March 23, 2007	Friday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 3, 1428

ISLAMABAD, March 22: The Group-33 ministers have reiterated their demand for an early removal of distortions in international trade caused by massive subsidies and significant market access barriers in developed countries to pave way for attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

According to the G-33 Ministerial Communiqué issued after the conclusion of the two-day meeting held in Jakarta, the ministers said it is essential that the outcome of the current Doha round of negotiations upholds the proposals of developing countries resulting in real and effective substantial reduction of trade distorting domestic support, coupled with meaningful discipline.

It should be followed by elimination of all forms of export subsidies, and substantial improvements in access to the markets of developed countries, including through tariff simplification and elimination of tariff escalation, which impede or deny market access opportunities to products of export interest to developing countries.

The G-33 ministers met in Jakarta on March 20, 21 to assess the progress of negotiations on the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) of the WTO and to reflect on our course of action on Special Products (SPs) and Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM).

The ministers welcomed the renewed political commitment of all WTO members to reinvigorate negotiations to achieve a breakthrough.

They called upon the member states, particularly the developed countries, to translate this political engagement into concrete movements in positions to capitalise on the window of opportunity to conclude the round and deliver on the development mandate.

The ministers noted that while small group, plurilateral, as well as bilateral, discussions may be useful to help the multilateral process of negotiations, these must be accompanied by an open and inclusive process with full involvement of all WTO members.

This is essential to ensure transparency and equity in the process as well as the legitimacy of the results of these negotiations.

As part of the Group's positive and constructive engagement, ministers reviewed and approved a revision of the list of indicators for the selection of SPs in a manner as to assure transparency while enabling all developing countries to appropriately self designate an appropriate number of products based on the mandated criteria. The indicators represent the simplest and most rational approach to operationalising the mandate for SPs as they take into consideration the wide range of domestic circumstances of developing countries.

The ministers emphasised the importance of ensuring that treatment of SPs guarantees adequate flexibility for realising the intended objective of SPs. Such a treatment must take into account the special circumstances of developing countries, including small and vulnerable economies.

They stressed that the mandate on SPs does not require developing countries to provide any compensation, including through tariff quota commitments.

The ministers reaffirmed that the SSM is an integral part of the modalities of the WTO agriculture negotiations.

They underscored that in the absence of safety nets in developing countries, an effective and operable SSM would be the only instrument which can cushion developing countries farmers against import surges or price declines.

They emphasised that SSM should be available to all agriculture products and that the import price and import volume triggers applied separately should alone determine which product needs the invocation of the SSM at any given time.

The ministers instructed their Geneva representatives to constructively engage and make progress in the negotiations in close coordination with all Groups in Geneva.