. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/MIN(03)/ST/91
12 September 2003
(03-4879)
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
Fifth Session
Cancún, 10 - 14 September 2003Original:  English
UNITED ARAB EMIRATES
Statement by H.E. Mr Sheikh Fahim Bin Sultan Al-Qasimi
Minister of Economy and Commerce
As we gather in Cancún today, we are driven by high hopes and expectations that this
Conference will take essential steps towards realizing our set objectives as provided in the Doha
Development Agenda.
We strongly believe that reaching an equitable solution to trade issues will not only open
venues of sustainable prosperity for countries and regions, but it will also bring them closer than ever.
Let me now make brief comments regarding some issues that are of great interest for UAE.
Concerning the subject of the Intellectual Property and the Public Health, we welcome the
agreement reached, recently, on the implementation of paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on the
TRIPS and the Public Health. We believe that this solution will give WTO Members an additional
momentum to reach agreement on the other outstanding issues that they will deal with, here, in
Cancún.
Concerning the market access for non-agricultura l products, our interest in these negotiations
stems from our commitment to strengthening our diversification policy of exports and of markets
targeted.  Unfortunately, our negotiators were not able to reach an agreement on the modalities that
must manage these negotiations.  In this context, we share the view that the adoption of a framework
approach for establishing modalities could re-energize the negotiations in this issue.
With regard to the services, the negotiations seem to take the road.  My country attaches a
great importance to the service sectors.  We work firmly to set them up as one of the main pillars of
our national economic strategy. For that reason, we treat the requests, which were submitted to us
with utmost seriousness, hoping that we will be able to submit our initial offer as soon as possible.
Regarding the agricultural negotiations, we shall ha ve to refer to our creativity to find the just
balance between the necessity of liberalizing the agricultural exchanges and the importance of a
progressive and rational approach to implement this liberalization, while guaranteeing a special
differential treatment for the developing countries.
For the special and differential treatment and the implementation issues, we note that
significant differences still remain between the Members on certain agreements.  It becomes urgent to
reach concrete results in these issues, which would produce a positive effect on the other negotiations,
This is our evaluation of the realized works until now. The question is what guidelines and
decisions should be adopted at this Conference in order to provide the added momentum for the nextstage?WT/MIN(03)/ST/91
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In our view, we believe that it would be important to evoke three main guidelines which are
not completely new but the actual stage requires that they are re-exposed with new dimensions.
First, it is necessary to reaffirm our commitment to the development dimension as a central
element of the Doha Agenda.  The Cancún Conference offers an appropriate opportunity to
demonstrate this renewed commitment.
Secondly, since the Doha Agenda is a global programme of negotiations, we have to establish
"positive linkages" between the areas of negotiations.
The last, and not the least, concerns the possibility of establishing a stratification of priorities
for our future works.  It is evident that the determ ination of such priorities is not easy because the
economic and social policies differ considerably from a country to another.
Nevertheless, we believe that a certain priority can exist between some subjects, according to
the spirit and the letter of the Doha Development Agenda.  These include subjects, which occupy acentral place in the Development Policies in Developing Countries.  Guaranteeing an appropriate
response to these issues will rebuild the confidence of all of us and incite developing countries to
strengthen efforts in the overall negotiations.
I would like, before ending my statement, to congratulate both Cambodia and Nepal for their
accession to the World Trade Organization, urging at the meantime WTO Members to facilitate the
accession of Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Yemen, Sudan and others.
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