent weeks.  
Whatever communications the Chairman had shared with delegations had given them a very broad 
idea of the negotiating process.  Further details  of negotiating developments had reached his 
delegation through the G-20 coordinator, "middl e ground" meetings and international media 
information.  The series of delays and contradi ctory announcements as to the holding of a potential  TN/C/M/29 
 Page 37 
 
 
  ministerial meeting had been no less distressing to his delegation, causing a fair amount of trouble 
with its authorities in terms of the logistics invol ved in their travelling to Geneva.  His delegation 
trusted that this would not happen again in the future. 
284. As regards the impossibility of an agreement on modalities before the end of the year, this had 
come as no surprise, because since July one had witnessed the lack of commitment on the part of 
some – in particular developed-country – Members to recognize that they bore the greatest share of 
responsibility in this Organization, to the extent th at they were the main sources of distortions in 
world trade, especially in Agri culture.  Such Members never ceased to recall that this was a 
development Round aimed at furthering development.  Until this had been genuinely recognized, it 
would be very difficult to overcome differences within the Membership. 
285. As far as the future of the process was concerne d, Ecuador considered that the latest texts 
received from the Chairs of the Negotiating Group s on Agriculture and NAMA should broadly be 
kept as they stand.  It should be noted, however, th at they had not been agreed since they had never 
been discussed with the membership as a whole.  Ecuador had specific comments to make on these 
texts, especially the text on Agri culture.  Therefore, any resumption of the negotiations next year 
should begin with an inclusive and detailed discussion of the texts that had been circulated.  Ecuador 
supported and thanked the Chairs of the Negotiati ng Groups for their reports and hoped that they 
would continue to contribute to the process whic h it hoped would resume in the first few days of 
January 2009 if possible. 
286. On the other hand, Ecuador objected to any ma noeuvres to modify, or introduce new elements 
to, the mandates.  This would be unacceptable, and Members that promoted such initiatives in a veiled 
manner should first and foremost seek to fulfil th e existing mandates, such as those agreed at the 
Hong Kong Ministerial Conference concerning the prompt dismantling of agricultural export 
subsidies. 
287. The WTO, under the Chairman's leadership, should keep the work  on track and re-initiate the 
negotiations without delay.  The periodicity of Mi nisterial Conferences was a question that needed to 
be taken up again. 
288. Some Members had spoken of possible early harvests.  The only early harvest that Ecuador 
would accept was the Geneva agreement on bananas,  which had been concluded between the MFN 
suppliers and the EC on 27 July and which the EC was so far refusing to implement.  The EC owed 
something in this Round in terms of market access for bananas.  The EC still had not signed the July 
agreement despite Ecuador's recent decisive victor y in the DSB, which had yet again condemned the 
EC and required it to comply with its WTO obligations. 
289. It should be noted that the EC made complianc e with the Appellate Body report contingent 
upon the adoption of modalities.  Here was yet anothe r show of force on the pa rt of certain developed-
country Members unilaterally interpreting co mpliance with the DSB's recommendations – a 
deplorable state of affairs that undermined the credibility of the multilateral trading system as a 
whole. 
290. One of the first consequences of this lack of  compliance was that Ecuador's flexibilities in 
terms of tropical products and preference erosion had gone back to square one. 
291. The undertaking on bananas, which was independe nt of any agreement on modalities, had to 
be implemented as it had been agreed, for otherwise Ecuador would find itself compelled to resort to 
cross-retaliation, as authorized by the DSB in 2000.  This included the possibility of retaliation in 
intellectual property matters and Services. TN/C/M/29 
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  292. His country likewise reserved its legal rights for the WTO to establish the legality of the 
agreements between the EC and the ACP countries,  many of which had not yet been notified and 
others still needed to undergo examination in this Or ganization.  It also reserved the right to question 
the legality of the subsidies granted by  the EC to its European producers. 
293. The solution to the longest standing dispute in the WTO lay in the hands of the EC, and in 
order to avoid a renewed trade war with unpred ictable consequences, the Chairman had the 
responsibility of obligating this Member to comply with the July agreement. 
294. The representative of Thailand
 thanked the Chairman for his report on the latest state of play 
in the negotiations, and for providing an accurate and concise summary of where Members stood.  He 
also thanked both the Chairs of Agriculture a nd NAMA Groups for their tireless efforts in their 
respective mandates, for the circulation of their resp ective revised texts; and the considerable progress 
which had been made in thei r respective Negotiating Groups.  
295. His delegation was disappointed that Members ha d not been able to finalize the Agriculture 
and NAMA modalities this year, despite some positiv e movement witnessed on many of the difficult 
issues during the previous months, both at technical and political levels.  But it accepted that this was 
where Members stood.  Despite this collective sen se of disappointment, all Members should look 
forward, and consider what they had to do next in order to reach their common goal under the Doha 
Development Round.  
296. His delegation believed that one immediate acti on all Members could undertake was to ensure 
that the great progress made since July on differe nt issues in the Agriculture and NAMA modalities 
texts were preserved.  The texts represented an essential part of both the Doha mandate and the Hong 
Kong Ministerial Declaration, and the preservati on of the progress made thus far should enable 
delegations to move swiftly forward when they resume d work next year.  On a more general level, his 
delegation believed that in moving forward, it was im portant to ensure that the delicate balance and 
the development-oriented focus of the Doha Minister ial mandate was kept intact.  Strict and faithful 
adherence to the mandate would be the most produ ctive avenue for Members to drive forward the 
process.  In addition, taking into account current gl obal trade which had already been badly affected 
by the economic downturn, his delegation was of the view that Members should as much as possible maintain a "standstill approach" and refrain from increasing protectionism through both tariff and 
non-tariff means in these difficult times.   
297. On the issue of process in the coming year, hi s delegation's view was that Members should 
resume their task as soon as was practicable, taking into account the Chairman's considered guidance 
on this issue vis-à-vis  the most appropriate steps to be taken.   His delegation had full confidence in the 
Chairman's assessment of the negotiating dynamics, as well as his judgment on how to best steer the process forward in order to ensure a successful out come to the modalities negotiations and the Doha 
Round.   
298. His delegation believed that given the global cr ises faced by various critical sectors within 
global trade at a time when global economic cond itions seemed to be continuing a downward spiral, 
with seemingly worsening prospects for the next y ear and beyond, a possible expeditious conclusion 
of Agriculture and NAMA modalities and thereafter, ot her DDA issues, could to a great extent help to 
inject a level of predictability and confidence into an otherwise uncertain trading atmosphere.  In a 
period in which there was great apprehension for th e future, the WTO could help safeguard against 
future protectionist sentiments, and provide an in surance policy for the smooth functioning of normal 
trade, even in times of global market turbulence.   Therefore his delegation believed that all the 
respective Chairs should commence their areas of re sponsibility soon after the New Year break with a 
view to concluding the Doha Round as soon as possible.    TN/C/M/29 
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  299. The representative of Cuba  welcomed the Chairman's status report and acknowledged his 
efforts to forge ahead as he believed appropriate in order to salvage the Doha Round and, from a 
standpoint shared by a group of Members, to give a response by this Organization to the financial and 
economic crisis engende red by those who had designed the system, at a time when one was 
witnessing the greatest instability in decades.  The ex cessive deregulation of financial markets had not 
only hit the economy but had also undermined the confid ence of investors and thr eatened their assets.  
There was no reason to feel guilty or discouraged  – even less disappointed.  To have achieved an 
agreement under the current terms would not, in any event, resolve the major crises originating today 
in the developed countries. 
300. The keynote of the analysis of this outcome was,  for her delegation, fairly catastrophic.  There 
was talk of loss of credibility or damage to the multilateral trading system.  Credibility was a relative 
term and damage to the system might be greater if  developing countries proved to be the losers with 
these accords crafted for their benefit.  No scientific  or natural process had ever occurred without all 
the conditions being created for it to come about.  That was all that was happening in the WTO.  The 
conditions were not yet ripe in the texts for agreem ent on anything.  Hence, to refrain from convening 
the Ministers had been a very wise decision on the pa rt of the Chairman.  But this did not mean the 
end of the Round or of the multilateral trading system .  It merely meant that the work needed to 
continue, as well as the task of persuading an d convincing those that were making less of a 
contribution, on account of their positions, to this  Round being a round in favour of development.  
One might go as far as to say that what some Members were defending was not a contribution to 
development but that it should be agreed not to create barriers to development.  These were two 
totally different things, and this was what was being understood in some negotiating areas.  Hence, 
her delegation believed that caution an d re-assessment of the facts were the best approaches at this 
time, before the negotiations resumed once again. 
301. As had been noted, there were a great many issues yet to be agreed on and just as much 
balancing to be done before the m odalities could be concluded.  It was true that many consultations 
had taken place in different formats, and there was no point in all Members participating at all times 
in matters in which a small group of them faced the greatest difficulties.  On the other hand, this did 
not prevent the process as a whole from then trickl ing through to the rest of the membership – not 
through information in general terms, as was customar y in order to formally comply with the principle 
of transparency, but to enable those Members to ta ke an active part and have opportunities and time to 
defend their interests. 
302. Many Members had stated the importance of preserving what had been achieved, but 
everyone needed to know and approve what was to  be preserved.  Partial approvals might alter the 
principle of the Single Undertaking and in the long term give rise to disagreement as to the interpretation of that principle.  It would be a shame if the Members and the Secretariat failed to 
derive experience from 2008.  There were many things to be learned, for instance that it was 
necessary to create a minimum basis for confidence that  did not exist today in order to give meaning 
to this Organization;  that the majority of deve loping-country Members were no longer confused and 
demanded what had been promised to them, including gr eater inclusion in world trade flows;  or that 
attempting to establish the same level of commitmen ts for a body of countries that stood at extremely 
different levels was totally unrealis tic – to quote but a few examples. 
303. Neither improvisation nor desperation was a good companion to reason, and she commend 
the Chairman once again for his ultimate decision.  Imposition was no longer fitting of present times, 
and that was why Members now foun d themselves in this situation. 
304. The representative of Ghana
 associated his delegation with the statements made by Cõte 
d'Ivoire on behalf of the African Group, Jamaica on behalf of the ACP Group and Tanzania on behalf 
of the LDC Group.   TN/C/M/29 
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  305. This Round had had its fair share of setbacks since its launch in Doha in 2001, despite the 
efforts of the entire membership.  These setbacks had always come when Members had lost sight of 
the development objective of the Round.  As the Chai rman had noted in his statement to the informal 
TNC the previous Friday, all Members had a shar ed responsibility.  They had to focus on the 
substance and ensure that they all succeeded together .  It had been a rather tough and rough year.   
306. His delegation agreed with the Chairman that the stage for a ministerial meeting had not yet 
been reached.  For some critical issues on which delegations believed they had reached certain understandings or where there had been certain converg ences, even if not complete agreement, at the 
July 2008 mini-ministerial thereby raising some hope at the negotiations, a nd which all delegations 
wished should be preserved, had not been well reflect ed in the two texts.  This had not helped to 
narrow the gulf between the desired objectives and what was on the table.  
307. Some of the difficulties included sectorals, which had surprisingly became a contentious 
issue.  What constituted critical mass was yet to  be understood.  The non -mandatory nature of 
participation in the sectoral negotiations should be maintained.   
308. In most African countries, agriculture remained a critical sector for employment.  This was 
particularly the case where countries had a majority of subsistence farmers.  The SSM, an instrument 
reserved to protect their fragile agricultural sectors, needed flexibility in the trigger figures to enable 
them effectively utilize it.  An expeditious and e ffective solution should also be found for the Cotton 
issue as reflected in the Hong Kong mandate.  The ot her issues of considerable concern to African 
countries included a solution to preference erosion and mandates on LDCs.  His delegation urged that 
the mandates should be respected as any deviation wo uld cause serious dislocation to the process.   
309. The small and vulnerable economies were s till reeling under the pressure of the very 
substantive issues that Members n eeded to address to ensure that  their countries also reaped the 
benefits that the Doha Round would generate.  Th e WTO was at a crossroads.  All eyes were on 
Members.  The momentum had to be sustained in spite of the last minute wise decision to postpone 
the mini-ministerial meeting.   
310. The fuel, food and financial crises were still de vastating the global economy.  It was now 
openly acknowledged that the global economy was in a recession, a phenomenon last experienced 
over half a century ago.  Those unborn then had re ad its consequences and the ultimate price paid 
thereon leading to the establishment of the GATT.  What all Members should try and avoid was the worse form of global non-performance – deflation.  It was widely acknowledged that the DDA had a 
vital role to play in stimulating global economic recovery.   
311. As delegations broke for holidays, they n eeded to conduct a sober reflection on the 
negotiations and return with rene wed vigour to end the Round next year.  The Round had to live up to 
its billing as a development round.  The necessary sacr ifices had to be made, each according to its 
level of development.  His delegation was looking forward to receiving a product that all Members 
could be very proud of – an ultimate deal that w as fair, just, equitable and balanced.  His delegation 
believed that this could be done.   
312. The representative of Bolivia
 said that first of all, her de legation wished to express deep 
concern about what had occurred in the present ye ar, especially in recent months, concerning two 
critical procedural and substantive points.  As regards process, her delegation had witnessed, without 
being able to act as full participants, the manner in  which negotiations had proceeded with a view to 
the conclusion, between an extremely limited num ber of States, of modalities that involved all 
Members.  In addition, the manner in which th is was turning into common practice in this 
Organization, without consistent, fu ll and democratic participation of  all Members and with very little 
transparency.  TN/C/M/29 
 Page 41 
 
