RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/COMTD/M/37
22 May 2002
(02-2842)
Committee on Trade and Development
Thirty-Seventh Session
NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 22 JANUARY 2002
Chairman:  H.E. Mr. Nathan Irumba (Uganda)
Subjects discussed:
A. A DOPTION OF THE DRAFT AGENDA ..............................................................................................1
B. O BSERVERS ............................................................................................................................... ....2
(i) Request for attendance for ad hoc observers................................................................................2
(ii) Further consideration of requests for observer status by the League of Arab States, the
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the Gulf Organization for
Industrial Consulting, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, and the Common
Fund for Commodities ........................................................................................................... .......2
C. T ECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND TRAINING .....................................................................................2
(i) Coordinated WTO Secretariat Annual Tech nical Assistance Plan 2002 (WT/COMTD/W/95)....2
(ii) Training Institute ......................................................................................................... ...............23
D. O THER BUSINESS ........................................................................................................................26
1. The Chairman welcomed delegations to the 37th Session of the Committee on Trade and
Development (CTD) which was to focus entirely on technical cooperation and training.
A. A DOPTION OF THE DRAFT AGENDA
2. The Chairman indicated that the draft agenda for the meeting was contained in
airgram WTO/AIR/1696/Rev.1 of 16 January 2002.  He stated that, the CTD normally elected its
Chairperson at the end of the first meeting of the year; however, the Chairman of the General Council
was still in the process of holding consultations on the slate of officers for the different WTO bodiesand he would report on the situation at an appropriate time at a meeting of the General Council.  The
Chairman of the CTD therefore suggested that the Committee elect its chairperson for 2002 at its next
regular session scheduled for 14 February 2002, as the Chairmanship of the CTD could not be decided
independently of the overall election of officers.  He further proposed to place the election of a new
chairperson as the first substantial item on the Age nda of that meeting in order to allow the incoming
chairperson to chair the main part of the second meeting of the year as was the practice.
3. The agenda was adopted as amended.
4. Before going to the next agenda item, the Chairman noted that Mr. Peter Tulloch had retired,
and therefore took the opportunity to indicate how appreciative he was of his contribution to theWT/COMTD/M/37
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Organisation, and that he had personally benefitted from his advice, objectivity and the trust he had
won from all sections of the Membership and he wished him well in his endeavours.  The Chairman
said that he hoped that those views reflected the views of the Committee.
B. O BSERVERS
(i) Request for attendance for ad hoc observers
5. The Chairman recalled that at previous sessions of the CTD it had been agreed to invite the
following intergovernmental organizations on an ad hoc , meeting-by-meeting basis:  the Arab
Maghreb Union (AMU);  the Economic Commun ity of West African States (ECOWAS);  the
Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO);  the Inter- Arab Investment Guarantee Corporation;  the
Islamic Development Bank (IDB);  the Organisation of African Unity (OAU);  the Organisation of the
Islamic Conference (OIC);  the South Centre;  the South Pacific Forum;  the United NationsEnvironment Programme (UNEP);  the West Afri can Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU);
and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).  He proposed that those organisations be
invited to the next formal meeting of the CTD.
6. It was so agreed.
(ii) Further consideration of requests for observer status by the League of Arab States, the
Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the Gulf Organization for
Industrial Consulting, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, and the Common
Fund for Commodities
7. The Chairman stated that at the last meeting, the Committee had had before it a number of
outstanding requests for observer status from the L eague of Arab States, OPEC, the Gulf Organization
for Industrial Consulting, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, and from the Common
Fund for Commodities.  He recalled that, pending the outcome of the General Council process, such
observer status would be on an ad hoc  basis.  Unless there had been any recent change of position of
delegations, he proposed to revert to those requests at the next formal meeting of the Committee
8. It was so agreed.
C. T ECHNICAL ASSISTANCE AND TRAINING
(i) Coordinated WTO Secretariat Annual Tech nical Assistance Plan 2002 (WT/COMTD/W/95)
9. The Chairman noted that the agenda item had two sub-items.  The first related to the
Coordinated WTO Secretariat Annual Technical Assistance Plan, and the second to the Future
Activities of the Training Institute.  He suggested that they be addressed separately in order to keep
the discussion focussed, although they were clearly linked as they both related to the assistance theWTO provided to developing countries.
10. Deputy Director-General Mr. Paul-Henri Ravier introduced the Secretariat-wide Plan for
Technical Assistance in 2002.  He requested Members' comments and guidance as the implementation
of the Plan proceeded with the delivery of the activities.  The activities contained in the Plan were
operational activities based on mandates already established by Ministers, Decisions taken by theMembership in various Committees and Councils, and demands by the Membership.  The Doha
Ministerial Declaration confirmed that technical cooperation and capacity-building were core
elements of the development dimension of the multilateral trading system.  Ministers had establishedWT/COMTD/M/37
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an extensive mandate and had undertaken a firm set of commitments on technical cooperation and
capacity building to enable beneficiary countries to implement WTO rules and obligations, and
prepare them for effective participation in the work of the WTO, including for future negotiations and
an extensive Work Programme, as well as enable them to draw on the benefits of the multilateral
trading system.  Document WT/COMTD/W/95 outlined the Coordinated WTO Secretariat AnnualTechnical Assistance Plan for 2002 and contained the activities the WTO Secretariat could deliver
within its area of competence, resources, and what  was possible within an 11-month period.  The Plan
had been subjected to the fullest possible internal coordination by the WTO Secretariat Technical
Assistance Management Committee (TAMC) which had b een established last year.  It was also based
on information available to the Secretariat, under the time constraints post-Doha given the fact that
implementation was to begin that month.  The activities in the Plan were based on inputs from five
sources, namely:  (i) mandates on technical cooperation and capacity building in the Doha MinisterialDeclaration as contained in paragraphs 16, 21, 24, 26, 27, 33, 38-40, 42 and 43;  (ii) the New Strategy
for WTO Technical Cooperation for Capacity-building, Growth and Integration – which was noted by
the October 2002 CTD Meeting and endorsed by Ministers in paragraph 38 of the Doha Declaration;
(iii) requests from the Membership and countries in accession to the WTO Secretariat.  Such inputs
into the Plan took into account the fact that WTO Technical Assistance remained demand driven;  (iv)
the stand-alone decisions on technical cooperation taken by Members such as in paragraph 14 of the
Negotiating Guidelines for the Services Negotiations, the Decision on Technical Assistance by the
Customs Valuation Committee, and others;  and (v) coordinated inputs from operational divisions and
the Technical Cooperation Division, which emerged from meetings of the TAMC.
11. He went on to emphasise that with respect to the budgetary and financial aspects of the Plan,
the cost had not yet been fully assessed.  In pr inciple however, the cost should not exceed the
15 million CHF which had been agreed to in the Committee on Budget and Finance.  That figure
depended on parameters such as the sensitive issue of cost-sharing with other organisations with
which the WTO Secretariat cooperated and the number of participants to be invited from each
Ministry.  Once the financing of the programme had finally been determined, a statement would bemade by the Secretariat.  He drew the CTD's attention to the fact that the Plan was only one of four
levels of action that the WTO Secretariat would pursue in the implementation of the technical
cooperation and capacity building objectives in 2002.  The other levels of action, which would be
pursued interdependently were:  (i) effective coordinated delivery of technical assistance with
well-defined inter-agency groups/multilateral agencies.  That would focus on areas such as the
Singapore Issues, and areas where synergies would be required with other multilateral institutions;
(ii) the Integrated Framework (IF) for Trade-Related Technical Assistance to the Least-DevelopedCountries (LDCs).  Action at that level would be based on the re-vamped Integrated Framework as a
mechanism for mainstreaming trade priority areas of action into the development plans and strategies
for poverty reduction of the LDCs;  and (iii) effective coordinated delivery of technical assistance by
the WTO and bilateral donors through  interaction with the Development Assistance Committee
(DAC) of the OECD.
12. He then indicated that the Plan was divided into six sections, as they appeared in document
WT/COMTD/W/90/Add.1.  In view of the importance attached in the Ministerial Declaration to the
Singapore issues, Annex I was dedicated to these issues.  That Annex explained the overarching
strategy underpinning the Singapore issues, and s howed how technical assistance would be delivered
in those areas, including in coordination with other competent agencies.  Annex II was dedicated totrade and environment, in light of the negotiations agreed by Members.  Paragraph 5 of the
Introduction highlighted the areas of action covered in light of the Doha mandates, namely:
(i) mainstreaming and Integrated Framework;  (ii) implementation issues and concerns;
(iii) enhancing negotiating capacity;  (iv) trade-policy capacity-building;  (v) accessions;
(vi) non-residents;  (vii) WTO reference centres and information technology support;  and (viii)modernization and expansion of technical assistance tools.  He appealed to Members to limit  ad hoc
requests throughout the year.  He noted that some planned activities would be cancelled or postponed,WT/COMTD/M/37
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while others would be ad hoc .  He said that the CTD would recall the difficulties involved in ensuring
an appropriate balance in the management of technical assistance, when the ratio between the planned
activities and the ad hoc  activities was unbalanced.  In the 1980s and 1990s the ad hoc  activities had
represented a higher proportion than the planned activities, with the result that they had become
difficult to organise.  Since the number of planned activities in 2002 (422 in total) significantlyexceeded the levels for previous years, the Secretariat would attach priority to planned activities, and
would seek the cooperation and understanding of Me mbers to ensure adherence to the Annual Plan.
He clarified that ad hoc  requests and activities that arose or were requested by Members throughout
the year 2002 would be considered for the 2003 Plan, except when the most exceptional of
circumstances would justify financing and integratin g them into the 2002 activities.  In concluding he
urged the Members to be foresighted, and think of the next 3-4 years.  In order to get the maximum
benefit from the scarce financial and human resources, it was important to follow the plan agreed to atthe beginning of the year.  A flood of ad hoc  activities would take up too much time and resources
and would upset the balance of activities planned.
13. The representative of Canada thanked the Secretariat for the immense amount of work
devoted to the preparation of the documents that the CTD had before it and indicated that her
delegation understood how complex the process was when five separate sets of activities had to bebrought together to create the Plan.  Her dele gation recommended that the Plan be more closely
identified with the activities linked to the Doha commitments.  That linkage could be made, although
it might not be easy since activities related to several different commitments.  However, that was
important from a strategic perspective, and would allow the Committees to relate to the Plan, analyse
the Plan and understand the Plan as it related to their areas of expertise.
