RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/COMTD/M/49 
12 July 2004 
 
 (04-2986) 
Committee on Trade and Development 
Forty-Ninth Session  
 
  
NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 11 MAY 2004 
 
Chairperson:  H. E. Mr. Trevor Clarke (Barbados) 
 
 
Subjects discussed
: 
 
A. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA ........................................................................................................2  
B. OBSERVERS ............................................................................................................................... ..2 
(i) Request for attendance of ad hoc observers ...............................................................................2  
(ii) Request for ad hoc observer status by the Common Fund for Commodities for the 
specific item related to "Declining terms of  trade for primary commodities, and its 
implication to trade and development of primary commodity exporting countries" ..................2  
(iii) Further Consideration of request 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 ...........................................................3  
C. TECHNICAL CO-OPERATION AND TRAINING ...............................................................................3  
(i) Annual Report on Training and Technical Co-operation (WT/COMTD/W/127) .......................3  
(ii) Implementation Report - Fourth Quarter 2003 (WT/COMTD/W/126).......................................3  
(iii) 2003 Technical Co-operation Audit Report (WT/COMTD/W/125) ..........................................10  
D. DECLINING TERMS OF TRADE FOR PRIMARY COMMODITIES , AND ITS IMPLICATION TO 
TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT OF PRIMARY COMMODITY EXPORTING COUNTRIES ....................17  
E. REPORT ON THE 37TH SESSION OF THE JOINT ADVISORY GROUP ON THE 
INTERNATIONAL TRADE CENTRE UNCTAD/WTO  (ITC/AG/(XXXVII)/200) ........................26  
F. PARAGRAPH 51 OF THE DOHA DECLARATION ON IDENTIFYING AND DEBATING 
DEVELOPMENTAL ASPECTS OF THE NEGOTIATIONS , IN ORDER TO HELP ACHIEVE THE 
OBJECTIVE OF HAVING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT APPROPRIATELY REFLECTED .............28  
G. ELECTRONIC COMMERCE ..........................................................................................................30  
H. GRADUATION OF THE MALDIVES FROM LDC  STATUS (WT/COMTD/W/128)........................33  
I. WORK PROGRAMME FOR 2004..................................................................................................38  
J. OTHER BUSINESS ......................................................................................................................39  
  WT/COMTD/M/49 
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 A. A
DOPTION OF THE AGENDA  
1. The Chairman  extended a special welcome to the representatives of WTO's non-resident 
Members and Observers who attended the meeting as part of their "Geneva Week".  He said that the 
draft Agenda for the meeting was contained in  Airgram WTO/AIR/2292/Rev.1, dated 6 May 2004.  
As Ambassador Iversen of Denmark, who chaired the Joint Advisory Group of the ITC, was unable to 
attend the morning session, he suggested that the item concerning the report on the JAG be taken up 
in the afternoon. 
2. The representative of Canada  said that her delegation wished to introduce a notification 
regarding her Government's GSP scheme under "Other Business". 
3. The representative of Switzerland  suggested that the sequence of the submissions under 
item E, relating to commodities, be changed so th at the Committee first treat the submission by the 
delegations of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda who were the proponents of the item, and for the 
submission by his delegation to be taken up thereafter. 
4. The agenda was adopted  as amended. 
B. OBSERVERS  
(i) Request for attendance of ad hoc observers 
5. The Chairman  said that agenda item B related to reques ts for observer status.  He recalled that 
at previous sessions of the CTD, Members had agreed to invite the following intergovernmental 
organizations on an ad hoc, me eting-by-meeting basis:  the Ar ab Maghreb Union (AMU);  the 
Economic Community of West African States (E COWAS);  the Economic Cooperation Organization 
(ECO);  the Inter-Arab Investment Guarantee Corp oration;  the Islamic Development Bank (IDB);  
the Organization of African Unity (OAU);  the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC);  the South Centre;  the South Pacific Forum;  the Un ited Nations Environment Programme (UNEP);  the 
West African Economic and M onetary Union (WAEMU) and the World Intellectual Property 
Organization (WIPO).  He said that, following th e decision taken at the last meeting of the 
Committee, those organizations had been invited to th at day's meeting.  He also proposed that those 
organizations be invited to the next  formal meeting of the CTD.   
6. It was so agreed
. 
(ii) Request for ad hoc observer status by the Common Fund for Commodities for the specific 
item related to "Declining term s of trade for primary commodities, and its implication to 
trade and development of primary commodity exporting countries" 
7. The Chairman  said that sub-item B (II) related to a re quest for ad hoc observer status by the 
Common Fund for Commodities for the specific item related to "Declining terms of trade for primary 
commodities, and its implication to trade and development of primary commodity exporting 
countries"  only.  He said that WTO bodies had the right, according to paragraph 5 of the rules for 
observer status for international intergovernmental organizations in the WTO1, to extend invitations, 
as appropriate, and on a case-by-case basis, to specific organizations to follow particular issues within a body in an observer capacity.  The Common Fund for Commodities had requested observer status in the CTD on a regular basis.  Such observer status had, as Members were aware, not been granted.  
The Common Fund for Commodities had recently expr essed an interest in attending only the CTD 
item related to the declining terms of trade for primary commodities in an observer capacity.  He 
                                                     
 
1 Contained in Annex 3 to WT/L/161.  WT/COMTD/M/49 
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 suggested that, following his informal consultations  of the previous week, the Committee agree to 
invite the Common Fund for Commodities to follow only the commodity issue on the CTD agenda in 
an observer capacity at the CTD's next formal meeting. 
8. The representative of Egypt  said that it was his delegation's understanding that, since the start 
of the work of the CTD in 1995, it was up to each subsidiary body of the WTO to decide on an ad hoc 
basis at each meeting which international organizati ons to invite and take a decision welcoming their 
attendance on an ad hoc basis.  He said that it therefore was unclear why the case was being taken up.  
The General Council had dealt with the issue of observer status for a long period of time.  However, 
the General Council had not resolved the issue or issued any guidelines for how subsidiary bodies 
should deal with it.  His delegation would welcome the attendance of the Common Fund for Commodities on an ad hoc basis at the CTD meetings.  Such a decision could be taken at each 
meeting of the CTD.  His delegation acknowledg ed the contribution by the Common Fund for 
Commodities.  However, he said that he did not have any instruction from his authorities to approve 
regular observer status, but could agree to the suggestion on an ad hoc basis. 
9. The Committee agreed
 to invite the Common Fund for Commodities to follow only the 
commodity issue on the CTD agenda in an ad hoc observer capacity at its next formal meeting. 
(iii) Further Consideration of request 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 
10. The Chairman  said that the third sub-item under obser vers related to outstanding requests for 
observers status.  At previous meetings, the Committee had had before it a number of such requests.  
Those came from the League of Arab States, OPEC , the Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting, 
the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie, and from the Common Fund for Commodities.  
The positions of delegations were well-known and on the record.  He asked whether there was any 
change of positions which would extend observer status to any of those applicants.  If not, he proposed that Members revert to those requests at the next formal meeting. 
11. It was so agreed
. 
C. TECHNICAL CO-OPERATION AND TRAINING  
(i) Annual Report on Training and Technical Co-operation (WT/COMTD/W/127) 
(ii) Implementation Report - Fourth Quarter 2003 (WT/COMTD/W/126) 
12. The Chairman  suggested that the Committee first cons ider sub-items (i) and (ii) of Agenda 
item D relating to technical information regard ing the activities carried out in 2003.    
13. The Secretariat  said that, before addressing the issues included on the agenda, i.e. the annual 
and quarterly reports on technical assistance (TA)  and training, it wished to brief the Committee on 
the process of informal consultations that had taken place since the beginning of 2004.  The 
Committee had agreed, at its meeting at the end of 20 03, to launch a process of informal consultations 
so as to pursue a number of outstanding issues of a policy-oriented nature.  Three rounds of informal consultations had taken place, beginning in January 2004, with beneficiaries and donor countries, to 
address the following issues:  how to conduct a proc ess of needs assessment, how to engage the least-
developed countries (LDCs) more fu lly in TA and training activities, in fulfilment of the mandate 
from the Doha Ministerial Conference, monitoring an d evaluation, how best to exploit partnerships 
with other organizations, and the strategic dimens ion of academic partnerships.  The informal WT/COMTD/M/49 
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 consultations had been constructive and productive , and the attendance had overall been encouraging.  
The informal context had allowed for a free exchange of views, with inputs into the discussion from 
both donor and beneficiary countries.  Inputs in the form of ideas and papers from Members were also 
encouraged as the process did not have to be fuel led solely by the Secretariat.  The Secretariat 
explained how it had addressed the issues mentioned.  First, from the beginning of 2004, the Institute 
for Training and Technical Co-operation (ITTC) ha d conducted consultations  with each regional 
grouping, as well as with the LDC group, to present and discuss the 2004 TA Plan, to consider how 
Members made requests for national activities, and to address the question of  how the beneficiaries 
could best be engaged in the delivery process.  A ll beneficiaries had been encouraged to submit their 
national requests.  Seventy-nine governments ha d submitted requests as at the beginning of 
May 2004, and contacts had been established with delegations to discuss how those requests could best be addressed.  The Secretariat reminded Member s that had not already done so, that they might 
make requests for national activities at any time in the year, but to bear in mind the risk that the later 
such requests came forward, the more difficult it w ould be for the Secretariat to respond.  The Non-
resident Members who were attending the "Genev a Week", but who had not submitted requests for 
national activities, might wish to take advantage of their presence in Geneva to discuss with the desk 
officer for their region.  
14. A second way in which the Secretariat had addressed the issues was by preparing several 
informal discussion papers which had been discussed during the informal consultations.  Those papers 
had been welcomed by Members, and in the case of the needs assessment, led to the preparation by 
the Secretariat of two "pilot needs assessments", for Madagascar and for Zambia.  The Secretariat recalled that the purpose of the papers prepared by the Secretariat was to assist beneficiaries to identify their needs, the idea being that the primar y responsibility for identifying needs lay with the 
Member, but that the Secretariat could help if ne eded.  The delegations of those two Members had 
agreed to discuss their needs assessments during the informal consultations.  The outcome of the 
discussions had not only encouraged the Secretariat to further pursue its efforts in that regard, but had 
also resulted in further needs assessments for other members.  Following suggestions by the 
Members, the Secretariat was in the process of preparing "guidelines" for needs assessments.  Those guidelines would allow beneficiaries to adopt a similar approach as the one followed by the 
Secretariat, so that they could more easily conduct their own needs assessments.   
15. Thirdly, an informal discussion paper had been  prepared on partnership arrangements, which 
explained in some depth the rationale of partnerships and the different approaches chosen with various partners.  The information provided by the Secretariat in the informal discussion paper had 
again seemed much appreciated and the Secretariat had been encouraged to provide examples or case 
studies of partnerships to illustrate how they ope rated in practice,  the synergies that could be 
developed, the benefits, etc.  The Secretariat was wo rking on those, and they would be discussed at a 
next informal meeting.  
16. Fourthly, on the question of monitoring and evaluation, a process had been set in motion to 
prepare terms of reference for an external evaluation.  Members would receive more information 
about that under the next sub-item on the agenda.  There were also some other issues in the pipeline, 
including the review of outreach activities, which the Secretariat would deal with shortly. 
17. The Secretariat then turned to the first two sub-items on the agenda regarding the Annual 
Report on Training and Technical Co-operation  (WT/COMTD/W/127) (the Annual TA Report) as 
well as the Report on the Implementation of Trad e-Related Technical Assistance in the Fourth 
Quarter of 2003 (WT/COMTD/W/126) (the Quarterly Report).  The Annual TA Report largely 
complemented the information that had been provided in the reports by the Director-General to 
Ministers at the Fifth Ministerial Conference.  As Members would see, in 2003, the Secretariat had 
delivered some 450 activities, which seemed to be th e natural limit as to what could be done in one 
year.  Moreover, while the Secretariat had maintain ed a regional balance in  activities, particular  WT/COMTD/M/49 
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 emphasis had been put on the LDCs and on Africa.   The numbers spoke for themselves, and Members 
would see that the LDCs had been associated with  roughly a quarter of all activities, and in many 
cases, activities had been held in the LDCs themselv es.  As for the Quarterly Report, covering the last 
quarter of 2003, the Secretariat believed that it sp oke for itself, and that Members might be more 
interested to hear about the current situation, i.e.  what had happened in 2004.  In that regard, the 
Secretariat said that it had prepared a quarterly report for the first quarter of 2004.  However, in view 
of the delays in the financial reporting on the on e hand and the rules with regard to the timely 
circulation of documentation in the three official lang uages, on the other, the Secretariat had not been 
able to circulate that report in time for the meeting.  The Secretariat recalled that the approach adopted 
to trade-related TA in the TA Plan for 2004 had been quite different from other years, with the 
identification of specific products and more flex ibility with regard to national activities.  The 
Secretariat continued to be on track  in the delivery of trade-related TA.  In fact, the Secretariat had 
made a good start in terms of numbers, with over 100 activities undertaken in the first three months of 
2004, including national and regional activities, as we ll as Geneva-based activit ies and the field-based 
training courses.  Moreover, another 67 activities would have been undertaken between 1 April and 
15 May 2004.  The report that Members would receive on the implementation in the first quarter of 2004 had been adapted to the format Members had requested in the consultations, and it would 
provide more analytical information and include examples.  However, while the reporting was 
generally considered useful, it also was a resource-intensive exercise for the Secretariat.  The 
Secretariat suggested that less fr equent reporting might be just as  effective, and more efficient, 
especially in combination with the informal process.   The Secretariat drew Members' attention to the 
unsatisfactory resource situation in the ITTC.  Th e establishment in the In stitute had not kept pace 
with the exponential growth in vo lume of TA and training that had occurred, with the result that 
30 per cent of the staff in the ITTC were on temporary contracts, but carrying out ongoing, 
non-temporary work. 
18. The representative of the European Communities
 said that the three informal consultations 
held had been useful and that Members had made  progress on the issues of needs-assessment and 
evaluation.  However, his delegation was concerned that the mid-term review agreed upon and which, at the meeting of the CTD in November 2003, had been indicated for the month of June 2004, did not 
seem to be planned.  Time was running out and there were several issues  that had not yet been 
covered, and Members needed to formulate general conclusions on the issues covered to guide the 
Secretariat in the design of the 2005 TA Plan.  His delegation was looking forward to the next 
informal consultation and asked when it would be held.  Regarding the two reports before the Committee he said that his delega tion was pleased with the large number of activities undertaken, 
especially in the last quarter of 2003.  Members ha d to bear in mind that 2003 had been a busy year 
for the Secretariat.  He noted that the number of  activities undertaken matched the activities that had 
been planned.  However, that was not the case in terms of the financial implementation.  He said that 
he had two questions to ask.  First, he noted from the Annual TA Report that 1000 requests for TA 
activities had been made and that 450 activities had b een carried out.  He as ked the Secretariat to 
explain the process of reducing the number of activ ities requested to those carried out, and to what 
extent requests for national activiti es had been taken up in regional activities.  The second question 
related to co-operation activities with universities.  There was a substantive number of such activities 
in the Quarterly Report.  He sought more informati on about the general approach towards that issue.  
The notion of capacity building had been mentioned.  He asked to what extent the "hub-universities" 
played a role in that respect and on what basis other universities and instituti ons, not being designated 
as "hub-universities" had been selected for co-operation activities. 
19. The representative of Canada
 said that her delegation appreciated the TA carried out and the 
informal process of consultations.  Her delegatio n looked forward to the proposed guidelines for 
needs-assessments that were being prepared. WT/COMTD/M/49 
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 20. The representative of Venezuela
 said that his delegation welcomed the entry into effect of the 
agreement between the WTO and UNIDO and hoped that it would be to the benefit of developing 
countries.  His delegation was interested in the development of WTO's relationships with academic 
institutions and sought further information in that regard.  Furthermore, the WTO should continue to 
make considerable efforts to fulfil the aspirati ons of many Members for TA.  He thanked the 
Secretariat for the activities undertaken in 2003 in Venezuela.  They had been important for technical 
and institutional capacity building.  The participa tion of officials from other organizations such as 
UNCTAD had also been important for the success of that TA. 
21. The representative of the United States  believed that the Annual TA Report was a useful one, 
as were the informal consultations held and the exchanges of views among Members.  The Secretariat was trying to be innovative and creative and it wa s moving forward with the overall policy dialogue 
and plans for improving trade-related TA even further.   Her delegation welcomed the recent efforts to 
carry out individual needs assessments for some LD Cs and encouraged other developing countries to 
follow the same model.  She noted that work was proceeding on the first 2004 Quarterly Report and 
looked forward to the more qualitative element that  the Secretariat foreshadowed.  She appreciated 
that the representative of Venezuela had taken the floor and provided the perspective of a beneficiary.  It was useful for the CTD to hear the perspective of the beneficiaries of trade-related TA. 
22. The representative of Switzerland
 welcomed the series of informal consultations on technical 
co-operation that had been held.  They presented a good way to work on the main TA issues and 
should continue.  With respect to the Annual TA Report he said that his delegation would have 
preferred more qualitative inform ation regarding the achievements of WTO's TA activities, such as 
the results of the regional trade policy courses or th e regional workshops for university professors and 
academics.  In future, the Annual TA reports sh ould include a section on how the recommendations 
from the audit reports had been taken into account.  What his delegation wished to see was that the 
self-evaluation activities were reflected in the report ing as well.  That would make the audit reports 
independent and would turn them into critical outsid e assessments of those achievements.  Finally, he 
asked what "Capacity Building" covered in Table 2 in the Annex to the Annual TA Report.  With 
respect to the Quarterly Report, his delegation w ould not object to the sugg estion that reporting be 
done on a six-monthly basis.  However, his delegation wished to see those reports reflect internal 
benchmarks and criteria as a regular feature. 
23. The representative of Trinidad and Tobago  said that her delegation had noted with satisfaction 
that extensive TA had been carried out involving na tional institutions and universities.  That type of 
approach had a broader and deeper reach in terms of  the beneficiaries of the programmes.  She asked 
whether there was any area in which the beneficiarie s could work differently to make such assistance 
more effective.  She expressed appreciation for the preparation of needs assessment guidelines.  The 
guidelines would be useful for all developing countri es when they considered how to move forward. 
24. The representative of Norway  said that her delegation welcomed the progress made on TA at 
informal and formal meetings.  With respect to the Annual TA Report, she said that the focus on the LDCs was a long-standing priority for her Governme nt.  Her delegation therefore noted paragraph 8 
of the Annual TA Report which focused on the LDCs, as well as a reference to the Integrated 
Framework (IF) in Table 2 of the Annex and suggested  that it would be useful if future reports could 
underscore the importance attributed to the work with the LDCs.  That could be reflected more 
clearly, for example, by having a separate column on the LDCs in the tables and more information on what those activities would include. 
25. The representative of Thailand
 said that the reports were useful in providing Members with 
information on the status of the trade-related TA provided by the Secretariat.  Her delegation had 
noted the informal consultations held and wished to  learn more about the needs-assessments as well as  WT/COMTD/M/49 
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 the selection process for hosting regional TA activities .  A regional activity had been held in Bangkok 
in 2003.  It was important that the national coordina tors were informed about regional TA activities. 
26. The representative of Egypt  welcomed the launching of info rmal consultations on TA.  He 
wished to stress the importance his delegation attached to section F of the Annual TA Report 
regarding the Joint Integrated Technical Assist ance Programme for Selected Least-Developed and 
Other African Countries (JITAP).  His delegation lo oked forward to the process of expanding that 
programme as its assessment was that the JITAP was one of the most important programmes that 
contributed to development, especially in rural areas. 
27. The representative of Solomon Islands  looked forward to receiving the guidelines for needs 
assessments.  With respect to th e TA provided, particularly when organizing seminars and workshops 
in LDCs, it would be useful if funding to attend su ch activities was extended to staff of embassies of 
non-residents with accreditation to the WTO, instead of only inviting capital-based trade officials.  
For some administrations, such as that of the Solomon Islands, the officials at the Embassy in 
Brussels were more involved in the current trade nego tiations than the officials working in the capital.  
The reason was simple and related to the cost im plications.  Other Member s might argue that it was 
for the Government to nominate its participants, but the Secretar iat response was that funding for 
participation in seminars and workshops was only available for capital-based officials.  His 
Government had wished to designate Brussels-based officials to attend WTO workshops, but had 
been unable to do so because of the response given by the WTO Secretariat.  His Government hoped 
that the Secretariat would change that policy so that small administrations like his own could take real 
advantage of the TA provided.  Even if a Brussels -based official was trained, that person would at 
some stage return to the capital and ta ke the knowledge acquired with him. 
28. The representative of India  said that, regarding what the Secretariat had mentioned with 
respect to needs-assessments, it was the responsibility of the beneficiaries to identify their own needs.  
However, if a beneficiary requested assistance to identify its needs, the Secretariat could provide 
some help.  His delegation had always seen trade-re lated TA as being demand driven in nature.  The 
representative of the European Communities had referred to the Secretariat's co-operation with 
universities.  His delegation sought more informat ion about progress in that respect and what the 
Secretariat's overall approach to such co-operation had been. 
29. The representative of Namibia  wished to underline the importance of TA and capacity 
building.  However, it was important that local instit utions were taken into account in order to ensure 
broad local capacity building.  That type of support should continue as much remained to be done, 
although his Government appreciated the assistance already provided.   
30. The representative of Nepal  said that, as a beneficiary, he expressed his Government's 
gratitude to the WTO for providing valuable TA.  As he spoke for the first time in the CTD since 
Nepal became a WTO Member, he expressed his delegation's thanks to all WTO Members for their 
support to the process of accession of Nepal.  Hi s delegation would be actively participating in all 
WTO activities.  His delegation was hopeful and confident that it would receive the assistance 
necessary, particularly in the context of its new membership and its efforts to integrate the economy 
of Nepal into the multilateral trading system. 
31. The Chairman  extended his welcome to the delegation  of Nepal.  He looked forward to 
working with it. 
32. The representative of the European Communities  wished to come back to the issue of 
reporting, and supported the suggestion by the Secretar iat to reduce the number of progress reports.  
His delegation agreed with the suggestion made in the Audit Report to move to a semi-annual 
reporting system.  With regard to reporting in ge neral, he believed that it would be possible to WT/COMTD/M/49 
Page 8  
 
