. /.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONTN/MA/W/28
28 February 2003
(03-1202)
Negotiating Group on Market Access Original:  Spanish
NEGOTIATING GROUP ON MARKET ACCESS
FOR NON-AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS
Communication from Bolivia
The following communication, dated 19 February 2003, has been received from the
Permanent Mission of Bolivia.
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1. During the Doha Ministerial Conference, Bolivia reaffirmed its pledge to contribute to greater
trade liberalization and supported the launch of the new round of multilateral trade negotiations.
2. Accordingly, Bolivia is submitting to Members for consideration its views on the modalities
and other elements that should be considered in the negotiations on market access for non-agricultural
products.
Modalities
3. With regard to the modalities for tariff reduction, Bolivia would support application of the
Swiss formula, in accordance with Members' leve l of development, using bound tariffs as the basis of
calculation.
4. For the purpose of eliminating tariffs, Bolivia supports the zero-for-zero approach, to be
applied only by developed countries, as in the eighth round of negotiations.
5. The base year for the negotiation should be 2000, considering that Members would have
already implemented their binding commitments.
Environmental goods
6. In order to deal appropriately with environmental goods, efforts to classify and define them
are required;  to that end, the WTO Secretariat should prepare a working paper that would be
elaborated on by Members.  At the same time, the material already prepared in the framework of
APEC and OECD could serve as reference document s for the work that is being undertaken, but the
basic working papers must be those prepared by the WTO Secretariat, bearing in mind that neither of
those international bodies has a membership as broad as that of the WTO.
7. Furthermore, Bolivia is aware of the need for a comprehensive and up-to-date Integrated Data
Base (IDB), which is why it is necessary for Me mbers to meet their commitment to update the IDB
for the years 2000 and 2001, and the Consolidated Tariff Schedules (CTS) database, showing the
applied tariffs and bindings, should be distributed to Members.TN/MA/W/28
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8. Another aspect we consider relevant to compliance with the WTO principle of allowing
greater participation by developing, and particularly least-developed countries, is capacity-building.
The Members of WTO should examine the best possible mechanisms for cooperation and technical
assistance with a view to facilitating the effective participation of developing countries.  In this
connection, Bolivia requests technical assistance for the operation of the Integrated Data Base.
9. Furthermore, as was agreed at Doha, these negotiations must take into account the special
needs and interests of developing and least-developed countries, including through less than full
reciprocity in the commitments.
10. Lastly, we consider that this Negotiating Group should not go beyond the outcomes achieved
in the Negotiating Group on Agriculture, in order to strike a balance in the tariffs applied to industrial
and agricultural products.  In this way, the prevalent discrimination in the treatment of these two
sectors will be eliminated.
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