WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
WT/MIN(11)/ST/39 
16 December 2011  
 
(11-6612) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Eighth Session Geneva, 15 - 17 December 2011 Original: English 
 
  
TANZANIA 
 
Statement by Ms Joyce Mapunjo 
Permanent Secretary, Industry and Trade Ministry 
  
Let me join the previous speakers who expr essed their gratitude to the Swiss Federal 
Government and her people for the warm reception acco rded to my delegation.  Allow me to also 
commend you Chair as well as the Director-General  and the Secretariat of the WTO for their 
dedication and efforts in the preparations of this ve ry important Conference.  Let me also take this 
opportunity to welcome the accession of Vanuatu, Sa moa, the Russian Federation and Montenegro to 
the WTO and hope the accession of the other countri es which are in the accession process could be 
accelerated, particularly those of LDCs as per the decision taken in document WT/COMTD/LDC/19 which I fully share.  I also emphasize the need to  further extend the LDC transition period under 
Article 66.1 of the TRIPS Agreement, welcome a nd support the adoption of Services Waiver in 
document TN/S/37 and urge the full implemen tation of Decision 36 of Annex F of the 
Hong Kong Declaration in favour of LDCs.  
Indeed, this Conference provides us an opportunity  to review the releva nce of the multilateral 
trading system as embodied in the WTO.  I very much hope that the Conference will contribute in 
further strengthening the multilateral trading syst em and to address the challenges that we are 
currently facing as a result of the global economic and financial crisis.  I am encouraged to note that, 
this house is condemning protectionism.  It should be emphasized that especially for LDCs, this will 
not impede us from exercising our full rights under the WTO Agreements and instruments.  
Developed Members should avoid the temptation of using the financial crisis as a pretext for 
introducing protectionist policies as these are disinvestment factors that would be fatal to the 
developing countries particularly LDCs.  
It would be recalled that, during the last MC 7 two years ago, we believed that early and 
successful conclusion of the DDA was more impera tive than before, which could have acted as 
a global stimulus package and contributed to grow th in the LDCs but unfortunately this never 
happened.  Tanzania still supports the continuatio n and conclusion of the Doha Work Programme 
negotiations.  There are issues in the Doha Work Programme that are important to Tanzania in 
particular and the LDCs in general.  While I take note of the reaffirmation to conclude the 
DDA negotiations, I would like to comment on few areas: 
 
First , the DDA negotiations should continue based on all the proposals that have been put on 
the table and not only the reports and texts of April 2011, since not all these texts or reports have been 
fully negotiated.  
Secondly , while it seems that there are some efforts to facilitate swifter progress by exploring 
"different negotiating approaches", we should not reinterpret paragraph 47 flexibilities as this will 
lead to undermining the principle of "Single Undertaking".  In the event of the application of WT/MIN(11)/ST/39 
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  paragraph 47, it is our understanding that this provisi on would first and foremost be used to prioritize 
the LDC package issues and development issues (Im plementation-related i ssues and concerns and 
Special and Differential Treatment issues).  The LD C-package issues must therefore be delivered as 
a priority.  This includes the completion of the duty-free quota-free negotiations for LDCs;  a standstill in cotton subsidies from today's levels  or the completion of the cotton mandate;  and 
meaningful preferences provided under the Services Waiver for LDCs.  These issues have their roots 
in the Implementation issues agenda and the Special  and Differential Treatment (SDT) issues agenda.  
As was the intention in the Doha Declaration, these issues will have to be concluded before any other 
issues.  There are also issues such as Agriculture which were in the built-in agenda of the 
Uruguay Round agreements.  This can also be prioriti zed after the development issues.  In particular, 
we are interested in seeing th e Doha Mandate on agriculture subsidies and export competition 
delivered.  
Thirdly , as part of the so called "different negotiating approaches", the Report by the 
Director-General through document WT/MIN(11)/5  used the Information Technology Agreement 
(ITA) and Government Procurement Agreement (GPA) as models for other sectors/areas.  These are 
agreements amongst only some countries.  In the case of the ITA, the commitments taken by those in 
the ITA are provided to all WTO members.  In the case of the GPA, the commitments are only offered 
to those within that plurilateral.  Tanzania, like other LDCs, may not be targeted to "join" such 
agreements (ITA or GPA-type agreements).  However,  creating more of such agreements to deal with 
certain issues from the Doha Work  Programme will eventually lead to a two-tier WTO - an "inner 
group" and an "outer group".  This has systemic im plications for the WTO - if more and more sectors 
are dealt with in this way, it will erode the multilate ral nature of the institution.  Countries wanting to 
have plurilateral agreements can go ahead with tho se outside the WTO.  The multilateral nature of the 
WTO is unique and must be preserved and maintained.  
Fourthly , we are concerned about the suggestion by some Members in the recent weeks to 
reintroduce "new issues".  These include Singapore i ssues of investment and competition;  energy 
security;  climate change, etc.  This is a new development of major concern to us.  There are some suggestions being made that if we do not make wa y for the introduction of these issues, we would be 
holding back the WTO system from being updated and from being a relevant player in the 21
st century. 
 
As some of us have said in the recent weeks, before introducing 21st century issues, there are 
still 20th century issues that have been on the table and need to be resolved, that is, the Implementation 
and SDT issues as well as the LDC-Package issu es.  Otherwise, we will move into the 21st century 
further exacerbating the imbalances of the current sy stem.  The issues that remain central to Tanzania, 
other LDCs and many other developing countries ar e supply-side constraints;  industrialization and 
diversification;  and food production.  For us, tho se issues we have already put forward particularly 
for LDCs, are aimed to address these challenges we face.  
It is also our understanding that paragraph 1g of  the July Package of 2004 prevails – that the 
trade-related issues of Investment and Competiti on "will not form part of the Work Programme 
set out in that (Doha) Declaration and therefore no work towards negotiations on any of these issues 
will take place within the WTO during the Doha Round".  
Finally, I would like to take this opportunity to associate myself with the statements made by 
Bangladesh on behalf of the LDC Group, Kenya on behalf of the African Group and Mauritius on 
behalf of the ACP Group. 
 
Tanzania remains committed to cooperate fully with the rest of the Membership towards 
successful completion of the Doha Round.  However,  I would like to emphasize that the negotiating 
process must remain multilateral and fully tr ansparent, with a bottom-up approach.   WT/MIN(11)/ST/39 
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  Bilateral and plurilateral consulta tions should neither replace the multilateral negotiations process, nor 
should they affect the consensus reached within th e multilateral context.  We also remain committed 
to support any initiative by any Member to strengthe n the WTO so that our interests and concerns in 
the multilateral trading system are adequately addressed.  
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