. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
WT/MIN(11)/ST/10 
15 December 2011  
 
(11-6567) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Eighth Session Geneva, 15 - 17 December 2011 Original:   English 
 
  
KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA 
 
Statement by Dr Mohammed Alkathiri 
Deputy Minister for Technical Affairs, Ministry of Commerce and Industry 
   I am very pleased to extend greetings on beha lf of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to all 
participants in the Eighth WTO Ministerial Confer ence.  Mr Chairman, I would like to congratulate 
and thank you for organizing this event, and to e xpress my gratitude to our hosts, the Government of 
the Swiss Confederation and the Canton of Geneva.   First and foremost, I want to emphasize that  the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia believes that 
free trade is essential for global prosperity.  On our part, we have maintained and implemented an open-trade, anti-protectionist policy and wish all countries to do the same, we have refrained from 
imposing trade restrictions during challenging economi c times, in line with WTO rules and consistent 
with G-20 leadership on the free trade agenda.  The Kingdom has been strongly supportive of the 
efforts on Aid for Trade within the WTO Global Trus t Fund and also the efforts to scale-up financing 
of international trade.  When the Internati onal Finance Corporation launched its Global Trade 
Liquidity Program in the aftermath of the global cris is, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia did not hesitate 
in providing a significant part of its funding, and also supports the World Food Programme's 
humanitarian food purchases to be exempted from export restrictions.   As a recently acceded Member of the WTO, Saudi Arabia undertook wide-ranging commitments in all key sectors of WTO coverage.  We made these commitments with the understanding that the results of the Doha Devel opment Agenda would help correct the imbalance 
between countries that have recently joined the WTO and existing Members of the Organization.  
Although the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, like many Memb ers here today, is disappointed that the 
Round has not been concluded, I hereby reconf irm that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia remains 
strongly committed to a successful and balanced co nclusion of the Round with the central goal of 
advancing development interests especially of the p oorest countries who require the most attention in 
such trade negotiations.  The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia does not, however, support broadening and 
complicating the multilateral agenda of trade nego tiations with new issues before the DDA is 
concluded based on its existing, agreed agenda.   There has been much discussion about inclus iveness at the WTO and the positive result of 
interaction among the WTO, non-Member countries,  and other international inter-governmental 
organizations.  In this connection, the Kingdom of Sa udi Arabia considers that there is no legitimate, 
technical reason to block the reasonable requests of  Palestine and the League of Arab States for 
observer status to the WTO, and that such st atus should be granted without further delay. 
  On a related matter, I note that Arabic is the fifth most spoken native language in the world.  
Therefore, the WTO would more effectively fulfil it s mission if Arabic is made an official working WT/MIN(11)/ST/10 
Page 2  
 
  language that would, among other things, encour age government participation and would increase 
public awareness of this important institution.   Finally, Saudi Arabia heartily welcomes th e Russian Federation, Montenegro, Vanuatu, and 
Samoa to the WTO membership.  My Government l ooks forward to working with you all to advance 
our mutual economic interests.  I would also like to recall that broad, inclusive WTO Membership 
benefits both developed an d developing countries, so it is incumben t on us to improve the procedures 
for accessions to ensure fairness at the same time that we obtain compliance with important rules and 
disciplines.  
 The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will maintain its  steadfast commitment to the WTO, and we 
have great faith in the Organization as a pilla r of the membership's  collective interest. 
 
__________