14. The representative of Switzerland indicated that his delegation would do its best to assist the
Technical Cooperation Division in its difficult task.  The WTO was not meant to be a development
organisation, but there was a need for the WTO to provide technical assistance and build capacity in
developing countries.  He further reported that in a joint meeting of the OECD (DAC) and the
Inter-Agency Working Group of the IF the prev ious week, the Chairman of the OECD Trade
Committee had emphasised that capacity-building efforts in the WTO were of paramount importance
for the further development of the multilateral trading system.  Trade-related technical assistance had
to take place in the WTO.  The OECD Trade Committee, chaired by Switzerland, wished to convey to
the CTD that it would follow those activities with in terest and would be as supportive as possible.  To
be effective and efficient, the fullest possible transparency regarding the delivery of technical
assistance was necessary.  The report on capacity building that the Director-General would prepare for
the General Council at the end of the year and for the next Ministerial Conference should not onlypresent the activities at the multilateral level, but also those at the bilateral level.  A compendium
should also be prepared in collaboration with the relevant international organisations and donor
countries on all trade-related technical assistance.  With respect to Annex I of the 2002 Plan, he
indicated that a focussed and enhanced technical assistance plan in the field of trade and investment,
was to be discussed, and UNCTAD should be invited to participate in that process.  He indicated thathe had been informed that UNCTAD had already made a first draft of a post-Doha technical
assistance proposal in the area of investment.  He asked whether the WTO investment activities
proposed in the 2002 Plan were coordinated with UNCTAD as his delegation would not wish to see
similar activities conducted in parallel in both organisations.  On the issue of transparency, he
enquired whether there were country-specific lists which summarised the trade-related technicalassistance activities delivered in the past.  Such detailed lists by activity would be useful and he asked
the Secretariat to prepare such lists in the future, in collaboration with other organisations.  His
delegation agreed with the Deputy Director-General's comment that ad hoc  requests should only be
met in exceptional circumstances.  For full transparency with respect to ad hoc  requests, he proposed
that the Secretariat list the countries making such requests together with the subject area of theirrequests.  He did not believe that the point had been reached where stand-alone technical activities
were being turned into long-term sustainable and effective capacity-building.  What was needed wasWT/COMTD/M/37
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to put in place a process for comprehensive trade-related capacity-building and move away from
individual activities.  He noted that the technical assistance strategy contained some elements that
might assist, such as the coordinating committees at the country-level, or interlocking trade policy
reviews with the design of country-specific capaci ty building.  Those were future pursuits.  The
evaluation of the activities should also be part of transparency and effectiveness.
15. The representative of the Uruguay said that he had appreciated the initiative by the Secretariat
to meet with regional groups to present the Plan for 2002.  GRULAC was one of the groups that had
benefitted from direct contact with the Secretariat.  That contact had allowed them to get advance
knowledge of the document and send it to their capitals in a timely manner.  He hoped that that
practice would continue in the future.  His delegation thanked the Secretariat for including a national
seminar on services in Uruguay, in the list of activities for the current year.  He noted the position of
the Secretariat to avoid ad hoc  technical assistance requests.  The 422 activities already planned for
2002 clearly showed that there was a significant planning for 2002.  However, he reserved his
delegation's right to make new technical assistance requests as necessary, bearing in mind the large
agenda which arose from the fourth Ministerial Conference.  There would be a national seminar on
competition policy in Uruguay in the first half of the year 2002, in conjunction with other
organisations.  Bearing in mind what was stated in Annex I of the Plan with respect to capacitybuilding and technical assistance in relation to the Singapore issues, he requested the support of the
WTO Secretariat in planning that seminar.
16. The representative of Malaysia understood the work on the Plan to be a complex exercise
involving the coordination and cooperation between multilateral agencies considering requests from
Members as well as giving the appropriate focus to LDCs.  There was a broad mix in the delivery oftechnical assistance between the regions and he welcomed the fact that there were a number of
regional workshops which would include the participation of Members which may otherwise not be
included because of a lack of priority or because of a lack of funds.  In this context, he noted that there
were a number of venues that were used more frequently than others, possibly because the
coordinating agencies were based in those countries.  However, whenever possible, regional seminarsand workshops should be hosted in other locations.  A better spread of venues should be encouraged,
so as to provide opportunities to additional Members to enhance their participation in the seminars.
He further noted that the funding of the programmes was still pending, and would welcome pledges
from donors to the Global Trust Fund so that those activities would be fully funded.
17. The representative of India agreed with the statement of the Chairman with respect to
Mr. Tulloch who had been the "Development Pillar" of the Institution.  It was unfortunate that he had
left just after Doha.  He stated his deep appreciation for Mr. Tulloch's valuable contribution.  He wenton to say that after Doha, many delegations had announced that the "Doha Development Agenda" had
been launched.  However, soon after returning from Doha delegations had discovered that the WTO
Secretariat's Development Division had been liquidated, although its work had not gone away.  It had
been distributed between three WTO Secretariat Divisions.  Despite that reorganisation, the Plan had
been put together in a short time.  His delegation had argued strongly in favour of two Geneva Weeksin the Budget Committee, and that had been included in the Plan.  However, to the best of his
knowledge, only one Geneva Week had been approved in the Budget Committee.  He therefore
wished to know if only one of the Weeks would be funded by the regular budget and how the other
would be financed. Irrespective of the number of Geneva Weeks actually held, a way had to be found
to keep the non-resident delegations constantly informed of progress in the various negotiationslaunched in Doha.  His second point had to do with the meaning of capacity-building.  He was of the
view that capacity-building went beyond the holdin g of seminars.  He acknowledged that seminars
and regional workshops were valuable inputs into capacity-building, but noted that capacity-building
extended far beyond those.  The capacities of developing countries varied vastly and the programmes
designed should cater to the specific needs of each beneficiary country.  Developing countries did nothave infinite capacity to absorb technical assistan ce.  Their capacity had to be built up slowly, andWT/COMTD/M/37
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would involve the building up of capacities from scratch on certain issues.  The pace of expansion of
WTO activities, on specific subjects on which developing countries did not have adequate experience,
should be so planned to allow all developing countries to effectively participate in the negotiations.
He recommended the consideration of the delivery of technical assistance through institutions in other
countries, particularly developed countries which had knowledge and expertise indevelopment-related issues and had specialised in topics such as international trade and economic
relations, as that might be a cost-effective way of delivering technical assistance.  The training of
trainers would have a multiplier effect since the trainers trained from developing countries would go
back and train a significant number of persons in their own countries.
18. He went on to note that the Plan referred specifically to, and seemed to focus on the
"Singapore issues".  He was surprised to find reference to those in paragraph 5(iii) and the second
sentence in Annex I of the document, as his delegation was not aware that negotiations on "SingaporeIssues" had been agreed.  He was of the view that that was to be discussed at the Fifth Ministerial
Conference and to be decided on by explicit concensus.  Similarly, with respect to mainstreaming and
the IF in paragraph 5(i), there was a reference to paragraph 38 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration
and his delegation preferred that the language used in the Plan be the same as that in the Declaration.
It would otherwise give a misleading impression that  something had been agreed to in Doha which
had not been agreed to.  The Doha Ministerial Declaration implied technical assistance in other areas,
such as rules.  He specifically referred to paragraphs 34, 35, 28 and 29.  There was also an implied
reference in paragraph 6 of the Declaration on Public Health which had to be taken into account, so
that activities in those areas would be organised.  In the final section of the Plan there was a provision
for video-conferencing, which was useful.  Howeve r, since the video-conferencing facilities were
used by many Divisions, they should not be financed through the technical assistance budget, but be
part of the regular budget.  In Annex V of the Plan which summarised the number of activities
planned for the year 2002, there was a column containing the number of activities planned for LDCs,
which made impressive reading until the footnote was read.  The footnote specified that LDC
activities were "Activities held in an LDC or, in the case of regional activities, those activities towhich at least an LDC is invited."  If in a group of 30 participants, one participant represented an
LDC, it could not be classified as an event for LDCs.  He proposed that for group activities, only
those where at least 50 per cent of the participants  represented LDCs, should be identified as LDC
activities, and that the figures be adjusted accordingly.  He went on to say that it still was unclear
where the required 15 million CHF was to come from.  He hoped for an early decision on a Pledging
Conference to held in early 2002.  He said that he did not understand the Deputy Director-General's
comment about cost-sharing with other organisati ons, since the activities being planned were within
the WTO, and the cost should therefore be borne within the WTO.  One of the previous speakers had
mentioned that the WTO was not a development organisation, but it was not clear what that statement
meant.  If what was meant, was that the WTO could not assist in establishing infrastructure facilities,
such as ports and roads, he could agree, but if the technical cooperation listed in the Plan was
classified in that other context, he could not agree.  In the pre-Doha phase, all delegations wouldrecollect that when developing countries had made the point that they lacked expertise in the areas of
investment and competition policy, they had been told not to worry as technical assistance and
capacity building would be provided.  If, after that, developing countries were told that the WTO was
not a development organisation, it made his delegation wonder what the meaning of the earlier
statement was.  The technical cooperation and cap acity-building activities listed in the Plan were
relevant to the WTO's core-business and that assistance had to continue to be provided to developing
countries and LDCs.
19. The representative of Djibouti noted that there was something new in the Plan, not previously
seen in WTO documentation, specifically the names of the Secretariat staff who would be dealing
with each activity.  However, no telephone number were given.  That information would assistdelegations when they wished contact the officer responsible for a particular seminar.  The aim of the
technical assistance paragraphs of the Ministerial Declaration was to provide a means to developingWT/COMTD/M/37
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countries and LDCs to prepare themselves to enter fully into the multilateral trading system.  The 15
million CHF was therefore needed to ensure the implementation of the technical cooperation activities
and to train people to comply with the obligations.  The IF had developed well.  However, he was not
aware of the results of the three pilot countries.  His government was willing to host a round table and
to have an expert to prepare the round table.
