. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(05)/ST/62 
15 December 2005 
 (05-6049) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Sixth Session Hong Kong, 13 - 18 December 2005 Original:   English 
 
  
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO 
 
Statement by the Honourable Kenneth Valley
 
Minister of Trade and Industry and Minister in the  
Ministry of Finance  
 
  On behalf of the Government and people of  the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago, I extend 
best wishes to the Government and people of Hong Kong and commend you on the hosting of the 
Sixth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO).  My delegation deeply appreciates your hospitality and the efficient l ogistical arrangements which you have provided. 
  As a small, vulnerable economy, Trinidad a nd Tobago remains committed to the multilateral 
negotiating process.  We believe enhanced market acce ss is critical to our developmental efforts.  It 
provides the market space as well as the demand-pu ll which allows us to achieve the requisite 
economies of scale.   However, while there is now general agre ement that the small size and inherent 
vulnerabilities of some developing countries must be taken into account in the negotiation process, 
progress has been slow.  Four years on since Doha, there has been little movement on the 
developmental issues which Ministers sought to place at  the heart of this Round of trade negotiations. 
  While we commend the decisions to exte nd until 2013 the deadline for least developed 
countries to comply with the provisions of the WTO Agreement on intellectual property rights and to amend the TRIPS Agreement to allo w developing countries more flex ibility in responding to public 
health crises, we view with regret and concern the lack of progress in other areas of the Doha Work 
Programme.   It is our hope that this Ministerial Meeting will approve paragraph 41 of the Draft Text which 
relates to the application of the concept of special  and differential treatment to the least developed 
countries. 
  Special and differential treatment is a core pr inciple of the Doha Development Agenda.  We 
are appreciative that the " one size fits all " application of rules is now seen as being inappropriate 
given the myriad of peculiarities that exist among Members.  We continue to recommend a continuum 
approach to the operationalization of Special and Differential Treatment (SDT), which takes into 
account differences in economic size;  levels of development;  production competencies and resource 
endowment.  We see the provision of SDT for LDCs as a useful yardstick for the application of this 
concept to developing countries and this Ministeria l Meeting must consider the need for a built-in 
schedule to address the requirements of other small, vulnerable countries.  We call on this Ministerial 
Meeting to outline a work programme to concretize a proposal for such developing countries by early 
2006. 
 WT/MIN(05)/ST/62 
Page 2  
 
  Enhanced market access in areas of interest  to developing countries, is another essential 
element of the DDA.  My delegation is hopeful th at this Conference will ensure progress in the 
traditionally difficult area of agriculture – both with  respect to market access and to the removal of 
subsidies that are trade distorting.  
 Capacity-building is also a central goal of the DDA.  It is vital to developing countries, and, 
in essence, is at the heart of the concept of speci al and differential treatment.  This concept must 
encompass technical, developmental and financial as sistance targeted towards redressing supply-side 
capacity constraints as well as providing adjustme nt support.  We appreciate the articulated 
commitment of Japan to allocate $10 billion over th e next three years for infrastructure development 
related to trade, production and distribution in de veloping countries.  We invite other developed 
countries to follow this initiative.   We recognize the inherent complexities in these trade negotiations.  It is important that we 
make strides forward on the development issues, in NAMA and agriculture.  The success of this 
Round will be judged by the extent to which the development issues permeate every aspect of the 
Agreements emanating therefrom.   A genuine commitment to the primacy of deve lopment will contribute to levelling the playing 
field, as it were, while redressing imbalances in the multilateral trading system, thereby allowing 
small, vulnerable economies the opportunity to share in  the benefits of trade liberalization.  In so 
doing, the convergence in income growth and development between de veloped and developing 
countries, on which the best argument in favour of free trade is based, may be finally realized. 
 
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