. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(05)/ST/55 
15 December 2005 
 (05-6053) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Sixth Session Hong Kong, 13 - 18 December 2005 Original:   English 
 
  
SOUTH CENTRE 
 
Statement Circulated by Mr Yashpal Tandon
 
Executive Director  
 
(As an Observer ) 
  
 The Sixth WTO Ministerial Conference is taking place against the backdrop of a larger 
context and several important developments.  The immediate and well-known context is the stalemate 
in the Doha Round of negotiations.  This Round wa s dubbed as a "development round" at the time of 
launch in 2001 at Doha, Qatar.  However, the negotiations on key de velopment issues like agriculture, 
special and differential treatment for developing countries, intellectual property rights and public 
health, implementation-related issues and concerns, the Cotton Initiative, movement of particularly 
low and unskilled labour from developing to deve loped countries, and bound duty-free, quota-free 
market access for the Least Developed Countries (L DCs) in developed country markets, have not 
made any real progress in four years.  Instead the fo cus of major developed countries' efforts is to get 
deeper and broader access into and control of the markets of developing countries.  They are 
pressuring developing countries to drastically reduce their agriculture and non-agriculture tariffs, open 
up key services sectors, and give up instruments of development policy.  Ir onically this aggressive 
market access agenda of developed countries is be ing paraded as the best development agenda for 
developing countries.  Old and discredited mantra of  "liberalization is good for you" is being sold 
again, this time wrapped in a thin paper of "A id for Trade".  Developing countries have rightly 
refused to buy this.  They maintain their commitment  to the multilateral trading system but also insist 
that the stalemate can only be broken by develo ped countries through real progress on development 
issues. 
  The broader picture in the trade arena is no less alarming.  Right lessons were not learnt from 
the failure at Cancún and hence instead of reform ing their trade agenda, major developed countries 
are employing regional and bilateral agreements to open developing country markets for their 
products, capital and intellectual property.  This proliferation of North-South regional trade and 
investment agreements is often dictated by the needs and demands of developed countries.  Not only 
does this erode the importance of the multilateral trad ing system, but it also seriously harms initiatives 
by developing countries for their own subregional, regional and inter-regional in tegration.  This must 
stop and developing countries should be allowed to build their regional markets before implementing 
closer integration with far more advanced countries of the North. 
  The larger context for Hong Kong Ministerial Conference relates to global economic and political trends.  This is where new hopes are emer ging.  Economic thinking has descended from the 
peak of neo-liberal orthodoxy in the late 1980s  and early 1990s.  The infamous "Washington 
Consensus" is under robust attack from both the Nort h and the South.  Concepts like "policy space", 
"industrial policy" and "supply management" are find ing their way back into the discourse.  Welcome 
are these trends but the old habits die hard an d vested interests are too well entrenched in 
the 
corridors of power including at the Bretton Woods institutions.  Bold alternatives have not been WT/MIN(05)/ST/55 
Page 2  
 
 allowed to change the shape of the old edifice.  The out-of-reality inmates are rather busy putting new 
paint on the old walls.  Our efforts for fundamental  change in economic thinking must therefore 
continue.   Hand in hand with the change in economic thi nking, but even broader and deeper in impact 
are the changes in the global po litical landscape.  Latin America is leading the process but people-
centred, nationalist political transformation is unde r way in all parts of the developing world. 
Courageous voices are challenging the dominant post Co ld War world order.  This should not be 
interpreted as going back.  This is going forward,  marching towards a fair global order and broadly 
shared prosperity for an interdep endent and peaceful world in the 21
st Century.  But here again the 
process faces major challenges.  The status quo powe rs remain strong and will resist all the way.  
What is worse they often respond rather violentl y to any serious opposition.  However, we must 
remain firm and steadfast in  the face of such responses. 
  Whether in the narrow trade context or the broa der economic and political context, at stake is 
the right of people everywhere to live with dignity an d have the means to devel op.  This is the broader 
picture where the WTO, the Doha Round and the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference should fit in. The WTO will be considered legitimate and at the ce ntre of global trading relations if it respects and 
allows the effective exercise of the right to develop.  The Doha Round will be a development round if 
it places the needs and interests of developing countri es at the centre of the multilateral trading system 
and addresses them effectively and meaningfully.  And the Hong Kong Minister ial Conference will be 
called a success if it refuses to accept the market access agenda of developed countries and adopts 
clear benchmarks for progress on development issues.  Only such an outcome will break the stalemate 
in the negotiations and will avoid the repeat of Seattle and Cancún. 
  This may be a tall order.  It is also true th at changing entrenched thinking and vested interests 
is never easy.  On the positive side however are th e winds of change in the economic and political 
spheres.  And people both in the North and the So uth are demanding these changes.  I hope that the 
Ministers at Hong Kong will listen to the voices of their peoples and opt for bold alternatives instead 
of the status quo.  I dare say that nothing less is needed for success at Hong Kong and beyond. 
 
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