. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(05)/ST/49 
15 December 2005 
 (05-6023) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Sixth Session Hong Kong, 13 - 18 December 2005 Original:   English/ 
 French 
 
  
GUINEA-BISSAU 
 
Statement by HE Mr Pascoal Domingos Baticam
 
Minister of Commerce, Industry and Handicrafts  
   It is with a great pleasure and satisfaction - that the delegation of Guinea-Bissau participates 
in this WTO Hong Kong Ministerial Conference.  We  thank WTO for this opportunity and our special 
thanks goes to the Hong Kong authorities for thei r great hospitality and effectiveness in organizing 
this Conference.   In name of the Government of Guinea-Bissau I would like to stressfully declare the serious 
engagement of our country under the framework of  WTO in order to proportionate through trade a 
world that is economically integrated not only in the basis of the market conditions but also in the 
basis of the international solidarity with sole obj ectives of eliminating the absolute poverty and the 
incidences of the big epidemics in the world.   With this proposition I want to underline that through trade it is possible to generate funds 
and savings for investment in the improvement of living conditions of our populations.  I think 
Hong Kong represents a good model of this success, deve lopment through trade.  This aspect or rather 
development-modeling is so vital for the African c ontinent.  Thus, to achieve the above objectives 
related to improvement of living conditions of  our population the Doha Agenda has to be 
implemented as it  is well illustrated in the orientations of WTO.  Guinea-Bissau subscribe totally 
these orientations or rather  the trade-development nexus or framework. 
 
 Consequently the successful implementation of the Doha Agenda will imply doing reforms in 
the trade sector, reforms which will  include economic liberalization, market opening and access 
facilitation, tariff reduction and elim ination of non-tariff barriers as we ll as subventions or all other 
market interventions that impact negatively on  the competitivity of our enterprises and economies, 
distort markets and impact negatively mainly on th e price stabilization of our commodities in the 
international markets.  These reforms will require  the engagement of all of us, meaning of the 
developed countries as well as of developing countries.   In the agricultural sector we should pay special  attention to the needs of the investment capital 
for LDC countries in order to allow allocation of the sufficient funds to better organize and build up 
their productive and marketing capacities , enabling these countries, therefore to place the products 
with better qualities and for better prices in the interna tional markets.  This implies that the legislative 
or regulative and structural adjustments to be done  have to be equally accompanied by investments in 
productive means and in the infrastructures as well  as in the building up of our technical and 
commercial capacities in order to increase our producti on of high quality and better priced products. 
 
 The trade sector mainly the marketing of ou r agricultural products contributes in average 
more than 40 per cent to the formation of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of the least developed countries. Therefore, trade is an essential vector  to proportionate econom ic growth of the LDC WT/MIN(05)/ST/49 
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countries.  Thus, for us WTO is an appropriate fo rum with a noble mission.  A mission we all should 
support in this Hong Kong Conference.   The objectives of the Doha Agenda relating to the promotion of the development are equally 
noble ones and gratifying.   Therefore, we hope and engage for the success of this Conference and that 
this Conference could start creating conditions fo r improvement of marketing of the agricultural 
products but also for other non-agricultural products and services that have a great importance for the 
economies of the developed or industrialized countri es.  Yet, we request that the agricultural sector  be 
comprehensively considered, meaning to search for equilibrated solutions for the cotton subsector but 
also considerate of all series of products that are vital for the economic growth and poverty alleviation 
and these are products which proportionate compar ative advantage for LDCs and the developing 
countries in general.  For Guinea-Bissau, the econo my of cashew nuts is vital for economic growth 
and the industrialization of our country.  This is a commodity for whic h we plan accelerated 
industrialization of the country and to build up a supe rior marketing platform because indeed it is the 
only way that Guinea-Bissau will be able to achieve the millennium goals.  As I have stated before, 
Guinea-Bissau as all developing countries ma inly LDCs lack the capital investment. 
  We believe in creation of the economically in tegrated world for achievement of millennium 
goals.  We all should contribute through a better co operation within WTO for the better world, for a 
more secure world and for a more stable world socially and economically.  
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