Minister Mustapa Mohamed,

Members of the diplomatic community, Ambassadors,

Honoured guests,

Ladies and gentlemen,

It is a real pleasure to be here in Malaysia. This is my first visit here as Director-General of the World Trade Organization. Actually my first time in Malaysia, full stop. I would like to thank Malaysia for its hospitality and warm welcome. This is also my first trip to the region since Bali.

Malaysia is a proud trading nation. You have been a leader in trade for many centuries. Trade has helped to power the impressive GDP growth that you have consistently achieved in recent years.

And today trade remains integral to the Malaysian economy.

Malaysia's ratio of trade to overall economic activity is among the highest in the world.

And this is no accident. Successive governments have worked hard to put in place the efficient systems and the infrastructure that are necessary to create a business-friendly environment.

Malaysia now ranks 18th globally in the World Bank's Ease of Doing Business Survey — one of only a handful of developing countries in the top 20. That is a major achievement.

In terms of efficiency in moving goods across borders, you perform even better, ranking 11th in the world. And you are helped by the fact that average tariffs are just 6%. In fact, around two-thirds of manufactured imports come into Malaysia duty free.

So that's the report card — and it's a pretty impressive one!

At the World Trade Organization, we have sought to support you in these efforts. And, looking forward, we want to help you to use trade as a means to sustainably develop even more quickly in the years ahead.

 

THE VALUE OF THE WTO

The WTO is marking its 20th anniversary this year — and of course Malaysia was a founder member in Marrakech.

I think we have achieved a lot during those two decades.

At the most fundamental level, we have provided the rules-based trading system to the world, which today covers around 98% of global commerce.

This has made a major contribution to the strength and stability of the global economy.

Over the years the WTO has helped to boost trade growth and to avoid protectionism.

We offer a forum where countries can sit down and monitor each other's trade policies and regulations. We offer a place for dialogue and consultations that very often result in mutually acceptable understandings.

When those understandings are elusive, we offer a dispute settlement mechanism that is envied by all other international organizations. We have successfully dealt with almost 500 trade disputes, helping our members to settle their differences in a fair, open and transparent manner.

The value of the WTO in the fight against protectionism was plain to see in the trade policy response to the 2008 crisis. That response was mostly very calm and restrained, in contrast to the protectionist panic that followed previous crises.

And we have supported developing countries in integrating into the trading system.

The WTO is the only place where developing and especially least-developed countries have a seat at the table, and have an equal say on global trade issues.

We also provide technical assistance to those countries that need to improve their trading capacity.

Therefore I think that the value of the system is beyond doubt.

Indeed, when the global economy is more interconnected than ever, it is difficult to imagine a world without the WTO.

But as the global economy evolves, so too must the WTO.

And we have evolved significantly since 1995.

In addition to welcoming over 30 new members, ranging from some of the world’s biggest economies to some of the least-developed, we have also taken important steps forward updating trade rules.

In this way we have delivered some important practical gains — from which Malaysia and other developing countries stand to benefit.

I'd like to highlight three of the new elements we have delivered recently.

 

BALI

First is the major breakthrough that we had at our Ministerial Conference in Bali in 2013.

And I want to thank the Malaysian government for the leadership it showed in delivering this success.

Members came together to deliver ten important decisions on a range of topics — from cotton and food security to a package of measures in support of LDCs.

Bali also delivered the Trade Facilitation Agreement — which could be very important for Malaysia.

By making the movement of goods across borders faster, easier and cheaper, it is estimated that this Agreement will reduce trade costs by up to 15% in developing countries.

Moreover, the Agreement could deliver an annual boost to the global economy of up to $1 trillion per year, creating 21 million jobs worldwide. So it’s a major agreement.

And, for the first time in the WTO’s history, there will be practical help with implementation for developing countries. The Agreement states that assistance and support must be granted to help developing countries achieve the capacity to implement its provisions.

This means a boost in the technical assistance that is available to develop customs infrastructure where this is most needed.

And we have set up a new initiative — the Trade Facilitation Agreement Facility — to ensure that LDCs and developing countries get the help they need to develop projects and access the necessary funds to achieve this.

The challenge now is ratification. Two-thirds of WTO members must ratify the Agreement for it to come into force. Some members have already done so — but we need to accelerate the process.

That’s why I was very happy to hear from Minister Mohamed that Malaysia has already completed the domestic process necessary to ratify the Agreement and is ready to deposit its instrument of acceptance in the coming days! I hope Malaysia can help other members, particularly those in the region, ratify the Agreement as soon as possible.

 

TRIPS AMENDMENT

This leads me onto the second practical deliverable that I wanted to highlight — which is another issue where domestic action is required.

In the Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health of 2001, Ministers tried to remove the barriers that some developing countries were having in gaining access to all-important medicines.

