WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/GC/W/415
17 October 2000
(00-4283)
General Council Original:  English/
                  French
WTO EXTERNAL TRANSPARENCY
Informal Paper by Canada
The following communication, dated 16 October 2000, has been received from the Permanent
Mission of Canada.
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1. Canada believes that a greater window onto the World Trade Organization (WTO) will better
enable the public to appreciate the benefits of liberalized trade and the clear and equitable rules that
serve as the foundation of the international trading system. At the same time, we believe WTO
Members and the WTO system of agreements would benefit from the views of the global public.
2. In that light, we support efforts to explore how Members could enhance the transparency of
the WTO, share and improve the WTO’s analytical work, hear new ideas, and build the WTO’s vision
on the basis of a broad range of inputs. We propose that Members consider what we can do to
improve external transparency in all WTO bodies, including the General Council,
Councils/Committees, Working Groups, and dispute settlement proceedings.
Shorter term
Dialogue with the public: enhancing transparency of trade policy reviews
3. Building on our March 2000 proposal that Members consider opening trade policy reviews to
accredited observers from the public (e.g. non-governmental organizations – NGOs and journalists),
Canada has since proposed that Members agree to webcast Canada’s interim trade policy review in
December 2000 (see: WT/TPR/W/26 dated 13 July 2000).
4. The trade policy review process involves the participation of WTO Member governments
only, although observers at the General Council are allowed to attend the meetings of the Trade Policy
Review Body. While participation at the meeting itself is limited, the review is well publicized and
the reports are published. There are press conferences held by the Chair, and occasionally, by the
Member reviewed. There are also press releases, and the Chair’s Concluding Remarks, theSecretariat’s Summary Observations, a summary of the Government Report, and minutes of the
meeting are all posted on the Web site.
5. Canada’s proposal to webcast its trade policy review would not change this process. The
contents of a trade policy review are all made public  eventually, but instead of waiting to review the
proceedings in the printed report, the public would be electronic witnesses to the actual discussions.Webcasting would provide the public with a greater understanding and appreciation of the WTO peer
review process, the purpose of which is to make Members’ trade policy regimes more transparent and
understandable.WT/GC/W/415
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6. Webcasting is similar to a television broadcast. Cameras would record Canada’s trade policy
review and broadcast it via the Internet for vi ewers to observe on their computers. Webcasting
Canada’s trade policy review would help promote transparency in the WTO and promote a positive
image of the organization. Canada believes that it would enhance the quality of discussions between
Members and provide a progressive example of the WTO’s openness to sharing the nature andbenefits of its work with the public.
7. At the same time, webcasting would preserve the intergovernmental nature of the peer review
mechanism. Interested stakeholders, the media and members of the public would be able to view the
proceedings on a computer screen in their home or office, wherever they may be around the globe, but
would not make interventions or ask questions.
8. The Canadian proposal is aimed solely at Canada’s own trade policy review in December. It
does not set any precedent or create obligations for other Members to webcast their trade policyreviews, or any other meeting of the WTO for that ma tter. Canada is prepared to bear the costs of the
webcast of its review, given that this expense was not foreseen in the current WTO budget.
Dialogue with the public: access to documents
9. Canada recognizes the importance of confidentiality in negotiations and intergovernmental
discussions. At the same time, we believe adopting a liberal document de-restriction policy would
help to inform domestic constituencies in a more open and timely manner and provide for constructive
debate.
10. Canada therefore reiterates its proposal that Secretariat working papers, formal contributions
from Members and draft meeting agendas be circulated, with very limited exceptions, as unrestricteddocuments. Documents that need to be restricted should, in principle, be automatically derestricted
after no longer than 6 months. In addition, Secretariat-produced minutes of meetings and notes of
discussions should be considered for de-restricting three months after the date of their circulation,
provided they are available in all three WTO languages. Many of these documents currently remain
restricted for six months. This is unnecessarily long.
11. With regard to trade policy review documentation, we propose that Members ask the WTO
Secretariat to explore the feasibility of making the entire text of both the Secretariat and Government
reports available for sale on-line on the WTO’s public website on the day of the review. This would
allow the WTO to continue to generate revenues from its reports, while providing the public with
immediate access to the information instead of making them wait for hard-copy publication.
Dialogue with the public:  Web site
12. The WTO Web site is an excellent resource for Members and the public, and improving it
should be an ongoing priority. Among other things, an enhanced Web site should make it easier to
access unrestricted documents.
13. To improve understanding of the perspectives of NGOs, including the private sector, not-for-
profit groups, environmental organizations, community organizations, etc., and building on existingNGO information in the “community/forums” section of the WTO Web site, Canada proposes the
WTO consider establishing a Web page that “hotlinks” directly to trade-related NGO Web sites. The
WTO Secretariat could form an ad-hoc committee open to all Members to decide which NGO Web
sites should be hotlinked, and to update those hotlinks as required.