20. The representative of the European Communitie s said that his delegations' remarks, while
suggesting improvements, should not to be taken as if his delegation did not fully appreciate the
difficulties involved in the work completed.  It was in his delegation's self interest to get the Plan
right, as the Doha Agreement was so focused on te chnical assistance and capacity building, that the
success or failure of the whole exercise to a large ex tent would be measured by what was reflected in,
for example, paragraph 41 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration, from which it was clear that there had
to be a stocktaking of the adequacy of the measures undertaken.  The main improvement hisdelegation suggested was to make it clear how the Pl an fitted into the new framework under which the
WTO was working.  The Doha Ministerial Declaration and the Technical Cooperation Strategy had
been mentioned in the introduction to the Plan.  The Strategy Document was also reflected, in some
elements, in certain relevant paragraphs, especially paragraphs 38-41 of the Doha Ministerial
Declaration.  Unfortunately, the Plan still looked somewhat like the lists which had been circulated in2001 although the imperative was to respond to paragraphs 38-41, and be able to show how the
development and technical assistance challenges would be responded to by the work of the WTO
Secretariat and by bilateral and multilateral donors.  It might therefore not be enough to report that a
regional seminar had been conducted as outlined in the first part of the Plan if it could not be tied into
specific obligations to provide technical assistance.  Before a seminar was decided upon, it had to beconsidered whether it fitted into the development strategy of the recipient, as was clearly indicated in
paragraph 38 of the Declaration, how it fitted into  the Doha obligations and how it fitted with the
main focus of the Technical Cooperation Strategy.  Those considerations should have been the point
of departure for the Plan, with more information as to how those objectives were to be met by the
particular measures put forward.  His delegation was aware that that was not an easy task aseverything could not be classified from the start.  However, the political value and visibility of the
responsiveness of the Organisation lay in further working out those points.  Some efforts had been
made in that respect and he would be more positive and concrete with respect to these points.  The
Annexes on Investment and Environment of the Plan were based on subjects and the type of
commitments taken in the Doha Ministerial Declaration.  His delegation shared the view of the
representative of Switzerland, that it was not clear what was WTO's work would be and questioned
whether the WTO could organise the type of seminars outlined in the Plan.  It was also not clear whatUNCTAD's role would be.  He asked if UNCTAD w ould organize seminars in which the WTO would
participate, or whether the WTO would organise seminars in which UNCTAD would participate.  His
delegation also focussed on another main theme – cooperation and coordination with other
multilateral organisations.  The Deputy Director-General had pointed out that that was another level
of the discussion, but the document discussed some of those issues as for example in the Annexesmentioned earlier and with respect to the IF.  The more complementarity there could be, the better off
everyone would be.  He urged the Secretariat to try to expand the Plan a little in the direction of
theme-oriented programmes, such as in the areas of investment and environment, for which the
proposals were embryonic.  In the area of the environment, for instance, a lot more had to be done to
remove some of the concerns in the area and he urged the Secretariat to take up those themes.
21. He continued by saying that it was unclear how the costing process would operate.  His
delegation was not of the view that the Plan would cost more that 15 million CHF.  He asked how
priorities would be set if more costs were incurred through cooperation, since co-financing would not
always be easy.  Some programmes would hopefully be allocated to other international organisations
who had more expertise, and more resources for th e "Singapore Issues", for example.  More clarity
was needed in that area.  In addition, delegations had to be informed about how much the WTO
Secretariat could really deliver with its own resources.  That would make the Plan a more credibleWT/COMTD/M/37
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document and would help it respond to the challenges which the CTD faced.  His delegation was
looking forward to receiving an interim report to the General Council in December 2002.  He was
certain that the Organisation and the donors would be put to the test and asked what had been done.
He therefore asked how it could be ensured that the words in the Ministerial Declaration had been
turned into something tangible for developing countrie s.  In order to be in the best possible position to
give such a response, the Plan should be revised and rearranged along the lines suggested.
22. The representative of Paraguay agreed with the Plan and was grateful for the inclusion of
three technical cooperation programmes which had been requested by his Government.  He believed
that the technical assistance provided by the WTO was a complement to the national training effort to
meet the needs of multilateral trade at this time of globalisation.  WTO technical cooperation was not
a substitute for national efforts, but complemented  them.  Even if the Plan was not perfect, it
contained aspects of the Doha decisions and requests from delegations.  There had been progress informulating the Plan and doors had been opened with other international institutions which dealt with
similar matters.  His delegation therefore supported the Plan.
23. The representative of the United States said that her delegation strongly supported the WTO's
technical assistance agenda, and took a realistic approach to what Members agreed to at the Doha
Ministerial Conference and the sentiments they all shared going into Doha concerning technicalassistance and the integration of developing country Members into the multilateral trading system.
Her Government had recently announced that it would submit 1 million US dollars to the new Global
Trust Fund in an effort to begin the process to meet the objective that had been agreed to.  With
respect to the Secretariat Note she said that she had understood the Deputy Director-General to say
that the CTD was being asked to adopt the "Note by the Secretariat".  She therefore sought aprocedural clarification as to what was to be done.  She asked whether the intention was for the CTD
to adopt the Secretariat Note or whether something more specific was to be adopted.  She also
stressed the need for coordination with other national and international organisations that provided
technical assistance, as well as with other WTO bodies and Committees engaged in technical
assistance activities.  She was of the view that a number of the programmes and initiatives outlineddid target specific agreement areas.  Coordination was a priority in order to streamline and expedite
the delivery of technical assistance.  In the area of standards for example, as indicated in the Note,
there were a number of international organisations that participated in seminars, and the same
international organisations were working closely with the various standard-related Committees of the
WTO.  It was therefore important that there be tight coordination with the work of the other
Committees.  In order for the strategy to be effective, there had to be a focus on monitoring, auditing
and evaluating the implementation of the technical assistance provided.  She hoped that all of theprojects that had been identified, including the specific seminars, focused on specific needs requested
by the beneficiary countries.  That comment also referred to the Work Plan for the "Singapore Issues"
and she took note of the comments made by the representative of India with respect to the first
paragraph on page 41.  For any technical assistance issues linked to the Doha Declaration it had to be
clear how the technical assistance was articulated in the Declaration.  Her delegation expected that theprojects in the Plan were linked to the various initiatives in the Doha Declaration.  Her delegation
sought more time to go through the Plan, which was one of four levels of technical assistance action.
It would be kept in mind that the Plan described an evolving process and that as needs were identified
and issues arose, it would be possible to accommodate those.  She urged that there be coordination
with other organisations that provided technical as sistance and that bilateral donors would be actively
involved.
24. The Chairman indicated that he would outline the course of action to be taken at the end of
the discussion.
25. The representative of Japan said that the Introduction of the Plan stated that the Secretariat
intended to link the capacity-building activities to  the Doha commitments.  However it was not clearWT/COMTD/M/37
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to his delegation whether the activities proposed effectively reflected the intentions expressed in the
Introduction.  That was probably due to the complex nature of the comprehensive list of activities.
His delegation hoped that the Secretariat was to make activities designed to create conducive
environments to the implementation of Doha commitments by responding to the specific needs of
specific countries.  His second point referred to the Annex I of the Plan, which indicated that theSecretariat was going to plan activities in the sectors of investment and competition policy, based on
the input of meetings to be held by the WTO.  He hoped that, through this process, the WTO would
coordinate closely with other donors and organi sations, such as UNCTAD, in order to avoid
unnecessary duplication, since the limited resources available had to respond to all the requested
activities.  He said that his final point was similar to that expressed by the representative of the
European Communities with respect to the costing and priority issues.
26. The representative of Australia welcomed the Secretariat efforts to implement the technical
assistance mandate of the Doha Development Agenda as quickly as possible.  She noted that the
recent agreement to establish the Global Trust Fund put extra emphasis on the CTD's coordination of
technical assistance and capacity building activities and looked forward to that proceeding.  She said
that her delegation appreciated the clarity of the Plan, in particular the eight policy frameworks under
which the Plan was divided, and further elaborated in paragraph 5.  With respect to paragraphs 6-10 ofthe Introduction, on the five additional points which were underlined by the Secretariat, she agreed
with the determination to limit ad hoc  technical assistance activities to the greatest extent possible.
However, if some legitimate and urgent requests for technical assistance did arise unexpectedly, then
some flexibility in implementing the Plan would be required.  Nevertheless, previous experience had
shown that meeting ad hoc  requests diminished the Secretariat's ability to provide long-term targeted
technical assistance.  With a new mandate and heavy focus on developmental issues, the achievement
of long-tem goals were a vital aspect of the Organisation's work and her delegation endorsed the
comments made under paragraph 6.
27. The representative of Senegal noted that many activities concerning his country were retained
in the Plan, based on the requests made, which in turn had been based on a needs-assessment.
However, that there were perhaps some adjustments to be made concerning the priority given to the
activities.  Some of the requests would be retained and others would not, in terms of their priority.
Those might be handed into the Secretariat.  He sought clarification from the Secretariat as to whether
the Joint Integrated Technical Assistance Programme for Selected Least-Developed and other African
Countries (JITAP) was to be completed at the end of 2002.  Many developing countries had insisted
that it be maintained and extended.  There were currently eight countries involved, and he wished to
know what would happen since there had been many references to Senegal under the JITAPProgrammes, and to other countries as well.  He enquired whether the Programme would be
maintained, since initially there had been references of a "second generation JITAP".  He therefore
wished to know the exact future content of the Programme.  His second point related to Information
Technologies and the WTO Reference Centres.  WTO technical assistance had to assist Geneva-based
delegations maintain contact with their capitals.  He did not know whether that could be done underthe SITA as indicated on page 36 of the Plan.  It was clear that it was important to install reference
centers in capitals, but it would always be difficult for developing country delegations to carry out
their tasks as long as a functioning link was not established between the Geneva missions and their
capitals.  The missions obviously used classical means of communication.  However, it would be
useful if they could use modern information technology tools to become more effective.  He thereforerequested more information on the SITA.  He further recalled that a presentation of how a small
Geneva-based developing country mission could us e modern information technology tools had been
made by the Ambassador of Panama.  The Ambassador had demonstrated extremely interesting
methods of work.  That type of sharing of experiences should be increased as it enabled developing
countries to learn from other delegation's experiences with coordination and contacts with capitals.There was currently a limit of 15 million CHF for WTO technical assistance and the Director-General
had said that the financial programme would be further elaborated.  His delegation hoped that theWT/COMTD/M/37
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WTO would be able to get the necessary resources to finance its activities, especially so as some
delegations were of the view that the 15 million CHF was not sufficient.
28. The representative of Madagascar asked the Secretariat to make a greater effort to get
translations out more rapidly, since her delegation only had received the French translation that
morning.  However, her delegation hoped that that would not be a problem for much longer since theDirector-General had indicated that additional funds of 850,000 CHF had been earmarked for the
translation services, in addition to the 1.5 million CH F allocated last year, as had been requested for a
long time by non-English speaking delegations.  She expressed the hope that the programmes which
had been established would not prevent her delegation from making further requests for technical
assistance in the course of the year, as needs arose.
29. The representative of Bolivia expressed gratitude for the inclusion of the technical assistance
activities in the Plan as requested by her Government.  She indicated that her Government was willing
to host the following activities (1) the regiona l seminar on technical barriers to trade for
Latin America, for which no venue had been decided, (2) the regional workshop on trade negotiations
for Andean countries, and (3) the regional seminar on the dispute settlement understanding for
Latin America.  She hoped that the Secretariat would consider holding at least one of those activities
in Bolivia.  Finally, she requested that her country be included, as an associate member of Mercosur,in the financial services seminar to be held with Mercosur.
30. The representative of Norway said that his Government attached importance to the
developmental aspects of the WTO agenda post-Doha.  Firstly, there was a need to avoid ad hoc
requests, as they were not the best way to accommodate the needs of Members.  Secondly, the Plan
lacked an elaboration of how coordination with other organisations would be carried out, andrequested the Secretariat to briefly comment on that aspect.  Thirdly, the Secretariat had indicated an
interest in presenting an IF-process for non-LDCs, similar to the current IF programme.  Such a
process had to be demand-driven and there had to be a close dialogue between donors and recipients.
