WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(05)/ST/22 
14 December 2005 
 (05-5956) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Sixth Session 
Hong Kong, 13 - 18 December 2005 Original:   French 
 
 
 
MAURITANIA 
 
Statement by HE Mr Ba Abderrahmane  
Minister of Commerce, Handicrafts and Tourism  
 
 
 Allow me first of all to convey to you my congratulations on your election as Chair of this 
session and to express our sincere thanks to the Hong Kong, China authorities for the warm welcome 
and generous hospitality which they have extended to us.  
 We also wish to thank HE Mrs Amina Mohamed,  the Chair of the General Council, Mr Pascal 
Lamy, the WTO Director-General, and all members of the Secretariat for their endeavours to ensure a 
successful outcome to this Conference. 
  I should also like to congratulate our brother country, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and welcome it to the WTO.  The accession of such a ma jor country certainly strengthens the multilateral 
trading system and brings greater universality to our organization. 
 
 This, the sixth Ministerial Conference, marks a decisive stage in the round of multilateral 
trade negotiations launched in Doha in 2001. 
 
 I also wish to take this opportunity to reaf firm the importance that Mauritania, as a least 
developed country (LDC), attaches to this event, given the very special emphasis which it quite rightly places on development. 
  Such a view recognizes that the majority of  WTO Members are developing countries and that 
the onus is on our Organization to place their needs an d interests at the heart of our collective efforts. 
 
 This commitment, which is in conformity w ith the Marrakesh Agreements, meets both an 
economic necessity and an ethical requirement. 
 
 We live in a world driven by deep ine qualities and the greatest  challenge facing the 
international community nowadays is to take the necessary corrective action. 
 
 This requires all nations to join forces a nd to call upon all the means made available by 
globalization.  
 International trade is undoubtedly an effective tool for alleviating poverty, promoting 
economic and social development and thus for building a better world. 
 
 Developing countries do not yet, however, bene fit in an equitable manner from the increased 
opportunities and welfare gains generate d by the multilateral trading system. 
 WT/MIN(05)/ST/22 
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  The credibility of the system as a whole is par ticularly marred by the special vulnerability of 
LDCs and their ever-decreasing share of world trade. 
 
 The Doha Agenda was therefore designed to address these disparities and imbalances and to 
make trade work for development. 
 
 However, the deadlines have not been respec ted and the stated level of ambition for this 
Conference falls short of the expectations raised by the Agenda. 
 
 We nevertheless hope that this is merely a form of tactical withdrawal and that the goals set in 
Doha will be achieved within a reasonable period of time.  
 In this context, we welcome last week's  amendment to the Agreement on Trade-Related 
Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights and hope  to see it accompanied by concrete measures 
enabling LDCs to fully benefit therefrom.  
  We can but hope that a major step forward such  as this marks a turning-point in the current 
round of trade negotiations and will therefore give impetus to our common endeavours to establish an 
open, equitable, rule-based, predictable and no n-discriminatory multilateral trading system.  
 
 No-one has more interest than the LDCs  in the establishment of such a system. 
  Every passing day brings with it high costs fo r such countries and sees the gulf separating 
them from the rest of the international community widen yet further. 
 
 The constraints faced by these countries requi re coherent and comprehensive measures, in 
line with the common commitments undertaken in Brussels in 2001. 
 
 The importance of trade-related capacity-build ing through adequate and predictable assistance 
also needs to be stressed. 
 
 A special mechanism has been established to  this end;  the Integrated Framework for 
Trade-Related Technical Assistance and the Joint Integrated Technical Assistance Programme 
(JITAP) also benefit certain African LDCs. 
 
 Enhancing the efficiency of these mechanisms and increasing the resources allocated to them will  further contribute to the harmonious integration of such countries into the global economy. 
 
 The specificity and individual nature of the structural constraints facing least developed 
countries should, however, never be lost from sight. 
 
 This Conference must send a clear message to the world, a message which lives up to the 
expectations and aspirations of as many people as possible. 
 
We are all well aware of the as ymmetries and imbalances which characterize the Uruguay Round 
Agreements and of the non-operational nature of the special and differential treatment provisions. 
 
 We have undertaken to take full account of the development dimension in each of the negotiating areas and to place the needs and interest s of developing countries at the heart of the 
Doha Agenda. 
 
 We must redouble our efforts and address these issues frankly, whilst taking due account of 
the stage of development of every single Member and of the need to grant the least fortunate Members 
sufficient policy space to prepare their development strategies.  WT/MIN(05)/ST/22 
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 The Doha Declaration is a collective commitment.  We have an obligation to keep the 
promises set out therein and thus to help all nati ons and all peoples to reap the benefits of the 
prosperity afforded by the multilateral trading system.  
 
 It is up to us, here and now, to provide the necessary impetus to ensure that this Round 
produces, by 2006 at the very latest, fair and ba lanced results which improve development prospects 
and facilitate the achievement of th e Millennium Development Goals. 
 
 We owe this to both our own generation and gene rations to come.  The credibility and future 
of the WTO hinge, to a large extent, on the achievement of these goals.  
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