WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/CTE/W/234 
19 March 2004 
 
 (04-1228) 
Committee on Trade ad Environment Original:   English 
  
 
 
THE WORK PROGRAMME OF THE COMMITTEE  
ON TRADE AND ENVIRONMENT (CTE) 
 
Submission by Canada
 
 
 1. During the preparation of the report of the CTE to the Fifth Ministerial Meeting at Cancun, 
Canada submitted a proposal (JOB(03)/105) sugg esting that a recommendation for Ministers be 
included in the Committee’s Report to give the Co mmittee a mandate to review and, if warranted, 
amend its work programme.  The purpose of this sugg estion was to ensure that the consideration of 
trade and environment issues in the World Trade Organization reflects current issues and concerns, and incorporates legal and policy developments that  have occurred since the work programme of the 
CTE was initially established. 
2. At the time we made our submission, some Members expressed support for a review of the 
work programme, but did not feel that such a review required a recommendation from Ministers at 
Cancun, as we had proposed.  Other Members expr essed reservations, fearing the opening of long 
procedural disagreements.  A number of Members requested more information about what such a 
review would entail.  The Chairman of the CTE i nvited Canada to elaborate on its proposal at the 
meeting of the CTE of 7 July 2003. 
3. With the benefit of some reflection, and in light of the helpful comments and reactions from 
Members, we have revised our proposal, in order to take a more methodical approach to our work 
programme, but with the same goal of revitalizing the work of the CTE.  
4. The current work programme of the CTE was set out in the Ministerial Decision on Trade and 
Environment adopted in Marrakech on 14 April 1994.  The Decision set out a number of matters that the “Committee will initially  address”, that then formed the basi s of the work programme.  That work 
programme has not been amended since.  The 1996 Singapore Ministerial Decl aration directed that 
“further work needs to be undertaken on all items of its agenda…under its existing terms of 
reference”.  The 2001 Doha Declaration also inst ructed the Committee to pursue its work “on all 
items on its agenda within its current terms of reference”, and highlighted issues for particular 
attention.  As we approach the 10
th Anniversary of the Marrakech meeting, we thought it useful to 
reflect on how best to continue in the exercise of  our mandate as established by Ministers.    
5. In short, while there has been  substantive and useful discussion on all parts of the work 
programme in the past, we feel that the Committee coul d benefit from an injection of focus.  With the 
present meeting format, which sees equal weight given to all matters on the work programme, it is difficult to know on what items of the work pr ogramme Members should e ngage.  Substantive and 
interactive discussion is often difficult to achieve , as members and observers arrive at meetings 
having prepared or focussed on different part of the work programme.   
6. Therefore, we propose that the Committee begin to choose subject meeting themes for each of 
its future meetings.  This would involve iden tifying two of the items currently on the work WT/CTE/W/234 
Page 2  
 
 programme to be the items on which Members be asked to arrive at the meeting prepared to discuss in 
some detail.  One item would be one of the issues which Ministers instructed the Committee to give 
particular attention to, and which are enumerated in paragraphs 32 (as well as the subject matter of 
paragraphs 33 and 51) of the DDA.  The second item chosen would be one of the other items on the 
work programme, and if possible, related to the ite m of the DDA to be considered at that meeting. 
7. These “meeting focus items” would be agreed upon in advance of each meeting. Members 
and observers would then be encouraged to provide  submissions on these items, and to be prepared at 
each meeting for an interactive discussion to deba te existing issues and concerns, as well as ideas for 
future work. The Secretariat could be asked to  prepare a short document summarizing previous 
discussions in the Committee on the work items to be considered and provide a list of submissions 
made on these items in the past. This would provid e the necessary historical context for the discussion 
and contribute to an informed discussion of that work item.   
8. We believe the advantage of such a structure is self-evident -- namely more focussed and 
prepared discussions in the Committe e.  All Members would come to CTE meetings prepared to focus 
on two items of the work programme, providing a much greater opportunity for an engaged and 
interactive discussion in the Committee.  Notwithst anding the meeting focus items, the agenda would 
remain open for any Member to raise any other i ssue within the broader work programme if it so 
wished.  This might be especially useful for br inging new developments to the attention of the 
Committee.  In this way, the rights of Members would not be prejudiced, but there would still be a clear understanding among all Members regarding what  the main elements of the meeting would be. 
9. Another advantage of a focussed meeting appro ach is to reacquaint the Committee with its 
work programme. Many items have not seen substa ntive discussion in years, and present delegates 
and officials may not be aware of the Committee’s previous discussions and ha ve not had the benefit 
of hearing other Members’ views.  At the conc lusion of a focussed discussion on an item, Members 
will be better informed as to the status and releva nce of that item, and th e Committee could be better 
placed to decide whether an examination of the work  programme is merited.  However, that is not a 
decision that we feel the Committee should make now , given the differing views of Members.  Instead 
it remains only an option for Members to take up in future.  If the Committee should decide to 
undertake such an examination, it could be ma de on the basis of a recent and substantive 
consideration of all items on the work programme.     
10. The following chart indicates the type of appr oach the Committee could take if it decides to 
adopt the ideas we put forward in this proposal.   
Suggested Illustrative Format: 
 
Meeting  DDA item focus  Other Work Programme item focus  
Summer 2004 32 i (item 6) item 4 
Fall 2004 32 ii (item 8) item 9 
Spring 2005 32 iii (part of item 3b) items 2 and 3 
Summer 2005 33, 51 item 7 
 
  WT/CTE/W/234 
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 11. We suggest that items 1 and 10 not be included in the proposed table, as they are related to 
the mandate of the CTE in Special Session (CTESS) .  Item 5, although not covered by the CTESS 
mandate per se , is sufficiently related to paragraph 31(i)  to favour not addressing as a focus item in 
the CTE until completion of the DDA negotiations. 
12. Canada has no particular attachment to the order or pairing of the items, so the above chart is 
provided simply as an example of how the work might  be structured.  We favoured approaching the 
DDA items numerically, in order to avoid a procedural discussion as to what items ought to be considered first. 
13. If Members agree that this proposed structuri ng of the CTE’s work would be useful, the 
Committee could decide at its April 2004 meeting to  undertake such a model, for a trial one year 
period, from the summer meeting of 2004 to the summer meeting of 2005. 
14. We look forward to thoughts and reactions  to this paper at the April meeting. 
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