 
  313. Her delegation wished to make it clear that it di d not object to the right of those Members to 
hold meetings amongst themselves, but if such meeti ngs led to agreements which had an impact on 
the entire Membership and it had been unable to take part in them, it wondered whether those 
Members that had not participated in such meeti ngs had a different status, as second or third tier 
spectators, because they had not enjoyed the same  right or had the necessary space to put forward 
their positions or defend their interests and needs.   This way of proceeding would only generate 
agreements with little credibility and legitimacy that  would be difficult for the entire Membership to 
accept. 
314. As an example, if one deducted the number of members of the Green Room meetings from 
that of the Membership as a whole, about 78 per cent of Members had had no serious negotiating area 
within the process in recent months, that w as more than 100 developing-country Members who 
constituted the majority in this forum.  That said, her delegation did appreciate at their just value the 
efforts made by the NAMA and Agriculture Chai rs to move the negotiations forward, and the 
opportunities for information purposes, although it re gretted that these had not occurred in a formal 
environment. 
315. On the other hand, considering that the 153 Members of this forum had not had a single 
occasion to discuss – let alone negotiate all together  – the new texts of the NAMA and Agriculture 
Chairs that had emerged as a result of these effo rts, her delegation had been wondering and had had 
great difficulty in understanding how it would be po ssible under such poor conditi ons of participation, 
democracy and transparency to envisage convening  a mini ministerial, with an extremely limited 
number of Members concluding negotiations that  might have repercussions for all Members. 
316. Secondly, her delegation wished to recall someth ing that many delegations appeared to have 
forgotten, and that was that the objective of the Doha Round was to achieve development for 
developing countries, but the negotiations had turned  into a fight by developed countries to open up 
markets for their major corporations. 
317. The development objective had disappeared from the negotiations, and most developing 
countries were limiting themselves to preserving or protecting the little or nothing achieved for the 
development of their economies.  To be perfec tly honest, countries such as Bolivia, the poorest 
country in South America, would gain nothing fro m this Round, particularly in its present format. 
318. After seven years of inconclusive negotiations, the WTO Round was out of step with the 
interests of developing countries and the critical phe nomena occurring at global level, such as climate 
change and the food and financial crises. 
319. Members had to be capable of recognizing that reality had overtaken them and that at this 
moment in time the world needed other types of measures to resolv e today's problems.  They could 
not remain anchored in the past, repeating dogm a about liberalization that most countries had 
experienced as a failure.  Above all, when the cris is caused by developed countries affected everyone. 
320. All of these crises had been caused by the major powers that had spent around US$4,100 
million to save their bankers from a crisis wh ich they themselves had generated whilst being 
incapable of disbursing equal amounts to address more acute problems such as development and 
climate change. 
321. Her delegation was convinced that a process of  reflection and reform should begin in the 
WTO, with a definite focus on developing-country needs.  For instance, an  amendment to Article 
XXIV of the GATT in order to provide a mandatory  obligation for developed countries to grant S&D 
treatment to developing countries in the negotiation of a free trade agreement;  a definitive exclusion 
of basic services that were human rights such  as education, water, health, energy and TN/C/M/29 
Page 42  
 
