. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(05)/ST/90 
16 December 2005 
 (05-6095) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Sixth Session Hong Kong, 13 - 18 December 2005 Original:   English 
 
  
MOZAMBIQUE 
 
Statement by HE Mr Tomás Mandlate
 
Minister for Agriculture  
  
 First of all, allow me to congratulate you, on  behalf of the Government and the people of the 
Republic of Mozambique on your election to presi de over our deliberations at this Sixth WTO 
Ministerial Conference. 
  Let me join the previous speakers in expressi ng my sincere thanks to the Government and 
people of the Territory of Hong Kong, People's Rep ublic of China for hosting this Conference and for 
their warm hospitality.  
 We warmly welcome Saudi Arabia and Tonga into the WTO and we look forward to more 
countries especially African Countries and LDCs in order to ensure that the WTO becomes a truly 
universal organization.   As has been repeatedly emphasized since the launch of the Doha Round of Trade 
Negotiations, the success of this Round depends on th e extent and degree to which our developmental 
concerns are taken into account during the negot iating process as well as in the outcome so that 
developing countries and least developed countries can fully participate in the global economy and 
have a share of the benefits offered by the multilateral trading system.   Let us recall that in Doha, Qatar, the inte rnational community undertook the commitment to 
place the needs and interests of developing countries at the heart of the WTO Work Progamme.  Four 
years later we still have few positive signals and we are deeply concerned with this lack of progress. 
Indeed, the failure to achieve concrete results will hamper the potential for trade to serve our 
development objectives.  We are in a Developmen t Round and if important developmental aspects are 
not taken into account, all imbalances will remain and we will not be able to realize the potential gains 
from trade for the reduction of poverty in our countries. 
  My delegation would like to place on record its appreciation for some important market 
access initiatives taken by developed countries, such  as the Everything But Arms Initiative of the 
European Union, the ACP-EU Cotonou Agreement, the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA) by 
the USA, and other preferential schemes.  We need  to build on these initiatives through the provision 
of bound duty-free and quota-free market access to a ll agricultural and industrial products originating 
from the least developed countries.  Moreover, we  believe that a commitment to reduce non-tariff 
barriers, such as restrictive rules of origin, stringe nt SPS measures and other non-transparent technical 
barriers to trade will contribute to our ability to  effectively respond to all the market access 
opportunities. 
 
 On agriculture, an important sector for the ma jority of the developing countries and least 
developed countries and certainly for Mozambique, wh ere a majority of the poor population lives in WT/MIN(05)/ST/90 
Page 2  
 
 rural areas, we would like to stress the fact that several support schemes of de veloped countries have a 
devastating impact on the export opportunities of deve loping and least developed countries.  In this 
regard, Mozambique urges its trad ing partners to phase out these support mechanisms with a view to 
their eventual elimination.  We are particularly keen to see a rapid and comprehensive solution to the 
cotton issue. 
 
 On the TRIPS Agreement review, my delegati on reiterates the need for the protection of 
traditional knowledge, through an adeq uate multilateral legal framework.  It also reiterates the need to 
respect international instruments, such as the C onvention on Biodiversity, the FAO Agreement on 
Access to Vegetable Genetic Resources and the OAU Model Law on the Rights of Local 
Communities to Biological Resources, among others. 
  Mozambique welcomes two recent decisions on TRIPS namely, the recent amendment of the TRIPS Agreement that integrated the temporary waiver originating from the 30 August decision of 
2003 and is looking forward to seeing the mechanism be ing used in practice as well as the decision 
taken on 29 November by the WTO's Council for Tr ade Related Aspect of Intellectual Property 
Rights to extend the transition period for least developed countries until July 2013 to provide 
protection for trademarks, copyright, patents and other intellectual property under the WTO's 
Agreement and for the commitment on technical assi stance to help them prepare to apply the 
Agreement.  
 Concerning Trade in Services, we do think th at open and efficient services sectors are of 
critical importance for development and we s upport improvement and increased coverage under 
GATS, but we stress that developing countries, and especially LDCs, often lack the resources to 
undertake a timely and comprehensive analysis of  the impact of making binding commitments on 
services liberalization.  In this as in other are as of the negotiations, all Members should recognize the 
need for special and differential treatment and fo r policy space for developing countries, and should 
not oblige LDCs to make any commit ments that go beyond their capacities. 
  Finally, allow me to assure our trading pa rtners, Mozambique's commitment to the Doha 
Round and our desire to reach a successful conclu sion.  In the design of our national development 
strategy, we have anticipated development-friendl y results in the Doha Round.  The World Trade 
Organization should continue to lay the foundations  for widely shared global economic growth and 
stability by introducing significant reforms based on fair  and transparent rules.  Only in this way will 
we achieve a viable and durable multilateral trading system.  
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