Aware of concerns from some developing countries over their capacity to implement particular Uruguay Round agreements within the agreed deadlines. EU is prepared to provide further technical assistance and support to ensure full and timely implementation of commitments by the countries concerned.

Major challenge is to strengthen public understanding of, and confidence in the multilateral system. We must introduce measures to improve transparency of the workings of the WTO and greater engagement with representatives of the civil society.

Traditional concepts and patterns of trade are now inextricably linked with international patterns of investment, with communications technology, with the explosive growth of trade in services, and with major issues involving competition policy, the management of the environment, and sustainable development. The Community is convinced that these challenges can be met only if we embark on a new, comprehensive round of trade negotiations: a Millennium Round covering the built-in agenda, the new issues identified at Singapore, and other issues on which there is agreement to prepare for negotiations.

Look forward to strong, clear outcome of the mandated negotiations which will place agriculture on the same basis as trade in other goods and achieve a fair and market-oriented agricultural trading system: end to agricultural export subsidies, improved market access, elimination of trade- distorting domestic subsidies.

Commitment to free trade - question is how to manage the irreversable and irresistible trend so that all countries and all peoples can benefit. Five key tasks:

Spread the benefits of globalisation: benefits have not been felt evenly, trade an investment is lagging in some developing countries. Must commit to zero tariffs for LLDC exports.

Keep markets open and fair

Extend trade liberalisation: must fully implement Uruguay Round agreements and press onwards, especially with agriculture and services negotiations. "Existing levels of agricultural support are expensive and inefficient."

World trade expansion must not be at any cost: importance of protecting the environment but trade rules should not be used to impose unfair standards on developing countries, nor to discriminate against their exports. Must work in ILO for the world-wide observance of core labour standards but, again, not as a barrier to trade.

Maximise the benefits of the electronic age and the borderless economy: regulating and developing electronic commerce.

Need to assess the implementation process of the WTO agreements taking into account the various problems and limitations of the developing economies like Kenya. Should view WTO agreements, not as ends in themselves, but as invaluable means of alleviating poverty, raising standards of living, ensuring full employment, and sustained economic growth and development. Appeal for WTO/UNCTAD/ITC assistance to cover country-specific studies on the impact of the implementation of the WTO Agreements.

Next round of agricultural negotiations must result in fundamental reforms putting trade in agricultural goods on the same basis as trade in other goods. Export subsidies must be eliminated, with major cuts to domestic subsidies. Market access must be substantially improved with deep cuts to tariffs, tariff peaks and escalation and removal of all non-tariff measures, so that agricultural trade can proceed on the basis of market forces.

Major benefits of trade liberalisation have not been equally distributed. Trade between the equal and unequal has in many instances proven to be inequitable. Developing countries, and particularly the least-developed, have derived the least benefit from trade liberalisation in spite of measures taken in the GATT e.g. the "Enabling Clause" which established the GATT principle of special and differential treatment for developing countries.

Welcome Plan of Action for Least-Developed Countries but there are other categories of developing countries caught between the emerging economies and the least developed, the needs of which are being overlooked. These are small developing economies which are facing the challenge of building their export and institutional capacities to allow them to become effective participants in the new highly competitive global environment and thus avoid marginalisation.

The focus of the WTO, at this time, should be on implementation of the existing Agreements and the built-in agenda, and on closing the gap which exists between its Member States. Essential to evaluate the impact of the implementation of the Agreements to determine the benefits to or adverse effects on developing countries. Specifically, there should be a review of the Agreement on Agriculture to determine the extent to which countries are meeting their reduction commitments and the impact on net food-importing developing countries, especially with regard to the Ministerial Decision on Least-Developed Countries and Net Food-Importing Developing Countries.

Negotiations scheduled to begin in the next two years should cover only those areas identified in the built-in agenda or agreed by Members at a Ministerial Conference. With regard to new issues, must note the ability of small developing countries to cope with the WTO's present and future work programme, which will involve negotiations. The inability of national administrations to adequately prepare for negotiations could adversely affect the level of their participation.

Ask Members of the WTO to recognise that meeting the objectives set out in the preamble of the GATT 50 years ago is predicated on the achievement of a sustainable level of growth by all countries. Need to build a cooperative process which recognises our differing levels of development and growth.

The Bank helped many developing countries to make the transition from inward-oriented development policies to the open trade policies that are consistent with WTO rules. Some estimates suggest that some developing countries gained very little or even lost from the Uruguay Round. This is essentially because they lost as other members reduced their distortions, such as agricultural subsidies but failed to benefit by removing their own. To avoid such imbalance in future, these countries will need to participate actively in the exchange of market access concessions. The World Bank is ready to provide support for such participation both through its analysis and through financial support in the context of appropriate policy programmes.

