. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
WT/MIN(11)/ST/95 
17 December 2011  
 
(11-6677) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Eighth Session Geneva, 15 - 17 December 2011 Original:   English 
 
  
SUDAN 
 
Statement by H.E. Mr Abdelrahim Eltayeb 
Acting Secretary-General, Minist ry of International Cooperation 
(speaking as an Observer) 
  
Allow me to extend our thanks and appreciati on to you, Mr Chairman, the Director-General 
and your assistants for the excellent preparations of this conference. 
 
At the outset, my delegation would like to associate itself with the statements delivered by 
Bangladesh on behalf of the LDCs, Kenya on be half of the African Group, the Kingdom of 
Saudi Arabia on behalf of the Arab Group, and Ma uritius on behalf of the ACP.  We welcome the 
accession of the Russian Federation, Samoa, Va nuatu and Montenegro, which will undoubtedly 
contribute to strengthening the multilateral trad ing system and realizing its universality.  
My delegation also fully supports the application of Palestine for an ob server status in this 
organization.  Equally, we support the request of the League Arab States for observer status. 
 
The Eighth WTO Ministerial Conference is taking place ten years after the launch of the 
Doha Work Programme at a time when the globa l economic environment is  posing many challenges 
to all countries.  While efforts to bring a su ccessful conclusion to the Doha Round have not yet 
yielded the desired outcome, the value of a rules-ba sed multilateral trading system that is responsive 
to the legitimate needs of developing countries, in particular the least developed countries.  It is 
imperative that the opportunity this conference offers should be availed by all of us with a view to 
strengthening the WTO and bringing back th e necessary momentum to the Doha Round. 
 
While underlying the supremacy of the WTO as custodian of the rules-based multilateral 
trading system, it is important to stress the importance my delegation attaches to making the system more universal and representative of the interest s of all countries, big and small.  Achieving 
universality of the multilateral trading system ne cessitates facilitation of accession to the WTO of all 
LDCs without any exception.  Sudan welcomes th e draft decision on LDC Accession submitted by the 
General Council to the Conference.  We hope that  by adopting this decisi on, the LDCs accession 
process will be further strengthened,  streamlined and operationalized. 
 
My delegation wishes to reiterate its determin ation to resume its accession negotiations which 
have been on hold since 2004.  We call on the WTO Member countries to lend their support to 
resumption of the long stalled accession negotiation without any further dela y.  The government of 
Sudan stands ready to engage c onstructively with all interested parties on how this process can be 
expedited.  In this connection, we note with a ppreciation the Director-Gen eral's assertion in his 
2011 annual report to WTO that "accession dossiers will continue to be an area of prime attention to 
him".  While acknowledging that the prime responsib ility in pushing the process forward lies with us,  
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  especially the technical work that remains to be completed, we believe that the WTO Members and 
the Secretariat need to invest more in this pr ocess, especially provision of badly needed technical 
assistance and capacity building. 
In conclusion, my delegation strongly believes that a healthy, inclusive and transparent 
multilateral trading system is indeed indispensable to all of us. 
 
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