Date: 16/09/2009

Source: World Trade Organisation

Title: WTO: Lamy: Address by the WTO DG to the UNCTAD Trade and Development Board

Mr Chairman,
Ladies and Gentlemen

As always I am happy to participate at this 56th session of the Trade and
Development Board of UNCTAD, which is now a standing item in my agenda.

At last year's 55th session, I began my remarks by noting that I had hoped
to report to you that we had successfully concluded negotiations on
agricultural and industrial modalities to move on to the final phase of the
Doha negotiations. In a few minutes I will give you an overview of where
things stand in the DDA negotiations one year later, and my own sense of
what is required to conclude.

But first, allow me to address the context in which these negotiations are
taking place, and in particular the crisis. This has been the first crisis
of a truly global nature; a crisis which has severely affected international
trade.

Big or small economies, ranging from OECD economies to single commodity
economies in the Caribbean, the effect has been devastating. Of course,
while no economy has been spared, it is developing countries, particularly
the least developed amongst them that have more acutely felt its full
impact. These are countries whose ability to the fight the crisis is more
limited, given their limited financial resources - they cannot afford multi
billion dollar stimulus packages to bail out struggling enterprises - and
therefore are very much at the mercy of the global economic system for their
recovery.

The family of the International Organisations, and we in the WTO, have taken
steps to help minimise the impact of the crisis, bearing in mind the high
trade dependence of many developing countries economies.

First, we have worked to keep trade flowing, by mobilising efforts into
trade finance; Second, we have helped Members fight against protectionist
pressures by ensuring transparency in the measures taken by them to respond
to the crisis. Thirdly, we have continued to mobilise international support
towards developing countries to boost their productive and trade capacity
through increased aid for trade.

On all this areas we have partnered with other International Organisations,
chief among them UNCTAD and the ITC, but also within the UN Joint Crisis
Initiative. If this is the first ever global economic crisis, we will not
find he right exit strategy without coordination, both at the level of the
International Organisations, as well as, or may I say primarily at the level
of the Members of these organisations.

Let me first address trade finance, which was severely hit as a result of
the liquidity crunch. Trade finance as you know is the credit system that
oils international trade and was also a casualty of the financial explosion.

In order to improve both availability and affordability of trade finance we
have been actively engaging all relevant partners including commercial
banks, export credit agencies and multilateral development banks to develop
rapid responses. This effort is paying off. One of the main decisions taken
by the London G20 summit was a commitment to make available $250 billion
towards trade finance support among other initiatives to influence this
package. Under the leadership of the World Bank IFC, a Global Trade
liquidity Program was launched bringing together commercial banks and
regional development banks. These are tangible responses to the challenges
developing countries are facing as a result of this crisis.

Yesterday, I convened a meeting of the WTO expert group on trade finance
gathering all operators in this market. The picture that emerges is one
where situation is starting to stabilise, both in terms of prices as well as
in availability of liquidity, even if we are not yet at full recovery level
and even if SMEs, smaller banks and low income countries are still in dire
need of trade finance. We need to keep an eye on trade finance to pave the
way for a more sustained market in the medium to long term.

Let me now turn to the monitoring of trade and trade related measures which
our Members have taken in the crisis. Since the beginning of this crisis we
have produced quarterly reports for our Members as a tool to enhance
transparency but also to help them to fight the inevitable domestic
protectionist pressures.

At the request of the G20 in London we have also recently published the
latest such report on trade and investment measures, this time in
cooperation with UNCTAD, whose work I would like to publicly praise today,
the OECD and the IMF. Yet another signal that the family of International
Organisation can work together and rise to the challenge.

The picture from these reports is that Members have refrained from using the
kind of high intensity protectionism which we saw in the 30,s. But it is
also clear that there has been an accumulation of lower intensity measures
which risk creating "sand in the gears" of international trade that will
inevitably trigger countermeasures - one need only look at recent evidence -
and will retard the global recovery. It is time Members, starting with the
G20 meeting in Pittsburgh at the end of the month, start thinking about
rolling these measures back as the economy seems to start an upward swing.

Let me now turn to Aid for Trade, where we have also focussed our efforts on
continuing to mobilise increased and predictable funds. In July this year,
we held the second WTO global Aid for Trade review with the participation of
all our partners and in the presence of the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki
Moon.

Among the highlights of this review was the confirmation that trade is being
prioritised more clearly by developing countries in their development
strategies, that donors are offering more and better Aid for Trade and new
partners are becoming engaged in South-South cooperation. Furthermore, the
review also highlighted the fact that the allocation of more Aid for Trade
was being achieved without diverting resources from other development
priorities such as health, education or environment.

The review also highlighted some of the key priorities going forward on aid
for trade and these include enhancing the regional dimension of aid for
trade, enhancing the role and contribution of the private sector, devoting
more resources towards enhancing our capacity to evaluate the impact of aid
for trade and continued mobilisation of additional resources, in particular
looking beyond 2010. On this last point, I am happy to note that some donors
have already given us a clear signal of their intention to scale up their
aid for trade in the post 2010 period.

We count on UNCTAD and also on the ITC to cooperate in this endeavour and to
help collectively bring this agenda forward. Investing in productive
capacity is key to helping developing countries exit the crisis.

Last but not least, let me share with you the state of play in the DDA
negotiations.

At the beginning of September, India hosted a successful gathering of trade
ministers aimed at reviewing the state of play in the negotiations and
providing the impetus that would bring the negotiators back to the table in
Geneva with their pens full of fresh ink.

At the meeting Members unanimously reaffirmed their commitment to conclude
the negotiations by 2010, given the role that they see trade play in the
recovery of their economies.

As a concrete step, ministers in Delhi instructed their senior officials to
meet here in Geneva beginning this past Monday to design and start
implementing a roadmap for filling the gaps left remaining from last July.

These consultations are taking place in all the negotiating groups and will
consider all outstanding issues across the board. I hope that next Tuesday
when the entire Membership meets we will have a compass to guide the
negotiations over the coming months, so that we can wrap them up in 2010.

As I said on numerous occasions, what is outstanding in the DDA negotiations
is doable and a deal is within reach, but to get there, we still need a
translation of the current global political support into tangible
negotiating moves.

Leaders of the G20 meeting in Pittsburgh will have the opportunity to throw
their weight behind a Doha Development deal. Just as they will have a
historic occasion to show common resolve to address another global challenge
confronting the world, climate change. Leadership is about responsibility.
Failure to act will be hard felt by the entire international community. The
G20 does not decide for the world, but it can show leadership and send a
signal. Let's hope that on these two pressing global challenges the smoke in
Pittsburgh is white.

Thank you