 streamline the current reporting system.  As there wa s an overlap between the narrative sections of the 
various reports, those sections might be merged in one report.  The issue of reporting might be more 
productively discussed in the informal consultatio ns.  Regarding needs assessments, his delegation 
shared the approach outlined by the Secretariat a nd the delegation of India.  The needs assessment 
process should be owned by the governments.  So me Members might require some assistance to 
achieve the level of comprehensive analysis needed to prepare a good needs-assessment.  Other 
Members might be able to carry out that process themselves. 
33. The representative of the United States
 wished to take the opportunity to welcome the 
participants in the "Geneva Week".  Resident Members benefited from the presence of the non-
resident Members and Observers.  Some years back  her delegation had supported the inclusion of 
"Geneva Week" as an element of TA and hoped th at the "Geneva Week" participants continued to 
find it a useful mechanism for participation.  Her delegation looked forward to more engagement from 
the non-residents. 
34. The Secretariat  said that the comments made by Members motivated it to improve the 
products and the dialogue with the Members.  The representative  of the European Communities had 
asked how the Secretariat had dealt with the process of bringing the large number of requests for TA activities in 2003 down to the 450 activities carrie d out in the end.  The Secretariat reminded 
Members that the planning process for the 2003 TA Plan had been different from the process for the 
2004 TA Plan.  All activities for 2003 had been planned in the sense that, in July 2002, there had been 
an invitation to Members to indicate what their needs were in terms of national activities and other 
activities which could be covered under regional programmes, etc.  As a result of that invitation, the Secretariat had received a large number of requests for TA activities.  The process of bringing the 
number of activities down to what the Secretariat could reasonably do and what appeared in the 2003 
TA Plan was one that had been conducted by the Technical Co-operation Division at that time.  The 
process had been based on a number of factors, such as the capacity of the Secretariat to carry out the 
activities requested.  A rule of th umb for the number of activities to  be undertaken in each Member 
had been introduced, which was the same as still ex isted, i.e. two activities per developing country 
and three per LDC.  A number of requests for na tional activities had been transformed into regional 
activities.  It was through that process that the Secretariat had produced the 2003 TA Plan containing 
about 450 activities.  One of the reasons for the new approach taken in 2004 was precisely so that the 
Secretariat was not  inundated at a given point in ti me by requests, which it then had to find a way of 
reducing to manageable proportions. 
35. Some delegations had focused on the university programme, what it was and how the "hub-
arrangement" differed from other programmes with universities.  The Secretariat assumed that what 
was referred to by the "hub-arrang ement" was the partnerships for the regional trade policy courses.  
The Secretariat has three such partnerships with the University of Nairobi, Kenya, the University 
Mohammed V, Morocco, and the University of the West Indies, Jamaica.  Those were the WTO Secretariat's university partners both for the regiona l trade policy courses and for other aspects of the 
university programme.  The other aspects were curr iculum development, the development of research 
networks, and possibly most important, the training of trainers component.  The Secretariat had also 
begun with training of trainers at other univers ities which were not hosting regional trade policy 
courses.  Hence, there was a pr ogramme of regional seminars for academics from universities in each 
of the regions, at which the academics were brie fed on the WTO system, the state of negotiations, 
computer-based and other documentation available, and how they could network among themselves.  In addition, the Secretariat assisted by providing materi al that could be used in libraries or as parts of 
degree programmes.  One partner was the Agence internationale de la Francophonie which had 
developed a similar programme aimed at univers ities, called REXPACO, which aimed at developing 
the capacity of the students to work in the area of  the multilateral trading system and for teachers to 
provide research material and to interact with othe rs working in that field.  Some of the academics  WT/COMTD/M/49 
 Page 9 
 
 
 with whom the WTO worked in the non-hub situations later became co-teaching partners in the 
regional trade policy courses.  In that wa y, all programmes were inter-linked.   
36. With regard to the point made by the re presentative of Switzerland on reporting, the 
Secretariat thanked the Members who had supported the idea that a lower frequency of reporting 
could be acceptable on condition that the report s contained the information Members wished to 
receive.  Once Members had before them the first qua rterly report of 2004, they would have a chance 
to see whether the Secretariat had understood what they wished those reports to contain.  The contents 
of those reports could then be further discussed at the informal consultations.  The reason why the 
Annual TA Report for 2003 did not include as much qualitative information as Members might have 
expected was that the Secretariat had prepared a repor t to the Fifth Ministerial Conference in line with 
the mandate in paragraph 41 of the Doha Ministeria l Declaration.  Although that report only covered 
the period up until the end of July 2003, from the qu alitative point of view, there was not much that 
could have been added from the remainder of 2003 to what was already in that report.  The Secretariat 
had therefore not felt that there was a need to re peat everything that had been stated in the 
paragraph 41 report.  The Secretariat would carefu lly consider how it could take into account the 
recommendations that appeared in the Audit Report.  The Secretariat assured Members that, in terms of the process, i.e. how it conducted the seminars , and how it decided which teaching methods worked 
and which were less successful, it took the advice of the Technical Co-operation Audit into account.  
It was possible that the Secretariat might have to  go deeper into that and that there were more 
fundamental issues raised in the Audit Report that  the Secretariat could ta ke into account.  The 
Secretariat would work on that in determinin g how it reported to Members in the future. 
37. The representative of Trinidad and Tobago had asked who the beneficiaries of the WTO TA 
programmes were.  The Secretariat had the mandate to provide TA addressed to Government officials, 
with the exception of the academic programme whic h was addressed to academ ics.  A related issue 
was the choice of participants in the activities whic h, apart from the choice of participants in the 
Geneva-based activities and the regional trade policy courses, was in the hands of the Members.  The 
Secretariat had no control over that choice.  It was a problem that the pa rticipants themselves 
sometimes mentioned.  Participants sometimes were not working in the area of trade.  However, even 
when all participants worked with trade issues, their knowledge about the multilateral trading system 
varied greatly.  That fact posed a problem for all pr esenters in the sense that it was difficult for them 
to pitch their presentations at a level which would suit  all participants.  If the presenters assumed that 
the participants had extensive knowledge, some of the beginners would be left behind, and if they assumed that all participants were beginners th en the ones with good knowledge would waste their 
time and be bored.  The Secretariat did not know how to resolve that problem, other than exhort 
Members to select carefully the officials they sent to attend the various WTO TA activities.  It would 
be too onerous for the Secretariat to engage in a se lection process for a one or two-day seminar.  The 
selection therefore had to be left to the Members.  With respect to the question of how the Secretariat 
organized the activities and ensured that the national authorities were informed, the Secretariat would 
do what Members wanted it to do.  If the Secretariat dealt directly with the officials in the capitals, it 
would receive complaints that the officials at th e missions in Geneva had been by-passed.  One 
delegation had mentioned that the co-ordinator in his capital had not been informed.  The Secretariat 
had a system whereby the first point of contact was the mission in Geneva.  However, the Secretariat 
tended to deal more directly with the officials in ca pitals in the case of non-residents.  The Secretariat 
felt that it was for the missions in Geneva to ensu re that their authorities we re informed.  In every 
instance, the Secretariat copied all information to  their contacts in the capitals.  The Secretariat 
therefore did not know what had gone wrong in the particular case referred to.  However, the 
Secretariat would try to ensure that it was not repeated in the future.   
38. In response to the question of the selection of pa rticipants from the point of view of whether 
they were capital-based or mission-based, the Secr etariat said that it followed an approach that 
reflected the wish of Members.  The TA programme had always been designed for capital-based WT/COMTD/M/49 
Page 10  
 