  telecommunications from the text of the GATS;  an e xplicit ban on the patentability of living matter;  
and ambitious treatment different from that set fort h in the current document for SVEs in respect of 
the SSM.  As to the report of the Services Chairman, her delegation recalled that the document and its Annex to which reference had been  made, TN/S/34, would not, and c ould not, be adopted or noted 
until full account had been taken of the concerns of all Members.  Lastly, her delegation supported the 
statements by the Agriculture Ch airman, the C4, the African Group and the LDCs that Cotton should 
top the list of issues for discussion. 
322. These were only a few examples, but there were  many others.  However, if the ongoing 
haemorrhage in terms of development targets und er the current negotiating mandate prevented 
Members' common objective from being achieved, th at was, development for those who needed it 
most – not for those for whom it was not necessary, if the development mandates were not fulfilled, as 
one could see in the ongoing negotiating process, and if the present mandate prevented inclusion of 
the aforementioned elements, which in her country's view were vital to the interests of developing 
countries, Members might as well seek a new and im proved mandate, in keeping with the purpose for 
which this Round had supposedly b een intended, namely to place primary emphasis on the interests of 
developing countries. 
323. She believed that all these failed attempts and y ears of negotiation sent a clear message that 
processes could not be driven forward through pro dding and deadlines.  Times had changed.  The 
moment had come to listen to the South.  Those wh o were not prepared to do so were condemned to a 
Sisyphean fate.  In other words, if it was a matter of prodding 153 Members into climbing the Mont Blanc through cunning and mermaid chants promis ing the legendary pot of gold, Members could 
suffer the same fate as Sisyphus in ancient Greece.  In  other words, if they could no longer grasp the 
fact that this supposed gold was nothing but an illusi on and a contrivance, an illusion with which they 
had sought to mislead these countries in the days of the conquest, if they could no longer hear their claims and legitimate inter ests of justice and equity, if they c ould no longer hear their voices as men 
and women of the South, then they would have to cease prodding and/or abusing these countries to 
allow everyone to descend from this imaginary summit,  so that together they could climb a mountain 
of their choice or simply walk together as equals  towards goals genuinely shared by all, under a 
process that would not necessitate lack of democracy, prodding or artificial deadlines. 
324. The representative of Hong Kong, China
 said that his delegation wished to express its 
appreciation to those involved for the hard work in conducting the previous week's political testing 
exercise.  Unfortunately, gaps still remained in Me mbers' positions despite unrelenting effort.  His 
delegation believed that the Chairman was be st placed to assess the chances of a successful 
conclusion of modalities, therefore it accepted his decision not to call a ministerial meeting at this juncture.   
325. In the previous months, much political impetus ha d been injected into the negotiations by the 
statements from the G20 summit in Washington and the APEC meeting in Lima.  Nevertheless, 
Members had not yet been able to turn such impetus into flexibility and commitment at the 
negotiating table.  His delegation c ould not help but feel that Memb ers had missed another window of 
opportunity, albeit not by a very wide margin.   
326. Although Members were disappointed, they sh ould now look ahead and consider how to 
proceed from the sound basis that they had built up ove r recent months and years.  First of all, the 
negotiating mandate set out in the Doha and H ong Kong Ministerial Declarations should not be 
reopened.  The current mandate re presented a delicate balance.  An y change to the mandate would 
risk opening a pandora's box and would be most unlikely to command consensus among Members.  
As it was, Members had a hard enough task in th e immediate future to focus on Agriculture and 
NAMA modalities.    TN/C/M/29 
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  327. Members also needed to preserve the progress ma de so far.  There were the two recently-
released draft modalities texts on Agriculture and NAMA.  Both had successfully captured the 
significant and substantial progress made during, as well as since, the July ministerial meeting.  These texts would also provide the basis for continued discussions towards modalities in Agriculture and 
NAMA.   
328. One of the challenges that Members now faced  was how to maintain momentum in their 
negotiations.  His delegation supported the reco mmendation that all Negotiating Groups, not just 
Agriculture and NAMA, should reconvene as early as po ssible in the new year in order to intensify 
their work, and the Chairs should update their resp ective work programmes in the process.  In this 
connection, his delegation welcomed the statement by the Rules Chair that he would shortly be 
issuing his new "bottom-up" texts which it hoped would be a big step leading to the issue of 
comprehensive legal texts.  His de legation would also support the sugg estion that a regular ministerial 
should be held, preferably by the end of 2009, and in a jamboree-free zone.  This would provide an 
opportunity, given sufficient progress, to aim for closure of the Round.   
329. As the Chairman had pointed out in his statement and on previous occasions, Members 
needed a successful DDA more than ever at this juncture given the difficult and steadily-deteriorating 
global financial and economic situ ation in which they found themselves.  A successful Round could 
bring huge and sustainable benefits to the world as a whole and act as an antidote to the financial 
contagion, and Members should continue to emphasi se this message.  Members needed to point out 
what was already on the table, what more shoul d be added and, conversely, what were the 
disadvantages of further delays.  Conclusion of the Round could also serve as an effective insurance 
policy against protectionism.  His delegation woul d support the call for Members not to resort to 
protectionist measures amid this difficult economic environment.  In this regard, it welcomed the 
Chairman's proposed reports on trade measures.  It  also considered that the proposed regular and 
frequent scrutiny by the TPRB would help Members to monitor the situation during the downturn.  
The promised continued examination of issues impa cting on trade finance was also welcome, given 
the deleterious effect that its absence had, particularly on developing-country trade.   
330. Hong Kong, China remained fully committed to the Round and would continue to work with 
Members towards its conclusion during 2009.  In the meantime, Members should demonstrate their 
commitment to free trade through their actions.  They had to refrain from introspection and avoid 
regressing into protectionism.   
331. A final point was that Members needed to re inforce the broader significance of the WTO on 
the global stage.  As the Chairman had pointed out, it was not merely a negotiating forum for the 
DDA, but also an important basis for a global ru les-based multilateral trading system with the 
successful operation of such entities as the TPRB and the DSB its key components.   
332. The representative of Philippines
 said that his delegation regretted the inability of the 
membership to agree on modalities fo r the Agriculture and NAMA negotiations at this time.  It was 
unfortunate that the strong political mandate at the G20 summit had not been translated into 
negotiating breakthroughs in Geneva in order to conclude modalities by the end of the year.   
333. His delegation was particularly disappointed because the Philippines had joined the ASEAN 
Economic Ministers' Statement in Bali in May r eaffirming ASEAN's commitment to concluding the 
DDA negotiations by the end of 2008.  As part of APEC, the Philippines leadership had joined other 
leaders in Lima the previous month to express their guidance that modalities be agreed this December.  
It had been pursuant to these political mandates th at his delegation had been fully committed to 
positive and constructive cooperation in the negotiations to establis h modalities in Agriculture and 
NAMA.   TN/C/M/29 
Page 44  
 
