. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/MIN(01)/ST/111
12 November 2001
(01-5707)
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
Fourth Session
Doha, 9 - 13 November 2001Original:  English
UGANDA
Statement by the Honourable Edward B. Rugumayo
Minister of Tourism, Trade and Industry
1. On behalf of the Uganda delegation, please allow me to congratulate you on being appointed
to preside over the Fourth Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization, and through you
to thank the Government and the people of Qatar for organizing and hosting this Conference.  I would
also like to take this opportunity to congratulate the People's Republic of China for having
successfully acceded to the WTO.
Since the inception of the World Trade Organi zation, world trade has continued to expand,
creating new trade opportunities.  However, Africa's share of world trade has diminished over the
same period, a situation that is by no means acceptable, and should be addressed.  Uganda stronglybelieves that the current asymmetries in international trade pose a great challenge to the
least-developed countries (LDCs).  It is in view of these challenges that Uganda calls for a
reassessment and review of some aspects of the multilateral trading system, as follows:
Implementation
2. Implementation and related issues remain important and crucial to the integration of the LDCs
into the multilateral trading system.  Uganda, therefore calls for meaningful and faithful
implementation of the commitments made in the Marrakesh Declaration and other Ministerial
decisions in favour of the LDCs.
Agriculture
3. Agriculture is the backbone of Uganda's economy, as  well as of most African countries.  It is,
therefore, important that the ongoing trade negotiations on the Agreement on Agriculture do not
undermine the viability of the agricultural sector in the multilateral trading system.  To that extent,
Uganda supports the views of many developing countries and least-developed countries;  more
especially those expressed by Africa.  While emphasis still remains on reviewing implementationissues before undertaking new commitments, Uganda's major concerns are on improved market access
through elimination of tariff peaks and tariff escalations;  expansion and reform of tariff rate quotas;
reduction of domestic support measures; the total elimination of export subsidies;  and the
continuation of initiatives like the EBA and AGOA, while ensuring that special and differential
treatment continues to be an integral part of the Agreement on Agriculture, but structured in such away as to respond to our development needs other than just "best endeavour".
Services
4. Trade in Services is absolutely important to Uganda's economy because the services sector
has continued to grow while facilitating numerous other areas of the economic activity.  Furthermore,WT/MIN(01)/ST/111
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the services sector is contributing significantly to our foreign exchange earnings.  It is imperative
therefore that the focus of the ongoing GATS negotiations should be towards further development of
the services sector in developing countries.
5. In light of the above, Uganda therefore advocates for a revisit to the provisions relating to
Mode 4 Supply, the maintenance of GATS architecture, especially the provisions of themost-favoured-nation, and the flexibility for LDCs to liberalize in selected sectors.
Trade-Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)
6. Certainly, there continues to remain a huge technological gap between developed countries
and LDCs.  Therefore, Uganda is of the view th at Article 66.2 which is mandatory, should be made
operational.
7. Uganda would also like to propose a substantive review of Article 27.3(b) in order to ensure
that life forms that are "naturally occurring" shou ld not be patented.  It is the view of the Uganda
delegation that the patenting of life forms is tantamount to the transfer of community rights and
property into private hands, with likely adverse effects on small rural farmers and on food security in
general.  Furthermore, it is the belief of the Uganda delegation that access to genetic resources should
only be on mutually agreed terms.  In addition, the sui generis  system envisaged therein should be
nationally determined, but consistent with the Convention on Biological Diversity.
8. In respect of public health, Uganda strongly believes that the TRIPS Agreement should
provide the widest flexibility to Member countries in order to address emergency public health crises
and concerns such as HIV/AIDS, malaria, meningitis, tuberculosis, and other diseases that may
commonly afflict peoples of the tropics.
Special and differential treatment
9. LDCs have continued to face tremendous difficulties in spite of the special and differential
treatment (S&D) provisions as embodied in the Final Act.  Uganda therefore wishes to call for the
binding and full implementation of the provisions of S&D, including the adoption of new S&Dmeasures to take into account implementation problems that may have been encountered by the LDCs
over the last six years.
New issues and the new round
10. Uganda is of the view that the "new issues" should be subject to further study, and that if
these are determined to be of a non-trade nature, they should not be included in the trade rules. It is
our strong view that any future work in the WTO must contain a development component.
The positive agenda
11. Uganda recognizes that trade and technology transfer, trade and debt, and trade and finance
all have a strong bearing on our development concerns, and therefore these should be included in
future negotiations.
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