WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(09)/ST/4 
2 December 2009 
 (09-6307) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Seventh Session Geneva, 30 November - 2 December 2009 Original:   English 
 
  
QATAR 
 
Statement by H.E. Dr. Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah
 
Minister of Business and Trade  
   I wish to extend sincere regards to all friends  and colleagues gathered here in Geneva on the 
occasion of the Seventh WTO Ministerial Conference.  I would also like to express gratitude to the 
Government of the Swiss Confederation and to the Republic and Canton of Geneva for hosting our 
Conference, and for supporting the needs of the WT O as it grows and contributes to local society. 
  I am personally pleased to join you all at this important meeting, and look forward to 
advancing our common goal of developing the full pote ntial of the WTO.  As we pursue this goal, we 
must ensure that our general path forward follo ws the “FIT” approach out lined by the Director 
General for this Ministerial Conference: namely, Full  participation, Inclusiveness, and Transparency.   
  Concerning the Full participation and Inclusiven ess principles, the State of Qatar recalls that 
certain outstanding issues limit the implementation of these aspirations in general WTO activities.  
First of all, the WTO must strive for Full participation of all countries, meaning that the 
Organization’s doors must remain open for all countries to join on reasonable and transparent terms.  
Many countries remain mired in complex accession negotiations, and seven Arab countries figure on 
this list: Algeria, Comoros, Iraq, the Lebanese Repub lic, Libya, Sudan, and Yemen.  Working Parties 
have not even been established to consid er the accessions of Syria and Palestine. 
  A second issue relates to the status of Arabic as  a working language of the WTO.  In order to 
implement the Full participation and Inclusiveness pr inciples, the WTO must “speak the language” of 
its Members.  As Arab governments seek to engage their populations in support of the trading system, 
and to ensure that the system’s benefits are enjoyed by their societies, the language handicap 
necessarily restricts Members’ abilit y to communicate the benefits and challenges of the WTO to their 
people. 
 
 The State of Qatar considers that these issues must be addressed in order to live up to the FIT 
principles.  Unless we take steps that are clearly and urgently necessary to include all countries in the 
WTO, credibility cannot be maintained.  We cannot  claim to operate under FIT standards while we 
exclude countries by opaque procedures, techni calities or demands beyond general WTO rules. 
 
 As we review the WTO’s recent activities, including the Doha Work Program, and as we 
consider the WTO’s contribution to recovery, growth  and development, we must constantly bear in 
mind and consistently apply the FIT principles. These principles must continue to guide our trading 
system because the WTO derives its great credibil ity from the collective will of its Members as 
expressed through consensus-based decision making.  In  order to maintain and fortify the credibility 
of the system that is essential for the WTO to succ eed in its mission, Members must seek ways to WT/MIN(09)/ST/4 
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  operationalize the FIT principles in negotiations, in  the general functioning of the WTO, and in 
monitoring implementation of the rules.   With respect to recent WTO activities, we woul d like to applaud first of all the daily work 
conducted at the WTO, both with the engagement of  the Membership and with the support of the 
Secretariat – work that might at times go unnoticed by  the public, but only because it is done so well.  
This work includes both administrative tasks and substantive work that keeps the WTO system 
running.  The Trade Policy Review mechanism is an  excellent example of such work, the importance 
of which cannot be overstated as it rein forces the Transparency principle.  
 
 Regarding the Doha Work Programme – the St ate of Qatar reiterates its strong support for 
concluding the negotiations that carry the name of our  capital city.  We believe that the results of the 
Doha Development Agenda must produce systemic  benefits, as well as trade and development 
deliverables, particularly in the area of Environmen tal Goods and Services.  I would like to recall that 
His Highness The Emir Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalif a Al Thani has called on the international 
community to recognize natural gas and related clean technologies and products as Environmental 
Goods and to promote the benefits  of such goods for economic and social development and for the 
advancement of global environmental goals.  By  reaching an early decision on Environmental Goods, 
WTO Members can send a strong signal to the world that countries can come together, that we are 
able to reach consensus as required to address the environmental issues of our time that can only be 
resolved through decisive collective action. 
 
 Trade Facilitation is another important area of the Doha Work Program that we continue to 
support, and for which an early conclusion should be  reached.  While the topic of Trade Facilitation 
clearly benefits all WTO Members, some Members, particularly least developed countries, are unable 
to finance the infrastructure and human resource investments necessary to implement and take 
advantage of these disciplines.  Therefore, we must redouble our efforts to identify sources of 
financial and technical support to ensure that th e needy among our Membership derive the benefit 
they deserve and have come to expect from the D oha Development Agenda.  Here again, collective 
action is required in order to advance an ag enda that promotes the collective interest. 
  Finally, we welcome the recent WTO collabora tion with the U.N. Environment Program to 
develop background information on th e relationship between trade and climate change.  Much of the 
work carried out under this collaboration will be usef ul in determining the future relationship between 
trade and the environment and in establishing the optimal governance principles and structures of a new form of international consensus building and governance.    
 This nexus between trade and environmental i ssues, and climate change in particular, will 
remain with us, and the WTO Membership cannot deny  the seriousness of this matter.  At the same 
time, we should pretend that the WTO holds the solution to all of our problems.  Therefore, we strongly support the suggestion that solutions to the problems in this area should be developed 
through a consensual international acco rd outside of the WTO context.   
 
 Of course, the tone should be set to some extent during the meeting in Copenhagen this 
December, so the State of Qatar will be supporting a successful and fair conclusion to that meeting.  
We are particularly mindful of the need to transfer environmental technologies on a fair and meaningful basis to developing countries and partic ularly to least developed countries in order to 
stimulate their use of such technologies in an economically viable manner.  Once again, such 
solutions must be initiated outside the WTO, but at th e same time we must ensu re that the results of 
this work are consistent with WTO rules.   As concerns the WTO’s contribution to rec overy, growth and development, I can confirm 
that, consistent with our long history of free trade,  the State of Qatar has not implemented any trade  WT/MIN(09)/ST/4 
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  restrictions, and continues to serve as an engine of gr owth in the region.  We applaud the efforts of the 
WTO to catalogue and publish trade restrictions of  Members, particularly since the Transparency 
principle will lose ground without such reporting pr actices.  The State of Qatar considers that the 
WTO has proven itself to be an effective guardian of  the Transparency principle and should continue 
to take such initiatives consis tent with its mandate.   
 
 I note in particular that in order for the wo rld trading system to function as intended, all 
Members must remain committed to open trade.  If  some countries introduce protectionist measures, 
this creates pressure in other Member countries to react in a similar way.  We all must oppose protectionist tendencies because this will inevitably lead to economic ineffici ency and contraction, 
which in the end will damage all of our economies. 
  The transparency principle is especially impor tant during a time when many nations continue 
to face major difficulties in an ar ea considered to be a fundamental  human right - access to a stable 
and healthy supply of food.  Agricultural trade restrictions have caused problems throughout the 
history of the WTO, particularly for small, net food importing countries like the State of Qatar.  The 
recent inflationary cycle and the global financial cris is have exacerbated the situation.  We therefore 
commend the Director General’s vision that all coun tries should act together to establish a mutually 
beneficial multilateral agricultural trade policy in order to help address the global problems of food 
insecurity and hunger.  
 The State of Qatar will continue to support a ll initiatives concerning the principled application 
of Full participation, Inclusiveness, and Transpar ency in the WTO system and we look forward to 
advancing these goals at this Ministerial Confer ence and in the continuing work of the WTO. 
 
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