. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(05)/ST/161 
17 December 2005 
 (05-6176) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Sixth Session Hong Kong, 13 - 18 December 2005 Original:   English 
 
  
IRAN 
 
Statement by HE Mr Seyed Masoud Mir Kazemi
 
Minister of Commerce  
 
(Speaking as an Observer ) 
  
 In the name of God, the Compassionate, the Merciful  
  I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the government of Hong Kong, China for hosting this Ministerial Conference.  My thanks w ould also go to the Director-General of the WTO 
and his colleagues at the Secretariat for organizing this important event.  
 The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran is pleased to be represented for the first time 
at a WTO Ministerial Conference since the long-aw aited approval of its request for accession in May 
this year.  I would hereby like to convey to y ou the determination of my Government to seek full 
membership in the WTO.  We have made a strategic choice, as embodied in our long-term 
development visions and plans, to create favourable  conditions for our natio nal economy to interact 
proactively with the world economy. 
  Over the past several  years, my Government has emba rked upon major macroeconomic and 
trade policy reforms aimed at promoting efficiency , effectiveness and creating a competitive business 
environment for its public and private enterprises.  
 The scope of such measures extends well beyond short-term policy shifts or cosmetic legal 
reforms to include structural measures such as unifica tion of foreign exchange rates, privatization of 
state enterprises, promotion of foreign investment, tarrification and elimination of non-tariff barriers 
and extensive deregulation and ot her substantive legal reforms. 
 
 In order to guarantee a safe and developm ent-oriented accession to the WTO, the Islamic 
Republic of Iran will need to have recourse to special flexibilities provided for developing countries 
under relevant WTO provisions during the course of its accession.   We also hope that non-economic factors would not adversely affect the process of our 
accession and expect that no state's accession process would be used as a bargaining chip and hijacked 
by any single Member State to advance its political  agenda.  We are prepared to extend our full 
cooperation to the WTO Secretariat during the course of our accession negotiations and will 
accordingly count on its technical assistance in this process.   Concerning the negotiating issues under this Round, we believe the current status of 
multilateral rules governing agricultural products in  particular remains a far cry from what the 
architects of the multilateral trading system had hoped fo r.  Any effort aimed at alleviating poverty in 
developing countries and LDCs would require regulat ed and fair reduction of all trade-distorting WT/MIN(05)/ST/161 
Page 2  
 
 measures in this sector, taking into account the de velopment needs of developing countries.  As 
regards trade in non-agricultural products, we belie ve the developed Member States should seek ways 
to compensate for the erosion of tariff preferen ce margins of developing countries and LDCS under 
their nonreciprocal tariff preference schemes and secu re their continued preferential access to their 
markets. 
 
 In other words, in order to establish the fundamental principles of justice and fairness, the ongoing trade negotiation Round would need to be more  balanced and alleviate the special concerns 
of developing countries.  The WTO Membersh ip should undertake measures to reduce the gap 
between the developed and devel oping countries and to provide commercial and technical assistance 
to these states.  Developing countries should also devise and undertake special arrangements to 
promote the competitiveness of their economic enterprises at the global level.   Experience has demonstrated that trade liber alization contributes to the promotion of 
employment and public welfare, while imposi ng political pressures and applying arbitrary anti-
dumping measures prove detrimental to developing countries.  Regr ettably, growing unemployment 
and inefficient social security systems in developi ng countries, as compared to developed countries, 
further aggravates the existing situation.  In fact  the realization of justice as a fundamental principle 
and the promotion of spirituality call turn the exis ting divergences into convergence and help alleviate 
poverty-related problems and social and moral crises  thus leading to the promotion of welfare and 
prosperity of humanity. 
 
 In conclusion the improvement of economic capabilities of developing countries and LDCs 
would be achieved through more effective access to the markets or the developed countries, and it can 
contribute to the growth of world trade as well as benefit the developed country societies.  
 I hope that the Member States would take ev ery effort to ensure that "Development Round" 
does not prove a misnomer for the ongoing multilateral trade negotiations.  
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