WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(09)/ST/104 
2 December 2009 
 (09-6317) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Seventh Session Geneva, 30 November - 2 December 2009 Original:   English 
 
  
EGYPT 
 
Statement of H.E. Mr. Rachid Mohamed Rachid
 
Minister of Trade and Industry  
   I would like to express my appreciation to Pascal Lamy, Director General of the WTO, and his team as well as to the chair of the council for th eir tireless efforts in c onvening the seventh session 
of our Conference. 
  There is no doubt that our assembly gathers today amidst unprecedented times. A multitude of events have been influencing the dynamics of  the multilateral trading system and the pace and 
direction of the DDA negotiations. Indeed, we have a challenging agenda and we need to remain 
vigilant to safeguard the legitimacy of the WTO and multilateralism and act purposely to re-position 
the DDA at the heart of our trading system. 
  Our economies have been suffering from the Gl obal economic crisis.  Developing countries 
remain particularly vulnerable to further contracti on of their exports, as well as to shortages of trade 
financing, liquidity and declini ng foreign direct investment, falling commodity prices, increasing food 
insecurity, reductions in remittances and uncertainty over the future of trade finance and securing 
additional, predictable and sustainable aid for trade.    In the same vein, we have been confronted with the challenge of mitigating the incremental 
impacts of the food, financial, fuel crisis and we  remain concerned with the incremental build-up of 
trade restrictions that undercut the effectiveness of policies to boost aggregate demand and restore 
sustained growth. 
  We in Egypt have always recognized, and now more  than ever before, the role of international 
trade in promoting economic development, creating jobs and alleviating poverty. That is why we 
believe that a fair and successful conclusion of the DDA would represent an urgently needed stimulus 
package for Africa. Delivering on “ development ” should remain the core component of the DDA. It is 
not in our disposition to rely on political intents, nor endure further slippage, or draw any new road 
maps and we obviously can’t keep on missing more deadlines to conclude the round.   What we need is determination and real commi tment, translation of political intentions into 
concrete actions to bridge the re maining gaps.  For this to happen,  we need to uphold the mandates, 
oppose any backtracking and counter new notions intr oduced to the detriment of development. We 
believe that it is time to halt the transpositio n of the DDA into a mere market access endeavour. 
Negotiations regarding “process” should not be an end in themselves. Our ownership of the DDA 
should be preserved. All of these are issues that require  our urgent attention. Shying away or failure to 
do so risks feeding paralysis into the multilateral trading system. This would inevitably have its 
repercussion on the future of the WTO and its modus-operandi  and credibility. The fact, that today’s WT/MIN(09)/ST/104 
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  conference is not a negotiating venue shouldn’t precl ude us from taking action to bridge the remaining 
negotiating gaps.   In this context, Egypt and Africa’s positions have been clearly reflected in the “ Cairo 
Communiqué ” adopted last month by the African Ministers of Trade and has been distributed to 
everyone. However, I would like to emphasize on four  parameters which we believe are of crucial 
importance for our future work at the WTO:   1. Safeguarding the integrity of mu ltilateralism and restoring global economic 
confidence is of crucial importance. The role  of the WTO in monitoring the effects of 
the global crisis on emerging and developing economies should be preserved and 
further developed, as has been proposed by the African Group. The WTO has within its mandate a role in monitoring the impli cations of stimulus programmes and their 
possible effects on international trade; as we ll as to implement the decisions related to 
net food importing countries; and invigorat e the monitoring and implementation of 
Aid for Trade to ensure that developing and least developed countries supply side 
capacities and needs are being met from additional sources of finance and not from committed or allocated preferential sources of ODA.  
  2. Improving the negotiating process within th e WTO requires more attention. We must 
recognize that there is room for improving transparency and the inclusiveness of the 
negotiations. The negotiating process must re main multilateral and fully transparent. 
We need not dilute our ownership of the DDA. Although informal bilateral and 
plurilateral consultations may be useful in enhancing mutual understanding, these 
consultations however cannot be a substitute  for a genuine multilateral process, nor 
should they affect the consensus reach ed within the multilateral context.  
 
 3. The global economic crisis, hasn’t chal lenged national economies alone, but has also 
challenged the global economic governance.  The world today is facing other 
significant challenges, namely the food a nd fuel crises and climate change. These 
crises are questioning our prevailing econom ic policy paradigms and require us, all 
WTO Members, to carefully realign our tools, models and strategies. It is in this 
context that WTO needs to enhance its visibility and collaboration with other 
international instituti ons and organizations. 
  4. Food security become an important issue to the whole globe. Its is difficult to imagine 
a serious effective effort to achieve the food security equation without addressing 
trade liberalization of agriculture products . Only such liberalization would encourage 
the surge of investment we seek to achie ve the food security reality specially to 
developing countries. 
  5. On the DDA, Africa expects to urgent ly capitalize on the development dimension of 
this round, which is an essential prerequisite in underpinning any significant revival 
of world trade. Delivering on development remains the litmus test for our collective 
ability to uphold the integrity and legitimacy  of the multilateral trading system. It is 
so, not because of coincidence, but as a matter of deliberate choice and determination to make trade work for development and to  further integrate developing economies in 
the global economic system. This would involve among other issues improving the 
communication strategy of the WTO by inter alia  introducing the Arabic language as 
an official working language in the multilateral trading system. 
  WT/MIN(09)/ST/104 
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   Finally, a collective responsibility rests upon us all; and on the part, we are resolved to 
enhance our engagement to constructively address a nd take concrete actions to address these very 
important issues.    Wishing you all a fruitful conference. 
 
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