WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
WT/MIN(11)/ST/81/Rev.1 
17 December 2011 
 (11-6860) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Eighth Session Geneva, 15 - 17 December 2011 Original:   English 
 
 
MALAWI 
 
Statement by the Hon. John Bande 
Minister of Industry and Trade 
 
Revision 
  On the onset allow me to extend my sincer e gratitude to the Government and people of 
Switzerland for the warm hospitality extended to me and my delegation since our  arrival in Geneva.  
Let me also express our gratitude to the WTO Secret ariat for facilitating our participation in the MC8 
and, more importantly, for the candid manner in which the Director General and his staff have 
organised this Ministerial Conference.    In 2001, the whole WTO membership met in Doha, Qatar and agreed on the development 
agenda which was acceptable to all of us.  Th e Doha round generated high hopes of sustainable 
economic growth and prosperity among millions of the people, more specifically the poor.  These 
hopes should not fade away.  This is why our mandate  has, was and still is to address the development 
deficit we inherited from the Uruguay Round.   We are gathered here today to review how th e WTO has performed in delivering its promises 
as agreed in 2009 as well as have an insight into ho w we must proceed with these negotiations that 
have been bogged down on several occasi ons due to non-agreement in some areas. 
  Malawi is pleased and very eager to provide  some guidance on the way forward because we 
view these negotiations as being of particular importa nce to our country and most of all the maximum 
benefits that will be derive d from concluding this Round. 
 
 My observation is that if we leave the negotiations the way they are at the moment, our ambitions will fail.  The final outcome, therefore, will not lead to the establishment of a fair and pro-development rules based multilateral trading system which is expected to enhance the trade potential 
of least developed countries like Malawi and also  create appropriate policy space for our continued 
development.  
  Having gone through the Secretariat's latest re port circulated in preparation for this august 
meeting, it is axiomatic the negotiations are still at an impasse.  This is a sad development because the 
increase in the number of unresolved or un-concluded issues brings a lot of unanswered questions as 
to how and when we should expect this round to deliver for the poor.  Malawi like other LDCs will 
not give up until the round achieves its intended purpo se.  And this can only be achieved if all of us 
have commitment to have the round achieve its in tended purpose as agreed in the last Ministerial 
Conference.   Despite all the efforts, the LDCs' share of e xports in international trade continues to hover 
around 1% over the years.  However, we all rec ognize that, in order to create meaningful and 
ambitious market access opportunities on a lasting basi s, there is no alternative to delivering on the WT/MIN(11)/ST/81/Rev.1 
Page 2  
 
  Doha commitments for LDCs in the framework of th e multilateral trading system.  Malawi therefore, 
calls on the need for an early harvest  on issues of interest to LDCs in the DDA.  These issues include 
trade facilitation, special and differential treatme nt, export competition in agriculture, cotton among 
others.  My delegation is hopeful that MC8 will be another opportunity to deliver on these pressing 
issues. 
 
 Agriculture remains central to the round in de termining its developmen t dimension. Malawi 
supports the concerns and proposals of the LDC count ries in calling for a reaffirmation of the mandate 
given in the General Council Decision of 1
st August 2004, and confirmed by the Hong Kong 
Ministerial Declaration of December 2005, to address cotton ambitiously, expeditiously and 
specifically, in relation to all trade distorting policies affecting the sector in all three pillars of market 
access, domestic support and export competition.  
 
 Malawi acknowledges that a number of deve loped country members have offered almost 
100% duty free and quota free market access to LDCs and continue to remain engaged in efforts to 
provide further meaningfully enhanced market access  to LDCs.  We are, therefore, calling on an early 
harvest of LDC issues including the implementati on of commitments undertaken to grant duty-free 
and quota free market access, simplify and make transparent preferential rules of origin.   Let it also be known in this august house that Malawi's utilization of these market access opportunities is currently low due to supply-side capacity problems .  Ironically too, some of the 
products such as tobacco, rice and sugar, that Ma lawi has the capacity to produce, developed 
countries have restricted these products under quotas.  In some instances they have not included the 
products on which duty-free and quota free market access is granted. The quotas being implemented have had limitations on my country's utilization of its productive capacity.  I, therefore, call on all 
developed country members to extend the duty-free quota-free market access to all products that are 
of economic importance to Malawi  and other LDCs with the over arching goal of developing our 
export trade and integration into the global economy. In addition, our products also face substantial 
trade barriers in these markets such  as restrictive standards which are difficult to be met at national 
level due to our lack of human capacity, testing f acilities as well as proper infrastructure.  There is 
therefore need for the provision of preferential market access arrangement to be complemented with reliable technical and financial assistance to enab le LDCs build capacity to utilize these opportunities. 
 