 officials.  Until Members decided to change the approach, the Secretariat would decline any request to 
fund the travel of a mission-based official to WTO TA activities.  Members also had to realize that, as 
the mission-based officials were usually based in Geneva or elsewhere in Europe, and the activities 
were normally carried out in the regions, the cost im plications of any change of policy would have to 
be taken into account.   
39. There had been a question with respect to what  capacity building covered.  Capacity building 
covered any activity which did not fit into any ot her category and included activities such as 
attendance at meetings of other organizations which had not been specifically listed in the programme 
of activities.  
40.  Finally, the Secretariat said that in order for the Secretariat to provide Members with new 
documentation, the next informal consultati on was tentatively set for mid-June 2004. 
41. The representative of Chad
 said that the "Geneva Week", held twice a year, made it possible 
for non-resident Members and Observers to follow the negotiations taking place in Geneva.  His 
delegation had a comment with respect  to the organization of activities.  In Central Africa, the region 
to which Chad belonged, regional activities were only held in one or two of the Members of the 
region.  That did not make it possible to get a critical mass of officials to ensure the follow-up of the 
activities.  His delegation suggested that the hosti ng of  regional activities rotate among the Members 
of the region so that all Members would benefit.   Concerning national activities his Government had 
submitted a request for three activities in 2003.  It might be a question of programming which had 
prevented them from being held in N'Djamena.  In 2004, his Government was among the 19 Members 
which had submitted their requests and he hoped that  its request would be taken into account since 
activities had not been organized at  the country level in 2003.  That put his Government at a 
disadvantage compared to the other Members of the region. 
42. The representative of Barbados  said that paragraph 24 of the Annual TA Report mentioned 
that groundwork was undertaken for widening the coverage of the regional trade policy courses in 
2004.  In that context, she mentioned that a regional trade policy course for the Caribbean region had been concluded earlier in 2004 in Jamaica, and that th e reviews of that course were good.  She wished 
to stress the usefulness of that course for the CA RICOM region.  The Secretariat had recognized the 
CARICOM as being a region with special challenges requiring targeted TA.  That reflected the mandate given in the Doha Minist erial Declaration relating to tech nical co-operation.  Given that 
Members would be considering the draft 2005 TA Plan  at the next meeting of the CTD, it might be 
timely to note that a useful TA activity had been initiated in the Caribbean region and she hoped that 
another such regional trade policy course would be delivered in 2005. 
43. The representative of Trinidad and Tobago
 said that her delegation had not asked who 
benefited from the courses.  Part of the questi on she had asked related to the involvement of 
universities in WTO TA programmes.  She said th at she wondered whether there was any way in 
which the beneficiary universities, or the institutions in the beneficiary Members, could be more effective in their participation in the programmes.  If a response could be provided through a bilateral discussion later, her delegation would welcome such a discussion.   
44. The Chairman
 suggested to close the debate as there would be a possibility for Members to 
discuss with the Secretariat during the next informal consultation.   
(iii) 2003 Technical Co-operation Audit Report (WT/COMTD/W/125) 
45. The Secretariat  said that the Technical Co-operation Audit (TCA) Report for 2003, contained 
in document WT/COMTD/W/125, (the Audit Report) examined the issues of TA relative to its different phases, starting from its planning phase,  in which the most important tasks were the  WT/COMTD/M/49 
 Page 11 
 
 
 identification of the needs of the Members, and the collection of other basic information.  The Audit 
Report then examined the design phase of the TA, which included, inter alia,  the definition of the 
target groups, the formulation of objectives and indicators, and the definition of what should be done 
and how.  The Audit Report further addressed the im plementation and delivery phase and finally, the 
evaluation phase.  In the latter section, the Audit Report provided observations on the effectiveness 
and efficiency as well as the relevance and sust ainability aspects of the WTO TA.  The TCA had 
come to the conclusion that WTO TA had continued to benefit a great number of developing country 
staff from ministries of trade, commerce, foreign affairs, industry and other agencies.  They 
constituted an impressive group of more than 14,000 people.  The objectives were to reach as many 
people as possible and to produce lasting capac ities.  However, the TC A preferred a qualitative 
approach which might benefit fewer people, but whos e results were more sustainable.  The TCA was 
satisfied with the positive feedback received from  the participants of WTO workshops, seminars and 
courses.  Therefore, the highlighted weak points and suggestions should be seen in the light of 
hundreds of successful TA activities.  The TCA ha d found that there was room for improvement in 
every phase of the TA cycle.  Inter alia , the report suggested: 
- a more systematic analysis of the needs both of the Members and the selected 
participants, thereby the TA activities co uld be made even more relevant to 
the participants' work, 
- improvements in the formulation of TA objectives and the measurement of 
their achievement, 
- the consideration of sustainability issues already in the design phase,  
- continued improvement in the teaching methods, and 
- encouragement of a more regular and sy stematic application of the evaluation 
procedures and the lessons learned.   
46. Regarding the issue raised by one delegation on  an external evaluation, the Secretariat said 
that the TCA was in the process of finalizing a fi rst draft of terms of reference for an external 
evaluation.  Once a complete draft was ready,  a meeting would be organized to discuss it. 
47. The representative of Canada  said that her delegation appr eciated the fact that the Audit 
Report built upon recommendations  made by Members at previous CTD meetings.  However, the 
Audit Report noted the continuing high proportion of activities implemented on an ad hoc basis.  
Although her delegation did not wish to restrict flexibility, she said that a high proportion of ad hoc 
activities could have implications for the planned activities.  She said that  her delegation looked 
forward to seeing how the new process of planning in 2004 would impact on the ad hocism that had been somewhat of a problem in the past.  In addition, she said that her delegation supported the aim to 
do fewer things better, and ensure quality of the activities undertaken rather than quantity.  That 
comment had been made by many delegations over the co urse of the last meetings.  She said that her 
delegation had a few technical questions to ask.  Paragraph 59 of the Audit Report stated that the 
monitoring and evaluation procedures provided for other types of evaluations such as thematic and 
ex-post evaluations which the Secretariat had not yet experimented with, and that the first ex-post 
evaluation was planned for 2004.  She asked how the Secretariat compared those with other types of 
evaluations, and when it was planning to take that particular type of evaluation into account.  She 
further asked if the database which had been develo ped in the WTO to show evaluation, mentioned in 
paragraph 109, was accessible to Members.  Pa ragraph 110 related to the recommendations from the 
Audit Report to various divisions of the WTO.  She said that her delegation would welcome a 
discussion of those recommendations, perhap s at the next informal consultation. WT/COMTD/M/49 
Page 12  
 
 48. The representative of Switzerland
 said that, although the Audit Report was good, it had to 
some extent been overtaken by the events, by the 2004 TA Plan, and the change in method for 2004.  
That was a good sign of the capacity of the Secretariat to adapt.  However, his delegation was of the 
view that some statements in the report were somewhat congratulatory.  That was acceptable if such 
statements were supported by elements to that effect.  His delegation understood the need for 
diplomacy in an institution and the need for cl ose interaction between the TCA and the people 
responsible for technical co-operation.  However, th ere was also the need for independent scrutiny.  
The TCA had to be totally independent in its judgement and he said that he knew that that was the 
case.  That objectivity nevertheless had to show in the report, and it was in that sense that his 
delegation voiced slight criticism.  He said that he wished to re peat the comment made about the 
Annual TA Report, and stressed the importance of establishing a monitoring mechanism to ensure that there was a regular follow up of the recommendations  and the lessons learned in the audit reports.  
The area of needs assessments was one in which events had overtaken the conclusions of the Audit 
Report.  The Audit Report stated for instance that  it was important to have homogeneous groups and 
longer term capacitation objectives and that that sh ould not be beyond the realm of the Secretariat.  
The Audit Report then stated that the ideal would be to develop individual country programmes for two to three years.  That had to be done.  It was not just an ideal, it was important that it was put into 
practice.  It also had to be clear that the Member was in charge of its own process as well as the 
choice of participants for instance .  Such choices and the selection of participants still had to be 
related to a needs assessment and to the building of  institutional capacity and not the training of 
people.  The focus of the TA plans should be on how to develop trade policy and trade operation 
institutions in individual Members, what the requir ements were, and how trai ning and support related 
to that development. 
49. He said that the next point he wished to make related to monitoring and evaluation.  His 
delegation felt that the WTO had embarked on a good system, but which still had to be developed.  
The TCA service to TA providers was a good idea as  it was not certain that high level professionals 
also were good trainers.  There might even be a contradiction between the two.  The TCA service to 
TA providers was therefore essentia l.  The Audit Report showed that some of the basics, even in 
short-term seminars, still had to be changed, such  as the lack of baseline evaluations and the 
confusion between activities and results.  Those we re small details but they  were essential because 
they were the building stones for the evaluation system.  If they were more accurate, the feedback 
would be more accurate as well, and Members woul d get better quality TA in the future.  Technical 
co-operation was expensive and difficult to evaluate  and it was therefore important to have tools to 
improve quality and cost effectiveness.  In that sense, the question was the lack of elements for 
considering the sustainability and the relevance of th e system.  He said that his delegation wished to 
put emphasis on the need for ex-post evaluation, and considered that it would be good for such an 
exercise to be undertaken in 2004.  However, that should not be the only one.  More such evaluations 
should soon be undertaken.   
50. He further said that he had some comments regarding the documents and the funding of the 
TCA.  The Audit Report mentioned that some of th e internal WTO documents produced were useful 
as sources of information for the training.  He said that his delegation wished to add that documents 
from other relevant institutions could also be us ed such as from UNCTAD or some of the recent 
research by the World Bank, which had become more  closely linked to the negotiating process than 
before.  There were also many other capacity-build ing tools which might be worth pursuing.  It was 
important to link any training to actual problems and hands-on support in Members, as Members even 
saw some training and seminar fatigue at the bilateral le vel.  Activities such as trade clinics or training 
related to the solution of real problems might be a way of achieving a higher efficiency in many cases, 
rather than seminars based on an id entification of needs.  Finally, he said that his delegation believed 
that the size and the funding of the TCA Unit was a problem.  His delegation wished to see that a 
long-term solution be found to ensure that the unit was able to accomplish its tasks in a stable and 
predictable environment.  He said that his delegati on therefore proposed that a certain percentage of  WT/COMTD/M/49 
 Page 13 
 
 
 the Doha Development Agenda Global Trust Fund be used to finance the activities of the TCA Unit.  
In that regard, he asked what was happening with th e financial support provided by the Department of 
International Development (DFID) of the United Ki ngdom, as he had understand that that support 
would cease by June 2004.  He asked what measures the Secretariat was considering to ensure the 
continuation of the TCA's work after that. 
51. The representative of th e European Communities  said that a general assessment of the Audit 
Report was that the Secretariat was doing a good job in delivering on its TA mandate.  The Audit 
Report also noted that there was room for improvement and he said that he believed that the report 
provided a useful contribution to further improve the planning, delivery and evaluation of TA.  The 
Audit Report pointed out that the percentage of ad  hoc activities had been 36 per cent in 2003.  There 
was one procedural and one substantive aspect to that.  As to the procedural aspect, he pointed out 
that the 2003 TA Plan stated that ad hoc activities wo uld be kept at 5 per cent.  He said that, to put it 
mildly, 36 per cent was therefore somewhat too much.  He suggested that it would have been 
appropriate for the Secret ariat to signal that issue to the Memb ers when it was half way through the 
implementation of the 2003 TA Plan so that Members could have been consulted.  On the other hand, the Members themselves might partly bear the blame for the situation running slightly out of hand.  Members had received the quarterly reports and his delegation had noticed that the number of ad hoc 
activities had been quite substantive without raising it at that point.  He said that the message he 
wished to convey was that his delegation did not consider the TA Plans as loose guidance for the 
Secretariat.  When there was such an important policy principle laid down in the TA Plan as to cap the 
percentage of ad hoc activities, it was important that  that policy was being implemented.  As to the 
substance, his delegation understood the Secret ariat's difficulties in planning the technical 
co-operation and recognized that some degree of flexibility was needed.  He was therefore not 
surprised to see a substantive percentage of ad hoc activities.  His delegation nevertheless felt that that 
number could be reduced by improved planning.  He said that he agreed with the comments made by 
the representative of Switzerland regarding planning on the basis of needs, and he also agreed with the 
suggestion made in the Audit Report to put the plan ning of needs in a multi-year respective in each 
Member. 
52. He continued by saying that the Audit Report contained some good recommendations to 
improve monitoring and evaluation.  His delegation supported most of the points mentioned.  
Evaluation was an integral part of the management  process of TA.  His delegation therefore supported 
the TCA efforts to include evaluation in the design of activities.  With regard to the sustainability of 
the activities, the Audit Report made the important point that ensuring sustainability was a joint responsibility of the Secretariat and the recipient Me mbers.  The CTD had just discussed the selection 
criteria.  The selection of participants was key to ensuring the sustainability of an activity and he had 
heard the Secretariat pointing out that beyond the trade policy courses at the WTO headquarters in 
Geneva and at the regional level, the Secretariat did not have the possibility to select the participants.  
However, he understood the Audit Report to take that argument a step further by actually proposing 
the establishment of selection criteria, and he s ought information from the TCA and the ITTC on how 
that approach could be further enforced.  He asked if  it would be possible to enter into dialogue with 
the recipient countries, especially regarding the expe nsive regional activities, to ensure that the right 
participants were attending the activities.  Finally, he said that he wished to make a general point 
regarding the funding of the TCA Unit.  His delegation noted the comment in the Audit Report and 
agreed with the representative of Switzerland th at the TCA was important and should be continued. 
53. The representative of Nicaragua
 said that his delegation wished to comment on the 
information received and provide some ideas fo r the new phase of TA with new programmes and 
mechanisms being implemented.  His delegation had for some time felt the need to formally create 
sub-divisions of countries which one particular country or sub-region was responsible for, as was 
done in other organizations.  He said that, although he knew that the Secretariat already operated in 
that way, he agreed with the representative of Switz erland that, in order to make it official there was a WT/COMTD/M/49 
Page 14  
 