  334. However, it was a wise decision not to have gathered Ministers in Geneva the present week.  
Two failed attempts at modalities within less than  six months would have been troubling for the 
multilateral trading system from a political and systemic standpoint.   
335. On a positive not, his delegation noted that Memb ers had draft legal texts in Agriculture and 
NAMA in an advanced stage and thanked the Chai rs for their excellent progress.  Concluding the 
modalities in these two areas, as well as advancing the progress into draft legal texts in all other DDA 
negotiating areas, had to remain the highest priority of Members in 2009.   
336. His delegation called on all Members to preserve the gains made since July.  The most recent 
draft texts for Agriculture and NAMA could provide the basis for work in early 2009.  All other 
negotiating areas of the DDA should adva nce towards text-based maturity.   
337. The attraction of RTAs and free trade agreem ents could well heighten with the WTO's 
inability to conclude modalities this year.  Thes e regional and bilateral arrangements had their 
particular merits and had the ability to address ta rgeted policy objectives.  But they had to only 
continue to serve as a complement to, and enha ncement of, the multilateral approach that still 
guaranteed the most open and efficient trading syst em.  The pursuit of these alternatives should be in 
keeping with WTO rules.   
338. Like other WTO Members, APEC economies, a nd ASEAN countries, the Philippines rejected 
any and all acts of protectionism as an appropriate response to the current world economic slowdown.  
Neither the global financial system nor the multilate ral trading system would be served well by short 
term, inward-looking, or WTO-inc onsistent trade measures.   
339. The Philippines urged Members to share a coll ective concern for the multilateral trading 
system and to renew their resolve towards deliverin g on the ambitions they had set for themselves in 
Doha in 2001 and in Hong Kong in 2005.  Doing so  would allow each Member to use international 
trade as a tool to achieve its economic growth a nd social development while reaffirming the common 
cause all Members had of assuring to future generati ons a sustainable, fairer and more dignified 
existence.   
340. The representative of Nepal
 said that his delegation appreciated the Chairman's tireless efforts 
to have the modalities in Agriculture and NAMA fi nalized to take the Doha Round to a successful 
conclusion.  It also wished to express apprecia tion to the Agriculture and NAMA Chairs for their 
engagement with delegations to seek convergence and balance the texts.  These texts provided good 
bases to address their needs and concerns and work fo r resolving the remaining outstanding issues.  It 
appreciated the recognition given to the situation of disproportionately affected LDCs in Annex 4 of 
the NAMA text issued.  His delegation requested that  the list be expanded to the inclusion of some 
more tariff lines to fully take care of the needs and concerns of the LDCs. 
341. This meeting was being held at an importan t juncture when the world was facing economic 
uncertainties and social and development challenges of unprecedented dimensions.  This made a fair 
and equitable trading system more important than ever  before to inject a much  needed stimulus for the 
world economy.  The indispensability of the WTO to deal with trade issues was well demonstrated in 
its membership which stood at 153.   
342. Members had been with the process of the Doha Round for seven years, and the slow 
movement had been a great disappointment.  It ha d hit the poor countries hard and betrayed the 
promises of development dividends.  They had exp ected that the process of negotiations would open 
the doors of opportunities for LDCs to benef it from many concessions as mandated by Doha 
Declaration, the July 2004 Framework and Ho ng Kong Ministerial Declaration.  A successful 
conclusion would have positively c ontributed to the achievement of the first millennium development  TN/C/M/29 
 Page 45 
 
 
  goal of halving poverty by 2015, and building up an  edifice of a free, fair, inclusive and equitable 
multilateral trading system.   
343. LDCs like Nepal faced trading constraints as well as development challenges.  Their 
difficulties included, among others, supply-side cons traints, preference erosion and market entry 
barriers despite the promises of enhanced market  access.  The Hong Kong commitment to provide 
meaningful DFQF market access to products orig inating from LDCs in developed markets and 
reiterated subsequently, needed to be fully implemen ted at the earliest.  Any deviation and delay in its 
implementation would seriously undermine confid ence and credibility in the multilateral trading 
system.   
344. Poor and vulnerable Member countries should be gi ven special consideration.  Nepal had lost 
export trade by over 80 per cent in recent years.  This had had adverse impacts on economic growth, 
poverty alleviation, foreign exchange reserves and th e bread and butter of millions of people at a time 
when the country was making a political transf ormation from the armed conflict within the 
democratic framework.  His delegation was of the vi ew that there should also be a diagnostic study of 
social and economic costs that had pushed countries fu rther behind with the loss of trading prospects.  
Countries that had lost market share by more than 50 per cent of the export volumes of the peak year 
needed to be compensated through either some  trade measures, or a ssistance programs or a 
compensatory scheme as an integral part of the process.   
345. There had been promises of substantive fina nce made to developing countries and LDCs 
under various schemes like Aid for Trade, Trad e Facilitation, capacity-building projects and the 
Integrated Framework (IF).  Despite "enhanced" be ing added to the IF, these schemes had remained 
just sweeteners for LDCs due to low level of fundin g and lack of clear priorities.  His delegation was 
encouraged to hear at this meeting that ther e was consensus emerging on these schemes.  These 
schemes needed to be tailored to contribute most effectively to the development dimension of the 
DDA.   
346. Experience had shown that liberalization did no t automatically enhance trade prospects and 
economic growth, and membership of the WTO alone did not increase the participation of LDCs in 
the flow of global trade.  The building of trad e related infrastructures was very important in 
facilitating the movement of goods across borders.  LDCs needed to develop new infrastructures, 
trade related capacities to take benefit of global tr ade and market opportunities.  Building supply-side 
capacity was vital to compete globally.  LDCs had opened their markets and carried out deep reforms 
without any competitive advantage.  They needed to be helped with substantia l financial and technical 
assistance to build their capacity  to compete and trade.   
347. Doha’s mandate was development.  The Chairm an had said:  "The development dimension 
can no longer be an afterthought or add-on, a sort of pisco one added to the main dishes of market 
opening.  Exceptions and derogations have their place, but they can too easily lock developing 
countries into the status quo and put a ceiling on thei r future possibilities".  As trade contained huge 
potential to create employment opportunities, services,  goods and wealth, an in terface between trade 
and development needed to be firmly established.   
348. As a guardian of the multilateral trading syst em, his delegation looked to the Chairman's 
leadership to take the development dimension to a logical conclusion.  It agreed with the Chairman 
how vital the multilateral trading system was, in term s not just of trade, but also for the stability of 
international system.  The current financial crisis th at was being termed as the mother of all crises was 
staring at Members and challenging them to act in a collective manner to produce a fair, equitable and 
inclusive trading order.   TN/C/M/29 
Page 46  
 
  349. Finally, he wished to reiterate Nepal’s comm itment to the consolidation of the multilateral 
trading system through the successful conclusion of DDA.   His delegation, like others, wished to have 
the negotiations resumed at the earliest, preserve what  had been achieved in the process so far, and 
continue to work bridging outs tanding differences and addressing sens itivities.  It agreed with the 
Chairman that trade opening worked for developm ent only if Members addressed the imbalances it 
created between winners and losers, imbalances that were all the more dangerous for the more fragile 
economies, societies or countries.   
350. The representative of Guatemala
 associated his delegation with the statements by Australia on 
behalf of the Cairns Group, Brazil on behalf of the G-20, Indonesia on behalf of the G-33, and 
Barbados on behalf of the SVEs. 
351. His delegation was aware that the multilateral system faced great challenges as a result of the 
international political, economic and financial climate.   For this reason, it wished to reiterate that 
Guatemala continued to be committed to the nego tiations and to the Doha Agenda, as well as to 
strengthening the multilateral system.  In that conne ction, it fully agreed with the work proposals the 
Chairman had put forward.  It remained convinced  that the bottom-up process should be maintained.  
Progress should be guided by substance and all consu ltation channels should be kept open;  above all 
it should be ensured that the negotiating process was transparent and inclusive. 
352. He thanked the Chairs of the Agriculture and NAMA for presenting their revised draft 
modalities on 6 December.  His delegation saw these latest draft modalities as a reflection of the 
current status of the negotiations in those areas a nd as a basis for continuing our work in the future. 
353. Nevertheless, with respect to Agriculture, it still  had concerns in the following areas.  With 
respect to the SSM, it recognized the efforts of th e Chair to produce a structure and a treatment in 
document TN/AG/W/7, but this mechanism needed to  be balanced.  Conseque ntly, it would have to 
be further refined and adjusted, taking account of the specific needs of the small economies. 
354. His delegation was also concerned by the lack of clarity regarding the treatment of 30 tariff 
lines in the overlap between treatment for tropical produc ts and preference erosion.  In particular, it 
was worried by the treatment that could be given to four tariff lines for rum, by the possible existence 
of an agreement on sugar under preference erosion, a nd by the stated lack of political will on the part 
of the EC to fulfil its commitments under the Ge neva agreement on trade in bananas of 27 July. 
355. On the subject of sugar his delegation noted that , as the fifth most important world exporter, 
his country was in a delicate situation that was politi cally difficult to reconcile.  Sugar was the best 
example of the multiple flexibilities that the modalitie s could provide industrialized countries in terms 
of market access, not to mention the domestic support policies and the export subsidy component 
often granted to this product. 
356. Thus, if a developing country claimed prefer ence erosion as a result of the Doha reductions, 
the best option would be to maintain this margin of preference through a smaller tariff cut;  i.e. the 
product should be designated sensitive;  in whic h case, his delegation did not see why the product 
would need a longer implementation period.  It had stated its position on the subject of sensitive 
products and preference erosion in document JOB(08)/128. 
357. The representative of Chinese Taipei  said that at the present time, Members should be in a 
festive mood, with feelings of goodwill and celebration.   In stark contrast, despite all the tireless and 
enormous efforts by the Chairman and the Chairs of the Agriculture and NAMA groups over previous 
weeks to facilitate Members’ strive to conclude  the NAMA and Agriculture modalities by the end of 
this year, they again found themselves with feelings  of frustration.  Nevertheless, while the result was  TN/C/M/29 
 Page 47 
 
