Statement by H.E. Mr Tomáš MALATINSKÝ
Minister of Economy
Slovak Republic
First
of all let me express my sincere gratitude to the Indonesian team for the
excellent organization of the 9th Ministerial Conference, as well as
for their hospitality and all accompanying arrangements.
Slovakia
as a small landlocked country is highly dependent on foreign trade. Since 2004
we are a member of the European Union and we follow its common trade policy and
principles towards third countries. Therefore, we strongly support multilateral
trading system and the WTO as organization.
In
long term, Slovakia is one of the most rapidly growing economies within the
European Union. Last year our GDP increased by 2.0%, while average GDP of the
EU decreased by 0.3%. Due to the openness of the Slovak economy the main factor
of growth is export which contributes to GDP by 90%. Population of Slovakia is
small (only 5.5 mil.), therefore the domestic consumption is rather low. These
figures confirm that the Slovak economy for its sustainable growth needs not
only to keep existing foreign markets, but also open the new ones.
From
this point of view Slovakia strongly supports an ambitious outcome of the WTO
Ministerial conference in Bali. Our priority is the Trade Facilitation
Agreement. It would cut unnecessary administrative burden at all borders, which
is costly for business and trade operators. According to the independent
research, nowadays up to 7% of the global trade value is spent on different
kind of documentation. As you know, globally, the average foreign trade
transaction requires 40 documents.
I am
deeply persuaded, that all WTO members could benefit from a Trade Facilitation
Agreement. This would be a deal not only in favour of developed economies, but
also in favour of developing countries and LDCs. The Trade Facilitation
Agreement could particularly help landlocked countries, which are dependent on
the infrastructure and logistic capacity of neighbouring countries, to improve
their access to sea ports and to reduce the transit costs.
We
also understand the importance of the two other pillars of Bali package –
agriculture and development issues – and we welcome the compromise solutions
that have been reached recently in Geneva.
Finally,
I would like to stress, that it is very important to strengthen the confidence
in the multilateral trading system and the WTO and to prove that the members
can reach the deal multilaterally.
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