THE G33 MINISTERIAL COMMUNIQUE

http://www.tradeobservatory.org/library.cfm?refID=106985

THE G33 MINISTERIAL COMMUNIQUE

29 November 2009

1. We, Ministers and Representatives of the G-33 Member Countries met in

Geneva, Switzerland, on 29 November 2009, on the occasion of the 7

th
WTO

Ministerial Conference to take stock of the current state of play of the Doha

Development Round and to assess the course of action in the agriculture

negotiations.

2. We welcome the 7

th
WTO Ministerial Conference as a crucial event to renew

commitments to development objectives of the multilateral trading system and to

evaluate the role of the WTO in advancing these objectives. The WTO should

enhance its role in monitoring trade and trade-related measures as an important

transparency tool, as well as to promote the importance of aid-for-trade and trade

financing.

3. We reiterate our long-held conviction that international trade regime must

complement the realization of our development requirement by guaranteeing our

food security, livelihood security and rural development. The multilateral trading

system should be supportive to the needs of all people, especially those who tend

to be marginalized by globalization.

4. We observe that the current economic and financial crisis has highlighted the

issue of marginalization and eroded the legitimacy of globalization. Therefore, in

order to strengthen the global economy we need to adopt inclusive approaches to

ensure sustainable global economic recovery, growth and development.

5. We urge WTO Members to respect commitments to advance the DDA in

addressing the capacity of the current multilateral trading system in tackling the

development needs of developing countries. WTO Members shall not give in to

any attempt to dilute the development Mandate of the Round nor compromise the

1

Members of the G-33 are Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Benin, Botswana, Bolivia, China,

Cote d’Ivoire, Congo, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala,

Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Jamaica, Kenya, Korea, Madagascar, Mauritius,

Mongolia, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Panama, The Philippines, Peru, Saint Kitts &

Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Tanzania,

Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Uganda, Venezuela, Zambia and Zimbabwe.

2

agreed DDA mandates on special and differential treatment, particularly on

Special Products (SP) and Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM).

6. We express concern at recent trends to retract commitments made in a long,

hard-fought, negotiated and balanced package that is now on the table. We also

note that this package is already market access focused, particularly for those

countries that are expected to provide leadership and which are still seeking a

disproportionate number of flexibilities.

7. We urge WTO Members to remain cognizant of the subsistence nature of

agriculture in most developing countries and therefore the need to ensure the

livelihood of farmers. The present crisis has highlighted the vulnerability of

agriculture system and the need for safeguarding the livelihoods of the poor and

vulnerable in agriculture around the world. The crisis has also put the issue of

food security at the top of the global agenda. Trade in agriculture has to be

calibrated in view of pressure from highly distortive domestic supports and

export subsidies.

8. We reiterate our commitment to engage constructively in agriculture negotiations

with the objective of early conclusion of the DDA that delivers a balanced and

pro-development outcome. We thus instruct Negotiators to continue working

with the COA-SS Chairman and Members on the remaining issues of the SSM,

with a view to achieving a balanced solution in establishing a simple,

operational, effective, non-burdensome SSM. In this context, there is a lot of

work that remains to be done, to improve the December 2008 Chair´s draft text.

9. We reemphasize the centrality of the multilateral process in all stages of DDA

negotiations and would only treat bilateral/plurilateral processes as instruments

to enhance mutual understanding. Thus this process must always adhere to the

principles of bottom-up, inclusive, and transparent approach.

10. We believe that collective effort to reach the end-point of the DDA Round will

very much depend on the degree of real re-engagement and flexibility of all

Members as well as on the leadership of larger players, particularly major

developed countries. We therefore call upon all Members for utmost political

***