 need to create individual programmes for Members.   Although many developing countries faced the 
same realities, their problems still varied in many respects.  All Members had to move on to the next 
phase, although not with the same pace.  The be st way to proceed would therefore be for the 
Secretariat to create a TA plan, activity by activity, which would be specific to each Member and 
which dealt with each individual Member's realitie s and took the problems each Member encountered 
into account.  Regarding the ad hoc activities, he sa id that, at that stage of the negotiations, the 
playing field had changed.  It was therefore nece ssary to maintain a certain flexibility within the 
Secretariat  to adapt what had been foreseen to situations that might arise.  His delegation also 
believed that evaluation was important as the lack of an assessment of the TA activities undertaken 
meant that the same tools might be provided to the same Member, ministry or person several times.  
That was not a problem which was unique to th e WTO, but it happened in other international 
organizations as well.  Such duplication would result in a loss of time and resources that could have 
been be used for other activities.  Another prob lem was that experts in Nicaragua had received so 
much TA that they could move on to another stage with different courses or different mechanisms to 
meet their needs.  In addition to courses attende d by capital-based experts, the experience of his 
Government was that what stimulated the unders tanding of the WTO most and led to a more active 
participation by his Government in the debates in Geneva was the participation of experts from the 
capital in WTO events or negotiations in Geneva.  That could be achieved by coinciding workshops or 
other TA activities with sp ecific formal meetings in the WTO.  That practice, as well as internships, 
had a positive effect on his dele gation's performance at the WTO. 
54. The representative of Barbados
 said that she wished to comment on one small aspect which 
was the issue of ad hoc activities.  She said that she had listened closely to the representative of the 
European Communities, expressing his delegation's co ncerns at what he termed a high percentage of 
ad hoc activities in 2003.  She said that her delega tion believed that the Secretariat's ability to deliver 
effective and results-oriented TA depended, to some  extent, on its capacity to exhibit flexibility and 
responsiveness to Members' needs.  Members, and particularly the ones with smaller administrations, 
were sometimes unable to articulate all their needs at  once or sufficiently in advance of a delivery 
period during the preparation of the TA Plan for the following year.  She said that, although she understood the concerns of expressed by the repr esentative of the European Communities, her 
delegation was not too worried about the increase in  the number of ad hoc activities.  A high number 
of ad hoc activities would only be problematic if they endangered the implementation of the approved 
TA Plan.  She reiterated that the ability of the Secret ariat to be flexible in its responses was important 
and her delegation did not, under any circumstances, wish to see a return to the previous policy of zero tolerance for ad hoc activities. 
55. The representative of Panama
 said that her delegation wished to stress the importance it 
attached to the evaluation of the TA activities undertak en.  She agreed with what had been said by the 
representative of Switzerland on the audit exercise and the value of the TA evaluation instrument.  
She requested that the CTD discuss how the TA eval uation exercise could be better focused.  The 
evaluation was an instrument that would assist Members make TA a stronger, more solid tool for true 
assistance.  Trade-related TA should take the way Members had been applying trade policies into 
account and should identify areas where Members still needed to do more work in order on to abide 
by their WTO commitments.  She said that her de legation had the same concerns as those expressed 
by the representative of Switzerland.  It was onl y by effectively assessing the TA activities already 
undertaken that future assistance would meet the sp ecific needs of developing countries.  A thorough 
evaluation would also help Members identify how TA had been used by the Members, and that would 
help other Members do likewise and improve  their ability to fulfil their duties. 
56. The Secretariat  thanked the Members that had interven ed for their comments and their critics 
of the Audit Report.  The TCA had tried to be critical and had not had the impression that it was 
self-congratulatory or too nice towards the WTO staf f.  In fact, some WTO staff had not reacted 
positively to some of the comments and suggestions contained in the Audit Report.  The TCA had  WT/COMTD/M/49 
 Page 15 
 
 
 considered it important to raise the issue of ad hoc activities.  However, the new design of the 2004 
TA Plan would to some extent neutralize the pr oblem of ad hoc activities, for the Members who 
considered them problematic.  Several elements th at had influenced the number of ad hoc activities 
in 2003.  One was that the Secretariat, had been preparing for the Fifth Ministerial Conference.  
Certain deadlines, such as for the preparation of market access and services offers, had required TA 
which had not been planned.  The database that the TCA used had been set up when the TCA had 
been launched in 2002, and was being used to introduce the information contained in the 
back-to-office reports prepared by the TA providers.  The database contained the raw-material for the 
elaboration of the Audit Report, both in terms of st atistical and substantive information.  There was no 
direct way for Members to access the information in that data base, but any Member that wished to have a look at it could contact the TCA.  Howeve r, the way it was set up would only provide 
Members with raw-material and might not provide Me mbers with the possibility to draw conclusions.  
However, Members' access to its content could always be discussed.  As the TCA had been put up on 
a provisional basis, it had decided in the revision undertaken in the second part of 2003, that it would 
be useful to consider how the system was working, and had arrived at some conclusions that had been 
included in the Audit Report, before the last pa ragraph on recommendations.  However, if Members 
felt that some of those elements could be subject to consultations or discussion in a different fora, the 
TCA would be pleased to follow Members' wishes in that respect.  There were two possible ways for 
the Secretariat to follow-up on the recommendations  of the audit.  One was through the internal WTO 
Technical Assistance Management Committee (TAMC)  with the ITTC and the TA focal points from 
the operational divisions.  TAMC Members had already began to exchange lessons learned by individual divisions from the implementation of diff erent TA activities.  Those lessons were often 
useful for other divisions as their applicability ex tended beyond the particular subject matter.  The 
TCA found that it was important for TA providers to share lessons that were pa rticularly negative or 
positive with other TA providers.  The second way for the Secretariat to follow-up on the 
recommendations of the audit was something that the operational divisions were already doing, 
namely by immediate follow-up by the operational divisions to lessons learned through the self-
evaluation of the individual activities.  One official  then shared with the rest of the division any 
problems encountered in the delivery of any TA activity and ways of resolving those problems. 
57. The TCA went on to say that it wa s true that the Secretariat st aff who provided the TA were 
not necessarily formed as trainers, and that was one of the points made by the representative of 
Switzerland.  In fact, the professionals in the Secr etariat had to undertake the technical co-operation 
activities in addition to their other duties of se rvicing WTO bodies and elaborate background 
documentation, etc.  In spite of them having attended a course for trainers in 2003, which had 
improved the quality of the training they provided, it was true that not all Secretariat professionals had 
a culture of training.  The TCA was attempting to explain to the TA providers how to improve, from 
the design phase of any TA activity, everything that  was linked to the preparation of objectives, the 
determination of indicators of achievement etc. un til the final evaluation.  For instance, the Audit 
Report mentioned that many evaluations were still based on the views of the participants.  The TCA 
was trying to make the point that that was only on e element of evaluation, and that, in addition, it was 
important to know what the TA providers had to sa y as they were introducing more dynamic teaching 
methods in the seminars.  The TA providers were moving away from typical lecturing from a podium 
to more inter-active exercises and tests and by organi zing the students into different groups to tackle 
particular problems.  Those new teaching methods was one of the positive elements identified through 
the reading of the back-to-office reports.  The Audit Report could have mentioned the inclusion of 
documentation provided by other organizations as it was a fact that, in all activities organized jointly 
with other international organizations, whether it was the World Bank, UNCTAD or any other 
organization, participants did receive documentation prepared both by those organizations and by the WTO. 
58. Regarding ex-post evaluation, the TCA further said  that it had decided that, after two years of 
application the policy, it was nece ssary to consider if other methods of evaluation could be put in WT/COMTD/M/49 
Page 16  
 
 place.  The TCA would therefore attempt some ex-p ost evaluations and had the intention of starting 
with the three-month trade policy courses because  they were activities of a long duration which 
required much investment, both in financial terms and in terms of human resources.  The idea was to 
carry out such an evaluation in the second part of 2004.  The ex-post evaluation would consist of 
considering what lessons could be learned about the current situation of government officials who had 
attended a particular trade policy co urse two or three years ago.  The issues to be considered were 
what those officials were working with and if, and how, they were using the knowledge they had 
acquired during the three-month cour se.  The TCA was still in the proc ess of designing questionnaires 
and preparing other elements that it was going to use for that purpose.  With respect to the funding of 
the TCA, the situation was as mentioned in the Aud it Report.  Thanks to the financial contributions 
made by the Government of the United Kingdom, the Secretariat had, during the past two years, been 
able to engage a consultant who had worked in the TCA.  Apart from that consultant, the TCA Unit 
only consisted of one professional on a regular post, as even the secretary was financed with resources 
for temporary assistance.  The TCA had began discussions within the Secretariat to find out if 
resources could be made available for the TCA to continue its work from September to December 
2004.  The TCA recognised the suggestion made by  the representative of Switzerland that financial 
resources could be taken from the Doha Development Agenda Global Trust Fund.  That was a 
possibility of resolving the situation if Members so wished. 
59. The Secretariat
 wished to respond to a number of points that had been raised. With regard to 
what had been said by the representatives of Chad and Trinidad and Tobago, the Secretariat had a 
policy for the delivery of TA.  However, it was no t a policy invented by the Secretariat but something 
Members had asked for, and that the Secretariat considered to be an important part of the TA programme.  One policy was that the Secretariat tried to  spread regional activities as much as possible 
among the Members in the region or sub-region.  Th ere was only one requirement and that was that 
the infrastructure necessary for the holding of an ac tivity be available.  Such infrastructure included 
not only accommodation but also ease of access in terms of air connections, etc.  The Secretariat had 
no a priori  regarding the hosts of regional activities and was prepared to discuss with any Member 
that was interested in hosting a regional activity , bearing in mind the requirements mentioned. 
60.   The Secretariat said that it was still not certai n it had understood what the representative of 
Trinidad and Tobago had asked and suggested that th e Secretariat contact that delegation to discuss 
the issue bilaterally. 
61.   With respect to ad hoc activities, the Secretar iat said that, as had al ready been mentioned by 
the TCA, the Audit Report referred to activities carried out in 20 03.  Ad hoc activities had been an 
issue in 2003 because of the way the 2003 TA Plan had been devised.  There were a number of 
reasons why the Secretariat undertook activities that had not been programmed in the 2003 TA Plan.  One of the most important reasons, as had been mentioned by the TCA, was the preparations for the 
Fifth Ministerial Conference.  Members had, in the run-up to the Fifth Ministerial Conference, put in place a number of activities at which it would have  been unthinkable for the WTO Secretariat not be 
present at.  The flexibility built into the 2004 TA Plan should neutralize the problem of ad hoc 
activities.  However, even in the best made plans,  and even in the parts that the Secretariat had 
planned, there were still going to be unforeseen ev ents which the Secretariat could not account for 
when it presented Members with the TA Plan for the following year.  In particular, the Secretariat 
could not account for meetings and conferences whic h were organized by other organizations or by 
groups of countries such as ministerial meetings, et c.  A number of such meetings were going on at 
that particular moment and it would be difficult fo r the Secretariat, which was being invited to be 
present at those meetings, not to attend, as they were directly linked to the negotiations.  The question 
that Members might wish to consider was whether the financing for the Secretariat's attendance at 
such meetings should come from the TA budget or from some dedicated fund for that purpose.  Those 
were core activities of the WTO.  The TA fund was often solicited, but it was not always easy to make 
the link between the solicitation of the TA fund and the TA aspects of the activity.  However, there  WT/COMTD/M/49 
 Page 17 
 
