JOHANNESBURG, 5 September — Saudi Arabia yesterday strongly criticized the World Trade Organization and said the WTO had failed to fulfill the hopes and aspirations of developing countries.
Addressing the Earth Summit here, Commerce Minister Osama Faqeeh said: "The WTO has not been able to fulfill the aspirations of developing nations. This has led to a growing feeling of injustice among these countries, raising strong doubts about the fairness of the multilateral trading system."
Faqeeh said "the multilateral trading system must be fair in reflecting the reality of its membership, equitable to advocate its benefits to all nations, and transparent to preserve the integrity of the system."
The Kingdom urged developed countries to reaffirm their commitment to the true concept of North-South cooperation by adopting effective and practical methods in mobilizing sufficient financial resources required for the implementation of meaningful development programs in developing and least developed countries.
Faqeeh urged the summit to give top priority to eradication of poverty, hunger and diseases. "We should make substantial changes in production and consumption patterns in developed countries to create real opportunities and achieve the goals of sustainable development at all levels," he added.
The Kingdom called for removing the trading obstacles created by developed countries inconsistent with their obligations within the framework of the WTO. "They should also refrain from taking new protective measures under various pretexts, including the excessive use of social, technical and environmental measures," it added.
"The Kingdom has adopted the principle of preserving the natural environment in its endeavor to achieve development and welfare for all without compromising its fundamental principles or encroaching upon the rights of future generations," the minister said.
Faqeeh called for the elimination of discriminatory tax policies of industrial nations imposed under the pretext of environmental considerations.
"These policies negatively affect the opportunities of achieving sustainable development in our countries, while industrial nations provide excessive subsidies and incentives to coal and nuclear energy, in which we find no logical or scientific justifications," he said.
The Kingdom urged the international community to respect the special characteristics, cultures, beliefs and religions of various communities. "The Kingdom respects human rights and human dignity," Faqeeh said.
The Saudi minister emphasized the urgent need to adopt a new method characterized by balanced rights and obligations, to establish "codified globalization" that would create firm bases for real partnership.
"The developing nations look forward to this summit with hope that its decisions would be effective in realizing their ambitions to live honorably without hunger, fear or diseases and provide the future generations a brighter and more secure future," the minister said.
Faqeeh said the summit was an unequivocal acknowledgement of all nations’ equal rights to obtain their legitimate share of the outcome of such comprehensive development and to enjoy equitable opportunities through effective participation in decision-making on all aspects of international economic issues.
"It also reaffirms the need for full adherence to the principles of constructive cooperation to deal with the growing challenges facing our world today. This obligates us to launch a new phase of serious collective efforts to face such challenges and shoulder the responsibilities with the aim to formulate a clear vision and well-defined goals," the minister said.
"We sincerely hope that this summit would come with decisions that reaffirm full adherence to the principles of justice, freedom and equality, and eliminate all aspects of grievances, subjugation and deprivation," he said.
Referring to the failure of the United Nations to achieve sustainable development, Faqeeh said: "This is primarily due to the fact that those initiatives lacked practical plans of actions and pragmatic work programs, in addition to harsh conditions combined with sharp decline in development aid. This resulted in heavy financial burdens and consequently limited the tangible results of development.
"The majority of developing countries did not have their fair share in these positive results of globalization and trade liberalization. They continued to suffer from declining growth rates, increasing poverty, acute food shortage, serious unemployment, contagious diseases and severe debt burdens. These factors combined have led to the marginalization of a large number of these countries and further widened the gap of inequality, economic and social imbalances," he said.
The Kingdom has provided monetary and development assistance in the form of outright grant and soft loans to a large number of developing and least developed countries worldwide, to help enhance their capabilities in facing development challenges. "During the last three decades, the Kingdom’s total aid amounted to $76 billion, representing about 4 percent of the Kingdom’s GDP," Faqeeh said. This assistance was extended to 73 developing countries, 41 of which are in Africa. Furthermore, the Kingdom answered the Sixth Islamic summit conference’s call by canceling $6 billion of its official aid benefiting a number of developing and least developed countries.
The Kingdom reiterated its call to the international community to establish peace all over the world, based on the principles of international legitimacy. It said the continuing Middle East crisis posed a major hindrance to any meaningful development in the region. "This increases the burden on Arab countries and obstructs their efforts aimed at the continuation of economic and social development," Faqeeh said.
"It is well-known that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a major world producer and exporter of oil. Yet it is still a developing country where the oil sector represents more than 85 percent of its total exports. Saudi Arabia has enacted environmental laws and established national plans to combat oil polluted sea shores.
"Saudi Arabia looks forward with great interest to the outcome of this summit as it represents a historical event and a qualitative leap in the United Nations’ efforts to achieve sustainable development," Faqeeh concluded.