 
  a great disappointment to the majority, Members should not overlook the fact that many of them had 
been working hard to construct an am bitious and well-balanced package.   
358. The political will that had been so clearly ex pressed by leaders of the G20 and APEC should 
be preserved in order to keep the Doha engine r unning.  His delegation trusted that the Chairman's 
consultations with the delegations  and capitals would help to find the right timing for concluding the 
modalities as soon as possible in 2009.  Until then, Members still needed to continue the technical 
work of improvements based on the December texts, led by the Chairs of the Negotiating Groups, and 
among Members.  In this regard, some concerns ra ised by Members or groups, including the Group of 
RAMs had not addressed in the December texts.  Th erefore, solutions should be sought during future 
work.   
359. His delegation agreed with the work programme  for 2009 as outlined by Chairman and Chairs 
of Negotiating Groups.  It was critical to contin ue working diligently, not only in NAMA and 
Agriculture, but also the other Negotiating Groups at  an earliest possible time.  His delegation also 
welcomed the work programme on how to address the financial crisis in the context of the WTO by 
using the forum of the TPRB.  In order to deal with the financial crisis and economic downturn, 
Members should refrain from taking trade protectio n measures as urged by the leaders of G20 and 
APEC. 
360. The representative of Egypt  associated his delegation with the statements made by Côte 
d’Ivoire on behalf of the African Gr oup, and Brazil on behalf of the G-20.  
361. His delegation welcomed the framework that the Chairman had outlined on the way forward 
next year in the Doha Round, and remained committ ed to positive engagement for its conclusion, with 
a fair and balanced outcome, that would have the development component at its core.  However, it 
had noted that certain ideas presented by the Chairman needed to be further explored, in light of the 
different comments that had been heard earlier from delegations.   
362. His delegation wished to echo the three assumptions  outlined by the Chairman for work in the 
next period – not changing the ma ndate under any circumstances, preserving the convergence reached 
so far in Agriculture and NAMA which was reflected in the most recent revised texts, which were to 
be considered as a basis for future  work, and finally, resuming work not only in the Agriculture and 
NAMA tracks, but in the other negotiating tracks as well.   
363. However, his delegation noted that those texts still had to be tested in the multilateral process.  
Therefore, it welcomed the comments made earlier by the Chairs of the Agriculture and NAMA Groups in this regard, noting also that efforts to  close gaps should be a product of a multilateral, 
transparent, bottom up approach, as ha d been indicated in the G-20 st atement.  His delegation wished 
to further highlight that some issues of interest to African countries had not been clearly reflected in 
the Agriculture text, and it looked forward to their inclusion.   
364. The issue of holding a regular ministerial meeting needed to be further reflected upon, and his 
delegation counted on the Chairman's consultation pro cess with Members to reach a consensus in this 
regard.   
365. As for the early harvest, his delegation had previ ously indicated its support for this idea, but it 
had been very clear on conditioning it to a deve lopmental outcome that would primarily benefit 
developing and least-developed countries, especially in light of the negative impact of the global 
financial crisis on their economies.   
366. In light of the aforementioned, his delegati on considered that Trade Facilitation was not a 
suitable track for early harvest, as there was still a lo t of work and progress that needed to be achieved TN/C/M/29 
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  especially in the area of technical assistance and ca pacity building and S&D.  On the other hand, any 
discussions on early harvest should focus on the Cotton issue, for it represented the real litmus test of 
the developmental component of the Round as the Chai rman had previously indicated.  In addition, 
the mandate had prioritized reaching an expeditious  solution on Cotton, as has been highlighted by 
Chairman Falconer.   
367. His delegation did not need to dwell on the im portance of reaching a satisfactory solution on 
Cotton to Egypt, the African Countries – the C4 among them - and other developing countries.  They had made it very clear that there would be no agreement if there was not a satisfactory outcome on Cotton.   
368. Finally regarding issues on the wider front of the WTO, his delegation supported intensifying 
the work on Aid for Trade, and positively engaging in the field of trade finance.  It also welcomed the 
idea of monitoring new restrictive measures that might be adopted by some countries, and discussing periodic reviews of this issue in the TPRB.   
369. The representative of Viet Nam
 said that she wished to echo the regret of not having a 
ministerial meeting this time to conclude the m odalities that Members and the world had expected.  
However, her delegation shared the Chairman's assessment on the political and economic situation 
and that Members needed a little bit more time for reflection and consultation before their Ministers 
met for final decisions.   
370. Her delegation reiterated its call for leadership  and flexibility from Members and stressed its 
support to the Chairman for continuing efforts to medi ate in various configurations for the finalization 
of the Doha Round as soon as possible with balanced results benefiting the interests of developing 
Members including LDCs, and realizing the developm ent mandates as stated in the Doha Ministerial 
Declaration.   
371. Her delegation expressed appreciation for the wo rk done since July 2008 by the Agriculture 
and NAMA Chairs which had been consolidated in to their most recent December texts.  Her 
delegation agreed with the view that while focu sing efforts on the three difficult issues of SSM, 
sectorals and Cotton, other problems and concerns need ed to be addressed as well.  In this regard, it 
wished to bring to the attention of Members and put on record the following issues of concerns.   
372. Firstly, on preference erosion in NAMA, her de legation recalled the Chairman's comments at 
various occasions stressing that this was a complex an d difficult issue, and, on this respect it had been 
participating constructively in several  consultations to find a viable solution.  However, at the release 
of the fourth revision of NAMA Chair's text, it coul d not but show its disappointment that there still 
existed the inclusion of the 10 July text of c ontroversial new tariff lines in Annex 2 and Annex 3 
together with the expansion of Annex 4 without Viet  Nam.  For Viet Nam, this was not a balanced 
deal.  While its legitimate request to be include d in Annex 4 had been i gnored, paragraph 11 allowed 
S&D treatment for developed Members proposing a tex tile sectoral initiative.  Given the seriousness 
of the issue and the negative impact on its garment and textile industry which were of vital importance 
for a country struggling for poverty reduction and su stainable development, it wished to reserve its 
right to return to this issue.   
373. Secondly, on sectoral initiatives, it wished to echo its support that, for developing Members, 
sectoral participation would be on a voluntary basis.   
374. Thirdly, on the NTB proposal, it wished to reite rate its opposition to classifying export tax as 
a non-tariff barrier.  For Viet Nam, there was no  mandate under the current Round to negotiate 
disciplines on export taxes which it believed that fo r Viet Nam and many other developing Members,  TN/C/M/29 
 Page 49 
 
