WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(05)/ST/147 
17 December 2005 
 (05-6171) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Sixth Session Hong Kong, 13 - 18 December 2005 Original:   English 
 
  
MALAWI 
 
Statement by the Honourable Dr Martin Kansichi
 
Minister of Trade and Private Sector Development  
   I wish to join all those who have taken the floor before me in thanking the Government of 
Hong Kong, China for hosting this important even t, and for the excellent arrangements and not 
forgetting the kind and gracious hospitality of the pe ople of Hong Kong, China.  May I also take this 
opportunity to congratulate you, Chairman, on your election to lead the deliberations, which I trust 
will be fruitful.   Malawi joins others in warmly welcom ing the new Members, the Royal Kingdom of 
Saudi Arabia and Tonga to the World Trade Organization (WTO). 
 
 My country strongly believes that the role of the World Trade Organization (WTO) is to bring 
about a fair and equitable multilateral trading syst em.  The decisions of the WTO must therefore, 
reflect the views of all its Members.  Priority must be given to the developmen t issues as the majority 
of its Members are developing and least developed countries. 
 
 As you will all recall, world leaders in 2000 committed themselves at the Millennium Summit 
in New York to the Millennium Development Goal s (MDGs), which set out to halve poverty by the 
year 2015.  In this regard, Malawi and other least developed countries (LDCs) that depend on 
agriculture, face the prospects of deepening poverty unless all forms of government subsidies, direct 
support for exports, domestic support for agricu ltural production and indirect support for 
non-production and other interventions are removed by developed countries.  My country believes 
that in order for us to achieve the MDGs, the WTO must play its rightful role as a catalyst for using 
trade to reduce poverty by providing a level playing field where LDCs and developing countries can meaningfully participate in the multilateral trading system.  
 Malawi is disappointed with the slow progress of the WTO negotiations, particularly in key 
areas such as agriculture, the cotto n initiative, development issues and trade in services (Mode 4).  
There is need to intensify and expedite the negotia tions and to undertake a serious consensus building 
effort to ensure success of the Doha Development Round.  
 The negotiations in agriculture, non-agricultu re market access (NAMA), trade in services, 
trade facilitation and development issues, must take  into account the structural weaknesses, including 
lack of financial, human and institutional wea knesses capacities of LDCs.  The developed Members 
of the WTO should be committed to the full implemen tation of paragraphs 42 and 43 of the Doha 
Ministerial Declaration whereby Members agreed to  "continue to make positive efforts designed to 
ensure that developing countries and especially the least developed, secure a share in the growth of 
world trade commensurate with the n eeds of their economic development". 
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  Malawi, just like other preference dependent countries faces challenges arising from 
preference erosion as a result of the multilateral reduc tion of tariffs in agriculture and NAMA.  The 
estimate by the International Monetary Fund (IMF)  shows that Malawi would incur losses in export 
values around 6.6 per cent as a result of a 40 per cent cu t in preference margins.  This process, if not 
managed properly, would result in severe economic shocks to single commodity dependent economies 
such as Malawi. 
  As you will all recall, paragraph 10 of the NAMA Framework of the July Package recognizes the need to enhance the integration of LDCs in to the multilateral trading system and support the 
diversification of their production and export base.  It calls upon developed c ountry participants and 
other participants who so decide, to grant on an  autonomous basis duty-free and quota-free market 
access for non-agricultural products originating fro m LDCs.  Malawi requests that this should be 
accompanied by simplified rules of origin.  It is our belief that low tariffs alone, without accompanying simplified and realistic rules of origin  would not be adequate to allow LDCs such as 
Malawi to benefit from NAMA. 
 
 An LDC friendly agreement on NAMA must not be simply a license for developed countries 
to dump their industrial products in developing  countries but should be a blueprint for the 
industrialization and diversification of LDC economies such as Malawi. 
  In relation to services, Malawi believes that for services liberalization to be successful, it is 
necessary to establish a sound regulatory framework th at is supportive of services activities while also 
retaining the right to regulate, and to introduce ne w regulations on the supply of services in order to 
meet national policy objectives.  This touches upon the issue of allowing WT O Members, especially 
those from LDCs, adequate policy space to enable them  to pursue appropriate policies.  While Malawi 
is committed to a continuation of the liberalizati on of its services sector, it will require a significant 
increase in technical assistance to assess the potentia l impact and possible benefits of liberalizing the 
sectors such as transportation, tourism, and professional services.   On the issue of trade facilitation, the WTO must operationalize the flexibilities agreed in the 
Modalities for Negotiations on Trade Facilitation whic h stipulates that LDC members will only be 
required to undertake commitments to the extent consistent with their individual development, 
financial and trade needs or their administrative and institutional capabilities. 
  The WTO should also ensure adequate financial and technical assistance and capacity-building including support for infrastructure development of LDCs.    
 Malawi's land-lockedness needs must be addr essed to ensure freedom of transit so as to 
mitigate the high cost of transport.   Malawi welcomes the substantially enhanced  Integrated Framework (IF), and the Joint 
Integrated Technical Assistance Programme (JITAP ) and Aid for Trade initiatives which are aimed at 
assisting LDCs to enhance their trade opportunities,  develop supply capacities for increased exports, 
and effectively integrating LDCs  into the global economy.  Financial assistance to these two 
programmes should therefore be increased.  Malawi  also welcomes bilateral technical assistance 
provided by its cooperating partners in the area of trade and poverty reduction. 
  However, it is the view of Malawi that Aid for Tr ade needs to be clearly defined, that is, it is 
our expectation that Aid for Trade should be add itional funding and not recycled funds and that it 
should have no strings or conditionalities attached.  This initiative should be used to further develop 
and strengthen trade-related infrastructure development. 
  Malawi wishes to applaud the European Union's recent announcement of the doubling of 
trade-related aid and the Japanese Governme nt's new pronouncement of a new US$10 billion  WT/MIN(05)/ST/147 
 Page 3 
 
 
 "Development Initiative" to assist developing co untries which would include a commitment to 
provide duty- and quota-free market access into Jap an of essentially all products originating from 
LDCs.  Malawi urges these two development partne rs to fully implement these commitments into 
actions.  
 While welcoming the G8 Gleneagles debt re lief initiative and the cancellation of debt for 
some LDC members, Malawi would like to be included  in the next round of multilateral debt relief.  
Fast tracking debt relief for Malawi as early as the next G8 summit will free up the encumbered resources of Malawi and other LDCs thereby help ing them to address the supply-side constraints 
which impede trade and social development. 
 
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