. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(05)/ST/124 
17 December 2005 
 (05-6136) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Sixth Session Hong Kong, 13 - 18 December 2005 Original:   English 
 
  
CAMBODIA 
 
Statement by HE Mr Cham Prasidh
 
Senior Minister and Minister of Commerce  
   On behalf of the Royal Government of Ca mbodia, I would like to thank the Hong Kong, 
China authorities for their warm hospitality and ex cellent arrangement for this 6th WTO Ministerial 
Conference.  As Hong Kong is going to become one of the key staging posts to the successful 
conclusion of the multilateral trad e negotiations under the Doha Deve lopment Agenda, I would like to 
commend the hard work so far done by all the dele gations here present, by our hosts, by the WTO 
Director-General and Secretariat.   I would like to wholeheartedly welcome two ne w Members to our family.  Saudi Arabia and 
Tonga.  I wish you well and hope you can contri bute to make this Organization a worthy one. 
  Ensuring that MC6 will not fail as MC5 in Canc ún will provide a strong and positive signal to 
the millions of people living in developing and underdeveloped countries that the world trading 
system is going to be beneficial to them too, and not only to the rich people in rich countries. 
 
 Last year, Cambodia – as one of the first two LDCs to join the WTO since this Organization's inception in 1995 – had decided to do so because of these very expectations.  After joining it, the 
expectations are not that clear.   As one of the 50 poorest nations of the wo rld, Cambodia continues to call on developed 
countries and on some important developing countries to  open ways for us to survive and prosper.  
The Livingstone Declaration adopted at the 4th LD C Ministerial Meeting in Zambia on 26 June 2005 
shall be a working document at all negotiating tables in this Conference.   Many pledges towards LDCs were made since Doha.  A few were so far materialized.  Will 
there be more here in Hong Kong? 
  I welcome the Membership's decision to amend the TRIPS Agreement to provide better access to affordable drugs.  This is one of the hot stones Cambodia has had to swallow during its 
WTO accession process.  I wish to also welcome the decision of the TRIPS Council to extend the 
transitional period under Article 66.1 of the TRIPS Agreement for LDCs until 1 July 2013. 
  Regarding the commitment of developed count ries to provide duty-free and quota-free access 
to all products from all LDCs, only a few have followed suit to the "Everything But Arms"  Initiative 
of the European Union:  Canada, Norway, Au stralia and New Zealand.  I welcome Japan's "New 
Development Initiative for Trade"  which provides duty-free and quota-free market access to 
essentially all products originating from  all LDCs.  This is one step in  the right direction.  It's not 
complete but it's relatively comprehensive in nature.  I strongly urge the United States of America to 
follow suit and fulfil her commitments under the DDA.  As the leader of the capitalist world, she is WT/MIN(05)/ST/124 
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 supposed to be the first to do so, and not the last  one.  I also urge well-established developing 
countries to provide similar treatment to LDCs.   Despite this special and differential treatment , I continue to urge developed countries to 
address the issues of supply capacity of LDCs a nd their ability to meet the many stringent SPS 
requirements and rules of origins of developed countries. 
  Any commitment on "Aid for Trade" shall be part and parcel of th e duty-free and quota-free 
market access for LDCs, and shall be done without any conditionality.  Open us the door to your 
room, not to your room's wall. 
 
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