Building on the precedent of the historic meeting held in Hong Kong last December, the developing country groups met in Geneva on 1 July 2006 to assess the latest developments and to coordinate their efforts with a view to ensuring that the negotiations lead to an outcome consistent with the development mandate of the Doha Round.


The G-20, the G-33, the ACP Group, the LDCs, the African Group, the Small, Vulnerable Economies, the NAMA-11, the Cotton-4 and CARICOM agreed that the DDA must address on a priority basis, in a meaningful and comprehensive manner, the development needs and concerns of developing countries.


The Groups stressed that the negotiations must fully respect the Doha mandate and the agreements reached in the July framework and in the HK declaration. Any attempt to renegotiate or rewrite these would not be acceptable.


They recalled that the Doha Development Agenda placed the needs and interests of developing countries at the heart of the work programme and called for ensuring that developing countries, especially the LDCs, secure a share in the growth of world trade commensurate with the needs of their economic development. This requires strengthening the role of trade in development and poverty reduction.


The Groups renewed their commitment to reaching an agreement on full modalities for agriculture and NAMA by the end of this month. They acknowledged the need for addressing domestic support, agricultural market access and NAMA, but emphasized that the elements of this triangle are not equal. The most substantial results must be achieved in the areas where the greatest distortions lie, in particular on trade-distorting subsidies in agriculture, that displace developing country products and threaten the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of poor farmers. Such distortions have been prohibited for industrial goods for several decades. Market access will be an important component of a successful Round, but market opening in the developing countries must take into account their social and economic realities. A development Round should not lead to the deindustrialization of the developing world. The priority is to reduce market access barriers in developed countries in order to create opportunities for the export products of developing countries.


The success of the Round cannot rely primarily on the efforts of developing countries. The greatest contribution must come from the developed countries, who must show leadership in this regard.. Developing countries are prepared to contribute in proportion to their capabilities and in line with the mandate.


The Groups reiterated the importance of S&D in all areas of the negotiations. In this context, they stressed the importance of flexibilities in NAMA for industrial development in developing countries, and the role of SPs and the SSM in addressing the food security, rural development and livelihood concerns of developing countries.


The Groups recognized the need to address the expectations of the LDCs with regard to making operational the Hong Kong Ministerial Decision on Duty Free and Quota Free market access and the simplification of rules of origin. They reaffirmed the need to address the issue of cotton ambitiously, expeditiously and specifically in its trade-related and developments aspects. They also agreed on the need to provide adequate responses to the trade-related issues raised by the SVEs and recently acceded developing Members. They also recognized the need to address the issue of tropical products and products of particular importance to the diversification of production. They recognized fully the importance of long-standing preferences and the need to address the issue of preference erosion.


The Groups emphasized the need for a bottom-up, inclusive and transparent process as a necessary condition for achieving a result that responds to the needs of all Members.


The Groups reaffirmed their commitment to a successful completion of the Round by the end of 2006.