. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/GC/77 
30 January 2004 
 (04-0346) 
General Council 
11-12 February 2004 Original:   English 
 
 
 
ACCESSION OF CAMBODIA  
 
REQUEST FOR EXTENSION OF TIME-LIMIT FOR ACCEPTANCE OF 
THE PROTOCOL FOR THE ACCESSION OF CAMBODIA 
 
Communication from Cambodia  
 
  The following communication, dated 26 January 2004, addressed to the Director-General, has been received from the Minister of Commerce of Cambodia. 
 
 
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  First of all, on behalf of the Royal Govern ment of Cambodia, I would like to express my 
heartfelt thanks for the strong support and all  arrangements which have been extended to Cambodia 
for her accession, as the first LDC, to the WTO.  With Your Excellency's and your team's support, 
Cambodia has addressed many concerns made dur ing the accession negotiation of Cambodia with 
some WTO Members.  Cambodia has also complete d a number of assignments requested as a result of 
her accession negotiations.  Since the Protocol on the Accession of the Kingdom of Cambodia 
(WT/MIN(03)18) has been agreed by the Fifth WTO Ministerial Conference on 11 September 2003 in 
Cancun, Mexico, the Royal Government of Cam bodia has prepared all necessary documents and 
initiated domestic procedures needed for accomplishmen t of the ratification, to be made by the 
National Parliament, of the Protocol on the Accession.   Your Excellency might be aware that Cambodi a operates a liberal democratic system of 
government.  A parliamentary election under a proportional representation system was succ essfully 
held on 27 July 2003.  Out of 23 political parties runn ing for the 123 seats in the National 
Assembly, only three are represented, namely:   1. The Cambodian People's Party (C PP) with 73 seats (59.35 per cent) 
 
 2. FUNCINPEC (FUN) with 26 seats (21.14 per cent) 
  3. Sam Rainsy Party (SRP) with 24 seats (19.51 per cent).   
 According to our 1993 Constitution, a Govern ment will be formed only if it acquires a two-
thirds majority vote of confid ence in the National Assembly.  This is a very high standard 
requirement for a young democrac y like Cambodia, but it was in those days necessary in order to 
achieve national reconciliation among Cambodian long -standing warring factions.  By winning only 
59.35 per cent of the seats, CPP is required to look for partner(s) in order to achieve this two-third majority.  None of the two other parties (FUN and SRP) wanted to join in a 2-party coalition 
government with CPP.  They preferred to form an "Alliance of Democrats" in order to pressurize 
CPP to accept them together in a 3-party co alition government and to  accept a long list of WT/GC/77 
Page 2  
 
concessions which requests, inter alia, that their own political platfo rm be included into the new 
government's political platform.  After many exch anges of public statements and negotiations, a 
meeting on 5 November 2003 under  the auspices of H.M. the King of Cambodia reached some kind 
of consensus on the composition of the new Royal Government (a 3-party coalition government) and key positions in the new National Assembly.  FUN and SRP later on changed their minds and 
insisted on bringing first their policies into the new Government's political platform, before 
negotiating on Government and National Assembly's key posts.  This behavior led to the current 
political stalemate.  As long as a new Govern ment is not formed, the new National Assembly 
cannot function properly.  The cu rrent Government will stay in place until a new Government is 
found and has got the two-thirds majority vo te of confidence in the National Assembly. 
 
 Despite all efforts displayed by H.M. the King and by CPP, there is no breakthrough yet in 
the political negotiations.  Based on this unfortunate situ ation, it might be possible that we would 
not be able to complete our ratif ication process by 31 Ma rch 2004 which is stipulated in Article 7 of 
the Protocol of Accession of  Cambodia to the WTO. 
 
 Therefore, on behalf of the Royal Government of Cambodia, I have the honor to request Your Excellency to submit to the General Coun cil's consideration the request of the Royal 
Government of Cambodia on the inclusion, in th e agenda of the next WTO General Council Meeting 
(scheduled on 11-12 February 2004) of an item con cerning the extension of the time-limit for the 
accomplishment of the Protocol of Accession of Cambodia to the WTO.  The extension of time-limit 
requested is from 31 March 2004 till 30 September 2004.  We hope through this extension the 
political situation would ease and open the way for the quick formation of the new Government. 
  I hope that, through this explanation, Your  Excellency and the Members of the General 
Council will take a sympathetic view on Cambodia's request. 
 
  
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