. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(05)/ST/57 
15 December 2005 
 (05-6006) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Sixth Session Hong Kong, 13 - 18 December 2005 Original:   French 
 
  
ORGANISATION INTERNATIONALE DE LA FRANCOPHONIE (OIF) 
 
Statement Circulated by HE Mr Abdou Diouf
 
Secretary General  
 
(As an Observer ) 
  
 As this Sixth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization is being held, we find 
ourselves close to concluding the year 2005 with a ve ry mixed balance sheet as far as the developing 
countries are concerned.   In these circumstances, the Organisation of inte rnationale de la Francophonie (OIF) wishes to 
indicate what it considers important for all Members of the WTO. 
 
 First of all, like the New York Summit on Millennium Development Goals held in September 2005, this Sixth Ministerial Conference bears witness to the difficulties encountered and 
created by globalization.  
 New developments in technology, particularly  in communications, tr ansport and financial 
engineering, are making the position of many econom ic players more precarious and leading to a 
redistribution of comparative advantages and to major social upheavals.   It is not my intention to dispute the progress and advances brought by these new technologies nor to minimize their inherent potential for growth.  Indeed, if fair and sustainable development is to 
continue and peace is to be firmly establishe d in various countries around the world, change is 
necessary.   However, for many countries, whether they be  rich or disadvantaged, this change may be 
initially reflected in losses rather than  in gains, in structural changes ra ther than in mere adjustments.  
It is therefore necessary to negotiate over future  benefits, while remaining aware that, although the 
preservation of existing advantages is only a provision al and precarious tactic, if those advantages are 
modified too quickly the effect may be to halt a positive trend.   This calls for political courage.  But that cour age is an expression of the solidarity that binds 
countries and peoples together. 
  The differences between the economies of the WTO Members are considerable, in terms of 
geography, history, and natural and human resour ces;  indeed, every country and every Regional 
Economic Community or Union to which it may bel ong has its own characteristics, and hence its own 
interests and specific positions to defend.  Howeve r, it should not defend them without taking into 
consideration economic and trade relations as a whol e, without seeking ways of  correcting imbalances 
and flagrant inequalities, or by slavishly accepting a model of ruthless competition.  WT/MIN(05)/ST/57 
Page 2  
 
  The role of an organization such as the OIF, based on a shared language and values, is always 
to offer the opportunity for free speech with respec t for others, since without respect freedom is 
meaningless, and without freedom respect is only fear by another name.   This is why the OIF remains committed to a mu ltilateral system that is as broad, open and 
effective as possible.  This is why it favours a strong WTO responsible for keeping all its Members' 
interests in balance, on the basis of universally accep ted rules.  This is why, in trade matters and 
elsewhere, it has reservations about the growing numb er of bilateral agreemen ts aimed at facilitating 
free trade or partnership, since they are inevitably unequal.  
 Because the OIF supported, from start to fi nish, the adoption of the Cultural Diversity 
Convention by UNESCO, it has been said that it was opposed to the WTO and the acknowledged 
advantages of liberalizing trade.  In fact, what it  wanted to have recognized is that there are goods 
which are not just merchandise, even though th eir production involves considerable human and 
financial resources; the point is that these goods are not mere entertainment but, like language, an 
essential component of a people's very identity.  Thus , this Convention is an addition to those which 
seek to organize the space shared by all humanity , whether they relate to human rights, the 
environment or, in the case of the WTO, trade.   With respect to the big outstanding issues, na mely, the agriculture negotiations, the specific 
questions of cotton, sugar, rice and bananas, the pr oblem of services, and the definition of efficient 
special and differential treatment, the OIF would like the development dimension, which is at the 
heart of the Doha Round, to con tinue to predominate and the nego tiations to take into account the 
pace of economic progress specific to each group of countries.   It is in this spirit that, even before the Fifth Ministerial Conference in Cancún in 2003, it 
initiated capacity-building programm es and a cooperation process intende d to improve the integration 
of its members, particularly the least developed am ong them, into world trade.  To this end, it has 
worked with the WTO, the ITC and UNCTAD, forg ed associative links with the Commonwealth and 
undertaken to implement part of the Europ ean Union programme of economic partnership 
agreements.  In Geneva, Brussels and Cotonou, the OIF has organized an increasing number of 
meetings and exchanges in order to prepare,  through open and unbiased debate, for effective 
negotiations within the WTO. 
  But this is only one phase:  once the Sixth Conf erence has ended, the OIF will continue, using 
the tools its members consider most suitable for the purpose, to promote better understanding, greater 
equality and greater solidarity within a WTO that provides for the transparent and accepted regulation 
of world trade. 
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