It gives me an immense pleasure to address this August gathering in this Post Cancun Agenda for South Asia conference being organized by South Asia Watch on Trade, Economics & Environment (SAWTEE), Kathmandu together with Consumer Unity and Trust Society (CUTS), Jaipur. I understand this is the first conference of this nature being Organized in South Asia after the Cancun Ministerial Conference. Though the Cancun Ministerial Conference could not meet its desired Objectives, it was an important event for Nepal and Cambodia for being the first LDCs getting the WTO membership after its formal establishment in 1995.

This conference is more relevant to Nepal in the context of its recent accession to WTO and its outcome will provide a guiding course for future actions. I fell that this conference is timely as well because it is necessary for the countries in South Asia to take stock of what
transpired during the Cancun Ministerial and plan their future strategy given the fact that stalled talks at Cancun are expected to start in Geneva from the middle of December. I understand that this conference shall deal with policy issues on the first day followed by an in depth discussion on new and emerging issues at the WTO. Let me now try and shed light on some of these issues as they relate to
South Asian Region with Nepalese perspective.

As we all know that 110 including 30 least developed countries are the members from the developing countries in the total 148 member countries of WTO. The member countries from the Developing world are now playing an active and important role in the WTO policy decisions and negotiations, and constitute a major force in determining and driving forward the WTO's agenda. In the days to come, Nepal will definitely support to this role and supplement the LDCs Consultative group.

Many LDCs in this region still need assistance. Some need preferential access to key industrialized markets. They need flexibility and longer time frames to implement the WTO's Agreements and they certainly need special and differential treatment Based on this assumption, we had negotiated and have achieved partial success. Land locked nations like Nepal need also to raise voice for special considerations so as to be competitive in the global market.

Agriculture is of critical importance to Nepal's development because livelihood of majority of Nepalese depends on it and 40% of GDP is earned through this sector and holds the potential to alleviate poverty. It is our view that further reform for agriculture should aim to attain the objectives as set out in the Doha mandate and that each Round of agriculture negotiations should aim at incremental reform, both in terms of value and rule-making. We stress that the "Framework", and the associated Modalities as has been discussed in the past to be agreed upon, and should address themselves fully on all the three pillars (export subsidy, market access and domestic support), in a balanced and equitable manner. We reiterate that, in accordance with the Doha mandate, Special & Development treatment should be an integral part of all elements of the negotiations on agriculture. In the days to come we will join other LDCs and call upon WTO members to exempt LDCs from any reduction commitments in Agriculture.

The remarkable unity and cohesiveness shown by the group of 22 developing countries in terms of breaking the logjam on agriculture
talks during the Cancun Ministerial are both meritorious and worth underscoring. The failure of the Cancun Ministerial has taught a clear
lesson to the developing countries that they should be able to use their unity as their strength so as to reform the multilateral trading system.

We reiterate the vital importance of long standing trade preferences for Nepal and call on WTO members to provide for the maintenance and security of such preferences through flexible rules and modalities based on development needs and its geographic location.

We feel that Services Council has not satisfactorily met the requirement of carrying out the assessment of trade in services as stipulated in the GATS. We reiterate the need to respect the principle of progressive liberalization and promote and facilitate the participation of LDCs in international trade in services, and liberalization by developed countries in sectors and modes of export interest to them. In this regard, due respect must be given for the member's right to regulate trade in services and liberalize according to their national policy objectives in particularly giving due consideration to the needs of small economies of the SA region.

The objectives of the negotiations on non-agricultural market in our region can only be facilitated when the modalities and the actual negotiations reflect these goals appropriately. These are by addressing tariff peaks and tariff escalation, taking fully into account the special needs and interests of developing and least-developed countries, including through less than full reciprocity in reduction commitments and the principle of special and differential treatment. In this context, LDCs should exempt from making any reduction commitments. However we appreciate some initiatives that have already been taken from our developed countries in this regard (EBA, Australia initiatives etc.).

The technical cooperation and capacity building are core elements of the developmental dimensions of the Multilateral Trading System and the Doha work programme. We welcome the revamping of the Integrated Framework (IF) and expect that it will be fully and effectively implemented in order to contribute to trade-related capacity building needs and overall development objectives of LDCs. In this context, we welcome the donor initiative for the use of IF Trust Fund Window II resources for this purpose.

We have reasons to be worried about the expansionary agenda, in the name of Singapore issues, pursued by some countries in the WTO. This is mainly because we want to first see the implementation issues to be addressed before adding further burden on an already overloaded multilateral trading system. We are yet to become fully convinced about the value addition of having a multilateral regime on competition policy, investment, trade facilitation, and transparency in government procurement. There are compelling evidence to suggest that the countries which have become parties to one or several of 2000 plus bilateral investment treaties (BITs) or Regional Trading Arrangement (RTAs), with explicit chapters on investment are not necessarily the ones which receive foreign direct investment
(FDI) the most.

TRIPS and public health issue is a matter of great concern for the South Asian countries, where access to affordable medicine is a critical
for the survival of the large number of poor people. We feel that Doha Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health is a step in right direction.
However, there was an attempt to dilute provisions of this Declaration by some countries,which even went to the extent of reneging on their commitments due to the pressure from the pharmaceutical lobby. Attempts were made to restrict the ability of the countries without sufficient manufacturing capacity to import affordable generic medicine in order to provide access to medicine to their ailing population. However, a major breakthrough was achieved on 30 August when the member countries of the WTO decided to adopt a decision to allow these countries to import the generic medicines. While the countries in South Asia are fully committed to enacting and/or enforcing domestic competition legislation, they are not in favour of entering into a multilateral discipline on competition, primarily because they need to understand the issue and its implications at the domestic level itself. Similarly, they are not yet prepared to negotiate agreements on transparency in government procurement and trade facilitation, which are not only new to them, but could add enormous burden to their fragile and in majority of cases of small economies. Moreover, there is a possibility of some member countries resorting to dispute settlement understanding of the WTO for the failure of countries to comply with these norms, once agreed within the WTO
framework.

We hope the conference will deliberate on these and other emerging issues from a South Asian perspective and come out with concrete suggestions on the way forward.

I would like to wish this conference a success. I would also like to welcome all those participants from outside the country, wish them
a very pleasant stay in this Himalayan Kingdom.

Thank You.