. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
WT/MIN(11)/ST/44 
16 December 2011  
 
(11-6611) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Eighth Session Geneva, 15 - 17 December 2011 Original:   Spanish 
 
  
NICARAGUA 
 
Statement by H.E. Mr Silvio Zambrana 
Minister Counsellor - Permanent Mission of Nicaragua 
 
  Since Nicaragua became a Member  of this Organization, it has always sought to ensure that 
global trade relations are governed by a fair trading syst em which allows us all to attain a real level of 
development and consequently to aspire to in crease the well-being of the Nicaraguan people. 
  At Doha we reiterated these aspirations  with the commitment to implement the 
Development Agenda.  Unfortunate ly, economic and social inequalities continue to be the main 
causes leading to poverty, conflicts, hunger and ma rginalization throughout the world.  We cannot 
continue to let an ever-growing divide persist be tween the rich and poor.  If we do not succeed in 
ending these inequalities, when future generations look back at the current period, surely the only 
thing they will remember will be the bipolarity be tween a developed world a nd a developing world. 
  The developed countries cannot continue their dou ble talk, expecting that countries such as 
Nicaragua will alleviate poverty, while at the same time they set conditions here on our participation 
in international markets and refu se to undertake genuine and fair commitments, such as those to 
which we aspired  in the Doha Agenda.  Inte rnational trade relations will not contribute to 
development as long as they fail to recognize th e asymmetries between developed countries and 
developing countries and the need for comp ensatory mechanisms to overcome them. 
  Consequently, Nicaragua is expressing once again the importance of advancing in the 
negotiations towards the implementation of the Doha  Agenda and it supports an outcome that will be 
satisfactory for all.  In this way, countries with  small and vulnerable economies, such as Nicaragua, 
will be able to broaden their effective participa tion in international trade and achieve significant 
integration into the world economy.  
 This Eighth Ministerial Conference provides an opportunity at the highest level for us to 
resume discussions and adopt the necessary political decisi ons to that end.  If th at is to happen, those 
responsible for the impasse in these negotiations will have to do more than show mere political will.  
Nicaragua does not support the adoption of plurilateral measures since that breaches the principle of multilateralism, transparency and inclusivity of the system and it considers that any approach pursued 
in the negotiations should be based on consensus, respecting the principle of the Single Undertaking 
and the provisions of special and differential treatment.   In this context, Nicaragua wishes to em phasize that any early successes achieved under 
paragraph 47 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration must take account of the issues of development, 
giving priority to those of particular inter est for the countries with small economies and the 
least developed countries, in particular the issues already agreed in the Agriculture and 
NAMA Modalities. WT/MIN(11)/ST/44 
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 Similarly, we should like to empathize that th e Aid-for-Trade initiative is an effective means 
of achieving the full integration of countries such as our own into the multilateral trading system.  
Accordingly, we urge the international funding ag encies to consider size and vulnerability as basic 
criteria in granting funds within the framework of that initiative. 
 
 Nicaragua wishes to communicate its decision to associate itself with the statements made by 
the distinguished delegates of Barbados on beha lf of the countries with small and vulnerable 
economies, by Indonesia on behalf of the G33, by the distinguished Ambassador of the Dominican Republic representing the Informal Group of Developing Countries and by the delegation 
of India representing the "Friends of Development". 
  In conclusion, Nicaragua would like to welcome Vanuatu, Samoa, Montenegro and 
the Russian Federation into the multilateral trading system.  
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