WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(05)/ST/111 
16 December 2005 
 (05-6108) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Sixth Session Hong Kong, 13 - 18 December 2005 Original:   English 
 
  
BOTSWANA 
 
Statement by the Honourable Neo Moroka
 
Minister of Trade and Industry  
  
First and foremost, allow me, on behalf of my delegation, to add my voice to those of the 
speakers who have spoken before me, in congratul ating you most sincerely Mr Chairman, on your 
well deserved election to preside over the proceedi ngs of this Sixth WTO Ministerial Conference. 
We are confident that under your guidance and able leadership, our deliberations will achieve 
a successful outcome. 
I assure you and other members of the Bure au of the full confidence and support of my 
delegation in the discharge of your mandate. 
I wish to seize this opportunity to express my delegation's profound gratitude and appreciation 
to you as our host, for the warm welcome and hospi tality which have been graciously extended to us 
since our arrival in Hong Kong, China, and also fo r the excellent arrangements which have been made 
for this Conference. 
This augurs well for our deliberations. As we meet here today, the world is watching wi th keen interest.  There is naturally a great 
deal of anxiety, especially in developing c ountries, about the outcome of our meeting. 
This is so because at the heart of the Doha Round is the imperative of  delivering development 
dividends arising from the trade liberalization process. 
When the Round was launched at the Fourth WTO Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar in 
2001, it raised the expectations of our people with respect to poverty alleviation and improvement in 
their standards of living. 
The twin buzz-words are free and fair trade.  I fully share the conviction that a fair, 
transparent, non-discriminatory, rules-based multilate ral trading system has the potential to contribute 
to global prosperity, poverty allevi ation and sustainable development. 
Such a system also offers small countries su ch as my own the best protection safeguards 
against the vagaries of unfair trade and protectionism. 
I wish to reaffirm my Government's commitment to the ideals and objectives of the Doha 
Development Agenda.  Botswana believes that the Doha Round provides a unique and unprecedented 
opportunity for correcting the inherent imbalances in  the international trading system and also for 
addressing the development needs and interests of developing countries. WT/MIN(05)/ST/111 
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 The success of the Doha Round should, in my vi ew, be defined by the extent to which its 
outcomes will translate into concrete, subs tantial welfare gains for the world's poor. 
We should, therefore, make every effort to en sure the successful and timely conclusion of the 
Doha Round negotiations by the end of 2006 at the very latest. 
The point is that, the less we achieve here in Hong Kong, China, the greater the risk that we 
would not conclude the Round in 2006. 
An unsuccessful outcome of this Ministerial C onference, in the aftermath of Cancún, would 
seriously call into question the relevance and legiti macy of the WTO as a forum for global trade rules 
and negotiations.  Such an unfortunate outcome woul d also present an enormous opportunity cost in 
terms of welfare gains. 
We should aim at achieving a fair and balanced outcome of this Conference. 
I must hasten to point out that it is tota lly unrealistic to expect an outcome which 
accommodates everything for everyone, given the different needs, national priorities and diversity of interests within our membership.  The best we can  hope for is an outcome which has something for 
everyone. 
It therefore, behoves the en tire WTO Membership, developing countries included, to 
demonstrate the flexibility, political will and commitm ent to facilitate a succes sful outcome of this 
Conference. 
It is a matter of deep regret and disappoint ment that we have had to recalibrate our 
expectations for this Conference.  Even though we did this, it is extremely important that we should 
remain loyal and committed to the overall level of ambition in the Round. 
Agriculture is of critical importance to our nego tiations.  It also holds the key to substantive 
progress in other areas of the Doha Agenda, namely , non-agricultural market access, trade in services, 
WTO Rules, trade facilitation as well as implementation issues and concerns. 
It is my delegation's hope and expectation that  this Conference should reach agreement on the 
elimination of export subsidies by the year 2010, coupled with time bound commitments for 
substantial reductions in trade distorting domes tic support, as well as significant improvements in 
market access. 
Given the centrality of development in the Doha Round, my delegation attaches great 
importance to the implementation of the Doha Mand ate relating to the strengthening of special and 
differential treatment provisions in order to ma ke them effective, binding and operational. 
It is noted that the Annex on Special and Differe ntial Treatment, an area of particular interest 
to developing countries, is in brackets and has left out the broader range  of proposals submitted by 
developing countries.  It is therefore important that it should be elaborated upon to include all these issues. 
Being among the Sub-Saharan African countries wo rst affected by the HIV/AIDS scourge, we 
welcome the adoption of the amendment on the TRIPS and Public Health agreement.  This will assist 
developing countries such as Botswana to  source cheaper drugs for our peoples. 
From the Draft Ministerial Text, one issue of particular concern is that there are significant 
imbalances in the Draft Text in at least three main areas of the negotiations, namely, Agriculture, 
Non-Agricultural Market Access and Services.  I note in  particular that, by and large, the interests of  WT/MIN(05)/ST/111 
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 our major trading partners in Non-Agricultural Ma rket Access and Services have definitely been 
accommodated in the text, while those of developing countries have either been left out of the text 
completely or have been treated ra ther superficially in the Annexes. 
The Draft Ministerial Text features the issue regarding "aid for trade".  While we welcome 
this "aid for trade" initiative as endorsed recently by the G8 as a vehicle for achieving trade-related 
capacity-building and meaningful market access, it is  important that modalities must be worked out 
for adequately funded and structur ed assistance to be provided on a sustainable basis to developing 
countries under this initiative in order to enable th em to participate more effectively in the global 
trading system. 
In conclusion, I wish to point out that in orde r for us to achieve a "win-win" outcome of this 
Conference, it is incumbent upon all of us, big or sma ll, rich or poor, weak or strong to be pragmatic 
and fair minded in our approach to the issues under negotiation. 
It should be borne in mind that as political lead ers, we have a moral duty and responsibility to 
improve the living conditions of millions of peopl e around the world who are currently wallowing in 
abject poverty. 
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