WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(05)/ST/100 
16 December 2005 
 (05-6074) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Sixth Session Hong Kong, 13 - 18 December 2005 Original:   French 
 
  
CONGO 
 
Statement by HE Mrs Adélaïde Moundele-Ngollo
 
Minister of Trade, Consumer Affairs and Supplies  
   As we all know, the preparatory process for th is Conference has provoked various reactions 
around the world because of the often contradict ory positions taken by the various groups of 
countries. 
  This is hardly surprising considering the keen  desire of every country to defend its economic 
interests and the welfare of its people.   Hopefully, our work here in Hong Kong will be directed towards unravelling the threads of a 
situation which is becoming increasingly embarrassing a nd inexplicable for the citizens of our various 
countries.   Thus, this Conference comes at the right time and constitutes not only a challenge but also an immense hope for all those who still have faith in th e virtues of dialogue and solidarity and intend to 
work determinedly, with the sole ambition of overc oming the old demons of discord which haunt our 
community.   May I take this opportunity to pay tribut e to the Hong Kong authorities who have done 
everything to ensure that the delegates to this  great meeting can do their work under excellent 
conditions. 
 
 I would also like to congratulate Mr Pascal Lamy on his election to the post of Director-General of the WTO.   I wish him much courage and great success in his new job. 
 
 The Republic of the Congo is a developing country which remains convinced that its 
economic development is partly  linked with its ability to participate in world trade. 
  The development strategies currently being impl emented can only yield results if the external 
environment is favourable;  hence the importance, for our country, of  participating actively in this 
process, in the hope that it will end in solu tions that are just and fair for all. 
  At this point, I should make it clear that the President of our Republic, His Excellency Denis 
Sassou Ngesso, has been closely following the progre ss of the agricultural negotiations that have been 
going on since the failure of the Cancún Ministerial Conference. 
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  He has repeatedly reminded his Govern ment and Congolese public opinion of his 
expectations with regard to the commitments ente red into by the Members of the WTO at Doha and 
reaffirmed by the General Council at the end of July 2004.   Thus, for the Congo, agricultural subsidies, a nd the other constraints on market access, should 
form the subject of a review that takes into account  not only concerns of a political nature, in favour 
of the rural community, but also th e survival needs of the populations of the developing countries and 
LDCs.   The Congo has already paid the price of agricultu ral subsidies with, in particular, the decline 
of poultry breeding, despite it having prospere d in the 70s and 80s, and, quite recently, the 
abandonment of the cultivation of peanuts and palm groves which have had to face fierce competition 
from imported vegetable oil.   Congolese agriculture is now threatened by anot her external problem relating to sugar, our 
country's only agricultural export product. 
  The measures to reduce sugar prices on the European market will have a negative effect on the export earnings of the ACP countries that are members of the sugar protocol.  Unfortunately, the accompanying measures proposed by the European Union will be insu fficient to compensate for the 
considerable losses resulting from the fall in prices. 
 
 With regard to services, our country, which h as considerable potential in terms of available 
resources, expects incentive measures to accompany th e efforts made by the Government since the 
beginning of the 90s.  
 Thus, in connection with its services liberaliza tion offers notified to the WTO, the Congo has 
opened up most of the services sectors to private investment, domestic or foreign.   However, it is important to note that our commitments will necessarily have to take into 
account our capacity to preserve the interests of the Congolese people and to guarantee our enterprises 
opportunities for technology transfer, to enable th e Congo to derive the maximum benefit from this 
market opening. 
  With respect to market access for industrial pr oducts, our concerns relate particularly to the 
problem of tariff escalation, a real obstacle to th e development of our young enterprises, considering 
that they are evolving in an economic envi ronment distinctly unfavourable to product 
competitiveness. 
  The implementation of the Uruguay Round agreemen ts has revealed all the limitations on the 
ability of the economically weak countries to honour their commitments.   Fortunately, the industrialized countries are well aware of this, as is apparent from the 
conclusions of the General Council of July 2004. 
  The only appropriate remedy enhanced special a nd differential treatment in favour of the poor 
countries.  
 In speaking of the poor countries, all similarl y weighed down by the effect of external debt 
and other burdens imposed by the international econo mic environment, I would like to raise an issue 
close to my heart, namely, the difference between the developing countries and the least developed. 
  We consider that the classification mechanis m for distinguishing, among the poor countries, 
the developing countries from the LDCs is curre ntly based on excessively theoretical criteria.  WT/MIN(05)/ST/100 
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 The borderline between developing countries an d LDCs, in terms of social welfare and 
economic potential, is so vague that the resu lting compartmentalizati on is penalizing many 
populations which are unable to qualify for the advantages reserved for the weakest.  
 It would be desirable to reconsider this cl assification which is clearly ill-adapted to the 
realities on the ground.  New categorization criteria, ot her than GDP, should be investigated in order 
to harmonize the support that countries receive with their real level of development.   In other words, if a developing country su ch as the Congo cannot qualify for the advantages 
granted to the LDCs, then neither should it have  to assume the same obligations as the emerging 
countries.   Our present tribulations could be taken as an i ndication that the objectives fixed at the end of 
the Uruguay Round may have been unrealistic. 
 
 It is therefore up to every Member of th e WTO to honour its commitments, on pain of 
admitting that our detractors, for whom the WTO is "merely talking shop", are right.   Following the resounding failures of Seattle and Cancún, the time has now come to show the 
world that the WTO is not a fruitless adventure but ra ther a strategic process of support and protection 
for all our economies. 
  Such a vision can only be realized if we all, without exception, display a spirit of solidarity and a readiness to compromise.  
 In the last analysis, the fundamental issue can  only be formulated in terms of humanism and a 
spirit of sharing.   Let us prove ourselves capable of moving forwar d, hand in hand, to overcome the obstacles to 
the economic development of our c ountries, improve the living conditions of our peoples and together 
build a free and peaceful world. 
 
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