 
  was a legitimate policy measure to pursue budgetary  sources and at the same time to maintain non-
renewable natural resources.   
375. Fourthly, on the SSM, her delegation welcomed th e new elements which had been included in 
the recent Chair's text and called on Members con cerned to show necessary flexibility to reach a 
common solution soon.  Although Viet Nam was not vocal in this negotiation process, it was closely 
following this issue and wished to reiterate the common position of RAMs that any final outcome on 
SSM would be open for application by a ll developing Members including RAMs.  
376. Fifthly, on the TRIPS negotiations, Members s hould gear towards the development aspects of 
the Round and the expected results should be a more balanced system of TRIPS rules on the basis of 
non-discrimination and in the interests of the deve loping Members.  Her delegation supported the 
negotiations on a full package of three issues namely  GI register, GI extension and the relationship 
between TRIPS and CBD.  It viewed the development element, in respect of TRIPS, as the intensive 
expansion of GI protection to cove r agricultural products other than wine and spirits.  The expansion 
of GI protection should respect the principle of non-discrimination among exporting Members and 
between products.   
377. The representative of Colombia  said that in the Doha Ministerial Declaration, Members had 
undertaken to place the needs and interests of devel oping countries in the centre of the negotiations.  
For Colombia and other developing countries, the focus of the Doha Round was Agriculture. 
378. This emphasis on Agriculture was justified by the pattern of employment in the world.  
According to the joint WTO-ILO study on Trade and Employment:  "global employment in agriculture … in 2005 … accounted for 40 per cent of  total employment, most of which is in the 
developing countries.  The share of industrial employment has remained constant at 21 per cent". 
379. Colombia believed that the development dime nsion of the Doha Round should result in the 
elimination or substantial reduction of agricultura l subsidies and barriers to trade in goods and 
services in sectors in which the developing countri es had comparative advantages, particularly in 
Agriculture. 
380. The Agriculture and NAMA texts of December re presented a big step forward in that they 
incorporated most of the proposals of the so-calle d July Package.  Although a number of important 
issues remained to be resolved, some of them of  particular interest to Colombia, including the 
relationship between sensitive products and preferen ce erosion, Colombia considered that these draft 
modalities provided a basis for balanced  negotiation, and it supported them. 
381. On 12 December, the Chairman had told delega tions that after evaluating results of the 
intensive consultations held in three sensitive area s of negotiation, he pref erred not to convene a 
ministerial meeting, since he felt that the probabilit y of a failure was high.  Colombia had taken note 
of this decision with regret. 
382. His delegation drew three important obser vations from the Chairman's report of 
12 December:  (i) from a technical point of view, these issues were not intractable;  (ii) from a 
technical point of view, Members were not far from a possible agreement;  but (iii) on the subject of 
the sectorals and special safeguards, the political will to accommodate the demands of all Members 
was lacking. 
383. Although what was on the table was of considerab le value, the results of the Chairman's 
consultations unfortunately showed that Member s had yet to meet the conditions for achieving a 
solution that struck a balance among the conflicting interests.  Clearly, that balance could only be TN/C/M/29 
Page 50  
 
  achieved if all Members pitched in.  But if they simply waited for the other party to give in, the 
solution to the modalities problem would have to wait indefinitely. 
384. In striking this balance, Members should not  be sacrificing the level of ambition of the 
Round.  However, in this exercise of reciprocal c oncessions, priority should be given to the interests 
of developing countries, in conf ormity with the Doha mandate. 
385. One thing that Members had on the table was th e agreement on bananas reached on 27 July.  
Ambassador Falconer had mentioned in his report at the present meeting that he very much regretted 
that this agreement had not been able to be reflect ed in his draft modalities, but that he had it on his 
hard disc. 
386. What had been agreed on 27 July should be implemented as of 1 January 2009.  However, the 
EC had made its implementation contingent on the c onclusion of the modalities.  This meant that the 
balance reached on 27 July would be undermined as from 1 January.  In other words, the banana 
agreement was part of an unstable balance:  the agre ement reached in July had its price;  after January 
2009, it would have a different price. 
387. Consequently, the Chairman's proposal at the pr esent meeting for an early harvest in four 
areas, including bananas, was a wise one;  it would make it easier for Members to move forward in 
their negotiations, but only if  was implemented rapidly. 
388. Finally, he had read that when the Chairman  had been asked during an interview with the 
newspaper Le Monde whether he was not tired of trying in vain to convince 153 countries to reduce 
their barriers to trade, he had displayed his charac teristic tenacity and concluded with the words:  
"Albert Camus a écrit qu'il fallait imaginer Sisyphe heureux " (One must imagine Sisyphus happy).  
Colombia shared the Chairman's optimism and was ready to continue pushing the boulder towards the 
summit. 
389. The representative of Kenya
 associated his delegation with the statements of Côte d’Ivoire on 
behalf of the African Group, Indonesia on behalf of  the G33 and Jamaica on behalf of the ACP.  A lot 
had taken place in Geneva under Chairman's chairm anship and those of the Agriculture and NAMA 
Chairs over the previous six months, from the 10 Ju ly texts,  through the 12 August reports and more 
recently the 6 December revised texts on both Ag riculture and NAMA.  Before his delegation 
proceeded to indicate how it saw the next steps, it  wished to endorse the proposals on future work 
tabled by the Chairman and in particular the intended roadmap on Aid for Trade.  His delegation 
wished to make preliminary comments on the dr aft texts from its first reading and would over 
Christmas and the subsequent days analyze the text s in depth for more substantive comments when 
the negotiations resumed.   
390. On Agriculture, it was clear that the long-st anding objective of the negotiations was to 
establish a fair market-oriented agricultural trading sy stem.  To this end, his delegation took note of 
the advanced progress that had been realized in th e export competition pillar.  Assessing the domestic 
support pillar in light of the revised modalities text , a number of key issues still remained unresolved 
which called for further work to enable Memb ers move towards convergence.  His delegation 
recognized and took note of the further flexibiliti es for LDCs and NFIDCs under the Blue Box and 
would continue examining them within the overall ba lance of other issues falling under this pillar.   
391. On the market access pillar, his delegation not ed and encouraged the convergence that was 
emerging regarding the tiered formula.  On long- standing preferences, it wished to recall the 
substantive work by the Ministers in July which ha d propelled this issue almost to conclusion.  His 
delegation had been disappointed that in spite of th e 10 days of hard work by the Ministers, their 
output could not find its way into the revised text .  This development constituted a lost opportunity  TN/C/M/29 
 Page 51 
 
 
  and might negate the progress already achieved in th is area.  His delegation therefore called for the 
inclusion of the work done by Ministers in th e revised text as a basis for further discussion. 
392. On SSM, his delegation wished to re-emphasize  as it had always done, that the mechanism 
ought to be simple, workable and easy to effect.  The triggers and the co rresponding remedies should 
also be set at the right levels.  This seemed not to  be the case in the revised text as there were some 
gaps associated with the triggers as well as the reme dies.  The architecture of paragraph 132 therefore 
needed to be amended in line with the July text to accommodate these concerns and thereafter be the 
basis for further work.   
393. On tariff escalation and commodities, his de legation took note of the progress achieved and 
would engage constructively to fina lize other remaining concerns.   
394. On NAMA, his delegation welcomed the inclus ion of the convergence regarding low binding 
coverage Members – paragraph 6 countries –  prior to the July Ministerial.  It also noted that Annexes 2 and 3 for preferences had been stabilized for future  negotiations and therefore wished to urge that 
they should not be linked to the sectorals at all.   
395. On NTBs, his delegation was concerned with the inclusion in the revised text of the 
elimination of export taxes which previously had been acknowledged as not garnering any support.  
This was an important development instrument fo r developing countries which should be looked at 
more broadly within the development context of this Round.   
396. Finally, his delegation's view was that while both texts still fell far short of the Members' 
expectation in many areas as it had highlighted, they were the outcome of Members' countless hours of hard work and rigorous negotiations.  Kenya therefore took the text s as a basis for future 
negotiations upon resumption of the talks after the Christmas break.   
397. The representative of Pakistan
 said that, like others, his delegation was also disappointed.  
However it shared the Chairman's judgment and resp ected his decision.  Not to call Ministers to 
Geneva was a setback but whether Members had suffered a bigger setback or avoided a greater 
setback was not entirely clear.  Whatever happened,  was now behind.  Members should be looking at 
how to move forward.  He associated his delegati on with the statements by the G-20, G-33 and the 
Cairns Group in the area of Agriculture 
398. The Chairman had shared three assumptions with delegations.  For Pakistan, these were the 
working principles for future work.  Members ha d invested almost seven years to negotiate a 
development round.  They had made substantive pr ogress.  Not withstanding any setbacks, the first 
priority should be to remain focused and engaged.   The aim of Members should not change;  so the 
first message of his delegation was "preserve the mandate".   
399. Members had spent almost the whole year focusing on Agriculture and NAMA.  They had 
made progress which had been captured in the texts issued by Agriculture and NAMA Chairs.  In this 
context his delegation expressed appreciation for th e efforts and roles of Ambassadors Falconer, 
Wasescha and Stephenson, the former NAMA Chai r.  His delegation's second message was to 
"preserve the texts" – so that these could be  used as basis for future negotiation.   
400. Members' enhanced engagement in Agriculture  and NAMA during the current year had led to 
a position where other negotiating areas, if not lagging behind, were at least not at the same level of 
maturity as Agriculture and NAMA.  While his delegation thanked the Chairs of the various 
Negotiating Groups for their reports, it  urged them to also issue revised texts and then intensify the 
engagement to bring these to the same level as Agriculture and NAMA.  It was satisfying to note that 
other Chairs were focusing on the job, as the Rules Chair had promised a new text.  In Agriculture and TN/C/M/29 
Page 52  
 
