   
  
WT/MIN(24)/ST/94  
26 February  2024 
(24-1610) Page: 1/2 
Ministerial Conference  
Thirteenth Session  
Abu Dhabi, 26 -29 February 2024  Original: English  
 
 
STATEMENT BY H.E. ENG. MR AHMED SAMIR SALEH  
MINISTER OF TRADE AND INDUSTRY  
EGYPT 
At the outset, I would like to thank the government of the United Arab Emirates for their immense 
efforts in organizing and hosting our Thirteenth Ministerial Conference. I would also like to welcome 
the accession of Comoros and Timor -Leste.  
 
Our thirteen th session takes place at a time of increased uncertainties and compounding crises 
including the pandemic, geopolitical tensions,  hiking food prices, climate shocks, and growing debt 
hitting  hardest developing countries , in particular , the most vulnerable to supply shocks and  
spiralling  inflation including LDCs and Net Food Importing Developing Countries  (NFIDCs).  
 
Accompanied by the depreciation of their local currencies , the burden for those countries, including 
Egypt, has in fact doubled and we have suf fered severe consequences. The cost of financing imports 
of a basic essential need and right, that is food, has more than doubled in comparison to 2020, 
hence putting ineludible pressure on their fiscal space to address other equally important challenges.  
 
It has been emphasized, time and time, that sustainable global economic recovery requires 
structural reforms and transformations. The need to bolster domestic capacities to produce food, 
achieve industrialization and economic diversification is crucial f or achieving resilience to current and 
future crises particularly for developing countries.  
 
Egypt firmly believes that trade and trade rules play a pivotal role in supporting the required 
structural reforms and transformations in our countries. MC13 is a  great opportunity to 
enhance trade's ability to deliver to our people .  
 
It is imperative  to demonstrate to the world that, through our collective moral obligation, efforts 
and will that the multilateral trading system with the WTO at its core  is still ab le to deliver concrete 
and tangible  developmental outcomes that facilitate and secure the basic needs of our people 
and their aspirations including  food, health, improved living standards and growing jobs . It is 
in our hands to prioritize and deliver in MC 13:  
 
• A credible and comprehensive food security package that addresses the imminent 
needs of LDCs and NFIDCs.  Noting that the work programme established under paragraph  8 
of our MC12 Declaration on the Emergency response to Food Insecurity yielded no outcomes 
to be felt by our people, we cannot afford to deliver empty promises on such a vital issue in 
MC13.  
Imme diate and concrete measures need to be agreed upon to enhance the resilience of those 
countries to international shocks in particular for basic foodstuffs which the international 
market for food is considered a lifeline including through:  
• Affording NFIDCs  the appropriate flexibility to bolster their domestic production of basic 
food stuffs necessary for their food security and building resilience against future crises 
by allowing them to temporarily surpass their AMS de minimis  levels for basic foodstuffs 
to relief their heavy reliance on imports.  WT/MIN(24)/ST/94  
 
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  • Refraining from imposing export restrictions or prohibitions on  of foodstuffs that will be 
imported by LDCs and NFIDCs for their domestic consumption.  
• Working with the other relevant international organizations to ease the financial 
constraints facing those countries.  
• A long overdue awaited permanent solution on public stockholding for food security 
purposes  and a special safeguard mechanism for developing countries .  
• A roadmap  with a clear set of parameters to deliver on our mandates to address the 
longstanding imbalances in the AoA, giving priority to levelling the playing in domestic 
support in a fair and equitable manner .  
• A fair and balanced outcome on fisheries subsidies  that ensures that the biggest 
subsid izers who have for long exploited the seas and oceans take greater responsibility, while 
affording appropriate and effective Special and differential treatment to developing countries 
necessary to secure them with sufficient policy space to sustainably dev elop their fisheries 
sector, and safeguard their food security and livelihood of artisanal and small scale fishing.  
• Improved Special and Differential Treatment for developing countries , that affords 
appropriate policy space and tools to achieve their stru ctural transformation and 
industrialization objectives.  
• Enhanced Technology transfer to developing countries and LDCs through existing WTO 
rules and mandates and examining needed flexibilities in existing agreements is a requisite to 
support  their transfo rmation effort including digitalization, addressing major challenges of 
climate change and fighting pandemics.  
• A continuation of a WTO Reform process  with development at its core and restoring 
the appellate body to ensure a well -functioning two -tier dispu te settlement system  
through an open, transparent and inclusive process, upholding the basic principles and 
objectives of the WTO particularly Special and Differential Treatment for developing countries 
which is an integral part of WTO Agreements and Negot iations.  
I am confident that through our constructive work together, we will be able to deliver to our people 
meaningful outcomes that positively impact their lives and reaffirm the credibility of the multilateral 
trading system and the pivotal role of th e WTO amid such turbulent times.  
 
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