VALLETTA (Malta), Nov 26: Commonwealth leaders said here on Saturday they wanted the Doha Round to be brought to a successful conclusion by the end of 2006 and ensuring equitable trading system. In the Valletta statement on multilateral trade, the leaders expressed their belief in the success in the Doha Round to the extent to which there were early and substantial dividends for all developing countries, and the extent to which “the development dimension permeates all aspects of the negotiated outcome”.

Since trade was considered a very important issue, the leaders decided to issue a separate statement in addition to the final declaration that would be issued after the conclusion of the summit on Sunday.

The Maltese Prime Minister, Dr Lawrence Gonzi, said the leaders had emphasized that the outcome of the Doha Round must be based on higher ambitions than was currently evident and the Commonwealth collectively pledged its global influence to correct that.

They emphasized that the core of Doha Round was the imperative of delivering development dividends. They also reaffirmed their determination to work towards duty-free and quota-free access to least developed countries to markets of developed countries.

Injecting urgency into the work of their negotiators at the WTO they instructed their delegations to the forthcoming WTO ministerial conference in Hong Kong to be flexible and to place priority on a genuinely development-oriented Round for the collective good, said the statement.

Being mindful of the critical importance of agriculture to developing economies for subsistence, the leaders said it was the most distorted sector of world trade. They expressed their determination to “pursue significant progress towards fuller and more meaningful subjection of agricultural production and trade to multilateral disciplines”.

The Commonwealth leaders recognized that agriculture could not be seen in isolation and stressed that the WTO ministerial conference in Hong Kong should therefore reach agreement on the elimination of all forms of export subsidies by 2010 and also time-bound commitments for substantial reductions in trade-distorting support and significant improvement in market access.

They also expressed concern over the consequences of the development and trade challenges being faced by vulnerable states, including small states, especially those traditionally dependent on preferential market access arrangements.

The leaders called for urgent and concerted action to provide phased adjustment and other transitional measures to safeguard their interests, and also financial support to assist them in repositioning their economies to take advantage of new growth opportunities.

They also recognized adverse implications of the EU’s recent announcement of reform to its sugar regime for a number of vulnerable small Commonwealth countries in terms of its impact on employment, incomes and export earnings.

They urged the EU to provide “transitional financial arrangements in which there is symmetry on one hand and EU producers on the other. They said vulnerable small stats were less capable of adjustment in the envisaged reform timetable, and that should be delivered in an efficient and timely fashion.