 
 was no other source of funding, and the Secretariat had to attend such meetings and that posed a 
problem. 
62. On the selection criteria for activities that were not trade polic y courses, he said that some of 
the operational divisions did carefully go through the lists of proposed participants for regional 
activities and, if it seemed obvious from the title of the person that he or she should not be attending 
the activity because it was not related to the person's  field of work, then the division raised the matter 
with the authority concerned.  The Secretariat also tried to be as precise as possible in the letters of 
invitation to help ensure that the people who came to the activity were the ones that should be there.  
However, that was not necessarily possible for a ll activities as some were easier to identify than 
others.  The Secretariat was nevertheless prepared  to consider any system of vetting proposed by 
participants as long as it was resource-light and could be put into place, either by the ITTC or the 
operational divisions, in order to help resolve the problem of unsuitable participants, because the 
Secretariat acknowledged th at there was a problem. 
63. The representative of the United States  said that her delegation had understood the question 
posed by the representative of Trinidad and Tobago  and hoped that, after th e bilateral consultation 
between the Secretariat and that delegation had been held, the Secr etariat would share with other 
Members the response it might offer to Trinidad and Tobago.  The question had been precise and 
related to a subjected of interest  to her delegation as well.  The answer might also contribute to 
information regarding the usefulness of the TA ac tivities carried out on a regional- or capital-based 
basis. 
64. The representative of the European Communities  said that he wished to clarify what he had 
said regarding ad hoc activities.  He had distingu ished between a procedural  issue and a substantive 
issue.  With regard the substantive issue, he said that there might have been good reasons for having a 
large percentage of ad hoc activities in 2003.  Howe ver, the number in the 2003 TA Plan had been 
capped at 5 per cent of the total number of activitie s, while the figure of ad hoc activities actually 
undertaken in 2003 amounted to 36 per cent.  That posed a problem, and that problem should have been pointed out.  That was the reason why his delegation had raised the issue, even if it recognised that there were good reasons for scheduling a number of unplanned activities in 2003.  However, 
attempts should be made to reduce the number of ad  hoc activities in the future.  He suggested that 
that could be achieved by improving the planning pro cess.  He said that he realized that that was 
something that might not be achieved immediately.  A gradual process of reduction might be required, 
while a certain level of flexibility still had to be kept.  His delegation was therefore not advocating a 
zero tolerance for ad hoc activities.  With regard to the Secretariat's attendance at international 
conferences, he said that that problem seemed to  have been resolved as the 2004 TA Plan indicated 
that those activities were covered by the regular budget. 
65. The Committee took note
 of the three reports as well as of all the statements made. 
D. DECLINING TERMS OF TRADE FOR PRIMARY COMMODITIES , AND ITS IMPLICATION TO TRADE 
AND DEVELOPMENT OF PRIMARY COMMODITY EXPORTING COUNTRIES  
- Communication from Switzerland (WT/COMTD/W/129) 
- Communication from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda (WT/COMTD/W/130) 
66. The Chairman  said that the Committee had two submissions before it:  one from Kenya, 
Tanzania and Uganda contained in document WT/COMTD/W/130, and one from Switzerland 
contained in document WT/COMTD/W/129. WT/COMTD/M/49 
Page 18  
 
 67. The representative of Kenya
 introduced the additional submission, contained in 
document WT/COMTD/W/130, made on behalf of the delegations of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania.  
That submission highlighted which commodity issues should be handled by other working groups and 
negotiating bodies.  She said that the submission began by highlighting that the proposal to find 
solutions to the commodity issue, as suggested by the three delegations in the CTD, was nothing new, 
since in the GATT years, rules adopted for negotiations had provided for the establishment of separate 
procedures or mechanisms aimed at ensuring that adequate and priority attention was paid to the 
liberalization of trade in tropical products.  That was reflected in the preamble of the Agreement on 
Agriculture.  However, that idea seemed to have be en neglected in the latter years leading to the crisis 
situation that had motivated the three delegations to  make their initial submission on the commodities 
issue in the CTD.  She said that the three authors of the proposal believed that Members 
acknowledged that solutions needed to be found to the commodity crisis.  That was also the reason 
why paragraph 28 had been included in the draft Ministerial text transmitted to Ministers at the 
Cancún Ministerial Conference for consideration.  She said that although she was aware that the draft 
Cancún Ministerial text as a whole had not formally been adopted, her delegation believed that there 
was general support that th e CTD, within its mandate, could continue with its work on the commodity 
issue in co-operation with other relevant internatio nal organizations.  The draft paragraph 28 further 
recognized that various trade-related aspects of  the issues could be addressed in the ongoing 
negotiations. 
68. She went on to say that, after that backgrou nd information, the submission built on the 
illustrative list of issues, identified on  pages 9 to 10 of the initial submission2, and proposed that in the 
first instance, the responsibility fo r consideration of the issues list ed should be shared between the 
Special Session of the Committee on Agriculture, the Negotiating Group on Non-Agricultural Market 
Access and the CTD.  She said that she would concentrate on the CTD as the work of the CTD was 
the responsibility of the Members convened.  The CT D should continue to be the main body in the 
WTO responsible for discussing the various dime nsions of the commodity issue, and it should 
continue to be the forum for intellectual discus sions on the commodity issue.  The CTD should 
therefore provide the needed space to collect, present and review existing and ongoing research on commodities trade.  The submission identified some of  the issues that needed further work and where 
work in the CTD could commence.  Those included the adverse impact of in ternal liberalization of 
trade, including the abolition of marketing boards by producing countries an d the role of private 
sector mechanisms in commodity risk-management in stabilizing prices. 
69. She further said that the submission proposed  that, depending on the outcome of the initial 
discussion in the CTD, the Committee would transmit certain issues to other competent WTO bodies 
such as the Working Group on Trade, Debt and Finance and the Working Group on Trade and 
Transfer of Technology for more focused discussion.  The issues included the impact of declining 
commodity prices on the debt liabilities of commod ity exporting countries,  and the provision of 
technical and financial assistance to those countries for the development of processing industries and 
for the promotion of value-added products.  Finally, she said that the authors of the submission had 
the intention to submit detailed proposals to the Sp ecial Session of the Committee on Agriculture and 
the Negotiating Group on Non-Agricultural Market Access, respectively, regarding the issues 
identified for work in those two bodies. 
70. The representative of Switzerland
 said that primary commodities had been on the agenda of 
the CTD for some time.  A thorough discussion had,  however, not taken place yet.  The difficulties 
experienced in the commodities market went beyond  the narrow trade frame an d could not be solved 
exclusively by the WTO.  Trade-related aspects did nevertheless play a role.  He said that his 
delegation's view therefore was that the WTO needed to take a closer look at the issue.  International 
action was required both from a development and from  a trade perspective.  Commodities was an area 
                                                      
2 Contained in document WT/COMTD/W/113.  WT/COMTD/M/49 
 Page 19 
 
 
 where coherence between various po licies and between various international institutions could be put 
in practice.  The bodies best placed to tackle the problems in the commodity sectors from a trade 
perspective were the negotiating groups in the WTO.  He said that his delegation was hopeful that the 
negotiations would improve mark et conditions for many commodities.  However, the negotiating 
groups were, by their very nature, not the bodies which would deal in depth with the substance.  It 
was nevertheless essential that the negotiating groups were well informed about the technical, 
economic, and commercial factors that influenced  commodity price decline and volatility.  That 
would allow for a sound analysis and choice of instruments in the negotiations. 
71. He continued by saying that his delegation's submission suggested a procedural framework to 
get a structured discussion started under the auspices of the CTD.  The objective of the discussion would be to further raise awareness of the problem s surrounding trade in commodities, and to prepare 
the ground for the delegations concerned to bring in substantial proposals in the relevant negotiating 
bodies.  The objective would not be to try to agree on any recommendations because, in his 
delegation's view, that was better dealt with in th e negotiating process.  He said that, although the 
approach suggested by his delegation might not appear ambitious, his delegation hoped that it was practical and might therefore yield a more sustainable outcome of the negotiations.  His delegation wished to avoid a stalemate as had occasionally happened, for instance in the in the Working Groups 
on Trade and Transfer of Technology and Trade, Debt and Finance.  In order to focus on the 
substance and to avoid discussions on whether the sess ions were to be named "special", or "dedicated" 
or something else, his delegation simply proposed an informal working procedure under the CTD, for 
instance of workshop style.  The proposal was to give a mandate to the Secretariat to organize a first meeting before the summer break, if possible, an d with specific sub-themes on commodities as the 
sole item.  Such a meeting would serve to analyse, in a horizontal way, the reasons and factors which 
led to the current situation for commodities, and to  review the reforms and instruments in the trade 
area which had the potential to reverse the negative  long-term price trends.  A number of instruments 
which could be considered at such a meeting had been added to the pa per for illustrative reasons.  He 
went on to say that, without prejudice to ongoing discussions on observer status in the WTO, it would 
be important to invite experts and the relevant inte rnational institutions to attend and take an active 
part in such meetings, including the Common Fund  for Commodities and others.  In light of the 
discussion at that first meeting, and in consultatio n with interested delegations, the CTD could then 
switch to a product-by-product approach, and sele ct commodities for case studies for subsequent 
meetings. 
72. He further pointed to some parallels with a nd differences between his delegation's submission 
and that by the delegations of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.  He also thanked those delegations for 
their contribution.  First, the motivation seemed to  be similar in both submissions, i.e. that primary 
commodities were important in both the developmen t and the trade context.  Market conditions were 
likely to be altered by the Doha Development Agenda negotiations and the authors of the two 
submissions wished to assure that those alterations were as development-friendly as possible.  Second, 
there were some differences in the approach, but th ey were not fundamental.  His delegation agreed 
with the delegations of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda that every delegation had the right to submit 
concrete proposals in the negotiating groups.  What  was stressed in his delegation's submission was 
that, in addition, an informed discussion could help  in elaborating such proposals, and might also 
prepare the grounds for better acceptance of such proposals.  The issues proposed for further 
discussion in the CTD in paragraph 12 of the submission by the delegations of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda were likely to also be ad dressed if the CTD followed the illustrative list of instruments in the 
annex to his delegation's submission.  Finally, his delegation agreed with the view that it was a task 
for the CTD to review progress in the negotiating groups, indeed, Paragraph 51 of the Doha 
Ministerial Declaration provided a mandate to do so .  His delegation did, however, put more emphasis 
on a fundamental discussion in the CTD, and proposed a mechanism to get such a discussion started.  
He said that his delegation would be interested to hear the views of other delegations on its proposal, 
and was ready to accept other ideas which could bring the issue forward. WT/COMTD/M/49 
Page 20  
 
 73. The Chairman
 said that Members had two substantial submissions before them which largely 
dealt with how the CTD could move the vital issue re lated to commodity prices forward.  As had been 
mentioned, the views expressed in the two submission s were not far apart, and he said that he hoped 
that some consensus at the level of the CTD could be reached.     
74. The representative of Zimbabwe  said that the issue of commodities had been on the agenda of 
the CTD for some time and that important elements had been identified.  It was appropriate for the 
CTD to have the item as a standing item on the ag enda to permit Members to get feed-back from the 
negotiating groups on their work with respect to commodities.  The commodity item should receive as 
much attention as possible as it affected the liv elihood of people and was linked to trade and 
development.  Inputs should therefore be sought from all negotiating groups and the item should be taken up at the next session of the CTD. 
75. The representative of Venezuela
 thanked the delegations of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda 
and the delegation of Switzerland for their importan t submissions.  As the Chairman had pointed out, 
the positions taken in the submissions were quite close.  He said that he found the proposals to be 
good.  The CTD was the appropriate WTO body to consider progress on the commodity issue.  However, the CTD should not only undertake a theo retical discussion.  It was important that the 
discussion led to decisions being taken.  Member s had already engaged sufficiently in theoretical 
discussions, and decisions were needed.  Other intern ational intergovernmental organizations, such as 
UNCTAD, had been working for more than 20 years on trade in commodities, in particular on their 
declining terms of trade.  In addition, the Common  Fund for Commodities had been created to ensure 
a balanced trade in primary commodities, and that related to the item of observers .  There was a need 
for active participation in all the discussions taking place within the CTD.  Without such participation 
and co-operation, Members would be throwing out the coherence concept that had been raised in the 
WTO and that Members always had to keep in mind. 
76. The representative of the United States
 welcomed the two submissions  before the Committee.  
She said that her delegation remained open to ideas that would enrich the CTD discussions of the commodity issue, without duplicating the ongoing work of negotiating bodies or mandates.  She said that her delegation recognized, as had been stated by the representative of Kenya, that proposals had 
been made prior to the Cancún Ministerial Conferen ce and that the draft Ministerial text had been 
produced in that context.  Her delegation looked fo rward to hearing more, as  Members proceeded into 
July 2004, about what would happen with the various pieces of unfinished business.  In the meantime, 
her delegation encouraged others to raise issues in other WTO bodies, and she said that her delegation welcomed that the delegation of Kenya had indi cated that the three sponsors would be making 
proposals or presentations in the context of the agri culture negotiations and elsewhere.  Her delegation 
was engaged in the discussion and the draft text for the Cancún Ministerial Conference reflected the fact that Ministers would have supported continuing  the discussions that Members had initiated in the 
CTD.  She said that the submission by the delega tions of Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda made some 
interesting suggestions for other possible work in the CTD aimed at ensuring that, as other areas developed, Members would have the intellectual analysis  available to them in the CTD.  She said that 
her delegation hoped to be able to come back to the agenda item and have a further discussion of the 
specific papers.  She said that she wished to high light that, while commodities,  or tropical products, 
were not explicit elements of the ministerial mandate for the Doha Development Agenda, her 
delegation believed that their trade liberalization dimension would be addressed as part of the 
comprehensive reform within the three pillars of  the agricultural negotiations or in the NAMA 
negotiations.  Concerning the reference made by the delegation of Kenya to paragraph 12 of the 
submission, she said that her delegation felt that TA  for diversification and private sector mechanisms 
for price-risk management fell within the expertise of other institutions such as the FAO, the World 
Bank and UNCTAD.  It was nevertheless useful, in terms of coherence, to identify those interests and 
possibly receive information from those institutions about their work.  She said that her delegation  WT/COMTD/M/49 
 Page 21 
 