He noted that in Section I of the Plan, 158 regional seminars and multilateral conferences were
planned.  Given the high number of activities, he  wished to know whether they were based on
evaluations of previous seminars and conferences.  He noted that there was a wide geographical
spread and indicated that if there was a need to trim the number of activities, LDCs should be given
priority.  There were less activities planned with respect to trade-related capacity building in Section
II.  As to Section III of the Plan, on technical assistance related to the WTO Agreements, which
normally would be the core business of the WTO, he recognised that there was a wide geographical
spread in terms of beneficiary countries and queried the inclusion of some of the more well-off
developing countries.  He further asked whether self-payment for those countries had been consideredand whether visits by Committee Chairs to countries seeking accession would be covered by the
Fund.  His final question was whether the activities related to the thirteen countries, which were also
included in the IF Programme, would be funded by the IF fund or the Global Trust Fund.
31. The representative of Lesotho said that his delegation found the Plan adequate for what it
considered as a priority.  He supported the view that there was a need to highlight the assistance or
work being undertaken at the bilateral level to avoid overlaps.  Cooperation between the donors and
the recipient states was therefore important.  With respect to ad hoc  requests, his delegation noted the
comments of previous speakers on the need to limit them.  However, for most countries, in particular
developing countries and LDCs, the process of an alysing the outcome and the implications of the
Doha Work Programme was ongoing, and there was therefore a need to provide alternate allowancesfor countries to supplement the requests that they had originally submitted to the Secretariat to reflect
their improved understanding of the implications of  the Doha Conference.  The Secretariat should be
given the flexibility to assist countries when they  submitted such requests, while recognising that this
should not be the regular route.  With respect to the need for improved coordination with other
organisations such as UNCTAD, he indicated that  his delegation had been in contact with UNCTADWT/COMTD/M/37
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to discuss how to implement the Doha Work  Programme.  The UNCTAD Secretariat had made
suggestions on how to address some of the issues.  The work that had already been started had to be
taken into account when considering the Programmes that were now being embarked on in the WTO.
His final point related to the coordination with regional economic bodies.  When regional seminars
were undertaken there should be maximum coordination with those bodies to ensure that coverageand priorities identified by the region were reflected in the Work Programme.  He proposed that, at
the end of the meeting, the CTD take note of the report to enable its implementation.
32. The representative of the Philippines said that the activities in the Plan were part of the
process of development, and the WTO technical assistance experience was not longer than that of
other Geneva-based institutions.  Nevertheless, the tables gave a good view of the broad scope of the
activities, objectives and coverage of WTO technical assistance, without indicating the quality of the
outcome.  That was something that had to be developed.  He hoped that those who had seriousinterests in technical assistance would focus and pay more attention to the capacity, and later to the
consolidation and quality-control of the 442 activities.  He said that he had a side comment regarding
the statement that the WTO was not a development organisation.  He would no longer object to that
type of statement, because, as he had understood from the respresentative of India, the development
perceptions of most of the delegations were for "h ard" infrastructure including roads, bridges and
irrigation.  The technical assistance the WTO could provide was in terms of "soft" infrastructure such
as the human capital and the institutions that would allow developing countries to achieve the
objectives of their development.  That was the objective of the CTD.  With respect to the tables, his
delegation believed that the Secretariat had done a good job as far as the balance of activities,
objectives and regional distribution were concerned.  His delegation was satisfied with the plannedactivities by regions, as indicated on page 47.  However, in the individual presentations there were
indications of various activities for which dates were to be confirmed, which he knew meant that the
activities were either not funded, or not definite.  He therefore still had a problem with respect to the
prioritising being made on the basis of the budgetary resources available.  He hoped that the case of
the LDCs, as stated by the representative of India, would be taken into consideration, and indicatedthat a number of consultations also had to be undert aken with the prospective recipients, to allow the
WTO to respond to their legitimate objectives with the technical assistance provided.  For example,
his delegation did not see SMC–issues as concrete activities since there were to be consultations on
the kind of technical assistance that would be needed during the first month of 2002.  He enquired
whether it was being undertaken by the WTO or whether it was being done within the context of
UNCTAD's work.  He noted that there had been regional discussions with UNCTAD, and that
UNCTAD had plans for a broad approach to the requirements of the Doha Development Agenda inthe areas of investment, competition policy, and trade facilitation.  The objectives of UNCTAD were
broad, as was its membership.  UNCTAD therefore had to conform to the desires and objectives of its
membership. With respect to the fourth sentence of the first paragraph on page 41, it was implied that
the "Singapore Issues" had already been agreed to  in negotiations, and that the focus of the work
therefore was on  addressing the negotiating elements.  In his view it was far broader than that.  Theissue had been addressed by some delegations in  the Informal Group of Developing Countries, and
the Secretariat had responded that it would look at it.  He stressed that since it was an evolving
process, each activity should be analysed in terms of its outcome, and be incorporated into a cross-
sectoral analysis from the perspective of the Membership with a view to seeing if there was need for
more training tools, more outreaches to regions and institutions and more training and capacitybuilding.  If the analysis was done in the regions, by the Members, rather than from the perspective of
persons based in Geneva, the training courses coul d be improved.  A new set of programmes would be
developed in 2003, and there should then be close consultations with the prospective beneficiaries of
the training courses, in order to ensure that it would be useful to them with respect to their WTO
obligations.  The matrix should also be viewed in  the context of technical assistance from other
Geneva-based institutions, banking and international financial institutions, which hoped to achieve
similar objectives, so that the IF principle, which was a good one, could be achieved as far as the type
and quality of the WTO's technical assistance programmes was concerned.WT/COMTD/M/37
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33. The representative of Guinea said that the number of activities planned for 2002 was an
indication of the extent to which technical as sistance was important to developing countries,
especially LDCs, including Guinea.  Her dele gation had already forwarded its comments, with
amendments, to the Technical Cooperation Division.  She indicated that her Government wished to
participate in the detailed technical assistance programme during 2002.  As stated by therepresentative of Malaysia, her delegation also wished the countries selected to host the seminars to
be more varied, to allow for more diversified participation in the seminars.  Given the burden of work
post-Doha, her delegation wished to approach the Secretariat about the seminar to be organised in
Guinea, in coordination with the Technical Cooperation Division.  With respect to cooperation with
other organisations such as FAO and UNCTAD, her delegation had contacted them with a view to
establishing a work-programme on post-Doha affairs in connection with their mandates.  Her
delegation invited the CTD to endorse the Plan, and invited all partners to finance the 15 million CHFneeded for technical cooperation, in order to make progress in the short time available.
34. The representative of China said that he wished to take this first official opportunity, as a new
Member, to express his delegation's thanks to the Secretariat for the technical assistance provided to
China during the whole process of China's negotiations on its resumption of Contracting Party status,
as well as in the few years of negotiations with the WTO on accession.  His delegation believed thatthat technical assistance had been useful, not only for the projects offered to China over the years, but
also the training courses which had been offered by the Secretariat to Chinese officials.  For instance,
many Chinese officials in charge of WTO affairs, except the speaker, had been trained by the
Secretariat, particularly through the Trade Policy Courses.  That was the case for the Director-General
for the Department of International Relations, who had taken care of China's accessions negotiationsover the past 15 years;  the Director-General for the current Department of WTO Affairs of the
Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC);  and the Director-General for the
newly established Fair Trade Bureau, which also dealt with WTO Affairs in MOFTEC.  The
seminars, workshops and advisory studies provid ed by the Technical Cooperation Division, which
was currently headed by Mr. Osakwe, had also offered help to his delegation in its familiarisationwith the rules of the WTO, and the strengthening of the negotiating capacity of his Government,
mainly in its accession process.  His delegation therefore believed that technical cooperation was
important, not only to other developing countries, but also to China as a new developing Member.
35. He went on to say that in paragraph 6 of the Plan, the Secretariat refered to a number of
elements which his delegation considered important.  The first point related to coordination.
Coordination related to at least three levels.  The first level of coordination, was coordination within
the requesting members, for both national and regional projects.  Requestors needed to have goodinternal coordination for their requests for technical cooperation from the Secretariat.  His
Government had coordinated internally in making requests to the Secretariat.  Since China was such a
large country with a population of 1.3 billion people, and more than 30 provinces and independent
cities under the direct leadership of the central government, it would be difficult if everyone made
individual requests to the Secretariat for technical assistance.  It would be difficult not only for theSecretariat, but also for the Chinese Government.  His delegation therefore believed that the
coordination within the requesting parties was important to make full use of available human and
financial resources, both of the Secretariat and of the requesting Members.  The second area of
coordination was the internal coordination of the Secretariat.  He noticed that in Annex III of the Plan,
the Secretariat had given a list of contact persons in different Divisions.  He found that useful, but itdid not mean that every Member should be encouraged to directly contact those officers for their
technical cooperation projects, since, whenever an individual request was made directly to a particular
person, that person responsible for a specific area of business in that Division, would sometimes
respond directly to the requestor.  That would confuse the situation and sabotage the coordination
efforts of the Secretariat and the requesting Member.  The final area of coordination related to thecoordination between the WTO Secretariat and other international agencies.  His delegation had found
some references to the importance of coordination of that type in the Plan.  It was stated that the WTOWT/COMTD/M/37
Page 13
Secretariat was ready to strengthen that sort of coordination, not only to avoid duplication but also to
promote mutual complementarity, and he encouraged the Secretariat to continue those efforts.  In
paragraph 6, the Secretariat also referred to the flexibility of the Plan and flexibility with respect to
implementation.  Flexibility was also important, given inter alia,  the emergence of new Members, the
applications for accessions, and the launch of the new Round.  Rapid implementation of the Plan wastherefore important.  Finally, the Secretariat had rightly drawn the attention of Members to the fact
that they should request as few ad hoc  technical cooperation projects as possible, as that would
sabotage the whole Plan if not properly managed.  Ad hoc  requests could not be avoided, but they
should be kept to a minimum.  He indicated that China wished to keep ad hoc  requests to a minimum,
although he could not guarantee that his country would never make such a request.
36. The Chairman, on behalf of the Members, welcomed China to the first CTD meeting for the
year.
37. The representative of Zambia said that the Plan, for his country as an LDC, lacked visibility
of the wishes expressed by Ministers at Doha.  Document WT/COMTD/W/90 stated that "Although
all developing countries are entitled to WTO technical assistance, Members however, have asked for
priority to be accorded to the Least-Developed Countries, African countries, non-residents, and
modest and capacity-constrained Missions."  That wish did not seem to have been reflected in thePlan, and he therefore asked for a section be included in the Plan, focusing on the special needs of
LDCs, as had been identified in the Uruguay Round, at the Fourth Ministerial Conference, and in the
document referred to.  He thanked the representative of Norway for highlighting that point.  He then
sought clarification with respect to paragraph 2(iii), which dealt with the IF.  What was referred to as
the re-vamped IF was actually the pilot-IF which currently only concerned three countries.  Heenquired whether that meant that only those three countries would be considered as priority-countries.
