. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
WT/MIN(11)/ST/91 
17 December 2011  
 
(11-6658) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Eighth Session Geneva, 15 - 17 December 2011 Original:   English 
 
  
CYPRUS 
 
Statement by Mrs Aigli Pantelaki 
Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Natural Resources and Environment 
  
It is a pleasure and an honour for me today to  have the opportunity to address the plenary 
session of the World Trade Organization on behalf of my country, Cyprus. 
 
First, I would like to congratulate the Member States that newly acceded to the WTO, Samoa, 
Vanuatu and Montenegro and, of course, the Russ ian Federation, an important trading partner of 
Cyprus and of the European Union.  
The accession of Russia to the World Trade Organization marks, in my opinion, an historic 
event of major political and economic importance and completes a major phase in the development of 
our organization, with all the large economies of the world now being Members.  
In the context of the current economic and fi nancial crisis, working together, old and new 
Members alike, to further the process of reform and to  achieve more liberalization of trade, along with 
progress on other important areas of WTO work, is critical.  Such progress has been disappointingly 
low in recent years, at a time when we all need to  complete the agenda of the current Round and to 
start thinking about other challenges that the world is faced with, such as energy supply, food security, 
climate change, competition, and investment.  Instead, we are witnessing the emergence of more sophisticated, but not less damaging, forms of protectionism that have contributed to increased market and price volatility.  Countries that rely on extern al sources for their supply with major commodities, 
like Cyprus, are paying the price.  WTO contributed substantially to keeping the markets open, but 
more is needed to be done.  
The European Union has made proposals for rein forcing the monitoring function of the trade 
policy review body and for ensuring that member s respect their transparency and notification 
obligations. 
 
The biggest challenge is to finally unblock th e Doha Development Age nda negotiations.  In 
our view the European Union made significant c ontributions and additiona l concessions in this 
direction, for example in the area of agriculture negotiations, but it seems that other important players 
are not equally prepared or ready to compro mise in order to complete the DDA package. 
 
We need to recognize that there is a real risk  to abandon the process altogether, thus losing 
the important progress achieved over a decade of di fficult negotiations.  Enhancing the multilateral 
trade system and completing the DDA would benef it everybody, including developing countries.  It 
would reduce distortions in farm trade and remove or reduce trade-distorting subsidies, addressing in 
this way the specific concerns of LDCs and also boosting South-South trade. 
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  Cyprus remains committed to advancing the DDA process and keeping markets open.  This 
will be reflected in our goals and priorities duri ng our Presidency of the European Union Council in 
the second half of 2012.  We welc ome the relevant initiatives of the Director-General of the WTO and 
of other Members such as the joint ministerial press statement against protectionism.  
To bear fruit, however, these initiatives require  that WTO Members finally come to terms 
with the core questions of a fair distribution of ri ghts and obligations in the system.  For us, this 
clearly involves more reciprocity of commitme nts between developed countries and emerging 
economies, although we do not envisage full harmonization.  
To preserve the multilateral system, we must ensure that the WTO continues to contribute to 
opening up markets, to producing new trade rules and to addressing emerging challenges to world 
trade.  It is really high time to complete the Doha  Development Round.  It is really high time to start 
considering the other challenges the world is faced with.  
Let me finish with a positive message.  From wh at I heard and read during the last three days 
I am now more optimistic, there is a chance of success.   Let us all work togeth er to achieve this goal. 
 
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