They provided at that time a waiver so that essential medicines could be produced elsewhere and subsequently exported into the countries that could not produce the medicines themselves.

Supported by the UN General Assembly, the World Health Organization, UNAIDS and many others, WTO members subsequently took the steps to grant full and irrefutable legal protection from any action over intellectual property rights in the situations I just mentioned.

So now we need to bring this important change into force. And, as with the Trade Facilitation Agreement, two-thirds of WTO members have to confirm their acceptance before this can happen.

Over half of the membership has now done this but again we need to accelerate the process. Just like the TFA, I am pleased to learn that Malaysia is currently working on the ratification process of the TRIPS amendment.

 

ITA

The third deliverable I'd like to mention is the WTO's Information Technology Agreement.

Malaysia has diversified its production and export base significantly in recent years. It is now globally competitive in a wide range of sectors, from chemicals and financial services to electrical and electronic goods.

It is no surprise then that Malaysia was part of the WTO's 1997 Information Technology Agreement. By eliminating duties on certain products, this agreement has helped to support the boom in global trade in IT products that we have seen since then.

Malaysia is now negotiating with 24 other WTO members to expand this agreement to include a wide range of new products with a global trade value of roughly $1 trillion. There will be an opportunity to advance these talks at the APEC Ministerial Meeting later this month.

I trust that Malaysia will continue to show leadership and constructive involvement in those talks.

 

THE WTO AGENDA

So, looking back over the last 20 years I think it's clear that the WTO has achieved a great deal.

But we are not complacent. There is still a lot to do.

We need to do more to help developing countries, such as Malaysia, use trade as a means to leverage growth and development.

And clearly there are some areas where our work has progressed too slowly.

Negotiations on the Doha Development Agenda are a case in point. And it has been a particular source of frustration.

While Bali was, for example, a major success, it is sobering to reflect that the bulk of our current trade rules were negotiated and agreed over 20 years ago when the organization was founded.

Despite the fact that many of those rules embody basic and perennial principles, the reality is that our legal texts are yet to properly enter the 21st century.

I am conscious that we need to deliver more outcomes more quickly — and, together with members, we will do everything we can to make this happen.

This brings me to what is happening at the WTO today.

At the end of 2014 all members recommitted to agreeing a work programme on the remaining issues of the Doha Agenda — and they committed to delivering it by July this year.

This means that the big, tough issues of agriculture, services and industrial goods are all back on the table.

And it means we have the opportunity to advance negotiations that have been completely paralyzed for many years.

Our next Ministerial Conference is being held in Nairobi this December. This is the first such meeting in Africa since the WTO was created. And of course this puts even more emphasis on the need to deliver outcomes for developing countries.

So there is a lot at stake in these negotiations — and I think we have momentum behind us.

We started a very intensive process of talks in January this year and so far we have seen good progress and strong engagement.

In fact I think we made more progress in the last few weeks of these talks than we did in all of 2014. And we have continued to make steady headway since then.

Members are engaging on the detail, leaving their comfort zones, and are beginning to bring some new proposals to the table.

There is a clear sense that they are moving away from finger pointing and moving into a solution-finding mode.

This doesn't mean however that our work is done. We still need to bridge some very significant gaps.

Moving the Doha Development Agenda forward is still going to be incredibly difficult.

But members are committed to pushing these efforts forward — because the prize on offer is very significant.

On a global scale, a successful deal would help to inject much-needed growth into the world economy.

For a trade-oriented country like Malaysia, an enhanced global trading system would offer significantly increased opportunities for growth and development.

So I sincerely hope you continue to show active engagement and leadership. And so your continued support and active commitment will be essential in this effort — including of course through Malaysia's current position as chair of ASEAN.

 

CONCLUSION

Working together, I think it is essential that we demonstrate once more that the WTO can deliver. We did it in Bali in 2013. With the TRIPS amendment and with the ITA, let's do it again.

Trade can be a powerful tool to alleviate poverty, support growth and boost development — so we should seek to use it in the most effective manner possible.

The best way to do so would be to conclude the Doha negotiations.

And so we have a big year ahead of us.

In addition to implementing our existing agreements, and delivering the work programme on the Doha Development Agenda by July, there are a series of major challenges and milestones on the horizon.

• We have the Global Review of Aid for Trade at the end of June, when we will be discussing all of our technical assistance work in developing countries. So that’s very important.
• There are the UN Summits on Financing for Development in July, and on the Post-2015 Development Agenda in September. 
• We have the annual WTO Public Forum in October.
• And of course we have our Ministerial Conference in Nairobi in December.

Positive outcomes in all of these areas would be the best way to mark our 20th anniversary — and to underline the benefits that the WTO can deliver, particularly for our developing members.

I look forward to working very closely with Malaysia and Minister Mohamed throughout each of these initiatives. And I hope that we can continue to rely on your support.

Thank you for listening.