Ministers,
Good morning — Al-Salam Alaikum.

I am very pleased to be joining you today, and to have the opportunity to discuss the current trade agenda.

The WTO has deep roots in the Arab world.

Our current negotiating round is named the Doha Development Agenda, after the venue of our 2001 Ministerial Conference. Besides, the organization is now celebrating its 20th anniversary, and it was founded in Marrakech.

Today 13 Arab countries are members of the WTO — and we are celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia’s accession this year. That was an historic occasion, both for Saudi Arabia, and for the organization. It aided the implementation of national priorities for progress, modernization and diversification. And the results have been very positive. I think it helped to support, not only the achievement of Saudi economic goals, but also the central role that the country plays in the global economy.

An additional seven Arab economies are in the process of joining the WTO. Of course some have more immediate challenges, but where possible I urge you to advance with your accessions negotiations.

The benefits of greater connectivity to global economy cannot be overstated. And the same is true for the capacity-building support the WTO can offer. It is a fact that countries undertaking the reforms required to join the WTO tend to grow faster than others once the process is completed.

So we are ready to help you with your accession processes, and to support your plans for growth and development in any way we can.

Let me now take a look ahead at the major issues on the WTO agenda — which I think connect very clearly with the concerns and aspirations of Arab countries.

As you know, WTO members struck a major deal in Bali in 2013, taking a number of important decisions. I thank you for the important role that you played in delivering that success.

It is now imperative that we move forward in implementing what was agreed in Bali. This includes steps on agriculture and food security, measures for the least-developed economies, and the first multilateral agreement since the WTO was created — the Trade Facilitation Agreement.

This Agreement will simplify, standardise and speed up global customs procedures, which can lead to an average cut in trade costs of around 14 per cent — an impact that is potentially greater than the elimination of all remaining tariffs the world over.  

This will bring much needed benefits to the region by cutting transaction costs among Arab countries and between the Arab countries and their trading partners.

This is especially important for less developed economies, where the costs of trading can be prohibitively high. The same is true for those countries that have the potential to act as vital transportation hubs.

As only approximately 10% of trade takes place within the region, the Trade Facilitation Agreement could help to further connect Arab countries to each other, stimulating regional economic integration.

And the Agreement is unique in WTO history. This is because the architecture of implementation is very flexible. It also foresees the provision of real, practical support to help in its implementation, including through the Trade Facilitation Agreement Facility that we have set up. 

So it is important we move ahead in implementing this Agreement, and all the other aspects of the Bali package.

Two thirds of members must ratify the Agreement for it to come into force. At present we have confirmation from 49 WTO Members — which is almost one third.

Therefore we are almost halfway there — and we have to maintain this momentum. No Arab members have yet ratified the Agreement, so I urge you to act on this point and take forward your own domestic processes.  

This call for ratification leads me onto another important 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 countries were having in gaining access to medicines. They provided a waiver so that essential medicines could be exported into countries that could not produce the medicines themselves, without fear of action over intellectual property rights.

Members later decided that this issue was too important for just a waiver. They decided to provide a permanent instrument to ensure that access to these medicines was put on a firmer legal basis.

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

Over half of the Membership has now done this including Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco from the region.

So again I urge those of you who have not done it yet to do all you can to accelerate your domestic ratification processes and bring this important measure into force.

Let me turn now to the biggest issue on the horizon for the WTO — and this is our 10th Ministerial Conference.

As you know, this conference is being held in Nairobi — the first time the WTO Ministerial Conference has returned to Africa since the organization’s creation in Marrakesh.

Preparations for Nairobi are at critical juncture.

We have been negotiating intensively for some months now, in a wide range of formats. I must report that progress has been very hard to come by — particularly on the core Doha issues of domestic support and all aspects of market access: agricultural, non-agricultural and services.

Of course our work will continue on these core Doha issues, and we must continue to do our best to move forward.

Nevertheless, there are some areas where we can perhaps be more optimistic.

There is a clear desire to deliver outcomes in Nairobi and so, while there are problems in some areas, members are looking at what can be delivered.

In recent weeks it has become apparent that some issues look more doable than the rest. And so I think that members have identified a road to success in Nairobi.

Without prejudice to whatever else we can conclude by Nairobi, I think that these potential deliverables include:

• Export Competition in agriculture,
• a package of development and LDC issues, and 
• some transparency provisions.

Of course this is not a closed package, nor one that will be easily achieved. While these are promising areas, they will still require a lot of work.

But I think it is important that we have a general sense of what may be on the table in terms of substantive deliverables.

And I think we should recognize that agreement on the elements we are talking about would represent real progress. They would have a major economic and developmental impact, even though they are not the end of the road. We must strive to do much more in the future.

So now we need to firm these up with textual proposals that can be advanced through the negotiating groups. That is our priority in the few weeks that remain before the Ministerial Conference. And I hope we will begin to see progress very soon — inshallah.

But of course, even if we manage to deliver an outcome in Nairobi along the lines that I have described, I think it is clear that it will not be viable, or credible, to announce it as the conclusion of the Doha Round. This seems to be a consensual view.

In this scenario, the unavoidable question is: what to do with the Doha issues that are not properly addressed in the Nairobi package?

At this point, there are divergent views on what happens after Nairobi.

Many say that if there is no consensus to end the Doha Round then it will simply continue — and that we should state this clearly. The other side says that if we do not deliver Doha by Nairobi then that will be it — even without a formal statement affirming its demise, the Doha Round will be over for all practical purposes and we will see no further engagement on Doha after Nairobi.

Clearly these views will be extremely difficult to reconcile.

I know that for the recently acceded members, the RAMs (some of them in the Arab world), advancing WTO multilateral negotiations is very important. They have undertaken deep commitments during the accession negotiations, and they would like to see the rest of the membership moving towards much more ambitious standards of liberalization.

So I think that we would all agree that the WTO must remain focused and active in our post-Nairobi work.

In this context, I think we cannot disregard important commonalities when thinking the way ahead. 

For instance, I think we all agree that:

• We want to deliver in Nairobi.
• Whatever we deliver will not be enough to formally and consensually conclude the Doha round.
• We are still ready to keep pursuing the core issues of Doha and their development dimension after Nairobi (although there is no agreement on how to do this: whether under the Doha framework, or whether under a reformulated architecture).

The immediate question is whether we can — or whether we want — to capture these and other possible commonalities in a consensual text in Nairobi.

In Geneva we have started a discussion on this issue - and I have designated facilitators to consult members on my behalf while I am travelling.

I think we all agree about the need to start this work, and that we should aim towards agreeing a Ministerial Declaration. But I think it is premature to start any kind of drafting exercise.

The first step therefore must be to hear everybody’s views, both on substance and process.

That work is going on right now at the WTO.

When I return to Geneva, I will convene a meeting of all members to determine how to take this forward.

At this stage I don’t want to prejudge where this may take us — whether it means moving towards drafting a ministerial declaration for Nairobi, or going an entirely different direction.

I will wait to hear members’ views.

This meeting is therefore very timely.

I would like to hear your views on all of these issues and your expectations for the organization and its future after Nairobi.

Your support and commitment has been vital in the recent past — and it will be so again.

I hope I can count on your engagement, and your ideas, to ensure that Nairobi delivers for growth and development, and that we establish a clear path forward afterwards.

More than just offering you a picture of where we stand in Geneva right now, I came to hear your views and expectations for the Organization. If we want to keep the multilateral system active and consequential, we must be on the same page, fighting together for the same goals.

Thank you — shukran.