  NAMA, Members were clear about the areas of conve rgence, what were the issues where despite non-
convergence they knew where the "landing zones" were , and also the difficult areas where a political 
decision had to be made.  They needed similar cl arity in other areas of negotiation to successfully 
complete the Doha Round in the following months.  For Pakistan, years was not an option.   
401. During the past few years Members had remain ed so focused on DDA negotiations that for 
the public at large, the WTO and DDA were being perceived as synonyms.  Without undermining the 
importance of the DDA especially for developing countries, the WTO had much bigger canvas.  It was an institution which provided a rules-base d trading system, predic tability and assurances 
guaranteed by the DSU.  In this context his delegation appreciated th e consultations being done by the 
Chairman of the General Council.  Members ne eded to convene a Ministerial Conference the 
following year independent of the status of the DD A negotiations.  His delegation expected that the 
Chairman of the General Council would draw a wo rk programme beyond D oha negotiations.  His 
delegation appreciated the Director-General's deci sion to share in writing his report and discus trade 
developments in the TPRB.   
402. Before concluding, he wished to offer his delegation's preliminary comment on the idea of 
"early harvest", which had been flagged in the Chai rman's report and also referred to by a number of 
delegations.  The option was certainly worth l ooking at.  His capital was consulting with the 
stakeholders on this issue.  However, one thing w as obvious.  Any early harvest would have to be in 
the interest of all developing and least-devel oped countries.  His delegation welcomed the 
announcement of the early harvest programme as re lated to Trade Facilitation, especially Cotton.  
Second, Members should ensure that any early harv est should not result in a mini-Round.  If Members 
drove along that route, they had to be careful enough that they did not lose sight of their bigger 
objective – successfully completing the Doha Round in the following months.  His delegation could 
clearly see a road sign reading "Bumpy road ahead – drive carefully." 
403. The representative of Korea
 expressed his delegation's disappoi ntment and frustration in not 
having full modalities on Agriculture and NAMA by the end of the year.  Although Members had 
been not 100 per cent successful in achieving their goa l, they had worked very hard over the year, and 
had before them two well-received texts in both Agriculture and NAMA from which they could re-
start their future discussions.  In this context, th eir efforts in the year had not been in vain.   
404. With regard to the Chairman's proposed work programme, his delegation like others 
supported re-engaging in Agriculture and NAMA at th e earliest possible juncture, and having other 
Negotiating Groups re-engage in their work as soon  as possible.  As always, his delegation stood 
ready to engage in a positive and constructive manner.  It was essentia l for all Members to engage in a 
standstill of current protectionist trade policy measures.   In this regards, his delegation supported the 
idea of using the TPRB as a monitoring system of the standstill.   
405. With regard to the negotiations in the New Ye ar, he wished to lay out for the record the 
underlying assumptions upon which his delegation woul d be engaging.  First, there could be no 
changes to the mandate upon which Members had based current negotiations.  Any attempts to change 
the existing mandate would only serve to compli cate the negotiating environment, which would 
consequently imperil the whole DDA package.  In th is context, the introduction of new issues had to 
be avoided as well, and already stabilized issues should not be re-opened.   
406. Secondly, in Agriculture and NAMA, the two te xts should be preserved and form the basis for 
future negotiations.  In other areas other than Agri culture and NAMA, necessary steps should also be 
taken as soon as possible.  In this regard, his de legation welcomed the announcement by the Rules 
Chair about circulating a new Rules text in the fo llowing days.  His delegation hoped that it would be 
one which fully incorporated all the views expressed  in a fair, balanced, and impartial manner.    TN/C/M/29 
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  407. In Agriculture, his delegation noted the great strides Members had made as a group.  In 
comparing the current revised text with the one circulated in early February, the number of brackets had been reduced from a three-digit figure to a mere handful.   
408. Substantively, his delegation had seen many cruc ial items such as the tiered formulas for both 
market access and domestic support, sens itive product entitlements and treatment, tariff 
simplification, in-quota tariff reduction, tariff admini stration, and the special safeguard (SSG), among 
others, in which Members had either successful ach ieved convergence, or had scouted a possible path 
to convergence.   
409. It should be noted that the items he had just me ntioned were, to a large extent, issues of great 
importance to developed-country Members.  His delega tion wished to make it clear that in light of the 
mandate upon which Members were conducting the nego tiations, they would need to complete those 
items in light of provisions of S&D treatment to fu lly fulfil the development dimension of the Round.   
410. In this context, his delegation associated itself with the statement of Indonesia on behalf of 
the G-33.  SPs and the SSM were crucial elements  of a package acceptable for developing-country 
Members, and as such their importance could not be underestimated.   
411. In NAMA, his delegation believed that sectorals sh ould be an essential part of the final deal.  
In order to obtain an outcome in the sectoral ne gotiations that was acceptabl e to both proponents and 
non-proponents, a practical approach was required, focusing on specific sector-by-sector discussion.   
412. The representative of Paraguay
 said that in spite of the efforts made by delegations in Geneva, 
it was clear that the political will to fulfil the mandates of the Doha Ministerial Declaration was 
lacking.  If Members had adhered to the text and the spirit of that Declaration, the result at this stage 
would have been quite different.  Consequently, it would be an extremely useful exercise for 
delegations to go over the document that Ministers had left them way back at the end of 2001 and 
undertake a bit of soul searching as to what they had done to abide by the commitments assumed at 
the time. 
413. This was the time for the main trading partners to show ambition and leadership.  At the same 
time, developing-country Members should assume their share in the effort to promote freer trade in 
agriculture and achieve more fair and equitable rules. 
414. As the Chairman had noted, one of the elements  which remained to be  better defined was the 
SSM, which was a highly sensitive instrument for Paragua y.  This should be subject to rules that were 
even more precise and stringent to prevent it from becoming a means of blocking agricultural trade in 
other developing countries.  As the text currently stood, it could cause Paraguay to lose the little that it 
had obtained in terms of market access, since it did not cover the sensitivities of his country, 70 per 
cent of whose exports went to other developing countries, and 87 per cent of whose exports were 
concentrated in agriculture;  and of that 87 per cent, 81 per cent concerned only five products.  The 
application of the SSM could have extremely ser ious consequences for Paraguay, particularly 
considering that it was a small and vulnerabl e economy and a landlocke d developing country. 
415. Members had begun this Round with a view to liber alizing trade, particularly in Agriculture, 
in order to foster the development of the poorest countries, reduce privileges, and promote fair and 
equitable competition.  For these reasons, the m odalities should not necessarily focus on distributing 
new and more sophisticated instruments of protec tion, extending managed trade with an increase in 
sensitive products, or creating new tariff quotas.  Members should go further than binding within the 
"water" zone in domestic support and find a solu tion to the serious and unacceptable problem of 
Cotton, which was afflicting many poor countries. TN/C/M/29 
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  416. Delegations had heard that the Chairman had plans to lead them towards renewed 
negotiations, restoring the confidence and commitmen t of participants.  His delegation believed he 
was right, and it would assume its share of the effort.   
417. The idea of taking advantage of the progress in Trade Facilitation to achieve an early harvest 
was an interesting one, as long as it brought concrete  and viable benefits, particularly in transit 
transport, a matter of particular inter est to landlocked developing countries. 
418. The world was currently facing a number of serious  and acute crises that were rapidly leading 
countries into recession and uncertainty.  This was not a problem that the Doha Round could 
immediately resolve;  Members should take a longer te rm view and ensure that the levels of ambition 
were adapted to their future n eeds so that trade could increase and expand between the countries that 
were less integrated into the world economy and play a leading role in the development of the future. 
419. The representative of Cambodia
 said that although Members had not able to conclude the two 
modalities this year as intended, his delegation wa s not discouraged and it welcomed the revised 
Agriculture and NAMA texts released on 6 December  in which considerable progress in many areas 
had been made.  
420. He wished to highlight two most important areas of interest and concern to Cambodia, namely 
DFQF and non-reciprocal preference.  The improved language on DFQF which read "provide meaningfully enhanced market access for all LDCs" had been incorporated in the new revised NAMA 
and Agriculture texts.  During this difficult period of financial crisis it would be very helpful if early 
implementation of DFQF coul d be made in order to he lp minimize the negative impact of the crisis on 
the LDCs' economies.   
421. On non-reciprocal preference under NAMA, his delegation wished to thank the NAMA Chair 
for incorporating Cambodia as a disproportionately aff ected member in Annex 4 of the revised text.  
This was an important step toward the solution.   
422. His delegation believed that the revised NAMA and Agriculture texts would provide a firm 
basis for the negotiations as they had captured al l the progress made so far as a result of the 
negotiation and the consultations and, therefore, a ll the progress as reflected in the revised texts 
should be preserved and built on.   
423. In conclusion, he said that his delegation fu lly supported the work plan for 2009 that the 
Chairman had outlined and all the efforts that he would be trying to do in order to conclude the 
NAMA and Agriculture modalities and the Round as soon as possible next year.   
424. The representative of Lesotho
 associated his delegation with the statements made on behalf of 
the ACP, African and LDCs Groups and by Sout h Africa on SACU.  His delegation accepted and 
supported the way forward proposed by the Chairm an and hoped that this would further assist 
Members to thrash out the remaining issues. 
425. Lesotho was interested in the successful out come of these negotiations, especially NAMA, 
and it trusted that they would deliver benefits for all,  in particular the LDCs being the most vulnerable 
among the membership.  His delegation thanked the Agriculture and NAMA Chairs for preparing the 
latest revisions of their draft modalities.  These had given impetus to the negotiations and helped 
Members to focus on the areas where progress was most needed.  His delegation hoped that this 
engagement would continue in the coming year.   
426. Lesotho was dependent on the SACU revenue  pool for a large proportion of government 
revenue and GDP, and was particul arly dependent upon the contribution of customs duties to this  TN/C/M/29 
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  pool.  Approximately 80 per cent of Lesotho’s paym ent under the SACU revenue sharing formula was 
derived from the customs component.  This made the country extremely vulnerable to changes in 
regional trade and tariff patterns.  As the impact of the food and financial crises worsened, a worrying 
feature was that the gains from trade liberalisation were being reduced.  This was especially so for 
Lesotho, as factors such as the loss of preferences into richer markets and the non-compensated losses 
from tariff revenues faced the country.  Lesotho re mained ready to engage constructively in these 
negotiations with a view to achieving a successful conclusion of this Round. 
427. The representative of Costa Rica  associated his delegation with the statement by Australia on 
behalf of the Cairns Group.  Costa Rica shared  the frustration of all those who had hoped that 
Members would reach an agreement on modalities in Agriculture and NAMA before the end of this 
year, at a time when the world economy was experien cing a grave financial cris is.  His delegation had 
believed that with the prospect of a ministerial m eeting in Geneva, this would have been possible.  
This was a loss for all Members, and they were feel ing its effects as they tried to overcome the kind of 
situations they were now facing.  It was a loss for all, because there would be none of the new market 
access opportunities that they had so hoped for.  A loss because there would be no reduction in trade 
distorting agricultural subsidies.  A loss because they had not established enhanced rules to strengthen 
the multilateral trading system;  and a loss for all because the prospect of meeting the development 
expectations that this Round ha d generated in their countries was becoming more and more distant. 
428. Costa Rica nevertheless continued to believe in the need to achieve an ambitious result in the 
Doha Round, particularly as regards the modalities.  This was not the first time that difficulties had 
been encountered along the way, so that this setb ack should not deter Members from their objective.  
His delegation supported, and would c ontinue to support, the efforts that were being made to achieve 
progress in the negotiations.  It was committed to the process and was ready to continue participating 
constructively and in good faith. 
429. His delegation welcomed the presentation of the new draft Agriculture and NAMA texts.  
These texts reflected the current status of the nego tiations, including a number of issues that remained 
open, such as tropical products and preference erosion.   That was indeed the situation, as described by 
Ecuador. 
430. Turning to bananas, a tropical product of great importance to his country and a subject which 
the Chairman had mentioned in his statement, he wished to support what had been said by Ecuador, 
Honduras, Guatemala and Colombia.  The banana agre ement reached on 27 July had to be respected 
and implemented as agreed.  It was not linked to an agreement on modalities;  it was an autonomous 
agreement, as indicated by the letter and spirit of the text itself, as well as the negotiating history and 
the objective pursued, which was to resolve all of the WTO banana disputes and claims. 
431. Finally, Costa Rica agreed with the Chairman regarding the importance of reaffirming the 
commitment of each and every Member to the multilateral trading system and avoiding the trap of protectionist measures, particularly in these times of financial crisis.  Consequently, his delegation 
supported his suggestion to establish a monitoring mechanism within the TPRB, but in doing so 
Members should not lose sight of their priority, which was to conclude the Doha Round. 
432. The Trade Negotiations Committee took note
 of the Chairpersons' reports and of the 
statements by delegations.1 
                                                      