If that was not the case, he enquired how the Secretariat intended to operate in order for all other
LDCs to be included.  In the same paragraph, he  was also concerned by what appeared to be a
condition of mainstreaming trade, as an imposition of a conditionality for technical assistance.  His
delegation had always argued that the IF should address other trade-related technical assistance needsand should not highlight mainstreaming, as the condition to be met.  Finally, the lack of focus and
visibility on LDCs was also evident in the distri bution of programmes.  For instance, the LDCs had
not received a sufficient number of programmes in Section III on national technical assistance
programmes.
38. The representative of Burundi said that he was pleased to see that the concerns of his
Government had been taken into consideration.  He also thanked the donors that had announced
contributions, and urged others to do so rapidly, since the success of the Plan and LDCs depended on
their assistance.  He also noted the apprehensions of the Secretariat, with respect to being
overwhelmed by ad hoc  activities, and therefore suggested that regional programmes should be
complemented by national programmes.  With respect to the multiplicity of activities foreseen, he
agreed with the need to coordinate with other organisations such as UNCTAD.  Despite the
multiplicity of activities, the needs of LDCs were still not met.  He enquired whether the confirmationof certain activities would be made by the Secretariat, the beneficiary countries, or during
consultations.
39. The representative of Belize said that with respect to enhancing negotiating capacity,
paragraph 5(iii) of the document spoke to the "Singapore Issues", and trade and the environment.  His
delegation was of the view that that reference seemed to suggest that that Plan treated those issues at a
higher level than the other issues.  That was true when taken within the context of paragraph 38 of the
Doha Ministerial Declaration, which called for "technical assistance and capacity-building to support
efforts for national plans for economic development and strategies for poverty reduction".  That
should not be the case, since the reality was that many developing countries still suffered from
negotiating capacity-deficits in other areas of trade of particular export-interest to them.  With respectWT/COMTD/M/37
Page 14
to the nomenclature of the different activities within the Plan, he asked what the difference was
between symposiums, seminars and workshops.  He enquired whether they had different levels of
importance and/or programme-content.  If that was the case, he further enquired what the differences
were in the benefits that would be derived to participants in the respective programmes.  Paragraph 10
of the Plan called for the Secretariat and the Memb ers to work together to ensure that technical
assistance is delivered within a coherent policy framework.  However, it made no suggestions with
respect to how assessments of the benefits of the technical assistance and capacity-building efforts
would be made.  His delegation was of the view that this was critical for measuring the effectiveness
of the programmes and determine what the future work plans should be.  In closing, he joined the
representative of India in expressing concern with respect to the comment that the WTO was not a
development institution.  His delegation did not suggest that it was a developing institution, but for
many developing countries development assumed a trade-led approach.  Given the resource andcapacity-constraints of those countries, the importance of trade as a vehicle for development imbued
the WTO with a certain dimension, if not personality, of development, and that could not be denied.
To do so would undermine the so called "Development Round".
40. The representative of Uganda, speaking on behalf of the LDCs said that the importance of
technical assistance to LDC could not be over-em phasised.  He therefore asked for LDC issues to be
given more visibility and not be mixed with those of other developing countries.  That  should not be
done at the expense of other developing countries, but given their position as LDCs and their well
known capacity constraints, LDCs should be given mo re visibility.  He indicated that the LDCs were
willing to work with the Secretariat in the prep aration of the final document, to ensure greater
visibility and more LDC-focussed programmes.
41. The representative of Ghana said that he sought a clarification with respect to the national
technical assistance programmes listed for Ghana on page 23 - in the Topics column, "WTO
Agreements".  He recalled that his delegation had made some requests for technical assistance in the
past, which might have included WTO Agreements.  He asked if what was contained in the Plan was
based on that request.  He further noted that th e Plan was targeted toward effectiveness in the
upcoming negotiations, and his delegation did not need knowledge of WTO Agreements in general
for that purpose.  What was needed was specific technical assistance based on his Government's
specific needs.  He therefore enquired whether the Plan was finalised or whether it could be modified,
as his delegation needed to identify the type of assistance it needed.
42. The representative of Morocco said that his delegation was of the view that the
implementation of the Programme of Action in the area of technical assistance and capacity building
augured well, given the greatly improved financial conditions and the different activities programmed.He believed that ad hoc  requests should be permitted to allow some flexibility for developing
countries, although they should be limited  in number.  With respect to Annex II, which dealt with the
"Singapore Issues", Morocco had already, at a regional level, organised activities in those areas;
specifically, the Euro-Mediterranean Conference on Competition Law, and a regional seminar on
government procurement.  Those had allowed for a better understanding of these complex issues.  Heindicated that his government would be willing to host a regional workshop on any of these issues, in
which African countries and developing countries generally, still had a lot of work to do.  His
Government also renewed its offer to host a third study-cycle for Moroccan and African students on
WTO-issues.  One of the benefits from that type of activity was that it assisted the WTO in its overall
training in the public and private sectors.  With respect to the activities for 2002, his government washappy to host the two regional seminars which were being organised in Morocco on dispute
settlement and trade policy in order to better understand the WTO Agreements, and assured the
Secretariat that everything would be done by the organisers to have successful events.
43. The representative of Kenya said that technical assistance and capacity building were core
elements of WTO's work, and indicated that it would be a mistake if the efforts already undertakenWT/COMTD/M/37
Page 15
were not recognized.  Success would depend on the level and quality of technical assistance provided
to developing countries.  He welcomed the planned activities, but wished to see some of the activities
address the specific request to enhance his Government's negotiating capacity and skills on subjects,
especially those specified in the Doha Declaration.  His delegation was of the view that room should
be made for counties to identify some of its more pressing needs.  His delegation had alreadysubmitted its specific requirements to the Secretariat, and was willing to discuss it, to see where it
would fit in the current planned activities.  He requested a similar clarification with respect to JITAP
as the representative of Ghana had requested.
44. The representative of Nigeria said that his delegation was of the view that it was a step
towards the implementation of the Doha mandate on technical assistance to build capacity of WTO
Members and prepare them for the challenges ahead.  He appreciated the three activities earmarked
for Nigeria and the regional African activities under the Plan.  However, there was a need for bettercoordination with other agencies providing technical assistance, to prevent duplication.
45. The representative of Costa Rica said that her Government was interested in being involved in
initiatives in Annex I or other parts of the Plan, in the areas of trade facilitation, investment,
competition policy and transparency in government procurement.  Her government offered to host a
regional workshop on trade negotiations and the integrated database for Central America.  Togetherwith the delegation of Uruguay, her delegation reserved its right to make ad hoc  requests in the future,
if ad hoc  needs made it necessary.
46. The representative of Indonesia said that his delegation supported the view of the delegation
of Madagascar, that the WTO should permit Members to submit requests on issues and sectors which
were not yet included in the Plan.  With respect to Section III of the Plan on national technicalassistance programmes, he requested the inclusion of his country in the 2002 Plan.  His Government
required technical missions under the WTO technical assistance programmes which aimed at a better
understanding of the implications of the services negotiations, as well as issues initiated at Singapore,
which were particular to the economic development of the country.
47. The representative of Jamaica recalled that at the Doha Ministerial Conference, Ministers had
emphasised the critical importance of technical assistance and capacity building in facilitating the
participation of developing and LDCs in the WTO Work Programme, including the broad based
negotiations launched at Doha.  To that end, eleven operative paragraphs of the Doha Declaration
reflected the commitment to the provision of technical assistance.  She drew attention to paragraph 38
of the Declaration, which stated that in the provision of technical assistance "priority shall also be
accorded to small, vulnerable, and transition economies, as well as to Members and Observers without
representation in Geneva."  While her delegation recognised and applauded the efforts of theSecretariat in attempting to respond to the overwhelming demand for technical assistance from
Members, her delegation was concerned with the way in which small economies were dealt with in
the Plan.  It was not clear how far the needs and concerns of those countries were being addressed,
and an examination of the Plan suggested that wo rk needed to be done to fulfill the mandate as
identified in paragraph 38.  For example, the Caribbean region included many small island developingcountries, most of whom were non-resident member s of the WTO.  Those countries in particular,
needed a range of technical assistance activities to be kept abreast of the work conducted in the WTO;
to facilitate their participation in the WTO negotia tions and to enhance their supply-side capabilities.
However, most of the technical assistance activities, in which Jamaica would be involved, would be in
the form of regional seminars and workshops, with minimum attention being paid to technicalassistance at the national level.  While the regional dimension of the WTO strategy was an important
component, she indicated that the new strategy should recognise, as far as possible, the technical
assistance requirements of individual countries within regions.  While her government was fully
committed to regional cooperation, and recognised the place of regional activities in the delivery of
technical assistance, she drew attention to the fact that there were certain limitations to regionalWT/COMTD/M/37
Page 16
seminars.  For example, participation was usually limited to one or two officials from each country,
which therefore placed a limit on the participation of the public sector and, in particular, the private
sector.  It was not easy to obtain the required level of private sector participation, since it was usually
difficult for private sector participants to fund their own participation.
48. She went on to say that her delegation also wished to know how far the three-year plans
which had previously been submitted by Members, had been taken into account in the preparation of
the 2002 Plan.  She noted that the TAMC had been established to ensure the coordination and
coherence of technical assistance activities within the Secretariat and between the WTO and other
organisations.  However, it was unclear how the TAMC prepared the Plan and the factors that had
determined which activities were chosen.  She suggested that, for the sake of transparency, the
Secretariat give its rationale for the choice of activities in the Plan.  She further indicated that it would
be useful if the Secretariat indicated how the activities would be audited, to ensure that qualitytechnical assistance was delivered and that the objectives of the technical cooperation strategy were
being met.  With respect to the coordinated delivery of technical assistance, she pointed out that in the
new Plan, the Secretariat had underscored the need to improve its approach in the delivery of
technical assistance by ensuring the effective, coordinated delivery of technical assistance in
conjunction with inter-agency groups, bilateral donors and international organisations.  That was apositive step, as technical cooperation with those bodies, particularly international organisations such
as the World Bank, and the infra structural type technical assistance offered by those organisations
would assist in addressing issues related to supply-side constraints faced by a number of LDCs and
developing countries, including her own.  With re spect to the "Singapore Issues", she noted that
Annex I did not clearly indicate how technical assistance in those areas would be approached.  TheDoha Declaration, with respect to the "Singapore I ssues", had pointed out that a decision to launch
negotiations on the modalities of the negotiations would be taken by explicit consensus by Members,
at the Fifth Ministerial Conference.  The emphasis placed on those issues within the Plan, should not
be done in a manner that would appear to pre-judge the launching of the negotiations in those areas.
