. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/MIN(03)/10
10 September 2003
(03-4727)
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
Fifth SessionCancún, 10 - 14 September 2003
ADDRESS BY DR. SUPACHAI PANITCHPAKDI
DIRECTOR-GENERAL
Let me begin by paying tribute to the government and people of Mexico for hosting the Fifth
Ministerial Conference of the WTO.  I thank you, Mr. President,  Minister Derbez, and all those who
have assisted  in the preparations for the excellent  arrangements and facilities.   Hosting a Ministerial
Conference is  certainly a heavy undertaking and I comme nd you not just for your generosity but also, if I
may say so, for your courage !  
Nearly two years ago we embarked on th e momentous undertaking known as the Doha
Development Agenda.  We have made progress – significant progress in some areas.  We have also,inevitably, had our share of difficulties.  But there is no doubt in my mind that, with renewed
commitment and energy, we can deliver on the DDA in a timely way.    Just two weeks ago, we
concluded a historic and significant agreement on TRIPS and Public Health.   This is evidence that the
WTO system is working and can produce important results on critical issues of particular interest to
developing countries.  The added confidence and vigour that we have all drawn from this agreementmust now be applied to the challenges we face in the negotiations.  
Our meeting here in Cancun is not to conclude the Doha Development Agenda.  But we do
need to leave in a few days time having created the climate and conditions under which the
negotiations can conclude successfully by 1 January 2005.  This requires Ministers to make key
political decisions and to provide the type of guidan ce that will propel us forward.   We should learn from
the past and face the reality that we cannot keep pos tponing decisions, even if they are sometimes difficult.
There comes a time when rhetoric has to be backed by action.
This Conference is significant not just for th e WTO and international trade. We should see the
Doha work programme in its broader context.  Th e UN Millennium Development Goals seek to halve the
number of people living in extreme poverty and hunger by 2015.   We can make a significant contributiontowards achieving these vital goals by removing the shackles on world trade.  A few days ago, UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said that the decisions  which Ministers will take here have the potential to
make a real difference to the lives of  millions of people in poor countries.
Much improved market access, for instance, could help developing countries to increase their
exports by many billions of dollars per year.  The gains from the elimination of barriers to trade in both
industrialised and developing countries will be very substantial - many times more than the amount of
overseas development aid considered necessary to achieve the  Millennium Development Goals. 
Developed countries also stand to benefit significan tly from freer trade and strengthened multilateral trade
rules.  Trade, after all, is not a zero-sum game.   The choice is clear.  Aid is certainly necessary but it is
trade that will generate decisive resu lts for sustainable development.   
We must, at the same time, pay attention to th e plight of less privileged countries.  These
countries need time and assistance to adjust their economies and their trade regimes to the process of
closer multilateral economic integration.  As our negotiations move forward, we must work closelywith Finance and Development Ministers, and with the Bretton Woods institutions, to ensure we have
in place a generous and broad-based package of support for these countries that will allow them toWT/MIN(03)/10
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draw in full the benefits of participating in the multilateral trading system.  I have been very
encouraged by recent contacts with the IMF and the World Bank in that regard.
This Round is about development and we will only achieve the objective of trade and
development, if there are benefits for all.  Riding on the Round are the hopes and expectations of  millions
of people around the world for a brighter  future.  We must not fail them.    
Consider also the state of the world economy.  In 2001, for the first time in two decades, the
volume of  trade contracted by  1 percent.  Last year, although trade flows expanded by 2.5 percent,
this was still well below the average trade expansion in the 1990s of around 6.5 percent per year. 
 The outlook for the world economy remains uncertain and, despite some encouraging recent signs,
we are not yet fully on the road to sustainable recovery.   A strong message from this meeting thatMinisters are determined to promote growth thr ough trade will give a much needed injection of
confidence.  
We face a choice here in Cancun: either we continue to strengthen the multilateral trading
system and the world economy; or we flounder and add to the prevailing uncertainties.  The eyes ofthe world are on this Conference and people will j udge us by the choice we make.  There is only one
possible answer:  we have to deliver on the first choice. And we must do so, not simply because we
have a commitment to meet a deadline, but because anything less would delay the chance for our
peoples to change their lives for th e better.  This would be unacceptable to us and, most importantly, to
them.
Let us not however be under any illusion.  Reconciling the interests of 146 Members plus
other participants is necessarily a delicate and complex exercise.  In the next few days, the hours will be
long, the work arduous and difficult.  The challenge is tough but not insurm ountable.   Thanks to your
Ambassadors in Geneva, who have worked very hard and engaged constructively, there has beenprogress in our negotiations.   We have not solved all problems.  Indeed we all know that differences
persist in various areas.  Nevertheless the Geneva process has brought into clearer focus the decisions
and guidance that Ministers are committed to provide under the Doha mandate. 
If the Cancún Ministerial is to help create a positive climate in which to finish this Round
successfully and on time, it needs to produce a balanced outcome.  Over the next few days you will,
of course, continue to pursue your national interests as you see them.  That is what you are here for. But I would ask you to also bear in mind that that your interests cannot be achieved unless we have an
outcome that can offer something to all.
The wide diversity of interests represented here, together with the need to make progress
across all fronts, means that all participants should be prepared to work in a spirit of flexibility andunderstanding.   The progress that we make in the days ahead will depend on the willingness of each
Minister present here to lead the way by engaging in a process of give and take.  Putting together the
right package, and advancing your national interests, requires compromises from all in the common
interest of moving the DDA positively forward.
Let us also remember that we all share a vital in terest in strengthening the rules-based multilateral
trading system.  In an increasingly integrated worl d, the WTO remains the unique forum for global trade
rule-making and liberalization.
In the future, when the world looks back on Canc un,  I hope it will see this Ministerial Conference
not as just another staging post on the long road of  trade negotiations, but as the place and moment where
we came together and crystallized and capitalised on the spirit of unity that made the launch of the Doha
Development Agenda so historic.   
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