 
 therefore agreed with similar comments made by the delegation of Kenya, and to some extent by 
Venezuela. 
77. She went on to say that the submission by the delegation of Switzerland was rich with 
suggestions, including suggestions concerning instruments in an annex.  She said that her delegation 
had concerns regarding some of the instruments lis ted, in particular with respect to geographical 
indications and a number of overlapping agenda s concerning geographical indications.  She sought 
clarification from the delegation of  Switzerland regarding the rationa le behind the various instruments 
proposed.  That information could be provided during discussions to enhance Members' 
understanding.  She said that her delegation was not prepared, at that meeting, to take on board a 
specific structure on how to proceed since Me mbers had before them two submissions which 
proposed different ways of proceeding.  However, there was work that the CTD could continue to do 
within its mandate and her delegation looked forward to future discussions and further analysis of the 
proposals in the submissions.  She suggested that the CTD should avoid duplicating work being done 
in other bodies, such as in the context of the negotiating bodies.  She said that her delegation 
supported the notion of discussions in an intellectual manner, as stated by the representative of Kenya.  
A next step in enriching the CTD discussion, in addition to the step taken at that meeting, could be to allow the World Bank, the FAO and UNCTAD to shar e information on recent activities, including the 
conference held on commodities in Rome.  The CTD could benefit from enhancing its understanding 
of the work conducted by other organizations.  Howe ver, if Members ended up engaging in too much 
of a debate on procedure under the commodity item, the CTD might get stuck in that debate.  If the 
CTD could acknowledge the statements and submissions  made by the relevant delegations, and take 
on board the idea of hearing from other organizati ons which also had responsibility in the area, it 
would remain in a mode of discussing substance.  At the same time, if the Chairman so wished, he 
could undertake consultations with interested delegations on how to structure the discussions, in terms 
of process and substance, especially in light of the work between May and July 2004.  Members did 
have a draft text concerning commodities which migh t end up in the mix for a July 2004 outcome. 
78. The representative of Japan
 welcomed the submission by the delegation of Switzerland as 
well as the one by the delegations of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.  He said that, although his 
Government needed more time to comment on the submissions, his preliminary reaction was that the 
proposal by the delegation of Switzerland was constructive and contained a comprehensive roadmap 
for future discussions, and he fully supported the proposal.  As his delegation had continuously been 
pointing out, in order to deepen the discussion re lated to the various issues identified in both 
submissions, it would be useful to invite the rele vant international organizations to discuss in an 
informal manner.  He therefore supported the id ea put forward in paragraphs 9 and 10 of the 
submission by the delegation of Switzerland.  His delegation also appreciated the proposal that the 
discussion be undertaken through a horizontal approach, and on a step-by-step basis.  As the CTD was 
a focal point for consideration and coordination of work on development in the WTO, it was 
important for it to analyse the factors and the instruments best suited for solving the problems.  After 
having identified the problems and ways and mean s to resolve them, Members should engage in a 
discussion on their relations with the Doha Work Programme.  In order to move forward, his 
delegation asked the Secretariat to present a work programme based on the proposal by the delegation 
of Switzerland.  With regard to the submission by the delegations of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, he 
said that his delegation could not accept the sector  approach indicated in the paragraph 9 of that 
submission, although it might have been the approach of the GATT years. 
79. The representative of Chile  welcomed the two submissions on the important issue of 
commodities.  As other delegations had mentioned, the issue had been on the agenda of the CTD for 
some time, and the submissions were complementar y in many aspects.  The submission by the 
delegation of Switzerland had the advantage of be ing a focused and pragmatic document.  The oral 
presentation made by the representative of Kenya had indicated that work was being done on more 
concrete proposals.  The important issue was to consider how the discussions in the CTD could WT/COMTD/M/49 
Page 22  
 
 contribute to the negotiations on agriculture and market access.  Consequently, the procedures 
suggested in paragraphs 9 and 10 of the submission by the delegation of Switzerland were 
appropriate.  The horizontal focus was also appropri ate.  However, it was not clear to her delegation 
whether the analysis would be carried out through the instruments mentioned,  and her delegation was 
concerned as it did not consider all instruments listed in the annex as appropriate.  She said that she 
agreed with the comments made by the representa tive of the United States regarding geographical 
indications.  Geographical indications was not an inst rument to be analyzed in the CTD in the context 
of commodities. 
80.  The representative of Australia
 thanked the delegations of Ke nya, Tanzania and Uganda and 
Switzerland for their submissions on the import ant issue of commodities.  The details of the 
submissions were still under consider ation by her Government.  She sa id that she nevertheless agreed 
with others who had suggested that there would be a need for more discussions of those submissions 
at future meetings of the CTD.  She noted that  the submission by the delegation of Switzerland 
included issues which had little bearing on the issu e of primary commodities.  That was the case for 
geographical indications as had already been menti oned by the representatives of the United States 
and Chile.  Discussions on an issue like that in  the context of commodities in the CTD might take 
Members away from the question at hand and towards another developed country agenda.  In a 
broader sense, Members were at an interesting time  as regards the negotiations.  A lot was going on, 
including some important meetings later that week .  There were also attempts by UNCTAD to set up 
a task force on commodities as part of the prepar ations for the UNCTAD XI Conference.  It was 
therefore difficult for CTD Members to divorce their discussions from external developments and her 
delegation did not wish to rush the CTD into making  commitments, the consideration of which benefit 
from those broader views.  However, that did not mean that her delegation did not consider the issue 
of commodities important.  The commodity issue was clearly an important one which merited further 
discussion. 
81. The representative of Canada  welcomed the two submissions.  She said that her delegation 
supported the comments made by the representatives  of United States, Chile and Australia regarding 
both submissions and supported the approach put forward in the submission by the delegation of 
Switzerland as a practical means of providing a pr ocess whereby Members could come to an informed 
discussion.  She also supported the inclusion of other relevant organizations as speakers in that 
process, although her delegation believed that it was premature to focus on any suggested instruments, 
as suggested in the Annex to the submission by the Swiss delegation.  Efforts were better directed to a 
focused discussion which allowed the Members of the CTD to look at the issue from a wider perspective.  In addition, her delegation was con cerned about the inclusion of instruments in that 
Annex which were not appropriate to the discussion.  She said that, as far as the good submission by 
the delegations of Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda was concerned, it was clear that the approach 
proposed by the delegation of Switzerland might be  beneficial, in that Members would first have a 
discussion in the CTD, before making decisions as to which bodies the particular issues would be 
sent.   
82. The representative of the European Communities
 thanked the delegations of Kenya, Tanzania, 
Uganda and Switzerland for their submissions and the presentations they had made.  Those 
submissions were still being studied in the capitals and his remarks were therefore preliminary.  He 
said that the commodity issue and the problems face d by commodity-dependent countries, particularly 
in the developing world, were important and it was timely for WTO Members to address them.  
However, they had to be addressed in a way which ensured added value in terms of the mandate of the 
WTO vis-à-vis  other organizations, and added value in terms of the mandate of the CTD.  He 
acknowledged that proposals relating to commodities  could be raised in the ongoing work of the 
negotiating bodies.  The CTD should focus on what it could add, and part of that was a horizontal 
overview, as had already been mentioned.  It was for those reasons that his delegation was able to 
react positively to the procedural idea raised by the delegation of Switzerland of setting up an  WT/COMTD/M/49 
 Page 23 
 
 
 informal workshop-type discussion to consider th e set of issues concerning commodities.  That 
process could lead towards a decision that Members should be able to make in terms of which issues 
Members should focus on in the CTD.  It would also be a useful process in terms of clarifying the 
information base that Members would work from.  He  said that he agreed with other representatives 
who had mentioned the value of inv iting other relevant organizations to present their work and their 
research.  He recalled the potential quarry of info rmation that was available in the inventory compiled 
by the Secretariat at the end of last year which contained a listing of recent relevant research 
(WT/COMTD/W/121).  If Members were to decide to focus their attention on one given area they 
should not forget that they already had some reference points to look at in terms of a description of the 
situation and the challenges faced by commodity-dependent countries. 
83. He said that he had wished to limit himself to those essentially procedural remarks.  
Nonetheless, given the fact that a number of previo us speakers had alluded to the question of possible 
instruments to be considered by the CTD he said that, while he agreed that the CTD should not rule 
anything in, nor rule anything out, in terms of what Members might wish to consider, it would be 
difficult for Members to agree to any given list of instruments to focus on.  For those delegations which had criticized the mention of geographical indi cations in one of the submissions, he said that 
his delegation considered geographical indications as one potential avenue for commodity exporters 
from the developing world to give their export products added differentiation which might contribute 
to additional revenue as a result of the product recognition which came from association with a 
geographical indication.  Another possible route towards promoting competitiveness and 
diversification and other appropriate responses to  the challenges of the commodity market which 
Members should not loose sight of and might wish to  explore in the future, was building capacity at 
the regional level.  Given that Members had recently been discussing some of the same instruments as 
those mentioned in the submissions to the CTD in the preparations for the UNCTAD XI Conference 
as being appropriate areas for UNCTAD to focus it s future work, it was clear that Members had to 
address questions of coherence and complementarity of what could be done in the WTO and in the 
CTD and what could be done elsewhere, whether in UNCTAD, the World Bank, the FAO or in other 
international organizations. 
84. The Chairman
 said that, it seemed to him that the proposal that the CTD convened an 
informal meeting to progress the matter was the best way to proceed. 
85. The representative of the Solomon Islands  welcomed the two submissions on which his 
delegation would provide comments at a later date.  On a related matter, he informed Members that 
limited number of copies of a draft study by  UNCTAD and the Commonwealth Secretariat entitled 
"Commodity prices, Aid and Debt:  Implications fo r LDCs, Small Vulnerable States and HIPCs" was 
available with him. 
86. The representative of India  thanked the co-sponsors of submission WT/COMTD/W/130 and 
the delegation of Switzerland for its submission in WT/COMTD/W/129 on which he would give his 
delegation's preliminary comments.  Both s ubmissions clearly recognised the importance of 
addressing the issue of declining te rms of trade for primary commoditie s and its implications to trade 
and development of primary commodity exporting countries.  Both submissions also recognised the 
role of the CTD in dealing with that issue, alt hough the procedural approach suggested differed 
somewhat.  The delegations of Kenya, Tanzania an d Uganda suggested a parallel approach by which 
some issues were to be taken up in the negotiating groups while other relevant issues were to be dealt 
with in the CTD, with CTD playing a nodal role.  The delegation of Switzerland suggested a more 
sequential or horizontal approach, annexing to it s submission an illustrative list of items to be 
considered in the CTD.  He said that, while his delegation was not in a position to comment on 
substantive issues, it broadly concurred with the vi ews expressed in both the submissions as well as 
the statements made by many delegations that th e Committee would benefit from co-operation with 
other international organizations such as UNCTAD.  The issue of commodities was an important one.  WT/COMTD/M/49 
Page 24  
 
 He said that his delegation was flexible in terms of possible approaches for organizing the CTD's 
work, as long as it was organized in an efficient manner. 
87. The representative of China
 welcomed the initiative of the authors of the two submissions.  
The submissions were being studied by his authorities.  His delegation attached importance to the 
problems faced by primary commodity producing coun tries and believed that those difficulties should 
be addressed, both in the WTO and in other international organizations.  His delegation supported the 
proposal to organize informal discussions spec ifically devoted to the issue of commodities. 
88. The representative of Nigeria  supported the submission made by the delegations of Kenya, 
Tanzania and Uganda, especially the proposal to refer certain aspects to the negotiating groups on 
Agriculture and Market Access.  He said that his Government was studying the submission made by 
the delegation of Switzerland.  However, simply studying the commodity issue would not help the 
process.  It should rather be referred to the nego tiating bodies which had the ex pertise in the area.  He 
said that, with respect to geographical indications, his delegation was of the view that it should be 
discussed within the context of the TRIPS negotiations. 
89. The representative of Kenya  thanked all the delegations whic h had agreed that there was a 
need to address the commodity problem in the WT O.  She said that her delegation thanked the 
delegation of Switzerland for its submission, and that her delegation realized th at a lot of thought and 
effort had gone into preparing it.  However, as had been mentioned by the representative of India, that 
submission actually removed the commodity issue from  the negotiations into a mere discussion in the 
CTD.  That approach gave rise to concern to her de legation.  The suggestion that there should be in 
depth discussions on the commodity issue in the CTD before pursuing discussions in the negotiating 
bodies ignored the fact that much work had been carried out at the international level, particularly in 
UNCTAD and FAO.  WTO Members s hould take advantage of the work that had already been done 
in the area.  The issues listed in the Annex to the submission by the delegation of Switzerland 
excluded discussions on supply management arrangements.  She said that her delegation deemed 
supply management arrangements to be important pursuant to GATT Article XXXVIII which clearly 
recognized that Members might take joint acti on to negotiate international arrangements for 
stabilisation of prices of commodities at remunerativ e levels.  She said that her delegation also was 
uncomfortable with the proposal that a possible co nclusion could be drawn, after discussions in the 
CTD, on the Chairman's own respon sibility, given that the WTO was a Member-driven organization.   
90. She went on to comment on what other delegations had raised in their interventions and said 
that, regarding the concern about the CTD duplicating work of the negotiating bodies, particularly the 
Special Session of the Committee on Agriculture, her delegation's desire was not  to interfere with the 
ongoing horizontal negotiations in the Special Sessio n of the Committee on Agriculture, but rather to 
create a complementary procedure which would perm it negotiations on commodities to be held on a 
product-by-product basis.  The current horizontal approach, based on the three pillars, might not be 
able to achieve that objective.  She said that, regarding the concern that the submission by her 
delegation and the delegations of Tanzania and Ug anda seemed to propose sectoral initiatives for 
NAMA, it was clear that her delegation had been opposed to any sectoral initiative in the NAMA 
negotiations.  What was proposed in the submissi on were special procedures for securing tariff 
treatments for processed products which were more favourable and responsive to the needs of 
individual developing countries and LDCs, than those which would result from the application of the 
modalities under discussion.  Her delegation wa s not referring to a sectoral initiative .  Regarding the 
relationship between the Doha Work Programme and the issue of commodities, she said the two were 
closely related as they both dealt with development a nd the alleviation of poverty.  With respect to the 
convening of an informal meeting, she suggested that there should be no link between her delegation's 
submissions to the negotiating groups and the outcome of such an informal meeting of the CTD.  As 
proposed by the representative of India, the CTD should convene informally to deliberate further.  WT/COMTD/M/49 
 Page 25 
 