She emphasised the need for secure and stable funding for the range of technical assistance activitiesplanned for 2002 and beyond.  The Work Programme launched at Doha was a challenging one, and as
the Programme evolved and Members became more aware of their technical assistance needs either in
relation to the negotiations or the programmes in the standing Councils and Committees, the demand
for technical assistance and capacity building would increase.  It was therefore imperative that
adequate and stable funding be secured.  Finally, she said that the Secretariat had indicated that it
intended to adhere to the 2002 Plan, but that there would be some flexibility in its implementation, as
Members would still be able to submit requests for additional technical assistance throughout the year.In response to the Secretariat's request that Members kept ad hoc  requests to a minimum, her
delegation still hoped that the Secretariat would look favourably upon such requests from Members.
49. The representative of St. Lucia indicated that her intervention would be from the perspective
of non-residents.  Thirty per cent of the WTO Membership were non-resident Members.  The
circumstances of the non-residents therefore required some sensitivity by the other Members for thechallenges they faced.  She thanked the delegation of India for indicating that the WTO needed to
keep non-residents informed.  She was under the impression that the WTO had approved two Geneva
Weeks in the General Council and in the Committee on Budget and Administration, but that had to be
clarified.  With respect to capacity building, many of the previous interventions had focused on the
need for targeted technical assistance in line w ith Members' development strategies.  Part of the
problem, as stated in many of the interventions, was to focus on the specific requests from Members,
which almost locked them into a vicious circle of ignorance.  A certain level of understanding of the
WTO Agreements was required to make a specific request for technical assistance.  For instance, St.
Lucia was the only member of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) featured in the
Plan for any technical missions.  She noted that the assistance was to be delivered through regionalseminars, workshops, conferences and briefings, and her delegation sought a clarification similar to
that of the representative of Belize on the differences between those.  In addition, the assistance was atWT/COMTD/M/37
Page 17
the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) or broader hemispheric level.  She thanked the Secretariat for
holding two of the CARICOM seminars in St. Luci a, as it gave her Government the opportunity to
have more persons present.  However, the absence of more targeted technical assistance was
disappointing.  It might be said that the Governments also bore responsibility for the absence of any
activity specifically targeted towards the sub-region as they had not been proactive enough.  She wasin the process of finding out what requests had been made by the OECS countries, and at what level –
whether regional, sub-regional or national.  There were reasons why all six OECS Members, and
other CARICOM Members, were non-resident.  As small-island states with populations between
40,000 and 150,000 persons, the OECS countries had over-burdened administrations and often an
insufficient understanding of the Uruguay Round obligations to appreciate their deficiencies, in order
to make timely technical assistance requests.  She therefore hoped that, as stated by the delegations of
Madagascar, Lesotho and Jamaica, among others, the door remained opened for ad hoc technical
assistance requests, and asked the Secretariat to be creative in the design and delivery of programmed
assistance, and to use every occasion to reach out to non-residents.  Her delegation's experience with
respect to meeting the subsidy notification had shown the absence of knowledge and the lack of
understanding of what had been undertaken during the Uruguay Round.  It would be even more so for
the new round of negotiations, as many small delegations would not be present to participate.
50. The representative of Bulgaria said that with respect to the organisation of the seminars, he
proposed that all basic documents and presentations from each seminar, symposium and round-table,
whether at the regional or national level, for Geneva-based Missions or non-resident Members, be
made available to all Members.  An additional link on the WTO web page could be developed, where
all those documents could be posted.  That would allow all countries to have access to the documents,and it would facilitate him advising experts from his capital to source those materials.  It was pointed
out that UNCTAD was doing something similar with respect to the outcome of its Expert Meetings,
and they might be able to explain how that was or ganised.  That would also reduce rivalry within the
WTO with respect to technical assistance, as it would not matter whether a session was held for LDCs
or a specific region, as all Members would have access to the basic documents and presentations inwritten format.
51. The representative of Mexico said that the issue of technical assistance was important to his
delegation.  He believed that technical assistance should be linked to the Doha Development Agenda,
which in turn should be linked to all the activities of the WTO and its different Agreements.
Technical assistance within the WTO should take into consideration the greater creation of supply in
developing countries.  He said that he was happy to see that his country was included in the 2002 Plan
with the workshop on safeguards.  He had also taken note of the comments made, that the Plan wouldbe applied throughout the year, although it might be adjusted in the future, as the Programme evolved
and as changes were introduced according to the needs of the WTO Members.
52. The Chairman thanked delegations for all the comments and indicated that the debate had
been interesting.
53. Deputy Director-General Mr. Ravier said that three categories of issues merited attention.
The first category was the procedural issues, and it was up to delegations to decide whether they
wished to simply take note of the Plan or to do something more formal.  He personally thought that
the idea of the document, which could be improved, was that it be taken note of.  The second category
of issues meriting attention was the link between the Plan and the Doha Ministerial Declaration.
Many delegations had mentioned that it was necessary to clarify the link between the capacitybuilding efforts mentioned in the Plan and the Do ha Development Agenda.  That proposal merited
consideration and it would be possible to make that link without any major change to the Plan in its
current form.  The Plan would have to be struct ured somewhat differently in order to show what
related directly to the Doha Development Agenda and what came from the regular WTO work on
technical assistance.  Even if the Doha Ministerial Declaration was the politically most visibleWT/COMTD/M/37
Page 18
document, WTO technical assistance activities also covered sectors which were not mentioned in the
Declaration.  The third category related to specific comments on different aspects of the Plan and he
would give the floor to the Director of the T echnical Cooperation Division to respond to those.
54. Mr. Osakwe said that he had found all comments encouraging as they showed that the
Membership supported what the Secretariat did in attempting to reconcile many divergent elements.
He expressed particular appreciation to the delegations of Uruguay, Switzerland and others who had
mentioned that they had appreciated the private consultations held by the Secretariat with respect to
the Plan.  At those consultations the Secretariat had attempted to explain to each group how their
priorities had been taken into account and where they had differences of view with other stakeholders
with particular interests.  He was pleased to hear that several delegations had appreciated such
consultations and encouraged the Secretariat to continue with them.  The Plan contained operational
activities.  However, the discussion had focussed both on a technical cooperation strategy and on theoperational activities in the Plan.  It was a good occasion to comment on the broader Strategy which
had to be revisited in light of the Doha Ministerial Declaration.  Nevertheless, it had to be clear that,
in spite of the interlinkages, there was a distinction between the Strategy and the Plan, which
contained the operational activities based on mandates and decisions already taken by Members.  Four
types of comments had been made.  First, Members had made general comments and given advice.Those would be taken into account.  Second, Members had made comments regarding the
presentational format of the Plan.  Some of those comments had been contradictory and the
Secretariat would have to seek more guidance from Members regarding the format.  Nevertheless, he
was confident that it could be improved.  A third category was comments made at the macro-level
such as those regarding coordination, regional groups, and a database.  He would mention theintentions of the Secretariat in those respects.  Last, there had been a number of comments on the
micro level which the Secretariat should take into account.
55. He said he wished to begin with the first category relating to general comments and advice.
Members would recall that the CTD had established a consensus in 1996 that WTO technical
assistance would be demand-driven.  That had been stated in the guidelines which had gone to theMinisterial Conference in Singapore and which had been forwarded from the CTD by the then
Chairperson Ambassador Benjelloun-Touimi.  It was currently realized that the Secretariat could do
better.  The demand-driven approach had led to a long list of needs often exceeding the capacity of the
Secretariat to deliver.  It was therefore evident that that consensus had to be modified.  The number of
ad-hoc demands were growing, but they had to be reduced.  Even though it was stated in the Plan, and
some Members seemed to agree, that ad-hoc requests should be limited, there had still been many
other Members reserving their right to come back with ad-hoc requests.  That was an unsustainable
situation.  The Secretariat had aimed to strike the right balance, but it was for the Members to
re-establish the indispensable new consensus to reconcile the growing number of individual country
requests with the thematic and mandate-based orientation of technical cooperation that Members had
said that they wanted.  With respect to the pr esentational format he said that the current Plan
contained a table of contents on the front page and an Annex at the end which gave the number ofplanned activities per region.  It seemed that Members wished the Secretariat to include a new
category which would present the technical cooperation mandates from the Doha Ministerial
Declaration.  It was possible to present the information in that way and the Secretariat would do so in
the form of an Annex in a subsequent revision of the document.  There were eleven paragraphs in the
Doha Ministerial Declaration which contained operative technical cooperation mandates.  Thoseparagraphs would be described and the 428 activities would then be classified accordingly.  One
delegation had expressed concern that the activities in the Plan seemed to be a simple listing.
However, the Plan was based on the Strategy and activities had to be categorized somehow:  they
could be listed by region, areas of agreed negotiations, areas of work programmes or areas of
mandates.WT/COMTD/M/37
Page 19
56. He further said that several delegations had asked for clarification on the issue of
coordination.  All parties involved in technical cooperation had to improve coordination.  The Plan
was not a Technical Cooperation Division document.  The Director-General and
Deputy Director-General had ensured that the Plan was composed of activities jointly designed with
all operational divisions within the Secretariat.  Cooperation within the WTO Secretariat had beenensured through the Technical Cooperation Management Committee (TAMC).  Coordination with
other agencies was approached at two levels.  One level was through the Integrated Framework which
focussed specifically on the LDCs.  There had been voices for the Integrated Framework concept to
be extended to non-LDCs.  That did not mean extending the Integrated Framework proper to other
countries, but to apply the same coordinated approach to other developing countries that so wished.
The WTO Secretariat was decided on that course of action, but WTO Members would have to press
for the same change in the other agencies involve d.  This could encourage the agencies to establish
another form of coordination mechanism.  The WTO Secretariat aimed to improve coordination with
donors, as one part of the coordination problem lay with the donors.  There had been the first ever
joint meeting of the six core agencies of the Integrated Framework and the OECD Development
Assistance Committee in Paris the previous week.  Coordination had been paramount.  The point had
then been made that trade and development ministers had to work more closely together and had tosend out clear, consistent and coherent messages.  At another level, coordination also had to be
improved with the beneficiaries.  The WTO Secretariat did not only receive requests for technical
cooperation from the permanent missions in Geneva, a flurry of requests was also received from
capitals.  He had urged developing country missions, in bilateral discussions, to coordinate at their
level as well so that the WTO Secretariat did not receive contradictory lists of requests from the samedeveloping country Member.  A specific question related to how the WTO Secretariat coordinated
with UNCTAD with regard to the mandate of the trade and investment work programme.
Mr. Richard Eglin, Director of the WTO Trade and Finance Division, had been in touch with the
UNCTAD Secretariat.  The WTO Secretariat would hardly organize any regional seminar on trade
and investment under the Doha Mandate on investment.  Rather, it would work within the frameworkof the regional seminars to be organized by UNC TAD.  Annex I showed that the WTO Secretariat
would convene a meeting of agencies on each of the Singapore issues to decide how to coordinate.
Another example was that the WTO Secretariat would organize a meeting on trade and competition
with the other agencies to discuss coordination already the coming Friday.
