. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/MIN(05)/ST/91 
16 December 2005 
 (05-6082) 
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE 
Sixth Session Hong Kong, 13 - 18 December 2005 Original:   English 
 
  
THE SEPARATE CUSTOMS TERRITORY OF TAIWAN, 
 PENGHU, KINMEN AND MATSU 
 
Statement by HE Mrs Ho Mei-Yueh
 
Minister of Economic Affairs  
   It is my great pleasure and honour to lead my delegation of the Separate Customs Territory of 
Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu to participat e in the Sixth WTO Ministerial Conference. 
  We strongly believe in the principle of trade liberalization and we fully support the WTO.  
Our strong belief is built upon the true  benefits of the multilateral tradi ng system we have been able to 
enjoy over the past few decades a nd the continuous economic growth that is accelerated directly by 
our accession to the WTO. 
 
 Since we became a full Member of the WTO, our  imports and exports ha ve been increasing at 
the same time and more jobs created, unemployment diminishing.  These are real benefits that our people can truly enjoy.  
 We are demonstrating to all WTO Members with our first-hand experience that trade 
liberalization is mutually beneficial and also a pow erful tool in alleviating poverty and enhancing the 
standards of living.  Through trade, our per cap ita GDP expands from US$1, 000 to US$15,000 within 
three decades.   However, fast liberalization of our market does carry along certain necessary precautions in 
transition that have to be dealt with effectively so as to mitigate the short-term impact on certain 
sectors of the economy.   As the newly acceded Members have made substantial commitments during their accessions, in order to facilitate further reform, certain flexib ility must be provided to maintain the momentum of 
liberalization. 
  For this round of negotiations, I would like to focus my comments in four major topics.   First, on agriculture, as a net food importer, we firmly support the complete elimination of all 
forms of export subsidies, subs tantial reduction in domestic suppor t and improvement in market 
access with flexibility.  It is our belief that this will provide new opportunities for developing Members and LDCs to increase their co mpetitiveness in the global market. 
  We are also of the opinion that NAMA is a nother important avenue to a better global trade 
development.  For this Round, we believe that the result of negotiation must deliver meaningful 
market access opportunities.  We therefore suppor t the adoption of the Swiss formula with two 
coefficients along with a reasonably narrow gap.  WT/MIN(05)/ST/91 
Page 2  
 
 Thirdly, as the service sector has become more and more important in the contribution to economic growth, we feel it is imperative that we  reach a substantial outcome in service negotiations 
here in Hong Kong.  We are of the opinion that the current Ministerial Statement draft text could be a 
very good starting point and an ideal road map for future negotiations.  
 Development is the key of this Round and I woul d like to take this opport unity to reaffirm our 
commitment to the development goal.  In this  regard, we have comp leted our domestic legal 
procedure in granting LDCs with duty-free access to products of their export in terests, in addition to 
our continuing donations to the Global Trust Fund for technical assistance.  
 As a full Member of the WTO, we spare no e fforts in contributing to the multilateral trading 
system and we also believe that all Members are indispensable to the WTO.   In that spirit, all 
Members should be able to participate on equal footing.   In fact, the Director-General mentioned in  his speech during the inaugural session that all 
Members have equal rights, no matter whether they ar e big or small.  We cannot agree more with the 
Director-General.  However, it appears to us that there are occasions on which certain individuals of 
the Secretariat did not strictly follow this principle.   We would like to emphasize that WTO is a Me mber-driven organization and no individual of 
the Secretariat should take any initiative without c onsulting Members concerned.  This is crucial in 
safeguarding the integrity of the WTO. 
 
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