. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
WT/MIN(11)/ST/126 
17 December 2011  
 
(11-6877) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Eighth Session Geneva, 15 - 17 December 2011 Original:   English 
 
  
FIJI 
 
Statement by Mr. Nidhendra Singh 
Counsellor, Fiji Embassy to the EU, Brussels 
 
 
I am making this statement on behalf of the F ijian Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, 
Anti-Corruption, Public Enterprises, Communications , Civil Aviation, Tourism, Industry and Trade, 
Mr Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum, who could not be present here today.   
 
Let me at the outset join members in welcoming the accession of Vanuatu, Samoa, the 
Russian Federation and Montenegro to the WTO.  This marks a significant development and clearly 
demonstrates expanding developing  country integration into the multilateral trading system.   
 
Turning to the key issues relevant to this Minist erial Meeting, Fiji shares the many constraints 
of being an isolated, small and highly vulnerab le economy.  Our economy has also suffered from the 
current global economic and financial crisis.  The Fijian Government nonetheless is committed to 
ensuring the growth and development of the nation.  We are currently in the process of implementing 
our Strategic Plan as agreed under the Roadmap for Democracy and Sustainable Socio Economic 
Development.  One of the pillars of the Roadmap is  for Fiji to integrate successfully into the global 
trading system.   
Fiji fully recognizes the importance of the rules based Multilateral Trading System in 
delivering a fair, equitable and credible trading enviro nment.  This in turn will deliver results required 
for enhancing economic growth, employmen t and overall development for Fiji.  
 
We are also concerned that after 10 years of tireless efforts, the Doha Development Agenda 
(DDA) is at an impasse.  However, we strongly belie ve that there is still hope to conclude a successful 
Doha Round that has development at its core, as was envisaged by the Ministers in 2001.  The DDA 
needs to first and foremost address issues that can translate into results for developing countries and 
SVEs.  This will ultimately determine the success of these rounds.  Over the past few months WTO 
members have been submitting proposals with a vi ew to reaching a consensus. Some of these 
proposals are before of the member ship for a decision today. We acknowledge the efforts and would 
urge members that these initiatives should not in any way undermin e the essential principle of the 
"single undertaking".  This is also crucial to the success of the DDA and must be upheld at all cost, 
even when some members may be thinking of ex ploring new and "outside the box" approaches. 
 
The fundamental principles of all-inclusiven ess, transparency, most favored nation and 
consensus based rules should remain at the heart of  the negotiations.  In light of this, we urge 
developed countries to refrain from imposing proposal s which may have been discussed in other foras 
and may be disadvantageous to a small, vulnerabl e, economy like Fiji.  Some of these proposals may 
be burdensome and reduce policy space with c onsequent adverse effects on development. WT/MIN(11)/ST/126 
Page 2  
 
  We strongly reiterate the need to build on ex isting cooperation with all members towards the 
successful conclusion of the DDA negotiations.  In this regard, we would like to see the following 
issues to be considered in ensuring a credible Doha:  
1) the operationalization of CTD Monitoring Mechanism agreement; 
2) the agreement on outstanding special a nd differential treatment proposals and 
implementation; 
3) LDC priorities, including full implementation of Annex F of the Hong Kong Declaration, 
SVE issues, the Special Safeguard Mechanis m (SSM), special provisions in favour of 
developing countries, in particular the least  developed and SVEs in Agriculture, NAMA 
(including ACP proposals on NTBs), Services, fisheries subsidies; 
4) the ACP proposal on trade remedies facility in rules; 
5) operationalizing the ACP proposal on a Trade Facilitation implementation register; 
6) the TRIPS implementation;  and   
7) the Small Economies Work Programme. 
 
In addition, Aid for Trade holds significant importan ce to Fiji.  In this regard we are grateful 
to our development partners for their continued support to the WTO Global Trust Fund in ensuring 
the delivery of technical and capacity building programs.   
Finally, we call upon the WTO membership to show the necessary political will and 
flexibility to conclude the Doha Development Rounds.   We have over the past ten years come a long 
way and this should not go unrecognized. 
 
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