1 Including the statement reflected in Annex I. TN/C/M/29 
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  ANNEX I 
 
Statement submitted by Rwanda 
for inclusion in the record of the meeting 
  
 At its request, the statement submitted by Rwanda for inclusion in the minutes of the formal meeting of the TNC held on 17 December July is reproduced below.  
_______________ 
  
1. At the outset, I wish to thank you, Mr. Director General for your comprehensive report and for sharing your assessment on the ongoing negotiating process.  
2. Rwanda commends your tireless efforts duri ng the last couple of days to facilitate the 
Membership in bridging the gaps to allow the holdi ng of the ministerial meeting in order to try and 
conclude modalities on NAMA and Agriculture before the end of this year.   3. We very well understand the reasons for the decision to suspend negotiations.  The adoption 
of modalities before the end of this year would ha ve been a positive step forward that would have 
allowed for a conclusion of the Ro und in 2009. Rwanda still believes th at this is achievable if we can 
all make our shared goal.   4. We believe that reaching a global trade deal  as quick as possible would be the best way of 
contributing to the efforts to mitigate the impact of the current economic crisis. The situation in 
developing countries especially LDC calls for particul ar attention as the persistence of this crisis 
would indeed undermine our efforts in combating poverty. It is therefore important to seize the 
opportunity of any positive input at global level that  can contribute to the mitigation of the negative 
impact of the current crisis. The early conclusion of  the Doha Round would be in this direction.  
 5. As an LDC, Rwanda would benefit from an early Doha deal; it would strengthen the existing 
political momentum on a stronger, fair and pred ictable rules-based multilateral trading system. 
Similarly, it would sustain the commitment of Members to address supply-side constraints and infrastructure deficit in order to effectively in tegrate our economy into re gional and international 
trade. Further delays might bring unexpected and undesired setbacks.   
6. It is in this regard, that I join other Me mbers who spoke before me particularly Tanzania, 
Côte d'Ivoire and Jamaica, who spoke respectiv ely on behalf of LDCs, African Group and ACP 
Group, in encouraging all Members to keep their commitment and good will as we continue trying to 
make tangible progress on the remaining few issu es with a view of concluding the overall Doha 
Round by the end of the year.  
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