Mr Chairman,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning. I am very pleased to welcome you to the 100th session of the Committee on Trade and Development, the CTD.

I am also pleased to welcome Mr Joakim Reiter, Deputy Secretary-General of UNCTAD to this event today.

This is certainly a special occasion. It is a milestone for the CTD, for the WTO, and for the broader trade and development community.

I think this shows our common belief in trade as a powerful tool for development.

And I think it also shows our common determination and resolve to ensure trade continues to play a positive role on this front.

Throughout history, trade has proven to be one of the most powerful pro-development and anti-poverty tools.

Accompanied by the right policies, trade can help to bring in new investment, create jobs, and provide access to technologies. And all of this can transform lives.

Trade was a catalyst for reaching the Millennium Development Goal of cutting extreme poverty in half — well ahead of the 2015 deadline.

Around two-thirds of this reduction in poverty came from economic growth in developing countries — which was driven, in large part, by trade. 

The figures tell the story.

Developing countries’ share of global trade has jumped from 28 to over 42 per cent over the last two decades.

In 2000, South-South trade accounted for less than 37 per cent of developing economies’ exports. In 2015, that share in 2015 stood at about 52 per cent.

These are very positive results.

However, there is still much to be done. Imbalances remain across the board.

For example, least-developed countries account for more than 12 per cent of the world’s population. However, their share in world exports totalled only 1.17 per cent in 2013.

Of course, progress has been made.  In 1995, LDCs accounted for only 0.5 per cent of world exports of goods and services.

Yet, we must continue to work hard and bridge these gaps.

This is something that is also reflected in the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda.

The multilateral trading system will continue to have a very important role here. And the CTD will remain a focus of that work.

The development aspect of the multilateral trading system has a long history, which actually dates back to even before the establishment of the WTO.

The GATT had its own Committee on Trade and Development. It held its first meeting almost 50 years ago, just up the road, at the Palais des Nations. The GATT CTD’s primary responsibility was to oversee the implementation of Part IV of the GATT, titled “Trade and Development”.

And of course, the current CTD was created by the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the WTO.

The first paragraph of the CTD’s terms of reference — agreed to by the General Council in January 1995 — indicates that the Committee serves as a focal point for consideration and coordination of work on development in the WTO.

And I think that the tasks that have been entrusted to the CTD reflect the importance of this Committee.

For example, the CTD plays a key role in reviewing the WTO’s technical assistance activities.

We need to ensure that developing countries receive the necessary practical support to build capacity and trading skills. This is a key pillar of our work.

The WTO runs special training programmes suited to the needs of developing county officials, so that they can successfully navigate the system. To date, almost 195,000 participants have taken part in the WTO’s training activities.

And of course, we have the Aid for Trade initiative, where the CTD plays a very important role. 

Through this WTO initiative, developing countries receive targeted assistance to improve their trading infrastructure. 

The initiative has disbursed over 260 billion dollars since 2006. This has had a real impact on the ground.

Research has found that one dollar invested in Aid for Trade results in nearly eight dollars of exports from developing countries in general — and in 20 dollars of exports for the poorest countries.

The CTD also has a mandate to:

• review the application of the special and differential treatment provisions,
• oversee the WTO’s Work Programme on Small Economies,
• help implement the WTO’s Work Programme on Electronic Commerce,
• contribute to enhancing transparency in preferential trade arrangements which affect developing countries and LDCs, and
• review members’ duty-free and quota-free market access schemes for LDCs.  

These are all very important tasks. So the 100th session of the CTD is clearly a reason for celebration.   

I think this is also a time for reflection — and it is a time to be ambitious.

We should look at what more the WTO can do to, and ensure more people can use trade as a tool for development.

As Director-General, I have sought to place development at the centre of the WTO’s work. And I think that the results we have achieved in the Ministerial Conferences of Bali and Nairobi show that this commitment is shared across the membership.

In both meetings we delivered a number of decisions aimed at helping developing and least developed countries to join trade flows and build their trading skills.

We must continue building on those achievements.

First, we must keep the momentum behind our capacity building work.

Next July, we will be holding the 6th Global Review of Aid for Trade at the WTO, and members will be putting a particular focus on connectivity. 

I think discussions on these issues at the WTO may prove very positive for developing countries. I encourage you all to seize this opportunity to take part and ensure that the conversation focuses on the issues that matter most to you.

Second, it is important to increase developing countries’ day-to-day integration in the system through training and technical assistance.

Since the first meeting of the CTD this has become an essential part of our work. And I think it will only continue to grow in importance.

Soon, we will receive our first intake of the WTO’s Young Professionals Programme.

The programme is aimed at recruiting candidates from developing and least-developed countries, especially from WTO members that are not currently represented at the professional level in the Secretariat.

This will allow these young professionals to get to know our work and to contribute to our activities.

This is a small, but important step to improve diversity and representativeness in the system.

Finally, we can continue making a big difference by delivering new trade reforms and agreements, which can help more people to take part and benefit.

For many years delivering trade reforms through the WTO seemed almost impossible. With our accomplishments in Bali and Nairobi, we have started to change that. Members want to deliver more.

There is a strong desire to maintain development at the centre of our efforts and to ensure that the benefits of trade are more widely shared.

Members are discussing how to deal with longstanding Doha issues, such as agriculture, services, industrial goods and other issues.

Progress on these fronts can also help to deliver on the SDGs.

The Nairobi Ministerial Decision on Export Competition has already delivered a key contribution to meeting the SDG on ‘Zero Hunger’. And there are many other areas of the Sustainable Development Goals where trade can make a difference.

WTO members are already discussing action in a number of important areas, such as eliminating tariffs on environmental goods and taking action on subsidies that lead to over-fishing.

Members are also discussing other ideas to help trade work more inclusively, such as:

• How to help smaller companies to trade, and
• How to harness the power of e-commerce to support development and inclusiveness.

I note the e-commerce for development event which is being held on 9 December.

These issues may prove to be very positive for developing and least developed countries. In the case of e-commerce I think capacity building and even facilitating support for infrastructure will be essential elements.

But these conversations are still at an early stage — and where all of this leads will be up to you.

In conclusion, the WTO has a strong track record in helping the most vulnerable develop the tools and skills to trade. And that is what we must continue doing.

We should focus our minds, and look at what we can deliver in the future, including at our next Ministerial Conference, in Buenos Aires in 2017.

That means intensifying our discussions and getting more focused on what we want to achieve.  

We must continue delivering meaningful results for development, and the CTD’s work will remain vital to achieve this and much more.

I am sure you will keep up this important work, for hundreds of sessions to come.

Thank you for listening. I wish you a very successful event.