. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(05)/ST/103 
16 December 2005 
 (05-6093) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Sixth Session Hong Kong, 13 - 18 December 2005 Original:   French 
 
  
CAMEROON 
 
Statement by HE Mr Luc Magloire Mbarga Atangana
 
Minister of Trade  
  
 I should like first of all on behalf of th e Government of Cameroon to thank and to 
congratulate the Government and the people of Hong Kong, China, and in particular HE Mr Donald 
Tsang, Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of China, for the warmth 
and scale of their welcome, as well as for the excellent organization of this Sixth WTO Ministerial Conference.   To His Excellency Mr John C. Tsang, Secr etary for Commerce, Industry and Technology of 
the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of Ch ina and to you, Madam Chairperson, I address 
my warmest congratulations on your election to chair our proceedings. 
  The delegation accompanying me and I myself are convinced that your clear-sightedness and you excellent knowledge of the issues involved in multilateral trade negotiati ons will be of vital 
importance for the success of our work.   
 
 Finally, I should like to express my admiration for the untiring efforts that Mr Pascal Lamy, Director-General of the WTO, and Ms Amina M ohamed, Chairman of the General Council have 
unceasingly made in recent months to achieve a successful outcome of this meeting.   Cameroon greeted with some feeling of relief th e outcome of the work of the General Council 
in July 2004 at which the Member countries of our Organization displayed their interest and their 
determination to advance the negotiations of the Do ha Round, which had hitherto been deadlocked, in 
particular by refocusing the discussions on the issue of development.   We should remember that it was the Kennedy Round which first gave genuine substance to 
this concept within the context of the rules of inte rnational trade through the addition of Part 4 to the 
GATT, entitled "Trade and Development".   That involved opening up the markets of the developed countries to products of particular 
interest for the developing countries.  That was the or igin of preferences, which have since come to be 
regarded as part of the body of disciplines and rule s of our Organization and – if I may be allowed a 
pun – I would say that "preferences are references"  and are a component of WTO doctrine and law. 
  To wish to call preferences into question, wit hout adjustments would be an error and – what is 
more – it would be a mistake and a historic absurdity.  In any event, it would be contrary to the ambitions proclaimed for the Doha Round, which is also known as the Doha Development Agenda.   
 
 After all, is it not the objective of our agreem ents, not just to promote trade as such, but to 
promote development through trade? WT/MIN(05)/ST/103 
Page 2  
 
  
 In this connection, Cameroon invites the Member  countries to reread with care, in particular, 
Article 20 of the Agreement on Agriculture, whic h specifies that non-trade concerns, such as food 
security, the environment, rural development and also  poverty alleviation, are to be taken into account 
in trade negotiations. 
 
 The concept of development is to be underst ood therefore as incorporating the notion of trade 
preferences for the benefit of the most disadvantaged c ountries.  It is also to be understood in terms of 
"differential and more favourable treatment", with  a view to the "fuller participation" of the 
developing countries in international trade, to employ the terminology of the Tokyo Round. 
 
 That means, as stated in the Decision of th e General Council of 1 A ugust 2004, reviewing "all 
S&D treatment provisions with a view to strengthe ning them and making them more precise, effective 
and operational" and, I might add, not leaving by the wayside a category of developing countries that 
are neither LDCs nor emerging economies.   
 
 In this connection, I shall only mention the example of my own country, Cameroon, listed 148th out of 177 countries on the United Nations hum an development index and regarded by the 
Bretton Woods institutions as a highl y indebted poor country, that is to say, as a country undergoing 
adjustment.   
 Despite this particular situation, Cameroon – and it is not alone – does not benefit from 
specific adjustments within our Organization, si nce its flag does not bear the label "LDC". 
  This results in genuine injustice in the treat ment reserved for developing countries such as 
mine and others represented here in this room - an injustice which shoul d be remedied in the interests,  
inter alia , of coherence between the various internati onal organizations dealing with the issue of 
development and poverty alleviation.   The concept of development, so dear to our Organization, involves, in the final analysis, the rapid implementation, without paralysing conditions, of  aid for trade, which must be open to all the 
developing countries which request it and whic h submit in support a de tailed and well-founded 
programme.  In this connection, there should be  no attempt to proceed on the basis of negative 
discrimination, that is to say, by favouring one category of developing country, in this case the LDCs 
alone, to the detriment of the other equally disadva ntaged countries, for then our Organization would 
be lapsing into the regrettable te ndency to level downwards and would consequently fail to meet the 
objective sought which is – it needs to be said once again – development. 
 
 What is required is a genuine process of rene wal – an "aggiornamiento" – that will give new 
life to the WTO and allow it to overcome its  divergences and other contingent factors. 
 
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