. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/MIN(03)/ST/157
13 September 2003
(03-4936)
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
Fifth Session
Cancún, 10 - 14 September 2003Original:  French
LEBANON
Statement by H.E. Mr Marwan Hamade
Minister of Economy and Trade
(Speaking as an Observer)
From the eastern shores of the Mediterranean to the Gulf of Mexico there are
20,000 kilometres, and a bit.  We have traversed them, coming from Lebanon, a country that was born
with trade and the alphabet and has been globalized for 6,000 years;  its liberal and open vocation
even before its official accession to the WTO makes it both an ancestor and a child of the WTO.
In Mexico, where so many of our immigrant children have found hospitality and success, I
should first like to express our deep gratitude.  I thank President Fox and the people of this great
country, expressing the hope that, in an atmosphere of prosperity and stability, they will assume their
guiding role and occupy their place as a bridge at the heart of the Americas.
To the Chairman of this assembly, to the Members of the WTO, its Director-General and all
those who have worked untiringly to make this a framework for a world in which trade will benefit
all, I express my support, my respect and my wishes for success.
As we have already seen with the problems that faced GATT and the errors made during the
Uruguay Round, the task is not an easy one.  From 1995 until now, agreements have been born in
pain.  Perhaps as a result of our detached status as an observer, we have been able to see the delays
and difficulties from Doha to Cancún, but this does not discourage us.
For a country such as ours, member of the Arab Free Trade Agreement, partner of the
European Union and candidate for WTO Membership, there is no longer any need to prove our global
credentials.  Lebanon nonetheless wishes to harmonize its trade commitments and regulate their
impact because the size of a country and its geographical situation should not be obstacles that place itat the mercy of the larger more developed and richer countries.  If we do not wish to see the WTO, at
its young age, plunged into the geriatric lethargy of the United Nations, this "Round" must be one of
reflection and questioning.  Any untimely impetus e nds up by withering away, decisions that are
forced become inoperative when they are applied.  In making a post-Doha assessment, Lebanon,
which is still an observer but already shares the great hopes for trade in the future, together with itsArab and Islamic brothers, its French-speaking associates, its development partners in Africa, Asia
and Latin America, is obliged to note that the wager taken up two years ago is running out of steam
and becoming dissipated.  The development priority presented at Doha in order to sweeten the free-
trade pills of the industrialized world has not gone beyond the stage of being a slogan;  and in my
view the recent agreement on TRIPS and public health is simply an attempt to revive this Fifth
Ministerial Meeting.  We must listen to the voices from all quarters demanding that markets be at the
service of food and health and not the contrary.WT/MIN(03)/ST/157
Page 2
We would also like to see progress in the agricultural sector in the form of an end to
subsidies.  We have already said, and we repeat once again, these subsidies exacerbate the distortions,
accentuate disparities and leave the poorest starving.  As to the opening of markets for non-
agricultural products, this should be in both directions along the lines of the modalities and should not
hamper the development of industries in third world countries, while at the same time allowing theirproducts to have access to the markets of the most-developed countries.
Because we find ourselves in Cancún, in this land  of Mexico that has suffered so much and
among people who are well acquainted with struggle, it is the time and place to undertake a more in-
depth examination of the open wounds undermining the global economy.  Here, more than elsewhere,
we must give equitable agricultural policies, more human trade choices and respect for cultural
diversity back their place.  We must not misunderstand.  The voices we are hearing from outside, eventhough they are muffled by distance or security measures, are representative of billions of people who
are not necessarily anti-globalization but who do not understand why, at the dawn of the 21
st Century,
a new global system is sweeping away the values of justice, equality and solidarity already achieved
in the name of freedom that is relative.
I should also like to draw this assembly's attention to the vague attempts made to segregate
certain States whose candidatures have until now been totally and deliberately ignored.  The status of
"the United Nations of trade" cannot allow trade exclusion policies that reflect political exclusion.  I
am thinking of the Syrian Arab Republic, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the Palestine Authority.  I
am also thinking of certain organizations, particularly the Arab League and the InternationalFrancophone Organization which, for the same reasons, still find themselves outside the doors of the
WTO claiming a minimum right, namely, that of permanent observer.
If the Cancún Declaration is not to be a feeble repetition of the Doha resolutions so as to
ensure that this Mexican phase of the WTO's existence marks and determines the future of theOrganization, we call on you to give a better hearing and arrive at a better understanding.  It is by
listening to those that have less that the most balanced decisions are formulated.  It is through
agreement with the South that the North will prove th at its intention is indeed to promote development
and not to resuscitate colonialism.
If necessary, we should not be afraid to extend the timetables.  It seems to me that
1 January 2005 is very close and the results to date are extremely modest.
In the months to come, Lebanon will continue its negotiations on accession to the WTO.  It
will do so with full confidence because it already meets the majority of the criteria for accession.  A
large number of laws have been adopted and legislation that is not in conformity has been repealed or
amended.  It will accede with the firm conviction that small countries can defend great causes.  It willdo so less because it seeks to avoid marginalization than because it hopes that the Organization to
which it will accede will not allow itself to be ma rginalized and will make international trade a tool
for sustainable and balanced growth of benefit to the peoples of this planet.
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