Must build a modern WTO ready for the 21st Century by:

Pursuing an ever-more open global trading system: "I am determined to pursue an aggressive market opening strategy in every region of the world".

We must recognise that in the new economy, the way we conduct trade affects the lives and livelihoods, the health and the safety of families around the world: we should level up not down in terms of environmental protection, consumer protection and labour standards.

We must harmonise our goal of increasing trade with our goal of improving the environment and working conditions: "international trade rules must permit sovereign nations to exercise their right to set protective standards for health, safety and the environment and biodiversity."

We must modernise the WTO by opening its doors to the scrutiny and participation of the public: "The WTO should take every feasible step to bring openness and accountability to its operations". Proposes opening all WTO trade dispute hearings to the public, making all briefs by the parties publicly available, establishing a mechanism for private citizens to provide input in trade disputes and for the decisions of trade dispute panels to be made publicly available as soon as they are issued.

We must have a trading system that taps the full potential of the Information Age: calls on all nations to join the United States in a standstill on any tariffs to electronic transmissions sent across borders ie. not to erect barriers to electronic commerce.

A trading system for the 21st Century must be comprised of governments that are open, honest and fair in their practices: by next year, all members of the WTO should agree that government purchases should be made through open and fair bidding and every nation should adopt the anti-bribery convention developed by the OECD.

We must develop an open global trading system that moves as fast as the marketplace: need to negotiate trade agreements more quickly especially on agriculture. "Agriculture, for example, is at the heart of America's economy and many of yours - and tearing down barriers to global trade is critical to meet the food needs of a growing world population Starting next year, we should aggressively begin negotiations to reduce tariffs and subsidies, and other distortions that restrict productivity in agriculture. We must develop rules, rooted in science that will encourage the full fruits of biotechnology. And I propose that even before negotiations near conclusion, WTO members should pledge to continue making annual tariff and subsidy reductions - ensuring that there is no pause in reform."

Priority areas for next round of comprehensive negotiations on agriculture:

Market access: need further reductions in tariffs, improved rules for tariff rate quotas, assurances against use of restrictive administrative procedures as substitutes for such barriers.

Export subsidies: must continue working to reduce and eventually eliminate export subs

State Trading Enterprises: need greater transparency and improved disciplines

Biotechnology: The principal threats to this are policies note based on science regarding importation, planting and labelling of biotechnology products. The world's producers must be able to use safe, beneficial scientific techniques that make farms and ranches more productive and friendly to the environment.

All of us have not benefited equitably from the rule-based Multilateral Trading System. Conditions in the 48 Least-Developed Countries, where more than 1/5th of humanity lives, continues to deteriorate.

Raised LLDC concerns relating to:

the non-bound nature of the GATT Special and Differential Treatment Provisions decline in levels of ODA lack of technical assistance capacity of the WTO implications of the TRIPS agreement restrictive rules of origin market access - zero tariff access for all LLDC exports LLDC debt

Concerned about implementation problems and that Zimbabwe has still to see the benefits that were expected to materialise following its acceptance of the WTO package. Calls for the speedy implementation of the special provisions in the WTO Agreements that are intended to promote trade and economic interests of developing countries as a means of tackling the threat of the increasing marginalisation of our countries within the multilateral trading system.

Stresses importance of implementing commitments relating to LLDCs made at the Singapore Ministerial and at the High Level Meeting on LLDCs.

Africa considers that there is not much to celebrate at the 50th Anniversary of the GATT/WTO. The WTO should commit and dedicate itself to devising an integrated approach and multilateral process that will effectively address the marginalisation of developing countries and the dangers that this state of affairs poses for the well-being of the multilateral trading system.

Increased trade and investment have by-passed the majority of developing countries. The gainsfrom trade liberalisation have been disappointingly asymmetrical.

Need to have an effective review of the Uruguay Round Agreements with the objective of promoting the balance and mutuality of benefits which were the basis for the consensus achieved on the "single undertaking" at Marrakesh. Unless this balance is restored, it would be unrealistic to expect developing countries to accept new areas of liberalisation.

On agriculture, the US, EU and Japan have maintained high levels of protection and given away little in terms of market access. And the measures designed to neutralise negative effects of agricultural reforms on the least developed and net food importing developing countries have remained largely unimplemented. We trust that further liberalisation in agriculture - preparations for which can be initiated in 1999 - will serve to redress asymmetries against developing countries inherent in the present structure of the agricultural regime.

