. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(09)/ST/23 
1 December 2009 
 (09-6092) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Seventh Session Geneva, 30 November - 2 December 2009 Original:   English 
 
  
CZECH REPUBLIC 
 
Statement by HE Mr Martin TLAPA
 
Deputy Minister of Industry and Trade   
   At the outset let me express our gratitude to the Swiss authorities for all the efforts enabling 
us to meet here in Geneva at the Seventh Ministerial Conference. 
 
 The Czech Republic strongly supports the topi cs and arguments that were raised by the 
European Commission yesterday.  We believe that, as of today with the Lisbon Treaty entering into force, the EU will become an even stro nger partner for Members of the WTO. 
  Let me allow in my contribution to touch upon the three topics. 
 
 Firstly, as mentioned by all EU member States and the EU Commission, we are ready to bring our contribution to achieve ambitious, balanced a nd comprehensive results of the DDA in upcoming 
months.  
 The importance of the DDA is not only for the benefits for global trade and the global 
economy, but also for the WTO as an institution.  Our ability to finish this Round is extremely valid 
for all future discussion about the perspectives of the WTO.   Secondly, it is now time to look around and try to learn from the economic crisis.  Maybe, we 
have to look and change our behaviour w ith respect to our future trade policies. 
 
 There are clear indications that many measures that were implemented in the past year in connection with the crisis, even if not pure trade policy measures, have had strong negative 
implications on trade and transactional costs of our businesses.  We still see a danger of crawling 
protectionism being aware of the fact that some ne gative effects of the crisis, especially growing rate 
of unemployment with all its negative social implications, are still a very topical threat. 
  Withdrawing all trade-distorting measures that  were already implemented, refraining from 
further protectionism, and concluding the DDA are only the first steps.  The trade policy and the 
multilateral trading system of the future should have  a long-term vision and become more transparent, 
more predictable and more efficient. 
  These are the clear messages our businesses are telling us!   In other words, we need to have the exit st rategy, how the trade policy, the trading system 
will look in the future.  The present turmoil has brought  an opportunity to improve international trade 
rules, to create new ones to make them fit for th e new times and for the new trade-related areas of 
global economy. WT/MIN(09)/ST/23 
Page 2  
 
   
 Thirdly, if our steps are chosen wisely, inte rnational trade will be back as a strong tool of 
recovery from the economic crisis.  For that we need  to look at all the multilateral trading system.  We 
need to have a clear relationship between bilate ral, regional, plurilate ral and multilateral trade 
negotiations and avoid the threat of  fragmentation of the world economy. 
 
 The WTO and its membership should also be a dvancing instruments to integrate developing 
countries to international trading system and enforce their interests and shared responsibility in further 
development and strengthening of the WTO.  
 The economic crisis represents a change to the international trading environment - from the 
point of view of both microeconomics and macr oeconomics.  Therefore, the international 
organizations, including the WTO, as representativ es of the global trading system, will need to 
undergo a change themselves, including the abilit y to act in the newly present global governance 
structures and keep the system of intern ational trade rules even more stronger. 
 
 All of the solutions we will be looking around must be searched with view of consumers, 
entrepreneurs, and all other stake holders of the global prosperity. 
  If we will have enough courage and leadership, I think there is a good potential, to come out 
from current difficulties stronger, more flexible and more ready for action. 
 
 Discussions, coordination and cooperation on an international level, not only when finding 
solutions to the crisis, but also wh en finding the future of global trade, must be in the centre of our 
debate.  
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