. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/MIN(03)/ST/92
12 September 2003
(03-4853)
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
Fifth SessionCancún, 10 - 14 September 2003Original:  French
LUXEMBOURG
Statement by H.E. Mrs Lydie Polfer
Vice-Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and External Trade
Allow me first to thank you for so kindly welcom ing us to this perfect place, and also for
hosting the Fifth Ministerial Conference of the WTO - it has to be admitted that since Seattle,
embarking on such a venture amounts to a feat of bravery.  We have all come here to Cancún with
two goals:  to defend the interests and positions of our respective countries and to join forces in
seeking satisfactory responses to the challenges of globalization.
To be in a position to find those responses, we must build relationships based on reciprocal
knowledge, trust, support and mutual respect.  We must learn to leave national egoism aside and
demonstrate our solidarity, since a multilateral trade system is just and fair only if it enables everyone,
particularly developing countries, to benefit from it.
We have come a long way since Seattle.  One by one we have come to realise that to take
account of the economic dimension alone is not enough to build the kind of healthy framework in
which multilateral rules can be developed for the liberalization of trade.  We have realized that
survival of the fittest is no basis for trade and that even the smallest voice must be heard!
At Doha, we succeeded in making development the focus of our work and reached agreement
on a real development programme.  Luxembourg fully endorses the objectives set on that occasionand, incidentally, earmarks more than 0.8 per cent of its national wealth for official development
assistance, in the conviction that international trade and development aid must support each other
mutually.
With regard to the Doha Programme, I of course welcome the recent agreement on TRIPS
and public health.  It is a clear sign of our shared determination to find solutions to very difficult
situations.  But we must be under no illusions:  essential as it may be, the agreement addresses only
the purely commercial aspects of the issues and wi ll not rid the world of the AIDS scourge overnight.
That will require joint efforts by the international community in other areas.
I note with satisfaction that good progress has been made in recent months on the
implementation of special and differential treatment.  I am confident that some essential issues still
pending will be satisfactorily solved before the end of the year.
We are here first and foremost to undertake a mi dway review of the work we embarked on at
Doha and to complete it by means of supplementary negotiations in a number of areas.  I am aware of
the many obstacles in our path:  we need look no further than agriculture, branded, as always, the
stumbling-block of the Conference.
Aware of how important agriculture is to the majority of its partners in the WTO, the
European Union has started implementing a package of reforms and adjustments of the Common
Agricultural Policy, in order to equip it with instruments which imply no – or very few - tradeWT/MIN(03)/ST/92
Page 2
distortions, and yet will strengthen the multifunctional role of European agriculture.  I must point out,
in this connection, that it is of fundamental importance to Luxembourg that non-trade considerations
be taken into account.  The consumers in our country are passionately concerned about food security
and animal welfare.
But agriculture is not the only sector in which non-trade concerns must be taken on board.
Luxembourg hopes that environmental and social considerations will be integrated in all the work
done at the WTO.
One subject that the Doha Declaration has left aside is the transparency of our Organization to
the outside world and the way in which national parlia ments could be encouraged to participate in our
work more actively.  It would be a good idea to reflect on this and to set up a working group toexplore the best way of making our Organization more transparent and more easily understood by lay
people.  It would also be appropriate to consider the possibility of opening certain meetings of the
decision-making body to the public, as occurs with debates in the United Nations General Assembly.
I said earlier that development has been placed at the core of our Organization.  We must not
only listen but also demonstrate solidarity with the poorest countries.  That holds good for the cotton
initiative put forward by a number of African countries.  We should reflect on the matter in order to
find the best way of resolving it together.
Our Organization continues to grow.  With the accession of Cambodia and Nepal, which I
welcome most particularly, our membership has risen to 148.  These are, moreover, the first
accessions by least-developed countries since 1995.  The decision of 2002 to facilitate accession by
the least-developed countries is thus bearing its first fruits.  The tendency of our Organization towards
universality will be further reinforced by the prompt conclusion of current accession negotiations.
Lastly, I thank the Director-General and the Secretariat for their efforts in favour of technical
assistance to trade.  I welcome the ongoing commitment by the main donors to improve the quality of
such assistance.  My country is renewing its attachment to the Doha Fund by making a significant
new contribution, akin to the one it made last year.
Finally, I wish to make a point of paying tribute to the Chairman of the General Council,
Ambassador Perez del Castillo of Uruguay, for the masterly way in which he has headed thepreparatory work in Geneva.  I hope that his tireless efforts will bear fruit here in Cancún.
In conclusion, I emphasize that Luxembourg associates itself with the statements made by the
representative of the European Commission and Italy, which holds the Presidency of the
European Union, and hope that the time-frame set at Doha for concluding the negotiations will beobserved.  Our Organization has an important role to play in the attainment of the goals set by the
United Nations Millennium Summit to halve poverty in the world by 2015.  Let us capitalize on the
momentum.
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