Mr Lim Hng Kiang at the 7th WTO Ministerial Conference, 30 Nov 09

Excellencies, Fellow Ministers, 

Four years ago in Hong Kong, I said that if we did not take concrete steps towards concluding the Doha Round, we would risk a loss of interest and momentum. We have spent four more years negotiating, but the same challenges remain. Today, I am more anxious than ever.

I am choosing to raise the Doha Round first, as there is no doubt that its conclusion is critical to the WTO’s credibility. Repeated studies indicate that the Round would bring income benefits and development prospects that would be enjoyed across developed and developing countries. Particularly in this economic climate, concluding the Round is not just a matter of choice. The questions now are how and when. The more important question is how. If we can agree on how, the question of when should resolve itself.

So how are we going to conclude the Round? First, we have to ask ourselves whether the way we are negotiating now is the best way forward. Yes, in Doha and in Hong Kong we made important decisions on how we should negotiate. While we work along these agreed principles, we should also seriously ask ourselves if we could, for the sake of the larger good, explore other complementary routes to those already agreed on. In terms of process, as leaders, we have the responsibility to exercise pragmatism, flexibility and creativity to reach our common goal.

In terms of substance, the need for leadership and political will is also not a question of just one or a few members. All of us must make hard painful political decisions for the sake of a stronger multilateral trading system that will benefit us all.

Ladies and gentlemen, I now come to the objective of this meeting, that transcends the Round and unites us – and that is, how to ensure that the WTO remains relevant and credible.

We established the WTO 14 years ago. It has served us well. In fact, given the current economic uncertainty, its continued relevance is all the more important. The initiative to monitor trade-related measures during the height of the crisis showed how quickly the WTO can respond to real-time needs. Singapore believes this robust monitoring has helped restrain the worst of protectionist measures.

However, we must admit that we now face a fundamentally different world from that of 1995.There are new and even more fundamental challenges to address. While we have been successful in tackling issues "at the border", new challenges arise with increasing prevalence of "across or beyond the border" issues. Increasingly, all the important international issues will have trade- and trade-related implications.

It is thus essential that renewal and the creation of a non-static agenda become part of the WTO’s organizational culture. This need not be done only at Ministerial Conferences. It is in the General Council, the regular meetings of the WTO’s committees and bodies that, I believe, we have the largest resources.

Our other important resource is the Dispute Settlement Mechanism. It must be a priority for us to ensure that it is equipped with the right tools and capacity to deal with these new complexities.

Therefore, it is important for us to have this meeting at this time and at this juncture.

Thank you.