 
 91. The representative of Switzerland  thanked all delegations for their constructive comments.  
On the positive side, the feedback was that all agreed that the issue deserved further detailed 
discussion.  He said that there also was agreement that the CTD had a role to play and that the 
procedure proposed by his delegation was feasible.  In addition, Members seemed to agree that the 
CTD should not lose time by getting stuck in a procedural discussion.  However, a number of 
reservations had been made.  First, some delegati ons were afraid that the CTD might duplicate work 
done elsewhere.  One possibility was a duplication of the work of some negotiating bodies.  His 
delegation's proposal aimed at cl early separating the tasks to be performed in the CTD and in the 
negotiations per se .  The CTD should be discussing the issue in a more academic way.  Delegations 
could then draw on those discussions to make interventions in the negotiating bodies.  The negotiating bodies would probably not go into depth and undertake any detailed discussion of the commodity issue.  There should therefore not be any duplica tion of work with the negotiating bodies.  His 
delegation did not propose any special sequence of work, or that discussions should begin in the CTD 
and that inputs could only later be  made to the negotiating groups.  There was no difference between 
his delegation's submission and that of Kenya, Tanz ania and Uganda in that respect.  What his 
delegation proposed was a discussion in the CTD which would improve the basis for delegations to make proposals in the negotiating bodies.  However,  nothing prevented delegations from discussing 
the matter in the negotiating groups.  Such discussions had in fact already begun in some negotiating 
bodies, such as the Special Session of the Committee on Agriculture, and his delegation had no 
intention of stopping those discussions.  He went  on to say that there was a second possibility of 
duplication of work and that was with ongoing activities outside the WTO.  His delegation was of the view that the CTD should be informed about discussions in UNCTAD and other international organizations.  The CTD should consider the results of those discussions for coherence purposes as it 
was important for the CTD to be aware of what other international organizations did in order to have a 
coherent approach in the WTO.  There was a clear separation of tasks at that level as well.   
92. He further said that a second reservation had been made with respect to the Annex of his 
delegation's submission.  He stressed that the A nnex was not exhaustive and that it was possible that 
some instruments were missing.  The Annex had be en added for purely illustrative reasons.  The idea 
was to provide the Secretariat with some guidance if  Members wished to continue the discussion.  The 
Annex consisted of a compilation of instruments which had been mentioned in various reports.  
Geographical indications had b een mentioned as one possibility.  His delegation's position on 
geographical indications was clear.  However, there were also instruments regarding which his delegation might have a different view in the negoti ations.  His delegation ha d attempted to compile a 
non-exhaustive, neutral and indicative list of instruments.  The third reservation made related to the 
appropriate timing for a decision on how to proceed .  His delegation was of the view that, if 
discussions in the CTD were not directly linked to the negotiations, and if th ey rather built a basis for 
inputs into the negotiation groups, there would be no interference with their work.  Members also had 
to consider that, when preparations began for an in formal meeting, there would be a time-lag and it 
might therefore be better to begin immediately rath er than awaiting the September 2004 meeting of 
the CTD to take a decision on how to proceed.  Ti me was used more effectively if Members could 
take a decision at the 49
th Session.  There seemed to be two options following the comments made by 
Members.  One was to continue in informal consultations on how to proceed with the two 
submissions.  The second option was that the Committee instruct the Secretariat to begin to organize a 
meeting, including a possible agenda and a list of ot her institutions to invite.  The CTD could then 
come back in informal mode to discuss if that was a feasible way to proceed.  That procedure would 
also enable the delegations which had not been able to get a feed-back from their authorities to take a 
position.  He said that his delegation would prefer the second option as it believed that it was timely to 
begin discussions immediately as Members would need time to prepare their inputs for the negotiating 
bodies. 
93. The Chairman  said that it seemed as though the Committee could follow both options.  The 
idea of having the Secretariat prepare for an informal meeting and contacting other international WT/COMTD/M/49 
Page 26  
 
 organizations, keeping in mind the work already done through the submissions made, should not 
prevent any delegation from raising the issue in the negotiations on agriculture or NAMA.  It would 
only give the CTD the opportunity to have a meanin gful discussion on an issue of importance to 
developing countries, with the objective of continuing to support a desirable outcome of the 
commodity issue in the negotiations.   
94. The Committee took note
 of the statements made and the two submissions. 
95. The Chairman  suggested that the Committee hold informal consultations and that, in the 
meantime, the Secretariat be asked to do the preparatory work and to contact other international 
organizations.  He would arrange for the Committee to meet within the upcoming two weeks to clarify 
the remaining issues.   
96. The representative of Kenya  asked for clarification on the proposal by the Chairman and said 
that her delegation needed to consult the other co -authors of the submission.  Her understanding was 
that the Chairman would hold informal consultations to decide whether to hold a special meeting 
devoted to the commodity issue. 
97. The Secretariat  said that it assumed that the Chairman proposed to consult informally in order 
to consider how to proceed.  However, the Secretariat might, in the meantime, consider some of the 
issues that might be taken up at an informal discussion on commodities.  The informal meeting 
suggested by the delegation of Switzerland woul d not take place before Members so decided. 
98. It was so agreed . 
E. REPORT ON THE 37TH SESSION OF THE JOINT ADVISORY GROUP ON THE INTERNATIONAL 
TRADE CENTRE UNCTAD/WTO  (ITC/AG/(XXXVII)/200) 
99. The Chairman  said that the Joint Advisory Grou p on the International Trade Centre 
UNCTAD/WTO (JAG) had held its thirty seventh session from 26 to 30 April 2004 and that the 
report of that meeting was contained in ITC do cument ITC/AG/(XXXVII)/200.  The Committee had 
the pleasure of having with it, both Ambassador Henrik Rée Iversen of Denmark who had chaired the 
thirty seventh session of the JAG, and ITC Executive Director, Mr. Denis Bélisle. 
100. The Chairman of the thirty seventh session of the JAG  said that there had not been any 
difficulties during the thirty seventh session of the JAG.  The Secretary-General of the United Nations 
had sent his greetings as it was the 40th anniversary of the Internationa l Trade Centre (ITC).  WTO 
Deputy Director-General Dr. Kipkorir Aly Azad Rana and the Officer-in-Charge of UNCTAD had 
made introductory statements.  The Senior Adviser to the President of the African Development Bank 
Group, Mr. Ablassé Ouedraogo, had been invited as a special guest.  The main item had been the 
report introduced by ITC Executive Director, Mr. Denis Bélisle, in which he had informed members 
that the ITC had increased its delivery of TA to developing and transition economies by 19 per cent 
during 2003.  He had also introduced his new idea of an International Trade Fellowship Programme 
for developing country graduates in international business.  The Fellowship would be conducted with 
the "International Organization for Students in  Economics and Commerce" AISEC, and the first 
fellowship would be sponsored by Hewlett-Packard.  He said that those introductory statements had 
been followed by statements by members in which, as a general pattern, developing country members 
asked for more of the good assistance provided by the ITC, and the developed country members 
expressed their satisfaction with ITC's work, but wa rned not to overheat the process.  Members had 
left it to the ITC to find a balance between thos e wishes in 2004, and the ITC had promised a 
double-digit increase in its delivery of TA to de veloping and transition ec onomies.  There had also 
been a short discussion on the ongoing, joint evaluation of the ITC and Members had taken note of it.  In addition, as was customary, the JAG had in the end requested donors to be as forthcoming as  WT/COMTD/M/49 
 Page 27 
 
 
 possible and he thanked the Governments of Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, India, the 
Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Sw itzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States for their 
contributions.  The donations had provided the ITC with about the same budget as it had had in 2003 
and he said that he hoped that the disbursements would be made on time as delays had earlier been a 
problem.  In short, the thirty seventh session of the JAG had been a successful meeting giving proof 
of the high quality and professionalism of the ITC.  That was important for the WTO. 
101. The representative of the United States  said that her delegation supported the activities of the 
ITC and wished the organization well with continued progress  with the activities and tools it offered 
developing countries.  Her delegation had once ment ioned at a JAG meeting that it wished to see the 
ITC facilitate WTO negotiations, in addition to ITC's other work to assist developing countries 
implement and utilize the WTO rules, and benefit from and promote their exports.  The ITC had 
consistently invented creative tools, including trade maps, market access maps, and the pilot scheme 
which had gained momentum in services trade.  She said that her delegation hoped that that would 
provide an extra impetus to help  developing countries integrate be tter into the multilateral trading 
system and participate in the negotiations.  Her dele gation hoped to come forward with more financial 
support to the ITC than the contributions already an nounced, in order for ITCs projects to multiply. 
102. The representative of Pakistan  expressed his delegation's thanks to the ITC and its 
appreciation for ITC's work.  He thanked Ambassador Henrik Rée Iversen of Denmark for having 
chaired the 37th Session of the JAG, and ITC Executive Director, Mr. Denis Bélisle, under whose 
dynamic leadership the ITC had progressed and tu rned to practical, trade-related TA and capacity 
building for developing countries.  He said that he was pleased to note that the ITC had increased its TA with 19 per cent in 2003.  His delegation shared the appreciation of the ITC as being a high quality 
organization because of its professionalism.  The ITC had become a more focused organization over 
time.  Representing a beneficiary country member, he said that he wished to thank the donors for their 
generosity had hoped that they would keep supporting the ITC with even larger sums in the future. 
103. The representative of Canada
 said that her delegation lent its support to the ITC and 
acknowledged the good work it had done.  It was worthwhile mentioning that in the WTO, as the WTO was one of its parent organizations, and she said that her delegation believed that it was a 
privilege to be an ITC partner. 
104. The representative of Sri Lanka
 said that his delegation was aware of the work undertaken by 
the ITC during the last forty years.  What was ne gotiated in the WTO would not be translated into 
tangible results unless quality development traini ng programmes stemmed from organizations such as 
the ITC.  He said that his delegation particularly noted that the ITC, in the past ten years, had 
developed a business-like approach to its TA progra mmes which had helped businessmen in countries 
like his own to understand what was negotiated in the WTO, and how to translate the outcome of 
those discussions in the WTO into tangible results.  He thanked ITC Executive Director, 
Mr. Denis Bélisle, for having transformed the ITC into  that type of an organization, and said that, 
although businessmen in Sri Lanka had only to a limited extent been able to benefit from ITC's 
programmes, they had benefited from the large amount of publications produced by the ITC.  He also 
thanked the donors for their generous contributions and hoped that such contributions would continue 
in the future. 
105. The Committee took note  of the 2004 JAG report and forwarded  it to the General Council for 
adoption.   WT/COMTD/M/49 
Page 28  
 
 F. P
ARAGRAPH 51 OF THE DOHA DECLARATION ON IDENTIFYING AND DEBATING 
DEVELOPMENTAL ASPECTS OF THE NEGOTIATIONS , IN ORDER TO HELP ACHIEVE THE 
OBJECTIVE OF HAVING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT APPROPRIATELY REFLECTED  
106. The Chairman  said that several views had been expressed during the informal consultation on 
the matter he had held one week earlier.  As Member s who were present at that meeting would recall, 
the suggestion had been made that the Secretariat be invited to make a presentation on the work of the 
Working Group on Trade and Transfer of Technology.  However, a number of Members had said that 
merely asking the Secretariat to make presentatio ns did not add value.  The CTD did not wish to 
duplicate the work undertaken by the Working Group on Trade and Transfer of Technology.  
Nevertheless, if there were matters in that area which fell within Pa ragraph 51 or anywhere within the 
mandate of the CTD, the Committee could extract that issue or those issues and bring them to the 
CTD with the proper focus and objective.  Nevert heless, he said that he would not resist any 
discussion on the work of the Working Group on Tr ade and Transfer of Technology if Members so 
desired.  He said that he was trying to focus Me mbers' attention on what they wished to do and how 
they wished to do it.  If it could be done by attending the meetings of the Working Group on Trade and Transfer of Technology, then Members should rath er do that than duplicate the efforts of that 
body in the CTD.  There had also been a proposal for the CTD to undertake a technical analysis of the 
issues related to the constraints to trade liberalization, such as the erosion of preferences and the loss 
of tariff revenue for developing countries.  There had been general agreement that Members could 
make more effective use of the time under the agen da item relating to Paragraph 51.  As Members had 
had more time to think about the CTD's mandate under Paragraph 51, he said that he sought Members guidance.  He also pointed out that he had inserted a footnote to the draft Work Programme for 2004 to assist Members' thinking. 
107. The representative of the European Communities
 said that his delegation felt that the exercise 
foreseen under Paragraph 51 of the Doha Minister ial Declaration was an important one for the CTD 
as well as for the Committee on Trade and Enviro nment in keeping track of both developmental and 
environmental aspects of the negotiations under the broad heading of sustainable development.  The CTD had so far been following an approach of requesting presentations by the Secretariat of elements 
under negotiation, followed by a general debate  amongst Members on aspects that could be 
considered developmental.  He said that his impr ession was that those discussions had become more 
interactive and useful with time, although he admitted that they had consisted of an exchange of 
views, based on the presentation made by the Se cretariat's relevant experts for the negotiations 
concerned, rather than leading Members to a common view or any conclusions.  That was, however, not surprising at that stage of the process.  He  suggested that the CTD continue the process by 
covering other issues that Members had not already considered.  The proposal had been made to 
request a presentation on the work of the Working Group on Trade and Transfer of Technology.  
There was also the idea of a more horizontal discu ssion on issues such as preferences and fiscal 
revenue questions.  In addition, th ere were other elements of the negotiations that had not been 
mentioned, such as in the rules area where Members, for example, could consider anti-dumping, 
subsidies and regional trade agreements.  Ther e had been proposals in the preceding weeks 
concerning developmental aspects in the area of the Information Technology Agreement.  While the 
areas of anti-dumping and subsidies were technica l areas in which he said he would not feel 
comfortable venturing into any detailed discussion, a broader overview discussion of the 
developmental aspects and the application of a rules-based framework to support developmental 
objectives might be a useful exercise.   
108. He further said that, in addition to considerin g each subject area one by one, there might also, 
at an appropriate time, be an opportunity to return to some of the issues Members had already 
debated, although not in any depth.  That might be the case with some of the market access aspects.  
The CTD was not the forum to make progress in terms of finalizing issues that were outstanding in 
the negotiating groups.  However, the CTD had the op portunity to take a step back and discuss some  WT/COMTD/M/49 
 Page 29 
 
