WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/MIN(03)/ST/55
11 September 2003
(03-4860)
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
Fifth Session
Cancún, 10 - 14 September 2003Original :  Spanish
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
Statement by H.E. Mr Orlando Jorge Mera
Minister for Telecommunications
On behalf of the Domincan Republic and President Hipólito Mejía, I wish to thank the
Government and people of Mexico for the hospitality extended to us in hosting this Fifth Ministerial
Conference.  I would also like to express our sinc ere gratitude to the WTO Secretariat in the person of
the Director-General, Mr Supachai Panitchpakdi , and to the Chairman of the General Council,
Ambassador Carlos Pérez del Castillo, for their efforts in preparing the Conference.
The  Dominican Republic has been a Member of General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
since 1949.  During that time, we have acknowledged the need for a balanced rule-based multilateraltrading system that takes special account of the interests of developing countries, a need that was
reiterated by all Ministers at the Fourth Minister ial Conference, held in Doha, Qatar, in 2001, where
we agreed to launch the Development Round, in which the core issues on the agenda were aimed at
meeting the needs of the poorest countries in the world.
In meeting for the first time since the new Round was launched, we would like to make a
brief review of the headway made in the work done.  First, we are compelled to express our regretwith regard to agriculture that we have failed to meet the deadline of 31 March 2003 agreed on in
Doha for adopting detailed modalities for negotia tion.  At this meeting we shall endeavour to move
forward and agree on a general framework that will enable us to pursue our work so as to adopt such
modalities as soon as possible.  We are nonetheless greatly concerned that the developed countries,
which are the ones granting the largest subsidies that distort agricultural trade, are resisting anysubstantive reform that will genuinely eliminate distorting support.
It is important to emphasize that, instead of being lowered, subsidies have actually risen:  total
estimated agricultural support in the OECD countries stands at US$335 billion and US$251 billion in
producer support – much higher figures than those allowed in the Uruguay Round.
The agricultural sector is very important to the Dominican economy, inasmuch as it accounts
for 11.4 per cent of GDP and employs more than 16 per cent of the working population.  My country,
however, has been seriously affected by the distortions in agricultural trade, since agricultural export
earnings have declined considerably since 1997, above all because of the falling international prices inthe main export items, due to subsidies and distortions.  These negotiations must aim to eliminate
them completely.
For the Dominican Republic it is also vital to take account of special and differential
treatment, both in the general framework to be agreed on at this meeting and in the detailed modalities
to be adopted in the future.  Such special and differential treatment must be reflected chiefly in
allowing flexibility for developing countries to designate a number of strategic products that areWT/MIN(03)/ST/55
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important for food security and rural development, which will be exempted from the tariff reduction
undertakings and the commitments on tariff quotas.  This flexibility will be needed while large sums
of money are still being used for subsidies and domestic support in the developed countries, aid that is
prejudicial to the survival of our farmers.  It will also be necessary to establish a special safeguard
mechanism exclusively for developing countries to protect domestic production against subsidizedimports and abrupt falls in international prices.  As we said earlier, these defence mechanisms will
have to be established and will have to remain operative as long as international agricultural trade
continues to be affected by the present marked distortions.
As to the negotiations on market access for non-agricultural products, we hoped that it would
be possible to reach agreement at this Conference on a general framework and then continue to work
on detailed modalities for negotiations.  In this area, as in the negotiations on agriculture, special anddifferential treatment is vital to my country and it must be an integral part of the agreed modalities
and also comply with the Ministerial Mandate at Doha in order to take account of Article XXVIII bis
of the GATT 94, establishing full non-reciprocity for developing countries, and the terms of
paragraph 50 of the Doha Declaration.  In this respect, we consider that it will be necessary to provide
the requisite flexibility for the developing countries such as establishing a percentage of tariff linesnot subject to additional reductions and agreeing on a formula for tariff cuts that takes account of the
needs and interests of those countries.  In addition, we consider that the sectoral initiatives should not
be mandatory for developing countries.
With reference to the services negotiations, we can say that this is the most important sector
for the Dominican Republic's economy and represented 50 per cent of GDP in the year 2000.  Our
country's opening of this sector, mainly on an autonomous basis,  has led to substantial growth, above
all in communications, tourism, transport and other services.  For this reason, my country attaches
great priority to the negotiations in this sector.  In this connection, the Dominican Republic will be
making an initial negotiating offer no later than October.  We also hope that the offers from our maintrading partners will be substantial, both in sector coverage and in modes of supply.  Furthermore, we
attach great importance to advances in the negotiations on rules, especially the rules on establishing
urgent safeguards, and we hope to be able to meet the deadline of 15 March 2004 set for completing
the negotiations.
With regard to the Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, adopted at the
Doha Conference, we welcome the agreement reached in Geneva on the basis of the text dated16 December 2002 circulated by the Chairman of the TRIPS Council.  We also take note of the
Declaration of the Chairman of the General Council accompanying the Decision and it is our
understanding that it is confined to the matters set out in paragraph 6 of the Doha Declaration on the
TRIPS Agreement and Public Health and that the Annex is basically a non-binding code of conduct.
In this respect, we expect full implementation of this Decision to make it easier for countries in needto gain access to medicines and help save the lives of millions of people throughout the world.
It is our view that each of the Singapore issues has to be assessed on its own merits and that
the modalities to be adopted – by explicit consensus – must be clear with regard to the coverage,
scope and structure of the negotiations.  In addition, as established in the Doha Declaration, they musttake full account of the needs of the developing countries.  Many developing countries have indicated
that they still need time to assess the possible implic ations of launching these negotiations and in this
connection it is our view that developing countries must be given sufficient flexibility for them to take
part fully in the negotiations in question.
As to the mandate in paragraph 44 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration to make the provisions
on special and differential treatment included in the WTO Agreements more operational and effective,
we are mindful of the efforts made by Members to move ahead in this area, but consider that moreWT/MIN(03)/ST/55
Page 3
work needs to be done to secure better results, since from about 80 proposals submitted by developing
countries consensus has been reached on only 24 of them.
Lastly, I wish to affirm our full support for the declaration of the ACP Ministers for Trade
and the Declaration of the Group of 77 for this Ministerial Conference.  The Dominican Republic isready to continue to strive for a balanced multilateral system in which we can achieve greater
liberalization of trade, but remembering that we should not look on liberalization as an end in itself
but as a means to obtain better development of our countries and an improved standard of living for
our citizens.
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