. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/C/10 
8 June 2007 
 (07-2412) 
Trade Negotiations Committee  
  
 
G8 SUMMIT 
Heiligendamm – 8 June 2007 
 
Statement by the Director-General
 
 
 
 The following statement by th e Director-General to G8 Heads of State and Government at 
Heiligendamm on 8 June is being circulat ed for the information of delegations. 
 
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  Since our discussions in St. Petersburg last y ear, the Doha Round of negotiations at the WTO 
were suspended in order to avoid a fatal admission of  failure, and then resumed at the request of most 
of you, first and foremost the developing countries.  
 Contacts, discussions and negotiations have pick ed up considerably over the last two months, 
and while my diagnosis remains cautious, I think that an agreement is now within our reach. 
  I do not mean a final agreement on all of the twenty topics included in the list agreed upon when the negotiations were launched in 2001 and whic h remain inextricably linked to each other, but 
an interim agreement which would pave the way to wards a final agreement in 6 to 9 months' time. 
  The components of this interim agreement we re identified long ago:  the amount of the 
reductions in trade-distorting agricultural subsidies;  the amount of the reductions in agricultural tariffs and in industrial tariffs.  These three elemen ts are the centrepiece of the negotiations.  And it is 
the relative weight of these elements that will reflec t the high level of ambition that we are seeking.  
They also happen to be the most politically sensitive subjects in your countries. 
  The reason why I think an agreement is within  our reach is that your positions have moved 
closer to each other.  There remain a number of significant differences, it is true:  but with an added 
political effort from each and every one of you, we  should be able to cove r the remaining ground. 
 
 In short:  
• On subsidies:  we need an additional effo rt from the Americans.  The Europeans and 
Japanese should be able to follow without any major trouble; 
 
• On the opening up of agricultural markets:   the Europeans and Japan will have to 
improve their offer, and the emerging count ries will have to accept that the protection 
to which they are entitled does not mean that no further opening will take place; 
 
• On industrial products:  the emerging count ries, as well, will have to improve the 
offers they have tabled. 
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   We are speaking of additional concessions amounting roughly to a few billion dollars or 
euros, be it in the area of subsidy re ductions or increased imports or exports. 
  I understand that each and all of you is ready to  reach a compromise.  All that remains to be 
done is to establish the exact proportions involved to  ensure that the result is balanced, and we all 
know that this is a matter of political judgement. 
  With your permission, what I am asking you to do is to avoid weighing out the final concessions on an apothecary's weight-balance, and  to focus on the overall world economic 
landscape and on the enormous risks involved in fail ure.  Not only for the WTO, which you all need, 
but also for one of the few systems of interna tional cooperation to have emerged as strong as ever 
from the turbulence of the 1990s.   The exceptionally favourable economic cycle we are currently experiencing is not immune to threats, including the threat of protectionism. 
 
 Nothing could be worse than a failure for th e developing countries – whose stakes in world 
growth are now high – and hence for the rest of you as well.   Your negotiators have gradua lly constructed over the past fi ve years an edifice which you 
must complete before the wind changes.  Its dimens ions warrant its completion.  And what better way 
to fulfil the numerous commitments that the G8 has made in favour of the developing countries over 
the past few years?  It will require a number of  concessions which your negotiators will have to be 
given the authority to accept during the coming weeks.   Do not let this opportunity slip through your 
fingers.  
 Thank you for your attention. 
 
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