57. He went on to say that evaluation and monitoring was an area of priority where the WTO
Secretariat had to improve although some improvements had already been made.  The Technical
Cooperation Division had originally been monitoring itself.  A separate audit within the Secretariathad subsequently been established under Mr. Paul Rolian who worked together with a consultant.
The Technical Cooperation Division believed that an external audit should, periodically, be used.
Currently, there were two forms for evaluation for every technical cooperation activity.  One form
was given to the beneficiary host country authority which it had to send back directly to the WTO
Secretariat (to the technical cooperation audit) without the person delivering the technical cooperationseeing it.  Mr. Rolian's reports then went to senior management as well as to the Technical
Cooperation Management Committee.  A report on monitoring and evaluation would also go to the
CTD in order for Members to better appreciate the evolution of the quality of the technical
cooperation delivered.
58. With respect to costing he said that the formula applied by the WTO Secretariat
(Administration and General Services Division) was the standard cost formula which required criteria
such as the venue, the number of participants, a comparison of grey-market tickets with regular costs
of passengers.  This formula could not be applied too far in advance as all the parameters would then
not be fixed.  That was one of the reasons why the WTO Secretariat could not give a fixed costing of
each activity to be carried out in the year 2002 already in January.  Nevertheless, every activity wouldbe individually costed.  There had also been a question as to whether there had been any contributions
to the Doha Development Agenda Global Trust Fund.  The Trust Fund had been established and theWT/COMTD/M/37
Page 20
delegation of the United States had pledged a contribution of USD 1 million the previous day.  He
believed that contributions would grow, based on indications he had received at the meeting with the
OECD-DAC.  He said that there seemed to be un animity with respect to the establishment of a
database on trade-related technical assistance which would show the assistance delivered, not only by
the WTO Secretariat, but by major providers of trade-related technical assistance.  The TechnicalCooperation Division had established the position of a Web-site manager but needed more assistance.
The delegation of the United States had indicated that they would assist the WTO Secretariat in that
regard.  The delegation of the United States to the OECD-DAC had, at the Paris meeting, presented a
recently established database by USAID and USTR on trade-related technical assistance provided by
the United States.  That database could provide an operating model for a larger database.  The WTO
Secretariat had therefore asked the United States delegation if it could send its consultant to the WTO
Technical Cooperation Management Committee and if the WTO Secretariat could then build on thatmodel.  It was important to quickly put up that database as it would provide valuable information for
beneficiary countries on what was available as well as what was being done.  The database would also
help show what technical assistance could be provided in the short term (the coming year) and what
could be done later, as well as provide a picture of what the WTO Secretariat was doing and what was
done by other agencies and bilateral donors.
59. He continued by addressing the micro issues.  There was an omission in the Plan of an NGO
symposium.  On page 15 there was an activity related to a symposium involving NGOs on trade and
environment.  However, there would be another NGO symposium on a broader topic which would be
included in the revision of the Plan.  A couple of questions had been raised with respect to the
"Geneva Week" activity.  Two "Geneva Weeks" were planned for April and October 2002 and theycould be found on page 14.  The Secretariat was guided by the wish of Members that meetings of the
Sub-Committee and the Committee of Trade and Development should be scheduled during those
weeks in order to allow representatives from headquarters to participate.  Several questions with
respect to the JITAP had been raised.  The JITAP was designed to terminate in June 2002.  The
terminal evaluation would begin in February 2002.  Approximately 30 applications had been receivedfrom individual African countries to have the benefits of the JITAP extended to them.  The major
providers of the JITAP funds had insisted that the JITAP be reconciled with the Integrated Framework
in order not to have too many trust-funds operating indiscriminately and to build synergies.  It was
therefore necessary to wait for the terminal evaluation before any decision on an extension could be
taken.  The review of the Integrated Framework, initially scheduled for February 2002, would be held
in the form of a seminar in April, after the meeting of trade and development ministers.  He said he
wished to draw these facts to the attention of delegations as he, at this stage, could not give any moreprecise answers to the questions.  A concrete proposal should be before the CTD before the end of
June 2002.  Several delegations had mentioned that they wished the WTO Secretariat to distribute the
venues for its regional seminars to more countries.  It was a question that the Secretariat was looking
into.  Decisions on the venue was made jointly by the WTO and the regional economic commissions,
the regional development banks or the headquarters of the regional institution that the WTOSecretariat was dealing with.  There were frequently political and social factors which had to be taken
into account in choosing the location.  The language with respect to "agreed negotiations" in Annex 1
would be clarified as requested by the representative  of India.  Regarding mainstreaming he said that
the language of paragraph 38 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration was clear.  However, Members had
differing views on how it should be done, through th e multilateral intervention of the agencies or
through the multilateral agencies providing assistance to countries.  There could be a compromise in
unanimity in the CTD in that WTO technical assistance should be delivered within a coherent policy
framework, not as a conditionality.  That policy fram ework could either be the country Plan or their
sovereign determined Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers.  For every region there would be a regional
seminar on mainstreaming.  There had been a question on the distinction between seminars,conferences and capacity building.  The WTO Secretariat was using the literal English language
usage.  The Secretariat would produce a revision which would seek to accommodate the views and
priorities expressed by Members.WT/COMTD/M/37
Page 21
60. Deputy Director-General Mr. Ouedraogo said that in his capacity as Deputy Director-General
in charge of the CTD he wished to make one comment and the observations.  The Plan represented a
large effort to rationalize the WTO technical cooperation activities and contribute rigour and
discipline to their implementation.  That should assure the donors and give a new boost to technical
assistance.  He said that the first observation he wished to make related to the fact that he had recentlyreturned from New York where he had participated in the proceedings of the Preparatory Committee
for the International Conference on Financing for Development.  At the opening of those proceedings,
the Secretary-General of the United Nations had said that "what was essential in every programming
exercise was to make decisions that could be  implemented".  WTO technical cooperation was
important for developing countries, and it was therefore important that the financing of it was assured.
Donors present in the CTD had proposed changes to the Plan and he hoped that, with those changes
incorporated, financing would be forthcoming.  The second observation related to the developmentdimension of the WTO.  It was clear that the WTO contributed to development.  That was, in fact, the
reason why the outcome of the Doha Ministerial Meeting was called the Doha Development Agenda.
That was also one of the reasons why the Secretary-General of the Untied Nations had called on the
WTO to be one of the major institutional stakeholders of the International Conference on Financing
for Development to be held in Monterrey, Mexico in March.  The WTO did not finance developmentin the sense that it did not finance such things as infrastructure in developing countries.  It was
through its technical assistance programme that the WTO contributed.
61. His third comment related to the JITAP.  The JITAP would be evaluated.  There had been 27
demands from LDCs and other African countries to benefit from the JITAP programme as it had led
to concrete results.  He said that he hoped that donors would keep that in mind.  There was acomplementarity between the JITAP and the Integrated Framework.  He said that one example was a
sub-regional workshop that he himself had attended in west Africa.  The participating countries of that
workshop had positive impressions of JITAP.  There was no contradiction.  Both the JITAP and the
Integrated Framework aimed at building capacity in developing countries.  Developing countries
represented over 80 per cent of the WTO Membership and capacity building was one means ofassisting those countries to participate more actively in world trade.
62. The representative of the United States said that her delegation had understood that the
Committee would "take note" of the Plan.  Her delegation supported the overall initiative of the Plan
and was actively engaged on a number of levels, including through a contribution to the new Global
Trust Fund as had been announced by her the Minister of Trade.  She would have made a number of
statements with respect to possible improvements  to the Plan that her delegation wished other
delegations to be aware of.  However, as the Plan would be revised, her delegation would shortlycirculate a non-paper containing suggestions for improvements.  One such change would be the
reference in Section VI concerning tools for development.  Her government was a supporter of the
increased use of information technology, especially in technical assistance.  However, her delegation
had concerns regarding the information technology el ement and wished to review it further.  She said
that she hoped that the Secretariat would take her delegations comments into account in the reviseddraft Plan. There was a need to gear particular programmes towards a particular result.  Her
delegation had noted the comments made by a number of delegations including St Lucia and Zambia
regarding the necessity to balance the attention given to different regions in particular need of
technical assistance.
63. The representative of Zambia said that his delegation would also be submitting a paper
containing specific comments on the Plan and he said that he hoped that the Secretariat would take
those into account in the revised Plan.  The Doha Ministerial Declaration had made specific reference
to the LDCs.  He wondered why some non-LDCs would receive as many as eight missions compared
to only one mission to many LDCs when the WTO Technical Cooperation Strategy stated that
although technical cooperation was for all devel oping countries, Members had asked that LDCs be
given priority.  There was thus no consistency between the Strategy and the Plan.  In addition, theWT/COMTD/M/37
Page 22
Integrated Framework Pilot Scheme focussed on three countries.  He asked what would happen to the
LDCs which were not included in the Pilot Scheme as it was stated in the Plan that the Pilot countries
would be used as a basis.  On the macro-level it was important that there was a specific section or unit
in the WTO Secretariat which dealt with LDCs.  A unit had been established after the Seattle
Ministerial Conference but it had recently disappe ared.  There should be a particular focus on LDCs
both in the Plan and in the WTO Secretariat.
64. The representative of the European Communities said that his delegation was satisfied with
the explanations given regarding the next steps.  However, the revision had to be made before the
holding of the Pledging Conference, as the basis for that Conference would be the Plan.  He indicated
that there would be some additional funding forthcoming.  Regarding the suggestion to use the model
of one donor country in the presentation of technical assistance, a clear definition of activities had to
be found in order for different things not to be mixed.  Only one model had been quoted but othermodels were available.  The OECD for example was working on one.  The forthcoming meeting of
the Committee in February should contain a discussion on what happened to the WTO Technical
Assistance Strategy and the concepts of demand- drivenness and ownership.  A certain demand was
defined through the Doha Ministerial Declaration which could help reconcile the idea of a strategy
and operational activities.  They were not completely separate and there was already a link.  Hisdelegation had noted the point that the delegation of India had a different view of what had been done
in paragraph 20 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration regarding agreed negotiations in the Annex on
Investment and Singapore issues.  However, his dele gation did not want the issue to go the other way
in the sense that other delegations would ask for the insertion of the language "to be" agreed
negotiations.  The best way out was to leave that discussion to the General Council and the TradeNegotiations Committee and only to refer to the paragraphs where there was full agreement that
technical assistance should take place, such as paragraph 21 with respect to investment.  There was no
need for that issue to hold up the work on technical assistance in the CTD.
65. The representative of India said that his delegation was satisfied with the responses given by
the Secretariat to the comments made by delegations and wished to await the revision of the Plan
which his delegation hoped would be discussed at the next meeting of the Committee.
