. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
WT/MIN(11)/ST/19 
16 December 2011 
 (11-6564) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Eighth Session Geneva, 15 - 17 December 2011 Original:   Spanish 
 
  
ARGENTINA 
 
Statement by H.E. Mr Alfredo Chiaradia 
Head of Delegation 
 
  We should like to add our voice to those who ha ve preceded us in thanking Switzerland for its 
hospitality.  We also wish to express our apprecia tion to the Director-Gener al, Pascal Lamy, and our 
congratulations to the Chairman of the Conference. 
  We should like to welcome the new Members:   the Russian Federation, Montenegro, Samoa 
and Vanuatu.   In addition, we fully support the statements  of the Informal Group of Developing Countries, 
the "Friends of Development", the Group of 20 and the Cairns Group. 
  For the first time in over a decade, we, the Members of the WTO, are attending a Ministerial 
Conference that is not devoted to achieving ad vances within a round of trade negotiations. 
 
 From now on we must concentrate on strengthe ning the multilateral trading system, since the 
importance and centrality of the WTO go far beyond the negotiating round.  
However, the question arises as to what it means to strengthen the multilateral trading system.  
Does it perhaps mean that the WTO should expand its monitoring, even pointing to legitimate 
measures that some of its Members might adopt?  Or does it mean advancing on the basis of 
initiatives biased towards some specific interests;  or doing so through non-exclusive procedures?  In 
our judgement that is not what is required of the WTO at this moment.   There have been many changes in the intern ational structure since the completion of the 
Uruguay Round. 
 
Since then - and more specifically since the establishment of the Group of 20 (agriculture) - 
the model by which a group of important Members reached understandings that were then extended 
on a multilateral basis and formalized in laws of international trade is no longer viable. 
 
 There now seem to be only two valid options in f acing up to our future work within the WTO.  
One option, which from our point of view is preferab le, consists in agreeing a working agenda with a 
view to creating a level playing field in trade and making it more equitable for all the Members. 
  However, if the serious difficulties of some Members prevent them, for the time being, from 
having sufficient political will to support such an agenda, we must, at least, commit ourselves to 
observing the existing set of rules, despite their bias regarding the interests of the developing 
countries.  We do not favour this path, but we will accept it. WT/MIN(11)/ST/19 
Page 2  
 
   What we will certainly not be able to accep t, Mr Chairman, is a backward-looking agenda, 
which accentuates still more the current unevenness of the playing field.   That would be the aim of some initiatives to  make the developing countries give up their 
capacity to fix tariffs within nego tiated bound levels.  Naturally, we shall defend our right to preserve 
those policy areas which we legitimately regard as our own. 
  As regards agriculture, the bastion of protectionism , the situation is very serious.  It is not just 
the fact that the process of re form in agriculture has stopped, despite what was agreed in the 
Uruguay Round, but also the fact that the modest market access obtained then is being eroded by the 
growing use of technical barriers incompatible w ith the WTO rules.  This protectionism takes on 
various forms, including arbitrary private standards or unjustified barriers to technological innovation. 
  Such actions make it more difficult for the WTO to attain its objective of creating a fairer and 
market-orientated agricultural trading system.  It is, furthermore, particularly damaging for the 
developing countries, including the issue of food security.  It will not be possible to increase food 
production so as to allow it to meet future need s without technological innovation, which is now 
hindered by many of those practices.   We have also seen attempts to impose new disciplines on exports, concealed behind the concern for food security.  In fact, food security can only be strengthened through fulfilment of the 
Doha mandate with regard to agriculture.  The l ack of reform in the agricultural policies of the 
developed countries lies at the root of the problem of food insecurity.   Argentina - whose exports feed ten times its own population - undertook within the 
framework of the G20 to exclude restrictions  on exports from the purchases of the World Food 
Programme.  We strongly support that exception, but in no way will we envisage changes in the 
general WTO rules relating to exports.   As was clearly stated by some delegations at  the last meeting of the General Council, export 
tariffs are a valid tool for development.  This ki nd of measure, besides being legitimate, is an 
appropriate means of counteracting tariff escalation and also helps many developing countries to stop 
being only suppliers of raw materials.  It is a tool which is "development friendly" - unlike those who 
favour its elimination.   It is of no benefit to the system to attempt to advance towards a supposed "21
st century 
agenda" when serious, long-standing problems in the 20th century agenda are still unresolved. 
 
 Just as within our own countries, the fruits of gr owth and trade must be fairly distributed if we 
wish the system to receive the support and legitim ation of the majority.  Argentina is committed to 
this view and will act in accordance with it within  the framework of the World Trade Organization. 
 
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