WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  RESTRICTED 
WT/MIN(11)/SR/1 
20 April 2012 
 (12-2099) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Eighth Session Geneva, 15 - 17 December 2011  
 
  
SUMMARY RECORD OF THE FIRST MEETING 
 
Held at the Geneva International Confer ence Centre (CICG), Geneva, Switzerland 
on Thursday, 15 December, at 3 p.m. 
 
 Chairperson:  His Excellency Olusegun Olutoyin Aganga (Nigeria) 
  
A.  O
PENING SESSION ........................................................................................................................ 1  
B.  PLENARY SESSION  ....................................................................................................................... 1  
1.  Adoption of the Agenda ........................................................................................................ .... 2 
2.  Statement on the Organization of Work ................................................................................. 2  
3.  Overview of Activities of th e WTO (Agenda Item 1) ............................................................. 3  
 
 
A. OPENING SESSION  
1. The Chairman called the meeting to order, and declared the Eighth Session of the Ministerial 
Conference open.  He said that eighteen years before, on 15 December 1993, the Uruguay Round had 
been concluded in the same room.  He congratulat ed the WTO for this milestone and the Delegates 
who were present in 1993 and had worked hard to  conclude that Round.  As Chairman of the 
Conference, he then delivered an address (WT/MIN(11)/14). 
2. The Director-General of WTO, Mr Pascal Lamy, then delivered an address 
(WT/MIN(11)/15). 
3. The Chairman of the General Council and Perman ent Representative of Nigeria to the WTO, 
H.E. Mr Yonov Frederick Agah, then delivered an address (WT/MIN(11)/16). 
4. The Executive Director of the ITC, Ms Patr icia Francis, then delivered an address 
(WT/MIN(11)/31), which concluded the Opening Session. 
B. PLENARY SESSION  
5. The Chairman thanked the three Vice-Chairs of the Ministerial Conference who would assist 
him for the following few days:  His Excellenc y Federal Councillor Mr Johann Schneider-Ammann, 
Minister of Economic Affairs of Switzerland;  Hi s Excellency Mr Mustapa Mohamed, Minister for 
International Trade and Industry of  Malaysia; and His Excellency Mr Stephen Cadiz, Minister of 
Trade and Industry of Trinidad and Tobago. WT/MIN(11)/SR/1 
Page 2  
 
  1. Adoption of the Agenda 
6. The Chairman drew attention to the provisiona l Agenda for the Ministerial Conference in 
document WT/MIN(11)/W/1 and propo sed that the agenda be adopted. 
7. The Ministerial Conference adopted the following agenda as proposed in WT/MIN(11)/W/1: 
 "1. Overview of Activities of the WTO  
  2. Action by Ministers  
  3. Date and Venue of the Ninth Session    4. Election of Officers."  
2. Statement on the Organization of Work 
8. The Chairman informed the Conference on the organization of work for the following three 
days.  He recalled that, similar to the Ministeria l Conference in 2009, the meeting was designed to be 
a regular Ministerial Conference, i.e. one not structured around negotiating processes, but rather 
aimed at providing an opportunity for discussion a nd direction at Minister ial level across all the 
WTO's activities.  Also, as in 2009, it had been ag reed that full participation, transparency and 
inclusiveness would apply to both the preparations for and the conduct of the Ministerial Conference 
itself.  He noted that as part of the preparations  for the Ministerial Conference, an exhaustive process 
of consultations with all Members had been c onducted by the Director-General and the General 
Council Chairman, beginning in May and concludi ng with the November meeting of the General 
Council. 
9. He informed the Conference that the Plenary Session would continue on 16 and 17 December.  
As in the past, the Plenary Session would provide an opportunity for Ministers to deliver prepared 
statements.  In parallel to the Plenary Sessi on, there would be Working Sessions on 16 and 
17 December, whose aim was to provide an interact ive forum for Ministers to engage in a discussion 
under the three general themes already identified:   "The Importance of the Multilateral Trading 
System and the WTO", "Trade and Development" a nd "The DDA".  As announced in the Information 
Note in document WT/MIN(11)/INF/11, each theme would be taken up during approximately two and 
a half  hours, in order to allow equitable treatment of each one of them.  Of course, Ministers would 
be free to raise any issue of importance to them, whether or not they fell under these basic themes.   
10. Item 1 of the Agenda, "Overview of Activities of the WTO", would be taken up in the Plenary 
Session at the present meeting and would continue on 16 and 17 December.  Under Item 2 of the 
Agenda, "Action by Ministers", Ministers would cons ider several items that had been forwarded to 
them by the General Council:  the accessions of th e Russian Federation, Samoa and Montenegro, 
which would take place on 16 and 17 December, a nd draft texts for decision on seven matters.  
Item 3, "Date and Venue of the Ninth Session", an d Item 4 of the Agenda, "Election of Officers", 
would be taken up at the Closing Session on 17 December.  He noted that interventions in both the Plenary Session and the Working Sessions should be limited to three minutes per speaker. 
11. The Ministerial Conference took note of the statement.  WT/MIN(11)/SR/1 
 Page 3 
 