66. The representative of Djibouti said that , as mentioned by Deputy Director-General
Mr. Ouedraogo, it was impossible to implement any technical assistance project without adequate
financing.  It was therefore key to the integration of developing countries into the multilateral trading
system that the technical cooperation activities of the WTO Secretariat were fully funded.  There was
no use in planning activities which could not be financed.  His delegation was of the view that it was
important that an LDC unit be established within the Secretariat.  He asked why the WTO did not usethe example of WIPO and UNCTAD, which had centralized all issues relating to the LDCs in one
place.
67. The representative of Ghana said that he had observed that some countries benefitted from as
many as eight different technical assistance activities while others would only benefit from one.  He
urged the Secretariat to take that into account and establish some kind of balance.
68. The Chairman said that technical assistance to some extent was demand-driven.  However, for
the Committee to continue its business he suggested that the Committee ask the Secretariat to take the
points made into account in a revision of the Plan, that the Committee take note of the document and
the statements made.
69. The Committee so agreed.WT/COMTD/M/37
Page 23
(ii) Training Institute
70. Deputy Director-General Mr. Ravier said that the relevant document had been issued under
document symbol WT/COMTD/W/89/Rev.1.  Member s would recall that they had already been
informed at the meeting of the Committee in October last year of the activities the Training Institute
envisaged for the year 2002.  The work programme of the Training Institute had been revised in orderto take the decisions taken at the Doha Ministerial Conference and in Geneva, with the adoption of the
2002 budget, into account.  Document WT/COMTD/W/89/Rev.1 complemented and specified the
information provided to delegations last year.  Th e activities of the Training Institute complemented
those contained in the Technical Assistance Plan.  That was also the reason why the documents were
examined in parallel.  He said that he was of the view that future discussions on WTO technical
assistance should always be linked to a discussion on training as the two were inter-related.  Members
had, in the course of the discussion of the WTO budget, approved a doubling of the activities of theTraining Institute.  The doubling concerned essentially the three-month Trade Policy Courses.  That
increase would substantially increase the courses available to Members and especially to developing
country Members.  Even if it had not been foreseen that the doubling of the three-month courses
would be fully operational before 2003 (for practical reasons), the training activities would increase
during 2002 with visible results already during the second semester of 2002.  Members had alsodecided, in the course of the December 2001 budget discussion, to regularly finance training activities
which previously depended exclusively on extra-budgetary resources.  That was particularly the case
for the Short Trade-Policy Courses for LDCs which, during the last few years, had become a more or
less regular training feature.  Two of the new mandates given to the Training Institute at its creation in
June 2001 were to be concretised during the first part of 2002, i.e. training of trainers and distancelearning.  First, training of trainers would be undertaken to increase the quality of the training given
by Secretariat experts when they were asked to participate in training or technical cooperation
activities.  The second phase of the programme, which would start in the second half of the year 2002,
was intended for developing country trainers.  The first part would be financed through already
existing voluntary extra-budgetary resources.  The financing of the second part had still not beenensured but was currently being costed.  He hoped that this responded to one of the questions raised in
the earlier discussion on technical cooperation.  The Training Institute was also supervising the
preparatory work for the launching of a pilot project on distance learning through a training course on
line for about 65 participants in developing countries.  The pilot project, which was scheduled for
mid 2002, would permit modifications to be made before the launching of a more ambitious
distance-learning programme on which the Training Institute was currently working.  A third sphere
of activities concerned the relations with universities, in particular those in developing countries.That activity had recently not received much attention as it had not yet received the necessary
financing to give it the desired content.  However, he hoped that that situation would improve.
71. He went on to say that coherence and complementarity between the activities of the Training
Institute and the technical cooperation programmes were one of the priorities of the Secretariat.  The
role of the Technical Assistance Management Committee, which he chaired, was to ensure theimplementation of that priority.  He also mentioned the future role of the Joint Consultative Board on
WTO-related Training which encompassed representatives of UNCTAD, ITC, World Bank,
universities and WTO Members through the Chairpersons of the WTO Committees directly
concerned by development matters.  One of the objectives of that Board was to ameliorate the
cooperation between the organizations in the area of training.  The Board had held its first meeting inNovember 2001.  The Training Institute was already cooperating closely with a number of agencies
which were active in the area of training.
72. The representative of India said that he was pleased to note that the activities of the Training
Institute were being diversified with the introduction of a pilot project to offer distance-learning on
line.  In fact, in one of his delegation's earlier interactions with the Training Institute, such a coursehad been suggested.  His delegation was therefore grateful to the WTO Secretariat for the introductionWT/COMTD/M/37
Page 24
of that new activity.  He hoped that this would assist interested people in developing countries to
benefit from an increased understanding of the WT O Agreements without having to come to Geneva.
On the last page of the document, there seemed to be a mistake as the twenty-first and twenty-second
Trade Policy Courses had both been given the same dates.
73. The representative of the European Communities said that it was his delegation's belief that
the training activities were important to spread the knowledge of the WTO into wider circles.  His
delegation wished to make two points in that respect.  First, the planned on-line activities were
important and his delegation encouraged the Training Institute to consider what other Geneva-based
agencies had done in that respect.  He knew that WIPO and other agencies had done some good work
which the WTO might learn from.  The second was that his delegation encouraged the Training
Institute to seek as much cooperation as possible with institutions which did already train people.
From the experience of the European Communities he knew that there were numerous suchinstitutions within the Communities which would be ready to cooperate.  There were also more and
more possible counterparts in developing countries which would be effective partners in delivering
joint training activities.
74. The representative of Australia said that her delegation welcomed the new initiatives in the
document, especially those activities which would have long-term benefits such as the
training-of-trainers programme and those which made best use of the resources available such as the
distance-learning courses.  Her delegation was interested in learning about the selection process for
participants, and the plans for evaluating new aspects of the Training Institute's work as outlined in
the document.
75. The representative of Senegal said that, when looking through the document, he found it
surprising that he had not seen any course in the French language.  He asked the Secretariat to
enlighten delegations as to why.
76. The representative of Djibouti said that he wished to know if it would be possible to equalize
the number of courses in the three official WTO languages in order for French- and Spanish-speaking
Members to benefit as much as the English-speaking Members from the system.
77. The representative of Zambia said that his delegation had not heard any reference to funding.
Budget estimates were given jointly with funding in  the document, which he assumed referred to the
actual resources available, in relation to the budget.  He asked whether the figures stated the real
anticipated costs and available funds, and whether the current resources would meet the expected
costs.
78. The Director of the Training Institute said that he would begin by the last question.  The
Training Institute currently had enough resources to carry out its activities with the exception, which
was mentioned in the table of the document, of the second phase of the training-of-trainers
programme.  Otherwise, the financial resources seemed to be sufficient to cover the activities
mentioned in the document.  However, in order to increase the activities of the Training Institute in
the future, increased resources would have to be made available.  The mandate received in June 2001
had begun to be implemented.  Most of the second part of last year had been devoted to preparationfor the activities which were new to the Training Institute as well and to prepare the ground for pilot
projects and other activities which could be implemented.  There was therefore always a need for
additional funding, but for projects yet to be defined.  There was another activity which lacked
funding relating to contacts with academia in developing countries.  The Training Institute would, in
the weeks to come, work on defining certain projects and contact donors.  With respect to courses inFrench he said that he wished to draw the delegations' attention to footnote 11 on page 8.  The
Training Institute found itself in a difficult situation as it could not begin to double the courses straight
away.  First, there was a need for an additional training room for a new set of students.  He hoped thatWT/COMTD/M/37
Page 25
this room would be ready by the end of August 2002 and it would then be possible to give two
courses in parallel which would begin the cycle of double courses.  The doubling would only be
finalized in 2003 when the first 6 courses would have been held and it was in the beginning of 2003
that the course in French would be held.  For ever y cycle, there would be four courses in English, one
each in French and Spanish, which corresponded quite closely to the demand for fellowships in eachlanguage.  The dates were not wrong, as the plan was to hold two parallel courses.  The aim was to
carry out joint activities of the two groups as often as possible since the new room would allow for
that.  In the initial phase of preparations for the pi lot schemes, the Training Institute had contacted all
possible other agencies with experience in the field and had benefitted from extensive advice and
collaboration.  The same had applied to the phase of bidding for the providers of such services where
the Training Institute had benefitted from several demonstrations of different programmes which had
enabled them to better select the service provider.
79. He further said that concerning the selection process for the courses, all the beneficiary
countries were aware of the criteria as they were published each time an invitation was sent.  Those
criteria were public and concerned age, education, language skills in the language of the course, work
experience in the area of trade policy and, a criterion on which the Training Institute insisted strongly,
whether the candidates would, upon completion of the course, return to their respective Ministries andactually work with WTO-related issues.  The selection was carried out at two levels;  at the level of
the Training Institute and at the Senior Management level of the WTO Secretariat.  There were also a
number of other criteria.  For example, the aim was to have some regional distribution in order for the
participants in each group to benefit from each others' experiences.  Female representation was
another consideration.  There were no specific percentages but when there were many applicants,women were well represented.  Since 1997 there was a mandate to give LDCs special attention.  That
priority was always taken into account, although it was difficult to achieve in the Spanish-speaking
courses as there were not many Spanish-speaking LDC applicants.  However, there was a tendency
for a greater and greater regional representation in all courses.  Countries which previously only made
requests to attend French-speaking courses had made requests for courses held in English andSpanish, and vice-versa, so there seemed to be a certain mobility.
80. He contributed by saying that there was a system of evaluation that had been described in the
document WT/COMTD/W/86/Add.1 which had been provided to the CTD in the year 2001.  A
system for evaluation existed since many years, but  it had been updated for the longer Trade Policy
Courses.  The evaluation method had lately been adap ted to other activities of the Institute.  For each
activity there was thus a quite elaborated evaluatio n mechanism regarding aspects such as the degree
of knowledge transferred, as experienced by the participants, and the efficiency of the experts makingthe presentations.  All aspects were included in the evaluation.  The Training Institute was also in the
process of studying how the evaluation method could be adapted to suit some of the new activities as
they would be different, such as the distance learni ng courses or the training of trainers.  Another area
of monitoring that the Training Institute would be interested in, but which it could not undertake for
reasons of sovereignty of WTO Members over their internal affairs, was to look at what happened tothe students trained once they returned to their countries.  However, there were indirect methods to
verify what had happened.  For example, a fact that was readily verifiable was that an increasing
number of Geneva-based delegates from developing countries were former participants of the Trade
Policy Course.  More than eighty former Trade Policy Course participants were currently in Geneva
and among those a number of ambassadors.  Through contacts with capitals it was also known that anumber of former Trade Policy Course participants worked as trade-policy experts in capitals.  That
was an indirect way of measuring the impact of th e courses.  However, he hoped for future methods
of analysis and evaluation in capitals with the help of the governments, which would permit to
measure the exact impact of the courses.
81. The Committee took note of the documents and the statements made.WT/COMTD/M/37
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D. O THER BUSINESS
82. No matters were raised under Other Business.
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