. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(05)/ST/134 
17 December 2005 
 (05-6130) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Sixth Session Hong Kong, 13 - 18 December 2005 Original:   Spanish 
 
 
 
PERU 
 
Statement by HE Mr Manuel Rodríguez Cuadros
  
Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office and other  
International Organizations at Geneva  
  
 Peru welcomes Saudi Arabia and Tonga to th e World Trade Organization with the conviction 
that their membership will contribute to build ing a free, open and balanced multilateral trading 
system. 
  Hong Kong has given us a warm welcome, a nd the economic and social vibrancy of the 
region perhaps symbolizes what can be accomplishe d by free trade combined with development. 
  We offer our congratulations to the tw o new WTO Members and our thanks to the 
Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrati ve Region for its hospita lity and organizational 
efficiency.   Everything points to the fact that the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference will be a stepping stone – hopefully a positive one – towards fulf illing the ambitious objectives of the Doha Round, 
which we expect to end in 2006.  We hope to achieve a concrete result, despite the continuing absence 
of the consensus needed to address the substan tive issues on the negotiating agenda.  However, 
constructive realism should not allow for desponde ncy, but encourage governments to take the 
domestic and foreign policy decisions that will ensure the success of the negotiations next year.  It is 
not only equitable trade liberalization which is at st ake.  Also at stake are the future legitimacy and 
viability of this Organization, which must  tap into its truly multilateral roots. 
 
 The Round is certainly not confined to offers  and counter-offers in agriculture and access for 
industrial goods.  Agriculture is, however, a key issue, and this must be recognized. 
  Since 1994, world trade has greatly increased.  Trade in goods has risen by nine per cent in 
real terms.  Growth has been recorded in all re gions and the world average has exceeded the increase 
in GDP by five points.  This makes trade an essen tial tool for economic activity and development.  
But such growth is unequal, and its effects on de velopment and people's day-to-day lives are also 
unequal.  The Gini index of inequality is not decreasi ng, either in the relati onship between developing 
countries and industrialized countries or within socie ties;  what is worse, it appears to be rising. 
 
 In order for trade liberalization to play a greater  role in reducing poverty, it is vital to prevent 
inequality in trade advantages and opportunities.  Th is is why the Doha Round must herald swingeing 
cuts dramatic reduction in domestic support for ag ricultural production and the phasing out of export 
subsidies.  Let us be clear:  the developed countries have to make  structural adjustments in their 
agricultural sectors, just as developing countries have done in their economies as a whole.  The 
developing countries, with large segments of their p opulations living on only two dollars a day, have 
paid the price for such adjustments.   It is vital that the industria lized economies undertake agricultural WT/MIN(05)/ST/134 
Page 2  
 
reform, eliminate inefficiencies and distortions, open their markets and contribute to making the 
process of trade liberalization more equitable.   Some offers have been made which, although s till insufficient, are encouraging.  In the next 
few months, we hope that there will be greater mobil ity so that we can overcome the main barriers to 
free trade, namely agricultural supports and subsidi es which distort price structures and conditions of 
competition to the detriment of the competitiven ess of entrepreneurs and poor farmers in the 
developing world.   However, we are not only calling for a drastic reduction in supports and the phasing out of 
agricultural export subsidies.  Industrialized mark ets must significantly reduce tariffs on agricultural 
imports, by eliminating tariff peaks and tariff escalatio n.  It is also essential that they phase out a wide 
range of protectionist non-tariff measures.   Whether the WTO can successfully conclude its  first round of trade negotiations next year, 
just as GATT did in the previous eight years, will depend on the political capacity to adopt not only 
the above-mentioned decisions, but also those that  call for equally substantive progress as regards 
market access for industrial goods, the opening of ser vices markets, the pressing need to introduce a 
commercially useful element into the development agenda, and special and differential treatment, in 
favour of LDCs in particular.  
 Peru has a special interest in achieving the lib eralization of tropical products and products of 
importance in the substitution of crops used for the illicit production of narcotics.  The principle of 
shared responsibility in combating drug trafficking calls for urgent measures in this field.  The 
opening up of markets, without distortions, an d free access to such markets for alternative 
development products are, realistically, the most legitimate and powerful tools for combating drug 
trafficking. 
  The vision of development in this Round must  be enhanced.  We must go beyond rhetoric.  
Development must be a cross-cutting theme informi ng the entire agenda.  In this connection, it is 
vitally important to ensure free competition between all service providers.  We must undertake to liberalize the movement of temporary workers, thus allowing the world to choose excellence and 
competitiveness and overcome the discrimination that cu rrently exists regarding the free movement of 
labour.   For Peru and the developing countries, the protection of biodiversity under the patents regime of the TRIPS Agreement is a key priority.  Peru has worked tirelessly on this issue and has shown the 
TRIPS Council, through reference to specific cases, how at present the patents system does not afford 
the necessary protection to its biogenetic resources or  to the traditional knowledge associated with its 
indigenous populations, since the country cont inues to experience cases of biopiracy and 
misappropriation, with damaging consequences fo r the domestic economy, indigenous communities 
and poor farmers, not to mention th e country's biodiverse heritage.  
 
 If we really want Doha to be the Developmen t Round, we must ensure that the obligation to 
disclose the origin and source of genetic resources and knowledge used in inventions is recognized as 
a requirement for the granting of patents, together with the presentation of evidence of prior informed  
consent and benefit-sharing.  
 Hong Kong must give us the confidence to a pproach the negotiations with a constructive 
vision.  
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