 Let me also at this juncture commend our s outh south cooperating partners for fulfilling the 
Hong-Kong Ministerial mandate in  providing duty and quota free market access to most of the 
products originating from LDCs. Some of our expo rt products have performed quite well in these 
markets.  My humble request is to encourage these partners to continue opening up their markets for 
the benefit of our people.  Our trade with China for example has grown substantially and recently we 
have seen an estimated increase of exports that have grown by 200%.   Malawi also recognizes the critical role the out comes of the negotiations on non-agriculture 
market access could bring to some of our ec onomies.  Malawi, therefore, proposes that the 
negotiations on NAMA must not lead to de-industri alization of our already fragile economies.  
Lasting solutions must be sought to deal with the erosion of trade preferences which is bound to affect 
most LDCs, including Malawi.  In view of this, th ere should be enhanced Aid-for-Trade to address the 
underlying challenges faced by beneficiary coun tries affected by preference erosion.  
  There is a growing recognition that a healthy Se rvices sector is critical to the development of 
our fragile economies.  Many of us are, therefore,  in the process of strengthening our regulatory and 
institutional preparedness in light of our evolving interest in this sector.  We therefore, strongly 
support the view that any outcome of the DDA se rvices negotiations should take into account the 
efforts already made and the autonomous liberaliza tion by LDCs with due account to their level of 
development and human, institutional regulatory capac ities.  In this regard, we call upon the MC8 to  WT/MIN(11)/ST/81/Rev.1 
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adopt the draft text for a Services Waiver decision on " Preferential Treatment to Services and 
Service Suppliers of Least Developed Countries" .  
In addition, LDCs lack the necessary institutional capacity to negotiate and develop proper schedules 
of specific commitments hence the provision of technical  assistance to build local capacity in this area 
would be relevant.  
 
 Given our geographical challenge as a landlocke d country, Malawi has a vital stake in the 
negotiations on Trade Facilitation. We, therefor e, take cognizant of the good progress in the 
negotiations. However, we are mindful of the ma ndate which explicitly links the undertaking of 
commitments to the provision of technical assistan ce and capacity building. We therefore call on our 
developed country partners to guara ntee that our requests for technical and financial assistance will be 
entertained.   Malawi calls for commitment from developed countries to provide targeted and effective 
needs based technical assistance and capacity building aimed at assisting in building LDCs' 
institutional framework and domes tic regulation capacity, including facilitating the establishment of 
technical standards and participation of  LDCs in the relevant organizations. 
  Malawi like many LDCs continues to face serious economic, financial and administrative 
constraints in her efforts to bring the countries domestic legal system into conformity with the 
provisions of the TRIPS Agreement.  Malawi, however , is disappointed that since the exercise calling 
upon LDCs to prepare needs assess ment in the TRIPS area, only a few LDCs have submitted their 
needs requirements and that no single assistance has so far been forthcoming to those countries that 
had already submitted their needs requirements. I would like to emphasise that our development 
partners need to expeditiously consider our needs and support us  with the necessary technical and 
financial assistance without any preconditions attach ed. Malawi further supports the need for an 
extension of the transition period under Article  66.1 to give more room to LDCs to fulfil 
implementation obligations under this agreement.   I cannot leave this podium without expressing gr atitude to our cooperating partners for the 
financial and technical assistance being provided to my government in the form of training and capacity building programmes in the area of trade negotiations and others.  The provision of 
programmes such as the Enhanced Integrated Framewor k (EIF) which is expected to assist in dealing 
with soft supply side constraints which Malawi  and other LDCs face cannot be overemphasized.  
  These programmes complement government efforts in achieving our vision of becoming a net exporter and at this critical moment when Mala wi continues to face macroeconomic challenges 
including lack of foreign exchange, energy and high  costs of transports which have further made our 
export products uncompetitive at international level,  the role of the Brettonwood institutions and the 
WTO is sought.  The provision of trade finance to deal with the above constraints should be encouraged.   The WTO's continued work with other agencies to develop options to manage the volatility of 
food and agriculture products at the request of the G20 should also be commended. 
  In conclusion, I wish to reiterate my gove rnment's commitment to the multilateral trading 
system and urge all the key players in the DDA to  look beyond their narrow interests and consider the 
impact the collapse of the negotiations would have  on LDCs and Small and Vulnerable Economies.  
 
 My proposal is that lets us advance negotia tions in the areas where progress can be achieved. 
Where substantial differences remain, work should c ontinue on the basis of the progress achieved to 
date and that since this is a development age nda, development should be at the centre of any 
outcomes. 
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