 
  3. Overview of Activities of the WTO (Agenda Item 1) 
12. The following statements were made: 
Singapore H.E. Mr Hng Kiang Lim 
Minister for Trade and Industry  WT/MIN(11)/ST/3 
Switzerland H.E. Mr Johann Schneider-Ammann 
Federal Councillor, Head of the Federal Department of Economic Affairs WT/MIN(11)/ST/17 
United States H.E. Mr Ronald Kirk 
United States Trade Representative WT/MIN(11)/ST/53 
Qatar H.E. Mr Sultan Al-Khater 
Undersecretary of Ministry of Business and Trade WT/MIN(11)/ST/1 
Mexico H.E. Mr Bruno Ferrari García de Alba 
Minister of the Economy WT/MIN(11)/ST/2 
Hong Kong, China Mr Gregory SO Kam-leung 
Secretary for Commerce and Economic 
Development WT/MIN(11)/ST/4 
Chile H.E. Mr Jorge Bunster 
Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade WT/MIN(11)/ST/5 
European Union Mr Karel De Gucht 
European Commissioner for Trade WT/MIN(11)/ST/6 
China Mr Deming Chen 
Minister of Commerce WT/MIN(11)/ST/106 
Bangladesh (on behalf of the 
LDC Group) Hon. Muhammad Faruk Khan 
Minister of Commerce WT/MIN(11)/ST/7 
India H.E. Mr Anand Sharma 
Minister of Commerce, Industry and Textiles WT/MIN(11)/ST/8 
Kenya (on behalf of the 
African Group)
1 Hon. Amos Kimunya 
Minister of Transport WT/MIN(11)/ST/29 
Japan Mr Yukio Edano 
Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry WT/MIN(11)/ST/9 
Brazil Mr Antonio Patriota 
Minister of External Relations WT/MIN(11)/ST/115 
Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of  Dr Mohammed Alkathiri 
Deputy Minister for Technical Affairs, Ministry of Commerce and Industry WT/MIN(11)/ST/10 
Malaysia Hon. Mustapa Mohamed 
Minister of International Trade and Industry WT/MIN(11)/ST/11 
Australia Hon. Craig Emerson 
Minister for Trade WT/MIN(11)/ST/15 
                                                      
1 The Declarations referred to in the Minister's st atement were circulated in documents WT/MIN(11)/9 
and WT/MIN(11)/17. WT/MIN(11)/SR/1 
Page 4  
 
  Indonesia H.E. Mr Gita Wirjawan 
Minister for Trade WT/MIN(11)/ST/63 
Trinidad and Tobago (on 
behalf of the States of the 
Caribbean Community (CARICOM)) H.E. Mr Stephen Cadiz 
Minister of Trade and Industry WT/MIN(11)/ST/12 
Canada Mr Edward Fast 
Minister of International Trade WT/MIN(11)/ST/13 
Norway H.E. Mr Jonas Støre 
Minister of Foreign Affairs WT/MIN(11)/ST/125 
Mauritius (on behalf of the 
ACP) H.E. Mr Shree Servansing 
Ambassador and Permanent Representative WT/MIN(11)/ST/14 
Benin (on behalf of Burkina 
Faso, as coordinator of the Cotton-4) H.E. Mrs Madina Sephou 
Minister of Industry, Trade, and Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises WT/MIN(11)/ST/127 
Dominican Republic (on 
behalf of the Informal Group of Developing Countries) H.E. Mr César Dargam Espaillat 
Vice-Minister of Foreign Relations for Economic Affairs and Trade Negotiations WT/MIN(11)/ST/16 
Turkey H.E. Mr Zafer Caglayan 
Minister of Economy WT/MIN(11)/ST/86 
 
13. The meeting adjourned at 6.50 p.m. 
__________