. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
WT/MIN(11)/ST/105 
16 December 2011  
 
(11-6795) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Eighth Session Geneva, 15 - 17 December 2011 Original:   English 
 
  
UKRAINE 
 
Statement by H.E. Mr. Valeriy Piatnytskyi 
The Government Commissioner for European Integration 
 
 
I am honoured to have this opportunity to a ddress this Ministerial Conference and the 
esteemed WTO community. 
 
First, I would like to express thanks of behalf of Ukraine to the Swiss and Geneva authorities 
for hosting the WTO’s 8th Ministerial Conference.   
Today’s uncertain global economic environment requires more than ever that WTO Members 
strongly reaffirm their allegiance to the WTO’s multilateral rules-based trading system. Equally 
important, however, WTO Members at this conferen ce must also agree to do whatever is necessary 
both to strengthen the functioning of the WTO’s existing rules and to find innovative new ways to conclude at long last the Doha R ound. Only by doing so can the WTO continue to contribute to global 
economic growth, employmen t, and development. 
  
Achieving these goals will not be easy, given the continuing need to ensure that the 
Organization also remains flexible enough to meet  the different needs of individual WTO Members. 
Indeed, striking the proper balance between Memb ers’ legal obligations and the need for such 
Members also to address the economic and social challenges arising from local circumstances is a complex matter.  
We have witnessed in discussions in various WTO committees the tension that arises when 
Members must craft domestic policies to address the specific demands of its citizens with regard to 
health, environmental, developmental,  welfare, and similar matters and to do so in a way that does not 
run counter to WTO rules. NTBs should not be  used to reach these goals in particular.  
  
This conference will take up the accessions of three new Members, and will also provide 
Ministers an opportunity to discuss three broad themes - the importance of the multilateral trading system, trade and development, a nd the Doha Development Agenda. 
  
I would like to comment briefly on each of these matters.  
  
With regard to accessions, Ukraine welcom es the entry into the WTO of the Russian 
Federation, Samoa, and Republic of Montenegro as well as that of Vanuatu. Ukraine believes that the 
accession to the WTO of new members will help to reinforce it and contribute to its further development. In its own bilatera l negotiations with candidate count ries, Ukraine is seeking to create 
favourable conditions for the subsequent positive de velopment of our trade and economic relations 
with these countries. With regard  to the accession of those countries that are among the least 
developed countries, we carefully follow the WTO gu idelines for facilitating entry of least developed WT/MIN(11)/ST/105 
Page 2  
 
  countries into the WTO and have shown and w ill show maximum flexibility in our negotiating 
positions. Ukraine counts on the similar appr oach on the part of acceding candidates. 
 
As for the importance of the multilateral trading system, I would like to stress my country’s 
full commitment to on-going efforts to improve the tr ansparency of Members’ trade practices and to 
ensure Members’ compliance with  WTO rules and obligations. In particular, we fully support the 
enhanced monitoring role of the Trade Policy Revi ew Body. We also support the proposal to improve 
the performance of Members with respect to thei r notification obligations. Both will improve the 
overall operation and efficiency of the WTO system.  
With regard to trade and development, given its own history, Ukraine is fully sympathetic 
with those developing and least developed countries  that have concerns about the problems of food 
security, poverty reduction, and famine relief. Al ong with other recently acceded WTO Members, we 
support initiatives to ensure food security and effort s in the WTO and elsewhere to resolve the global 
food crisis. These include ways to avoid the applica tion of quantitative restrictions or extraordinary 
taxes on food which is purchased for non-commerc ial, humanitarian purposes by the World Food 
Program. Moreover, completion of negotiations ove r agriculture in the Doha Round should also 
contribute to a more predictable and equitable set  of rules for trade in agricultural products. 
 
Finally, on the Doha Round, I would first note that the delayed completion of the Round has 
contributed to an intensification in the negotiati on of bilateral and regiona l trade agreements. The 
stunning increase in the number of preferential tr ade agreements around the world since the Doha 
Round was launched has triggered an increasing and alarming fragmentation in the rules of 
international trade. This in turn  has redirected trade flows globally, often to the detriment of 
individual WTO Members whose own market acces s through existing WTO commitments has been 
eroded and devalued by these preferential arrangements to which they are not a party. 
 
Ukraine encourages new, creative, and cooperativ e efforts by all WTO Members to speed up 
conclusion of the Doha Round. We also encourag e the Chairmen of the various Doha negotiating 
groups to be active in the months ahead, and to  continue to observe the FIT principle (full 
participation, inclusiveness, transparency) to which all WTO Members have committed.  
 
We support early decisions and implementation of those decisions on those matters on which 
Members have found or will soon find common gr ound. Finally, we urge all WTO Members to 
display courage and flexibility in their negotiating po sitions since this is the only way that we can 
realistically ever conclude the Doha Round and m ove this Organization to the next generation of 
rights and obligations that are d esperately needed to respond to th e economic and trade challenges of 
today’s world. 
 
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