South Africa, which already had 23 percent unemployment before the recession has lost an additional three quarters of a million jobs since then, creating further strains on the stability of a highly unequal society and nascent democracy."

Elaborating on reform, he said South Africa "would support the call made by a large number of countries to initiate a dialogue on the future reform of the WTO. For South Africa this must focus on strengthening the consensus principle and ensuring a more inclusive and transparent approach to decision making."

"There also needs to be greater clarity within the WTO on what we understand by development and greater coherence between the WTO and the other multilateral institutions concerned with promoting development and decent work," the official said.

These reforms are essential to transform the WTO from an institution dominated by a mercantilist discourse towards one which becomes a global public good, or in the words of the director general, Pascal Lamy, "more development friendly, more user-friendly and for the benefit of all, rich and poor, large and small."

"South Africa was not part of the agreements reached by some members in the July 2008 package," said the official.

"Our view is that even these texts are imbalanced and reflect too much accommodation of the sensitivities of developed countries in agriculture, while demanding too much from developing countries in terms of reducing their applied industrial tariffs and policy space for industrial development.

"Despite these reservations we have been willing to work to see whether, on the basis of the existing texts, the specific problems posed for South Africa and the Southern African Customs Union, arising from the historic injustice of South Africa's classification in the Uruguay Round as a "developed country", can be resolved in a fair manner," he said.

"In recent weeks there has been much talk about resisting backsliding and we agree with that. But we need to be clear about what we mean by backsliding. For us backsliding means retreating further from the development mandate that we all agreed to in Doha, and further imbalancing the proposed Doha outcome," he added.

"South Africa fully supports the position of the G20 and Africa Group amongst others in calling for an 'early and successful conclusion' to the Doha Round, with successful being defined in terms of its delivery on the Doha development mandate. Let me say though that if we have to choose between the two, South Africa will opt for a successful developmental outcome."

The least developed countries "have kept reminding us that the delay in the Round means no real further movement on issues of vital interest to them. We support their call for an early harvest on Duty Free Quota Free Market Access, Cotton, a Services Waiver for LDC preferences, and an ambitious Aid for Trade package," said Davies.

(Xinhua News Agency December 4, 2009)