The Agreement on Agriculture is based on the rationale of open international trade in the agricultural sector. It presupposes the supremacy of an open price based system. Thereby implying that a country should import agricultural products if they are produced cheaper elsewhere. India and certain other developing countries have been stressing the need for the multilateral trading system to recognise the importance of food security. A country may not have the resources to buy agricultural products from international markets even if they are easily available. Moreover, a very large percentage of the rural population in such countries is dependent on agriculture and any measure that has an effect on employment in this sector needs to be carefully examined. It is necessary to have a close look at the shortcomings in minimum access provisions, exemptions from the reduction commitments given for direct payments, and the issue of the possible negative effects of the reform programme of least developed and net food-importing developing countries which has not yet been effectively addressed as yet.

Also concerned about imbalances in the TRIPS Agreement.

Informal papers on issues of interest to developing countries and on special and differential treatment have been submitted by Pakistan, Peru and the Dominican Republic (jointly) and by Cuba. WTO Secretariat produced notes on studies on the implementation and impact of the Agreement on Agriculture on Developing Countries.

WTO Secretariat will prepare supplementary background material on trade data and tariff bindings for selected major products of interest to developing countries in line with the suggestions made in this regard. Developing country members were invited to submit country papers on specific issues related to their experience in the implementation and impact of the Agreement, including on import and exporting trends. It was also indicated that analysis related to food security and net food-importers will be of relevance.

Chair to develop a checklist of issues for future work on special and differential treatment in the context of market access, food security, domestic support, export subsidies, notification requirements and technical assistance. Chair will consult with members regarding the basis on which observer international organisations would be invited to make specific contributions to the AIE process.

Informal papers have been submitted on the following issues (countries submitting papers are shown in brackets): special agricultural safeguard mechanism (US, New Zealand); blue box payments (US, EU, Australia); State Trading Enterprises (US, Australia, New Zealand); export subsidies (New Zealand); domestic support policy reform (US); sectoral trade liberalisation(Canada).

Next AIE meeting will take place on 24 June 1998.

Future negotiations should try to achieve fair trade both for exporters and for importers of agricultural products. Agreement on Agriculture would be worthless if at the end of its implementation prices have increased and therefore "market access for importers" has been restricted.

Taking account of Article 20 of the Agriculture Agreement, it is necessary to determine as rapidly and accurately as possible the effects of the commitments so far on the prices of the main import products for the developing countries, the effects at the end of the implementation period and the likely scenarios if the liberalisation process continues. It is very difficult to think about any new commitments without these answers.

The Committee on Agriculture's follow up of the "special and differential treatment" consists of the monitoring procedure of the Ministerial Decision on Least-Developed and Net Food-Importing Developing Countries. Should also include studying the annual impact on imports of these countries due to the negative prices effect resulting from the reform programme. A new mechanism could be devised covering import shortfalls with respect to customary annual levels of imports by food importing countries as a result of price changes stemming from the reform programme. This could be a new commitment.

The 50th Anniversary of the establishment of the multilateral trading system provides the opportunity for an evaluation of the achievements and shortcomings, as well as the challenges and opportunities facing the global economy. We recognize the crucial role that was played by the GATT and its successor, the WTO, in encouraging open trade regimes and dismantling tariffs and non-tariff barriers in the trade in goods and services. The primacy of a transparent, fair and equitable rule-based multilateral trade system under the WTO, including the development of regional trading agreements can safely be reaffirmed by all countries.

This is not to say that all countries have seen the benefit of the system. In fact throughout these 50 years there have been clear evidence that a large number of countries, all of them developing countries, and particularly least-developed countries, have been falling behind. In the four years since the establishment of the WTO even clearer disturbing signs have emerged of trends that point in the direction of exclusion rather than inclusion and of marginalization rather than integration. Moreover, these trends are beginning to have quite serious negative effects on confidence in countries which only a short time ago were viewing their future prospects with some considerable optimism.

Developing countries, and particularly the least-developed, have derived the least benefit from trade liberalization in spite of measures taken in the GATT, beginning in the 50s, to assist these countries, including the adoption in 1979 of the "Enabling Clause" which made the principle of special and differential treatment for developing countries a part of the GATT legal framework.

We welcome the initiatives that have been taken within the WTO framework in the implementation of the Plan of Action for Least-Developed Countries agreed at in Singapore. The High Level Conference held last October demonstrates that the WTO is conscious of the needs of the least-developed countries. We congratulate Member Countries, both developed and developing, as well as the cooperating International Agencies for their important contributions to the Plan and hope that it will be implemented expeditiously.

But I speak for a Country and a Region which do not fit easily into any of the WTO classification of countries. They are those other categories of developing countries caught between the emerging economies and the least-developed, the needs of which are being overlooked. I make specific reference to small developing economies such as Dominica, which are facing the challenge of building their export and institutional capacities to allow them to become effective participants in the new highly competitive global environment and thus avoid marginalization.

If small developing economies are to be able to attract investment, expand production, improve product quality, meet standards, in short compete effectively and grasp the opportunities presented in the WTO Agreements, then it is imperative that their need for adequate transitional periods and for support be also recognized.