14. NGOs with Web sites hotlinked to the WTO site should be encouraged to translate their
papers into all three WTO languages. The WTO site should post a disclaimer clarifying that hotlinksWT/GC/W/415
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are provided for the purposes of openness and transparency only, and that the WTO and its Members
do not endorse the information or opinions on NGO sites.
Transparency in dispute settlement
15. Canada posts on its Web site background information regarding its position on the WTO
disputes in which Canada is a complaining or defending party. We also make our Panel and Appellate
Body submissions available to the public upon re quest. We encourage other Members also to make
their submissions public, and to seek further ways to improve transparency in WTO dispute settlement
proceedings.
Dialogue with the public: WTO outreach
16. We reiterate our proposal that a portion of the WTO Secretariat budget be allocated to fund
regular outreach initiatives, such as symposia, workshops and improvements to the WTO Web site.
Funding for this program should be “regularized” to facilitate long-term planning. Monies spent
would improve public understanding of the WTO and its mandate — something of benefit to all
Members.
17. We also propose that the outreach budget be used for more frequent and more structured
meetings and contact between the Secretariat, Members, journalists and NGOs. This ongoing dialogue
should be used to share and improve the analytical work being undertaken by WTO Committees,
Working Groups and the Secretariat. The Secretariat should also encourage academics, trade policy
analysts and NGOs to share with the public their views on the benefits of trade liberalization and rule
making, for example at conferences, through print and electronic media, and via the WTO Web site.
Dialogue with the public: experimenting with new ideas
18. Canada notes that the Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade, the Council for Trade in
Goods, and the Information Technology Agreement Committee have all held  symposia with NGOs.
The Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) pioneered NGO symposia, and is the onlyCommittee to issue detailed reports on its meetings in the form of a press release shortly after each
meeting. We encourage other WTO bodies also to experiment with ways to open up to the public on
the full range of issues addressed by the WTO.
19. Specific ideas for WTO bodies to test could be:
- convening annual meetings to which NGO observers are invited, and/or to which they
may make written submissions that contribute to or respond to the analytical work of
the WTO body in question; and
- convening a series of relatively small “dialogues” with Members, academics, media
and NGOs to tackle focussed issues. Such meetings could produce non-binding
reports that are then fed back to inform debate and analytical work. This was done on
a larger scale last year by the CTE and the Committee on Trade and Development.Some dialogues could be held outside Geneva to facilitate NGO attendance.
Longer term
Involving Member Governments:  Parliamentarians
20. Canada strongly supports creating a mechanism for parliamentary input into international
trade policy debates. As trade policy increasingly intersects with areas of social or economic policyWT/GC/W/415
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dear to our citizens, Canada wants to ensure that elected representatives’ views inform
intergovernmental debates on the best means of accommodating multiple ends.
21. In this context, we believe Members should explore proposals for regular informal meetings
of WTO Member parliamentarians, perhaps once every year. Such meetings would be a valuable
complement to Members’ discussions, but would not  prejudice in any way Members’ prerogatives.
We would want to consider what the structure or mandate of such meetings would be. The Geneva-
based Inter-Parliamentary Union could be asked to organize them.
Advisory boards
22. Only WTO Members have the authority to make decisions at the WTO on the rights and
obligations of Members. Canada strongly supports this principle. At the same time, Canada believes
that outside voices, particularly from experts in specialized areas, can provide valuable advice to
Members.
23. To manage this advice in a transparent and efficient way, Members could authorize the WTO
Secretariat to create ad-hoc advisory boards to provide non-binding advice on a variety of issues, e.g.
trade and sustainable development, e-commerce, etc. These boards could be composed of individuals
and/or NGOs (including the private sector, not-for-profit groups, environmental organizations,community organizations, etc.). Depending on the issue at hand, advisory board meetings could be
held at the level of the Director General, Secretariat officials, General Council (Ambassadors), or
subsidiary bodies. Membership in any ad-hoc advisory board would have to reflect a broad range of
views and considerations. One- or two-day meetings could be held once or twice a year. Different
organizations or individuals could be invited to attend different meetings, depending on the issues tobe discussed. To ensure internal transparency, WTO Members and chairs of the different Committees
and Councils would be invited to participate in all meetings, and all discussions and recommendations
would be reported to all Members immediately.
24. We note that the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation process, the World Intellectual
Property Organization and the Organization for Ec onomic Co-operation and Development have all
had some success in establishing advisory boards. We suggest the Secretariat research the experiences
that these and other international organizations have  had in establishing advisory boards. Following
on this research, Members would want to consider, inter alia, what issues should be studied, how
advisors should be selected, what the cost implications would be, and whether advisors should be
appointed on a temporary or permanent basis.
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