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WORLD TRADE WT/MIN(05)/17 14 December 2005 ORGANIZATION (05-5935) MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE Original: English Sixth Session Hong Kong, 13 - 18 December 2005 THE DEVELOPMENT ROUND Communication from Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru The following communication, dated 14 December 2005, is being circulated at the request of the Delegation of Peru on behalf also of Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador. _______________ 1. For the Doha Round to meet its objective of being the Developmental Round, its outcome must be a substantial market access improvement in those sectors or economic activities where developing countries have comparative advantages, especially in Agriculture, non-agricultural products and temporary movement of service providers. It must also lead to adequate treatment of our biological/genetic material and associated traditional knowledge of our native population. 2. We, as co-sponsors of this communication, believe and emphasize that any "development package" must include ambitious results to accomplish the mandate of the fullest trade liberalization for tropical products and products of particular importance in crop substitution of illicit narcotic production. 3. We would also like to stress that the development package to be complete it should include a comprehensive and predictable program on Aid for Trade, an important instrument to actually help developing countries. 4. The distorting effects of high subsidies for domestic agricultural production in industrialized countries have led to oversupply in world markets and to artificially low world prices. The effects on developing countries have been an income reduction for farmers and, in many cases, import substitution of domestic production. Social effects have included an increase in the migration of small farmers to large cities thus increasing poverty levels and misery. 5. Tariff peaks in industrialized countries focus on products of export interest for developing countries. Between 6 and 14 percent of Quad (United States, European Communities of 15, Japan and Canada) tariff lines at six digit level are above 15 percent. The average tariff peaks in the Quad are over 28 percent, which is 4.5 times its total tariff average of 6.2 percent1. 6. Perhaps the largest gains for developing countries in the Doha Round can be achieved through the liberalization of temporary labor flows. The positive spillovers that temporary service providers would generate for their home countries in terms of reinvestment of their savings, experience, entrepreneurship, work ethic, etc. are of paramount importance. A program of temporary 1 Olarreaga Marcelo and Ng Francis "Tariff Peaks and Preferences" in "Development, Trade and the WTO: A Handbook". World Bank 2002. /. WT/MIN(05)/17 Page 2 work visas for one or two years in the rich countries would be one the most important contribution that the Doha Round could make to developing economies. 7. We consider that it is of the outmost importance to discuss in detail the relationship between the TRIPS Agreement and the Convention on Biological Diversity, as a key element of the development package. In that sense, the discussion must cover the requirements on patent applicants of disclosing, as a condition for granting the patent, the source and country of origin of the biological/genetic material and associated traditional knowledge used in their invention, as well as evidence of prior informed consent and benefit sharing requirements. 8. Developing countries like the co-sponsors of this communication, have applied structural adjustment policies, including the liberalization of the flow of goods and capitals, in spite of their high political and social costs, as we believe that an authentic free trade is the path for development. It is now up to developed economies to make their doctrine of liberalization compatible with the extension of free trade coverage for products of export interest to developing countries and extend the current liberalization of flows of goods and capitals to the mobility of service providers. __________ WORLD TRADE WT/MIN(05)/16 14 December 2005 ORGANIZATION (05-5932) MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE Original: English Sixth Session Hong Kong, 13 - 18 December 2005 COMMUNICATION FROM LANDLOCKED DEVELOPING COUNTRIES Communication from Paraguay The following communication, dated 13 December 2005, is being circulated at the request of the delegation of Paraguay on behalf of landlocked developing countries. _______________ We, the Ministers of the Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs), meeting in Hong Kong, China, the 13th December 2005, on the occasion of the Sixth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Recalling the Asuncion Platform for the Doha Development Round, adopted at the Meeting of Ministers of Landlocked Developing Countries Responsible for Trade on the 10th August 2005 in Asuncion, Paraguay and recognizing that this instrument articulates the common position of the landlocked developing countries within the framework of the ongoing negotiations of the Doha Round, Reaffirming our commitment to the liberalization of trade, thus ensuring that the multilateral trading system contributes to promote development among the landlocked developing which are least- developed countries, small and vulnerable economies and economies in transition, Urging Members of the WTO to address the special problems and vulnerabilities of the landlocked developing countries, through specific measures taken with the aim of addressing their concerns in order to enable their greater participation in the multilateral trading system, Propose as follows: 1. Members shall maintain the level of ambition in the ongoing Doha round and commit themselves to successfully conclude the trade negotiations in a timely fashion. 2. Members of the Negotiating Group on Trade Facilitation shall start working to develop multilateral commitments covering all elements of Annex D of the Decision of the General Council of 1 August 2004 providing, when appropriate, a special and differential treatment (S&DT) for LLDCs and aim to help them mitigate the negative impact of their lack of territorial access to the sea, and of their remoteness and isolation from world markets. WT/MIN(05)/16 Page 2 3. Members shall deepen and intensify the analysis of S&DT, technical assistance, and capacity building, as well as of the linkages among them, in order to create equitable, precise and operational trade facilitation provisions. Obligations shall be consistent with the LLDCs’ individual development, financial and trade needs or their administrative and institutional capabilities. 4. Donors and international organizations shall provide LLDCs with technical assistance to start, continue, or broaden the process of identifying their trade facilitation needs and priorities and the cost implications of proposed measures to enable their full and effective participation in the forthcoming negotiating process. 5. Members shall adopt specific measures that would facilitate a fuller and more effective integration of the small, vulnerable economies, including landlocked developing countries, into the multilateral trading system. For this purpose, Members shall continue work in the Dedicated Session of the CTD on the Work Programme on Small Economies and to monitor progress of the small economies' proposals in the negotiating and other bodies. 6. Members agree on the need to reach a prompt agreement on proposals submitted by LDCs in May 2002, seeking to strengthen and operationalize them, while making S&DT provisions more effective for LDCs. In this regard, developed countries and those developing countries declaring themselves in a position to do so, shall provide LDCs' products with a special and differential tariff treatment and ensure that rules of origin applicable to imports contribute to facilitating this enhanced market access. 7. Taking into account the inter linkages of the three pillars and the state of the multilateral negotiations, it is imperative that developed Members improve their market access offers in the agriculture negotiations at the earliest, in order to move the overall negotiating process. The ongoing negotiations on agriculture are the engine of the Doha Development Round and a substantial part of the “single undertaking”. 8. Members shall take into account the special trade and development needs and concerns of LLDCs and to improve as much as possible the market access to agricultural products of special interest to them. 9. Members shall undertake and immediately implement more ambitious commitments on cotton than for agriculture as a whole, so as to support the development in developing cotton producing countries. For that purpose, Members shall adopt the proposals made by the African Group and supported by other developing cotton producing countries, particularly the elimination of all forms of export subsidies and domestic support which distorts the international cotton market. Members shall also adopt measures that would vastly improve market access conditions for cotton and cotton- derived products. 10. Members shall agree to provide LLDCs with substantial improvement in market access for non-agricultural products, with the view to help them diversify their exports. 11. Members shall facilitate the exports of a wide range of services of the LLDCs, through the substantial liberalization of market access in sectors and modes of supply of their interest. Development partners shall provide technical and financial assistance to upgrade the transit