. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(05)/ST/168 
17 December 2005 
 (05-6186) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Sixth Session Hong Kong, 13 - 18 December 2005 Original:   English 
 
  
LAO PEOPLE'S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC 
 
Statement by HE Mr Siaosavath Savengsuksa
 
Vice Minister of Commerce  
 
(Speaking as an Observer ) 
  
 On behalf of the Lao Government, I wish to  join other delegates in congratulating the 
Hong Kong Government for the excellent arra ngements and warmest hospitality for the 6
th WTO 
Ministerial Meeting held in Hong Kong.   I also would like to extend my gratitude to the host government, WTO and UNDP for their kind support for our delegation to participate in this meeting. 
 
 Laos applied for WTO membership in 1997 aiming at fostering trade and economic development through integrating into the internat ional trading system.  Its first Working Party 
meeting was held on 28 October 2004.  At present,  we are preparing for the second Working Party 
meeting and hope to obtain membership on reasonabl e terms and within a feasible time-frame.  We 
consider WTO membership is essential for us to in tegrate into the world economy and thus enhance 
our trade which will enable us to achieve fast er economic development and poverty reduction. 
  We strongly believe that all Members will activ ely negotiate for a substantial result of this 
Doha Development Round with areas that have a great relevance to our country, including: 
 
- Special and Differential Treatment is and will always form an integral part of the 
WTO Agreements.  The full implementation of the provisions are needed on Special and Differential Treatment.  They also need to be made more precise, effective and operational. 
 
- LDCs need to be granted unconditional  duty-free and quota-free market access for 
their agricultural exports into both deve loped and developing markets.  Domestic 
support and export subsidies for agricultural  production that have an adverse impact 
on trade need to be phased out. 
 
- The tariff peaks, high tariffs and tariff es calation in the non-agricultural sector hinder 
the development of economic activities in poor er countries and thus these need to be 
addressed with due regard. 
 - The negotiations on services to date have not  made much satisfactory results as they 
should, including more open services sectors of interest to LDCs with respect to 
Mode IV. 
 WT/MIN(05)/ST/168 
Page 2  
 
  As an acceding LDC to WTO membership, we  wish to support all the proposals made by 
LDCs' delegation and the common positions of LDCs in the Livingstone Declaration that has been 
adopted at the Fourth LDC Trade Ministers Meeting in Zambia, June 2005.  In particular, we would 
like to refer to the Declaration on the LDCs accession issue which requests a full and faithful 
implementation of the Guidelines for LDCs accession  to the WTO, adopted by the General Council 
on December 2002. 
 
In this context, we would like to propose as follows:  - We strongly request all of the WTO Memb ers, in particular developed country 
members, to take into account what is stat ed in the Decision on guidelines to simplify 
and streamline accession procedures for the LDCs, while having accession negotiations with the acceding countries. 
 - Even though the Decision to facilitate the accession of LDCs exists, a number of 
LDCs in accession process continue to experience problems in the course of 
negotiations.  Therefore, we would like to request the WTO Members to 
substantively review the implementation of the guidelines for accession of LDCs. 
 - In order to make the Decision really eff ective and operational, and the acceding LDCs 
are being treated fairly in the negotiation pr ocess, the involvement of the chairmen of 
working parties and the WTO Director-General is very important, 
 - Special and Differential Provisions that  would emerge from the Doha Round should 
be made mandatorily applicable to acceding LDCs. 
 
- Because of our limited resources, the WT O Secretariat should identify concrete 
technical assistance and capacity-building actions to facilitate an LDC's accession from the early stages. 
 - The WTO work programme on the least developed countries should incorporate the 
accession on LDCs as a priority component. 
 
 Once again, let me reaffirm our belief in the role of WTO for countries to achieve the 
economic development and poverty a lleviation objectives.  This is an opportunity for us to produce a 
common ground for the Doha Development Agenda, in order to make it a truly significant development Round. 
 
 I wish the 6
th Hong Kong Ministerial Meeting a great success. 
 
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