But, while we press for more attention to be paid to our particular concerns, we recognize that it is up to us to identify our problems, and articulate these in the WTO and other international organizations, working with them to ensure that we rise above our constraints.

One very troubling area is the recent experience we have had in the resolution of the dispute on the EU banana import regime. It has had an adverse impact on trade with our trading partners and undermined confidence in the WTO process. We believe that there are some important principles and procedures requiring improvement as we begin the review of the Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU). The so-called "systemic" complaints raised by a major trading partner, not only run the risk of upsetting the balance of rights and obligations, but also undermining the balance of benefits to developing countries, laboriously negotiated during the Uruguay Round.

We are particularly concerned about the blind and insensitive application of WTO Rules which could have the effect of nullifying all the efforts being made to prepare the economies for integration into the World Economic System.

I say these things not to sound alarmist bells but because I speak for a country whose economy has traditionally depended on a single crop, bananas. This crop is well suited to conditions in my country as well as in all of the Eastern Caribbean and other countries in the Caribbean Community. In the case of the Winward Islands, it accounts for well over one half of all export earnings and about a fifth of GDP. The industry is the major source of employment, and the majority of households receive an income, directly or indirectly from the production and marketing of bananas. It is a rural industry in which almost the entire rural community is engaged, producing bananas on predominantly small family plots, often situated on hill sides. A substantial number of the banana farmers are women. At the moment, there is no system more guaranteed to ensure that a cash income reaches the neediest in the society or to address the special problems of the rural poor. In addition to its contribution to economic development the banana industry is, therefore, a significant guarantor of social and political stability not only in my own banana producing country but in the entire Caribbean Region. I cannot therefore assess 50 years of the multilateral trading system, especially its evolution since the establishment of the WTO, outside of the context of its treatment of the trade in bananas and its impact on our countries.

In a small island economy the development options are not many. The reform process is painful and the diversification process difficult. More over, all of these initiatives depend for their success on increased financial resources to fund infrastructure, training, and to gain access to technology. Increased financial flows, in turn, depends on a stable economic and political environment. It is therefore not sufficient to talk about the non-discriminatory character of WTO. The institution must also promote and defend an orderly trading system that seeks to spread the benefit of global economic growth and trade to all countries, irrespective of their size or level of development. It may well be that the task is beyond the WTO acting alone. In this case, in addition to the Geneva based institutions, it might be necessary to engage other institutions whose development missions may be more all embracing.

Thus as we structure the agenda and define the work programme for the period ahead we will need to bear in mind certain important considerations that have not so far been allowed to inform earlier deliberations and decisions.

It will bear repetition that because of their inherent deficiencies some countries are not now able to take advantage of the many opportunities being presented as a result of the liberalization process in spite of the tremendous efforts that they are making to position themselves to obtain at least some of the benefits of the system and in spite, also of their enormous commitment to reform. It is simply a fact that the WTO membership consists of countries at varying levels of development and different trading interests. The system must be able to respond to the different needs, in order that all countries among them, prominently, small island developing States could derive some benefit. Above all it is important to recognize that the necessary adjustments to a global economy will not proceed at the same pace in all countries nor have the same effect in all places.

In this regard, as we look to the period ahead the focus of the WTO, should be on implementation of the existing agreements and the built-in agenda, and on closing the gap which exists between its Member States.

An essential requirement of this work programme should be an evaluation of the impact of the implementation of the agreements to determine the benefits to or adverse effects on developing countries. Specifically, there should be an evaluation of the Agreement on Agriculture to determine the extent to which countries are meeting their reduction commitments and the impact on Net-Food Importing Developing Countries especially with regard to the Ministerial Decision on the possible negative effects of the reform programme on least-developed and net-food importing developing countries.

In relation to new negotiations a point which cannot be stressed too often with regard to new issues, is the ability of small developing countries to cope with the WTO's present and future work programme, which will involve negotiations. The inability of national administrations to adequately prepare for negotiations could adversely affect the level of their participation.

We propose that machinery be established within the WTO to examine the special circumstances of small States, particularly islands, given their recognized fragility and vulnerability, with a view to determining how the rules could be structured to take into account these disadvantages.

As our countries increase efforts to implement the WTO Agreements, due recognition should be given to the need for adequate transitional periods and for support of our efforts at the national level. In this regard, we would emphasize the need for continuing and increasing the technical assistance provided by the WTO, UNCTAD, ITU and relevant agencies to enable our countries to participate more effectively in the WTO arrangements.

I think the period ahead is an exciting one for multilateral cooperation in trade, investment and other areas, and the Caribbean Community is doing all it can to position itself to participate fully in the global process.