relief and trade.

Motee Ramdass, Minister of Commerce and Consumer Protection of Mauritius, highlighted the fact that international trade as an engine for development could only deliver if existing disparities were duly taken into account and specific concerns were adequately addressed. From the perspective of a small island developing State, the only credible development option lay in outward, export-led strategies. Participation in international trade, therefore, was an inevitable option, but it could not compete on equal terms with the naturally endowed and more technologically advanced. The only option, therefore, was to provide such countries with favourable market access conditions and allow them to maintain a certain level of export competitiveness.

Francisco Thompson-Flores, Deputy Director-General of the World Trade Organization (WTO), said that trade was not the answer to all thethe entire world community.

Noting that new sources of financing were needed to fund long-term strategies driving sustainable development, Thierry Breton, France’s Minister of the Economy, Finance and Industry, said that France, Brazil, Chile and Germany were calling for the rapid implementation of a pilot “solidarity levy based on airline tickets”. Subject to the sovereignty of participating countries, the levy funds could be earmarked to finance the most urgent human development programmes, such as vaccination campaigns and the pooled purchase of HIV/AIDS treatments.

Statements were also made today by the President of the Economic and Social Council, as well as high-level officials from Mexico, Denmark, Sweden, Gabon, Ireland, Germany, Botswana, Norway, Indonesia, Tunisia, United States, Antigua and Barbuda, Viet Nam, Egypt, Luxembourg (on behalf of the European Union), Malaysia, Eritrea,