WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
WT/MIN(11)/17 
16 December 2011 
 (11-6574) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Eighth Session Geneva, 15 - 17 December 2011 Original:   English 
 
  
FRIENDS OF DEVELOPMENT 
MINISTERIAL DECLARATION 
 
15 December 2011 
Geneva, Switzerland  
 
 
The following communication, dated 15 December 2011, and addressed to the Chairman of 
the General Council is being circulated at the request of the Delegation of Kenya. 
 
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I am pleased to forward a Ministerial Declaration adopted on 15 December 2011 in a 
Ministerial Meeting held in Geneva of the 'Fri ends of Development' group comprising the African 
Group, the African Caribbean Pacific Group, the L east Developed Countries, the Small Vulnerable 
Economies, Argentina, Brazil, China, Ecuador , India, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela.  
 
This meeting was presided over by the Coordi nator of the Africa Group H.E. Amos Muhinga 
Kimunya, Minister of Transport, Kenya.  
 
The Ministers belonging to the "Friends of Development", which includes more than one 
hundred developing countries (list attached), urge that this Declaration,  be taken on record as part of 
the deliberations of the Ministerial Conference and also be included in part two of the Chair’s concluding statement. We further request that th is Declaration be also issued as a formal WTO 
document. 
  
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1. We, the Ministers of the African Union, th e African Caribbean Pacific Group, the Least 
Developed Countries, the Small Vulnerable Economi es, Argentina, Brazil, China, Ecuador, India, 
Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela met on 15 December 2011 in Geneva before the 8
th World Trade 
Organisation (WTO) Ministerial Conference, to review  the current status of developments relating to 
multilateral trade. 
2. We remain fully committed to concluding  the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) 
negotiations. We believe that without the completio n of the Doha Round, the credibility of the WTO 
would suffer a damaging blow and it would seriously  circumscribe the WTO’s future endeavours. 
3. The Doha Round needs to be concluded, beari ng fully in mind the membership’s commitment 
to the core principles of the DDA, viz. the deve lopment mandate, single undertaking, decision making WT/MIN(11)/17 
Page 2  
 
  based on multilateral consensus and progress made a nd a bottom up approach that is inclusive and 
transparent. 
4. We are disappointed at the impasse in the D oha Round. We are willing to look at different 
approaches that are constructive to resolving the impasse. However, we do not support the adoption of 
a plurilateral approach to concluding the Round or parts of it, because it goes against the principles of 
multilateralism and inclusiveness. Therefore, any fr esh approach has to be a multilateral consensus 
based one, firmly anchored within the Doha Mandate. 
5. We also acknowledge that Members should try to explore  making progress on elements of 
the Doha Declaration that allow them to reac h provisional or definitive agreements based on 
consensus, but the first priority must be given to issues of interest to the least developed countries 
(LDCs), such as the full implementation of Deci sion 36 of Annex F of the Hong Kong Ministerial 
Declaration, Cotton, Agreement Specific Proposal s and other development issues like Special and 
Differential Treatment (S&DT) in different ar eas, the Monitoring Mechanism, Implementation 
Related Issues and concerns and Agriculture. 
6. Development has to remain at the centre of any approach not only for an early harvest 
programme but across all areas of the Doha Round ne gotiations and other WTO wo rk. In this context, 
we reaffirm the need to strengthen the functi oning of the Committee on Trade and Development 
(CTD) so as to enable it to conduct a Develo pment Review of all S&D provisions in the WTO 
Agreements. 
7. We recognise that the WTO provides a forum for discussion of trade related matters. Any 
trade related issue should be discussed in the a ppropriate body constituted under the WTO, provided it 
follows due process and is guided by the principl es of inclusiveness, transparency and multilateral 
consensus based decision making. 
8. We firmly stand against the rise of protectioni sm and remain committed to resist it in all 
forms, provided there is full recognition of a Memb er’s ability to use WTO consistent measures to 
achieve its legitimate objectives of growth, development and stability. 
9. We welcome the accession of Vanuatu, Samoa, Montenegro and the Russian Federation to the 
WTO. We also welcome the decision to evolve benchmarks for the accession of Least Developed Countries and urge Members to fully commit themsel ves to the letter and spirit of the decision in 
order to make the WTO a more representative and universal organization. 
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List of Members of 'Friends of Development'  
African Caribbean Pacific Group (ACP) 
WTO members (58):  Angola, Antigua and Barbuda, Barba dos, Belize, Benin, Botswana, Burkina 
Faso, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, Cape Ve rde, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Cuba, 
Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Do minica, Dominican Republic, Fiji, Gabon, Gambia, 
Ghana, Grenada, Guinea,  Guinea Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Jama ica, Kenya, Lesotho, Madagascar, 
Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, 
Rwanda, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Sain t Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Gr enadines, Senegal, Sierra Leone, 
Solomon Islands, South Africa, Suriname, Swaziland , Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, 
Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe 
  WT/MIN(11)/17 
 Page 3 
 
 
  African group 
 
WTO members (41):  Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina F aso, Burundi, Côte d’Ivoire, Cameroon, 
Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, 
Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Kenya, L esotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, 
Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, 
Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe  
LDC (Least Developed Countries) 
 
WTO members (31):  Angola, Bangladesh, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cambodia, Central 
African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of  the Congo, Djibouti, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea 
Bissau, Haiti, Lesotho, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Myanmar, Nepal, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solo mon Islands, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia 
 Small, Vulnerable Economies (SVEs)  
WTO members (15):  Barbados, Bolivia, Plurinational State of, Cuba, Dominican Republic, 
El Salvador, Fiji, Guatemala, Honduras, Mald ives, Mauritius, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Papua New 
Guinea, Paraguay, Trinidad and Tobago  Argentina Brazil China Ecuador India 
Paraguay 
Uruguay  Venezuela 
 
 
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