. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(09)/ST/78 
2 December 2009 
 (09-6164) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Seventh Session Geneva, 30 November - 2 December 2009 Original:   English 
 
  
UGANDA 
 
Statement by the Honourable Nelson Gagawala Wambuzi
 
Minister for State for Trade  
Minister of State for Tourism, Trade and Industry  
   Let me join the previous speakers in expressing gratitude to the Government and people of the 
Swiss Confederation, in particular to the Cant on of Geneva, for the wa rm and friendly reception 
accorded to my delegation since our arrival.   Permit me also to commend you, Chair, the Di rector-General and the WTO Secretariat for the 
excellent arrangements made for this Sevent h Session of the Ministerial Conference. 
 
 From the outset, Uganda wishes to fully associat e herself with the statements made on behalf 
of the LDC Group, the Africa Group, the ACP Group, the G-33 and the G-110, which clearly articulate detailed interests that are of very significant importance to Uganda.   This Ministerial meeting comes almost four years after the last session held at Hong Kong. 
Against the expectations of the last session, the progr ess of the negotiations at times stalled or at best 
continued at a slow pace.   At the same time the world faced the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.  
It is in view of some of these adverse developmen ts that my delegation considers this an opportune 
time for Ministers to reaffirm st rong political commitment to the multilateral trading system.  Today, 
it is even more urgent to have the Doha Development Ag enda concluded. 
  It is Uganda's belief that the WTO should c ontinue investing towards the creation of an 
environment that can enable the private sector of LDCs to grow because this is the best and most 
sustainable strategy for the effective integration of  our economies  into the multilateral trading system. 
 
 The entire agenda of this Ministerial Conference is important but there are a number of issues which Uganda considers to be critical:  
• The need for an "early harvest" on all LDC i ssues, particularly in respect to special 
and differential treatment; 
• the operationalization of duty-free and quota-free market access; 
• a waiver decision on preferential and more favourable treatment to services and 
services suppliers of LDCs;  and 
• an ambitious, expeditious and specific outcome for cotton trade-related aspects as 
mandated by the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference. WT/MIN(09)/ST/78 
Page 2  
 
   
 For the above to have an impact in our econom ies, it is important and necessary to intensify 
technical assistance directed towards the realization of  our development strategies, particularly for the 
strengthening and improvement of productive capacities.  
 In this regard, Uganda wishes to underline th e importance of the Aid-for-Trade initiative and 
appreciate the operationalization of the Enhanced Integrated Framework.  I wish to call upon the 
development partners to live up to their commit ments in these initiatives and move towards their 
implementation within the agreed principles.  
 In conclusion, Uganda agrees that the WTO s hould remain the main forum for engagement on 
multilateral trade but we want to emphasize the need to move towards an early conclusion of this 
development round.  We further want to emphasi ze that this can only be possible with political 
commitment from all of us.  
 Fellow Ministers, I support the proposal that this week we must l eave the officials with 
concrete areas of action to guide them and the confidence of strong political commitment. 
  On this basis, I look forward to meeting all of you again in 2010 to celebrate the successful 
conclusion of the Doha Round.  
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