. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(05)/ST/27 
14 December 2005 
 (05-5955) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Sixth Session Hong Kong, 13 - 18 December 2005 Original:   English 
 
  
NEW ZEALAND 
 
Statement by the Honourable James Sutton
 
Minister for Trade Negotiations  
   Over these next few days, many of us will find ourselves in small rooms negotiating over the 
fine print. 
 
 Occasionally, we should pause and remind oursel ves of the much larger issues at stake. 
  For those of us who think it's our duty to try and make the world a better place, the WTO has a unique and vital role to play.  
 We have seen at times in our modern history the damage that can be done to the lives and 
welfare of our citizens if the global trade system breaks down.   Those events have a very human cost.  
 The WTO is much more than an organization.   It is a system of multilateral rules and 
commitments.  And what that system offers is pred ictability and a stable trading environment – for all 
members of the international community  – large or small, rich or poor. 
  This is a fragile but precious thing.  
 Its future depends on the commitment of all of us here.  We have a duty to do everything 
within our power to leave it better than we found it.   This system can only work if there is true consensus.  
 And we will not achieve that consensus unless everyone – the developed and the developing – 
plays an active part.  To get the benefits we must all put in the effort.   Which brings me to the question of development.  
 We need to remind ourselves that when we  launched the Doha Round as a 'development' 
round we were sincere about it.   It continues to worry me deeply that we face  difficulty in getting real ambition in the market 
access pillars of the negotiation.  Without real ambition, we cannot deliver a true development 
dividend. 
 
 Nowhere is this more apparent than in agriculture.  WT/MIN(05)/ST/27 
Page 2  
 
  Agricultural protection is the most harmful of  all trade protections when it comes to the 
world's poor – most of whom live in rural areas.  There is a moral imperative for the better off countries to show the way.   The Doha Round offers a real chance to stimulate economic growth and reduce global 
poverty. 
  Certainly, this process is not without its challenges.   Results involving policy changes at home leav e governments acutely exposed.  The decisions 
that we are asked to face up to here carry high risks. 
  In these circumstances the surp rise is that in successive rounds we have achieved so much. 
  That progress has a lot to do with the political courage and vision shown by key players at 
critical points of the negotiations. 
  To bring this Round to a successful conclu sion will require the same courage again. 
  I was there in Seattle in 1999 when the WTO appeared on the brink of collapse.  But we 
picked ourselves up, and launched the Doha Round two years later. 
 
 I was there in Cancún in 2003 when failure of  the Doha Round threatened.  But we pushed 
on, and produced the July Framework, a year later.   Here in Hong Kong, the deadline now looming is real.  The hopes of millions around the 
world rest on our shoulders. 
  If the sixty-year history of the GATT and WTO has taught us anything, it is that we must 
persevere.  We cannot afford to think of failure.  Th ere is simply too much at stake.  Hong Kong must 
deliver.  
__________