. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(05)/22 
16 December 2005 
 (05-6045) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Sixth Session Hong Kong, 13 - 18 December 2005 Original:   English 
 
  
MINISTERIAL MEETING OF SMALL, VULNERABLE ECONOMIES  
 
Hong Kong, China, 14 December 2005
 
 
Communiqué from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbad os, Belize, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica,  
Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Fiji, G renada, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras,  
Jamaica, Mauritius, Mongolia, Nicara gua, Paraguay, Papua New Guinea,  
Solomon Islands, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent  
and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago 
 
   The following communication, dated 14 December 2005, is being circulated at the request of 
the delegation of Barbados. 
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COMMUNIQUÉ 
 
 
1. We, the Ministers of the small, vulnerable ec onomies in the WTO reaffirm the importance of 
paragraph 35 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration to  which all Member States of the WTO agreed and 
urge that the discussions during the 6
th WTO Ministerial Conference take full account of the 
characteristics and structural problems of small ec onomies and reflect the interests of these economies 
in the decisions taken. 
2. We recognize the cumulative and interrelated natu re of the problems and characteristics of 
small, vulnerable economies such as a minimal share of total world trade;  physical isolation, geographical dispersal and distance from the main mark ets;  high transport and transit costs;  small, 
fragmented and highly imperfect markets;  minimal or no export product divers ification;  dependency 
upon very few export markets and lack of adequa te market access opportunities;  high degree of 
vulnerability;  low competitiveness;  considerable difficulties to attract foreign investment;  and 
susceptibility to natural disasters. 
3. We reaffirm our commitment to the WTO as th e multilateral organization where trade-related 
responses to the problems of small, vulnerable economies should be considered.  In accordance with the Doha mandate the membership shall meaningfu lly address the trade-related issues identified by 
these economies and adopt appropriate and sustai nable solutions by the end of December 2006. 
4. We highlight some of the key expectations of  the small, vulnerable economies in the Doha 
negotiations.  Small, vulnerable ec onomies have issues of substantia l interest in the agriculture 
negotiations in terms of market access, including special flexibilities.  Considering the key contribution that agriculture makes to the livelihood and food security and rural development of small, WT/MIN(05)/22 
Page 2  
 
 vulnerable economies, these countries consider that Special Products (SP) and the Special Safeguard 
Mechanism (SSM) are crucial for the deve lopment of their agricultural sectors. 
5. In the NAMA negotiations, small, vulnera ble economies should make a contribution 
commensurate with their small share of world trade.  Tariffs serve multiple purposes in small, vulnerable economies and therefore tariff reductions must  be compatible with sustainable trade reform 
and liberalization programmes.  Sp ecial and differential treatment and less than full reciprocity are 
integral and cross cutting elements of the NAMA mandate.  The flexibilities which are adopted for 
small, vulnerable economies must respond to their specific circumstances. 
6. Special priority should be accord ed to the services sectors and mod es of export interest to the 
small, vulnerable economies, in order to promote the development of their services sectors so that 
they can contribute more substantially to empl oyment creation, revenue generation and overall 
growth. 
7. The particular concerns of small, vulnerable economies in all areas of the rules negotiations 
should be taken into account given the need to a llow small, vulnerable economies to better respond to 
the requirements of their small business sectors.  The contribution of the fisheries sector to some of 
these small, vulnerable economies is crucial to their trade and economic development objectives. 
8. The specific needs of the small, vulnerabl e economies should be addressed in the trade 
facilitation negotiations, especially considering th e geographical constraints of the landlocked and 
island small economies.  In this regard approp riate technical assistance and capacity building 
programmes should be provided for these economies. 
9. In accordance with paragraph 38 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration and in view of the 
limitations in the institutional capacity of small, vul nerable economies, priority shall be given to the 
provision of enhanced and targeted capacity building. 
10. We reaffirm that for the Doha Round to be truly a development round the concerns of all 
developing countries have to be considered and solutions found to address their specific 
circumstances.  The small, vulnerable economies expect that their concerns will be accorded 
appropriate and meaningful treatment to ensure that  their Work Programme is fully implemented, its 
objective realized and that sustainable measures are adopted to ensure that the development priorities 
of these economies are not compromised and that the benefits of the multilateral trading system can be shared by all. 
11. We believe that the 6
th WTO Ministerial Conference is being held at a critical moment when 
the need to fully integrate development concerns is paramount.  It is important that from both a 
substantive and a procedural perspective the con cerns of the small, vulnerable economies are fully 
respected.  The decisions taken at this 6th WTO Ministerial Conference shall specifically chart the 
way forward for the small, vulnerable economies  in the Doha negotiations and in the Work 
Programme and also reaffirm the membership's full commitment to engage on this issue to ensure the 
realization of the mandate. 
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