. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(05)/ST/129 
17 December 2005 
 (05-6161) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Sixth Session Hong Kong, 13 - 18 December 2005 Original:   English 
 
  
SAINT VINCENT AND THE GRENADINES 
 
Statement by Ms La Celia Prince
 
Minister Counsellor, Embassy of St Vincent and the Grenadines  
in Washington  
   On behalf of the Government of St. Vincen t and the Grenadines, I wish to extend my 
compliments and congratulations to the Govern ment of the Hong Kong Special Administrative 
Region, China for hosting this Sixth WTO Mini sterial Conference and the warm welcome which 
has been extended to our delegation.  We are al so appreciative of the efforts made by the WTO 
Director-General Pascal Lamy and the Secretariat for th e hard work that they have put in leading up to 
this Conference.  
 The Doha Ministerial Conference of 2001 agreed to a Development Round.  Four years on 
and the development which was vowed to be at the h eart of the agenda, appears to be no more than an 
appendix in the negotiations.  We are still looking fo r meaningful action which will help galvanize our 
economies into the 21
st century and lift our people out of the jaws of poverty. 
 
 St. Vincent and the Grenadines is committed to the multilateral trading process and wants 
very much to be a part of any consensus-building here in Hong Kong, but as a small, vulnerable non-LDC, St. Vincent and the Grenadines needs firs t to have some development issues addressed at 
this Ministerial Conference.   Of paramount importance to us are: 
 
• Special and differential treatment;  
• long-standing preferences; 
• aid for trade; 
• services negotiations; 
• tariff reduction approaches. 
  We applaud the efforts made by Member Stat es to advance the development of the LDCs.  
But in all this, developing non-LDCs should not be forgotten.  To be sure, all developing countries are 
not identical in their circumstanc es, and as such, due recognition must be paid to small, vulnerable 
non-LDC economies whose real chances for economic dive rsification are limited.   These are countries 
which are unable to take advantage of economies of scale due to their miniscule size and lack of 
institutional capacity and who have little or no na tural resources, and are constantly menaced by 
natural disasters which take their countries several  steps backwards in terms of development. 
 
 In these circumstances, it is trading preferen ces which have allowed these countries to survive 
and raise their standard of living.  It is these pr eferences that have allowed our governments to plan 
for our country's long-term economic growth.  Our percentage of trade on the world market is so 
small that the granting of preferences will have abso lutely no discernible trade-distorting effects.  On WT/MIN(05)/ST/129 
Page 2  
 
 the other hand however, these preferences are so signif icant to our countries, that their rapid erosion 
will spell disastrous socio economic consequences for our economy and our Caribbean region.  We 
therefore seek after the preservation of long-standing banana and other preferences.   Negotiations for trade liberalization must take account of the need for special and differential 
treatment being accorded to small, vulnerable non-LD Cs.  The need for S&D treatment becomes even 
more dire in the face of preference erosion.  Our S&D requirements include, but are not limited to longer time-periods for implementing WTO agreem ents, as well as exemptions as are appropriate. 
  Aid for trade is also a vital component of any development package we seek after.  But it 
must be emphasized that the approach to this mu st be complementary to and not a substitute for 
trading preferences.  A predictable stream of aid is needed to address supply-side constraints faced by 
countries with small economies to help build our capacity.  Additionally, adequate technical and 
financial assistance must be granted to buttress our participation in international trade negotiations, 
train our human resources and fac ilitate implementation of the legal and trade-related infrastructure 
needed for honouring our WTO commitments. 
  It is time that the developed countries dem onstrate their commitment to development by 
removing subsidies which harm our competitive pros pects and inhibit market access.  The demands 
for tariff reduction from small developing countri es must be tempered with adequate flexibilities 
allowing for sustained income and sufficient policy space for local development. 
 
 Because of our small size, the scope for pr oduction and trade in many commodities on a large 
scale is constrained.  Nevertheless we do have some  special products of vital importance to our trade 
interests and thus wish to see the speedy conclusi on of arrangements which will allow us to designate 
these products as such. 
 
 Our capacity to develop significant industrial pr oduct trade is also limited.  For us tariffs 
represent a resource generation mechanism.  Therefore we  have to be very careful to ensure that the 
pace and scope of tariff reduction allow us to satisf actorily complete fiscal reforms which we wish to 
pursue over time.  We therefore cannot subscrib e to reduction modalities which would have the 
consequence of destabilizing public revenues. 
 
 The services sector provides us with real opportunities to pursue economic growth and diversification.  However, we are conscious of the fact that we still have a far way to go to develop 
the regulatory framework that will enable us to pur sue the aggressive servi ces liberalization agenda 
being promoted by others.  Indeed, we want to liber alize, but we must do so only in ways which are 
sustainable to our development.  We must resist any effort to prescribe for us how we should pursue 
our national services agenda, or which attempts to force us into modalities that we do not have the 
capacity to cope with.   The success of this Ministerial Conference w ill be judged by how faithful the meeting has 
been to the goals it has set out to achieve.  It will indeed be ironic if at the end of this Round, the 
countries that need it most are wors e off or are in no better position in terms of their development.  
My Government is committed to achieving the Millennium Development Goals, but needs the 
assistance from the membership of the WTO to make it a reality.   We believe that a fair and equitable multilate ral trading system, which does not employ a one 
size fits all approach, but rather  addresses the peculiarities of small, vulnerable non-LDCs can deliver 
the right results for our country. 
 
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