. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(09)/ST/56 
1 December 2009 
 (09-6123) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Seventh Session Geneva, 30 November - 2 December 2009 Original:   English 
 
  
KUWAIT 
 
Statement by HE Ahmad Al-Haroun
 
Minister of Commerce and Industry  
   Though this is the first time I address this C onference as Minister of Commerce and Industry 
of the State of Kuwait, my previous duty as Direct or of Kuwait's Chamber of Commerce and Industry, 
brought me closer to the WTO, its conferences and its concerns since inception. 
  In Kuwait, the Government and the private sector have been working in full harmony to ensure respect of obligations imposed by the WTO Membership.   The few minutes allocated to this address and to other statements, require me to be brief. 
 
 I would like to present some issues that we, in  Kuwait, consider as of special importance at 
this time.   First, from a geo-economic standpoint, the State of Kuwait is a bustling harbour situated in a 
strategic location.  Therefore, the Kuwaiti societ y and its State were founded on the basis of free 
trade, as ties between free trade and Kuwait are very close and extremely important.   In addition to that, the distinguished demo cracy of the State of Kuwait was based on the 
adherence to freedom in all its economic and polit ical dimensions.  As a result, the Kuwaiti trade 
system became very open to international trade. 
 
 Second, Kuwait is fully cooperating with the WTO in its pursuit to liberalize its trade in services.  Furthermore, it is currently consider ing the introduction of reforms to its existing 
commercial and economic legislations to ensu re compatibility with the WTO requirements. 
 
 In this context, I am pleased to inform you that the "Kuwait National Committee", in charge 
of following up the implementation of the WTO Agreements, has recently formed a high-level 
technical team to examine all aspects of these reforms.   Third, I believe that Kuwait needs technical a ssistance from the WTO in order to improve its 
capacity to meet its obligations towards its Member ship in the Organization.  We hope to have the 
opportunity at a later stage to examine possible solutions to this matter.   Fourth, we are still feeling the consequences of  the Global Financial Crisis.  I would like it 
noted that Kuwait has taken precautionary measures, in line with international guidelines and at the 
early stages of this crisis, to deal with its repercussion on the banking sector through the facilitation of 
access to liquidity in the banking systems as of October 2008. 
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   Furthermore, a number of measures were taken in the framework of promoting trust in the 
banking sector.   On the world level, we hear echo of calls for protectionism while we stand witness to an increasingly diminishing role of the private sector. 
 
 I would like to stress here that the State of  Kuwait definitely does not concur with these 
remarks.  Moreover, it calls on the WTO to play an active role to impede these protectionist tendencies and to defend the princi ples upon which it was established. 
 
 This can only be achieved by enforcement of the law in the world trading system and by 
responding to urgent needs and to the fair requests of developing nations.
 
 
 Finally, I would like to reiterate Kuwait's support to the introduction of the Arabic Language 
as an official language of the WTO.  It is clear that the presence of the Arabic language in the WTO 
would remove serious obstacles imposed on trade by the lack of translated documents and absence of 
interpretation during meetings and conferences.   Thank you for giving me this  opportunity to address you, and please accept my wishes for the 
success of this Conference.  
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