Rio de Janeiro

Delivered by Secretary of Agriculture Domingo F. Panganiban
9 September 2006

Fellow Ministers and High Officials of the G-20 countries, and our guests, the coordinators of the G-33, the NAMA 11, the ACP Group, the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) Group, the African Group, the Small, Vulnerable Economies (SVEs), and the Cotton-4, my warm greetings and best wishes to all of you, as we gather here in the beautiful natural setting of Rio de Janeiro to reflect on the suspension of the WTO's Doha Development Agenda negotiations and its serious negative implications for the multilateral trading system and the call in Doha for a pro-development Round to be concluded.

The Philippines welcomes Ecuador and Peru as new members of the G20.

We urge the major developed partners, who have special responsibilities in ensuring a successful outcome of this Round, to
re-engage and resume the negotiations immediately, after having had time over the summer break to reflect on the status of the negotiations and on the serious implications of the persistence of the current impasse.

We also call on all the major developed partners to squarely address the outstanding issues and roadblocks, and to significantly improve their offers to fully align them with the development mandate of Doha, and that such improvements not be pre-conditioned on increased market access openings in developing country markets.

Developed Countries themselves stand to gain from liberalizing their own markets as they have the resources to make the necessary structural and economic policy adjustments, and the burdens of adjustment posed by additional access to their markets by developing countries would be relatively minor. On the other hand, developing countries as a whole face enormous adjustment burdens and negative effects on the food security, livelihood security and rural development concerns of their citizens. Developing countries would need significant assistance to adjust and cushion the negative impact on their vulnerable sectors.

As a fellow member of the G33, we thank and fully endorse the statement of the distinguished Minister of Indonesia as coordinator of the G33, and stress that SP and SSM are essential to ensuring a developmental outcome of the Round.

The Philippines, along with our G20 Partners and other developing countries, is fully prepared to look seriously at any improved proposals of the major parties under a Geneva-led process that ensures transparency and inclusiveness of participation.

Thank you all, and may I extend a special word of appreciation from the Philippines to our hosts, Minister Celso Amorim, and the people of Rio de Janeiro and Brazil.