 
 of the more horizontal aspects of the ongoing negoti ations.  There should be time to bring relevant 
considerations back.  He said that he was not particularly worried about the suggestion that the CTD 
simply exchange information and debate rather than draw conclusions, as individual Members always 
could draw their own conclusions and take the elements discussed into account in the negotiating 
proposals they made as individual participants in the negotiations.  That might be a more realistic 
scenario than expecting all CTD Members to agree on a particular analysis of what was at stake in a 
particular area of the negotiations, as each dele gation would consider such an analysis from a 
perspective that would reflect individual negotia ting priorities and concerns.  However, Members 
should use the capacity and ability of the Secretariat to act as a neutral source of information on the 
ongoing negotiations, the issues at stake, as well as pointing to some of the external research done 
with a developmental focus.  Br inging such information to the CTD would serve the purpose of 
informing all delegations individually and would be beneficial for the conduct of the negotiations.  A 
discussion with a slight degree of distance from total engagement in the negotiations might help 
clarify some of the developmental issues at stak e, particularly the deve lopmental aspects of the 
negotiations and the contribution that a successful outcome in all areas could make to supporting the 
objective of the WTO in general and the one ment ioned in Paragraph 51 of the Doha Ministerial 
Declaration in particular.  He said that his de legation supported work in the CTD in line with 
Paragraph 51, even if the interest from the floor varied in terms of seeking to drive the exercise 
forward. 
109. The Chairman  said that it was precisely the interest  from the floor that gave rise to some 
concern.  The CTD had received a mandate in Para graph 51 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration and it 
was for Members to decide what to do with that ma ndate, why, with what objective and with what 
time-frame.  Such targets would help Members focus on what they wished to achieve. 
110. The representative of Barbados  said that her delegation estimated that, at the open-ended 
informal consultation, both developing and develope d country Members had expressed an interest in a 
deeper consideration of the developmental aspects of the negotiations.  Members might therefore wish 
to consider both a deeper as well as a more cross-cutting discussion of those aspects. 
111. The representative of Switzerland  said that he shared the concerns expressed by the 
representative of the European Communities.  He said  that he agreed with the Chairman that Members 
had to be practical and decide on specific subjects to discuss.  At the same time, experience from the 
past year had shown that it was not possible to hold discussions in relation to Paragraph 51 of the 
Doha Ministerial Declaration if Members did not all agree on how those discussions should be 
conducted.  The Secretariat had in the past prepar ed background documentation which did not go as 
far as Members' knowledge about the negotiations as the Secretariat did not wish to take a position.  
That signalled the problem that the CTD should not repeat the negotiations taking place in other WTO 
bodies, although Members should consider important negotiating issues.  However, that had to be 
done in a way which aimed to consider the developm ental impact of certain options being discussed 
and what the effects in the real world would be.  That could only be done detached from the negotiations, without having to take positions, or having the interventions considered as possible 
positions of governments in the negotiations.  If Me mbers could not agree on a process in which that 
type of discussion was possible, and gave themselves the means to carry it out, then it would not be 
worthwhile to consider specific subjects to discus s.  The Secretariat was not well placed to help 
Members with that.  He said that he  believed that it was correct to say that those discussions should be 
somewhat of an academic nature  and detached from the negotiatin g realities, and Members should 
seek outside support for those discussions.  The aim could be for Members to have before them two or 
three concise and relevant papers on the poverty ef fects of a certain policy option which could be used 
as background documentation for the discussions.  If Members could agree on that format, it would be 
easier to decide which subjects to consider.  Memb ers had to ensure that no delegation wished to 
create a second type of negotiation on issues which were being negotiated elsewhere. WT/COMTD/M/49 
Page 30  
 
 112. The representative of Pakistan
 said that his delegation was interested in the item and agreed 
with the representative of Switzerland  that there was a need to engage in an academic type of debate.  
To decide which topic to discuss when was secondar y.  His delegation also agreed with the analysis 
by the representative of Switzer land that it was not a question of taking negotiating positions.  The 
CTD had its own peculiar mandate.   
G. ELECTRONIC COMMERCE  
113. The Chairman  said that, during the informal consultations he had held, he had also raised the 
issue of electronic commerce (e-commerce) and prop osed that it be temporarily suspended from the 
Committee's agenda, unless any delegation had any speci fic useful work to recommend.  He had made 
his proposal as the Committee hardly had undertaken any activity on the subject since its 37th Session.  
At the informal consultation, some Members had s till expressed a wish for the item to remain on the 
agenda.  He said that he had no difficulty keepi ng the item on the agenda.  He asked if Members had 
exhausted their discussion on e-commerce for the time being and if it therefore should be left to be 
taken up at a future meeting, or if Members had any particular issue related to e-commerce that 
Members wished to consider in the CTD at the next session. 
114. The representative of Pakistan  said that, with a view to provide the Committee with some 
ideas for activities to undertake, his delegation had considered some of the work and research done by 
other international organizations.  E-commerce was an important subject with direct social and 
economic implications for the economies of develope d countries, developing countries and LDCs.  He 
said that e-commerce provided both developmen t opportunities and challenges to developing 
countries. There were complex inte rlinkages of issues, policy requirements and options, and actions 
required at national and international levels. Several of those related to the multilateral trading system.  
Hence, the discussions in the CTD should continue to better understand the issues and interlinkages 
between e-commerce and developmen t, and to identify ac tions that could be taken in the WTO to 
employ e-commerce to promote development.  Regarding a global framework for e-commerce, he 
said that a number of individual governments and in tergovernmental organizations had taken steps to 
address the policy issues relating to the estab lishment of a global framework for e-commerce.  
However, those proposals contained little on the role of developing countries in designing, 
establishing and implementing such a framework.  He said that that was contrary to the concept of 
democratic global governance of a global network and the lack of developing country involvement 
would represent a collective loss to the objective of a global economy.  Therefore, it was necessary to 
develop mechanisms to ensure effective developing country participation in the establishment of a 
global framework for e-commerce.  He said that his delegation believed that the CTD could hold 
discussions on that issue.  With respect to the cont rol of the Internet, he said that who controlled the 
Internet was relevant both for the world as a whole and developing countries in particular as the Internet provided the backbone of e-commerce.  He said that the Internet operated on a 
telecommunications ramp which ha d been built on technologies mos tly developed in the West.  Not 
only was that structure extremely capital intensiv e, it was on the technological edge of emerging 
possibilities that required high-cost research and a strong financial base for long-term and sometimes 
risky initiatives that might become redundant and ob solete overnight.  Most developing countries had 
neither the financial nor the human resources to ma tch those requirements, and could not be expected 
to or could not judge whether the standards and the set-up of e-commerce would be fair and equitable, 
transparent or non-trade restrictive.  In that context,  he said that the discussions on e-commerce in the 
CTD could identify possible means to address some of those issues.   
115. He went on to say that his delegation believed that access to technology was a key issue for 
the growth of e-commerce in develo ping countries.  It could not be presumed that the development of 
e-commerce on its own would lead to the transfer of technology from developed to developing 
countries.  That was likely to be a complex process involving questions of among others, investment; 
expertise; government policies and market access.  The multilateral trade regime could contribute to  WT/COMTD/M/49 
 Page 31 
 
 
 better mechanisms for the transfer of technolog y.  That was another issue for more focused 
discussions in the CTD.  With respect to taxation  and revenue losses, he said that though domestic 
taxation and customs tariffs were separate issues, the fact and po ssibility of levying a charge on a 
digital e-commerce transaction needed to be consid ered as taxation issues had a bearing on the very 
foundations and growth potential of any economic idea.  He said that in the case of e-commerce, the 
ramifications were global and affected the very concept and development of e-commerce, as well as 
the policy that each developing country would need to adopt regarding its foreign trade and internal 
taxation.  He said that for most developing coun tries, domestic taxes and import and export duties 
continued to be a primary source of revenue.  That required an in-depth study and analysis in the CTD 
where initial discussions could be held to clarify as well as contribute to reaching convergence on 
some basic principles on addressing that.  That was notwithstanding the fact that that issue was being 
discussed in the Dedicated Session on E-commerce.  With respect to classification, another issue that 
needed to be addressed was that of characterization.  E-commerce could be characterized as trade in 
goods, trade in services, or as something different from  either of those.  In addressing that issue key, 
differences between the GATT and GATS needed to be  borne in mind as that would affect the policy 
and distinction between goods and services.  Hence, despite the many positive points, e-commerce raised a basic difficulty for international trade where during e-commerce tran sactions the distinction 
between a good and a service was not always clear.  That mattered because WTO rules treated goods 
and services differently.  Goods tended to be subject  to tariffs whereas services were not and trade in 
services was limited by restrictions on "national treatment" or quantitative controls on access to 
foreign markets.  Therefore, the rules that would be devised for e-commerce might affect the choice 
between physical and digital methods of trade.  He said that since th at was a cross-cutting issue, the 
CTD would be an appropriate forum to discuss cl assification issues and their implications for 
international trade and developmen t.  He said that the Council fo r Trade in Goods (CTG) and the 
Council for Trade in Services (CTS), within their focused and respective mandates to deal with trade 
in goods and trade in services only, could not adequa tely perform that role an d, therefore, in that 
respect, the CTD could play a supplementary role. 
116. He continued by saying that his delegation believe d that e-commerce had a catalytic effect.  It 
served to accelerate and diffuse more widely changes that were already under way in the economy, 
such as the reform of regulations, the establishmen t of electronic links between businesses (EDI), the 
globalization of economic activity a nd the demand for higher skilled work ers.  With respect to policy 
flexibility and capacity building, his delegation believed that many of the issues related to 
e-commerce and development pointed to the need for policy flexibility and capacity building of 
developing countries to enable them to take adva ntage of the opportunities offered by e-commerce.  
Those policy and capacity-building issues could also be discussed in the CTD.  With respect to the 
importance of e-commerce for small and medium-siz ed enterprises (SMEs), something his delegation 
considered pertinent, he said th at the new trade-related informatio n flows which were facilitated by 
information technology, both enhanced export opportu nities for SMEs and lowere d barriers to entry in 
overseas markets by enabling a virtual presence through the Internet.  Within that context, 
e-commerce had been identified as offering de veloping countries, and SMEs within them, the 
opportunity to overcome some of the traditional constraints in intern ational trade.  Such constraints 
included the distance factor and the lack of information about foreign market opportunities.  
E-commerce led to increased choices, lower pri ces, better quality goods and services, and faster 
delivery.  Reduced reliance on middlemen also enable d electronic traders to increase their profits.  
Further added competition of foreig n companies encouraged increase d efficiency in production and 
additionally, e-commerce had the potential to stimul ate other sectors of the economy.  However, he 
said that while information and communication technologies provided a means to transmit and 
process information and documents quickly and effectively, many developing countries were constrained by limited telecommunication systems and high access costs.  Furthermore, there were 
wide disparities among and within developing countries in their levels of development and readiness 
for e-commerce.  He gave examples of the challe nges faced by developing  countries relating to 
inadequate transport, communication and energy in frastructure, limited availability of and knowledge WT/COMTD/M/49 
Page 32  
 
 about computers and Internet access.  He said that while those points were of particular relevance to 
governments and the private sector, it was also important that they be discussed in the WTO as they 
were critical to issues relating to market access and rules for both goods and services.  Additionally, 
those points needed to be understood within the context of differing levels of development of 
developing countries and with the appreciation for the necessity of preserving their policy space in 
order for them to facilitate their national develo pment goals.  Governments needed the relevant 
expertise and TA and time to revi ew and adapt national laws and re gulations in order to create the 
proper regulatory environment to facilitate e-commerce.  He said that some governments might need 
to adopt administrative regulations and practices, and change others, for example customs procedures 
to facilitate e-commerce an d related services such as  transport and delivery.  He said that developing 
countries required the human and financial resource s, the TA and the time to design and implement 
national and regional ICT strategies for develo pment.  E-commerce business opportunities varied 
significantly from sector to sector and country to country, and depended on among others, the 
composition of trade, the number of Internet users in the local market and the banking system.  He 
said that SMEs tended to engage in trade at the loca l as well as at the intern ational level.  Expansion 
into foreign markets through el ectronic channels required substantial changes in a company’s 
approach to doing business, specifi cally in terms of its marketing and delivery strategies, its research 
and development and the management of customer  relations.  A dilemma for SMEs in developing 
countries was that they generally did not possess the resources to cope with changes to all aspects of 
their business.  Governments would therefore, to the extent possible, need to provide SME's with the 
necessary resources that would enable them to en gage in e-commerce locally and internationally. 
117. He concluded by saying that although primarily an e-commerce phenomenon characterized by 
the globalization of markets, there was a shift towards an economy based on knowledge and 
information and a growing prominence of all forms of technology in everyday life.  Those major 
societal transformations were under way and would probably continue into the foreseeable future.  As 
both a product and manifestation of such tran sformations, e-commerce would increasingly shape 
modern society and those societal factors would merit attention from a public policy standpoint in 
order to ensure realization of its full benefits global ly.  He said that other international organizations 
such as UNCTAD and OECD had done a good job in raising the developmental aspects of 
e-commerce and his delegation believed that the CTD had not exhausted its deliberations on that 
important aspect.  Some thought provoking was required and it had been due to the Chairman's 
prompting that his delegation had begun to consider  the issue again and try to come up with some 
ideas for the Committee's consideration in an attemp t to provide some impetu s to the discussions on 
e-commerce.  He said that he hoped that Members would give favourable consideration to his 
delegation's proposal.   
118. The representative of the United States
 said that her delegation appreciated the research that 
had been carried out by the delegation of Pakistan.  She said that it was her delegation who had in the 
past held the helm for a work programme on e-commerce in the CTD  and had attempted to convince 
developing country Members of the developmental be nefits of e-commerce.  She recalled that the 
agenda item on e-commerce was being dealt with in the CTD as a result of a broader work 
programme on e-commerce and presumably Member s would, at some point, revisit that work 
programme.  However, it would be helpful for Members to discuss the developmental aspects of 
e-commerce in the CTD notwithstanding the nature of the overall work programme on e-commerce 
which was under the remit of the General Council as well as in other WTO bodies that had been 
commissioned to conduct certain aspects of the work programme.   
119. The Chairman  said that the representative of Pakistan  had gone to great length to explain the 
importance of e-commerce and its relevance to trade and development.  He asked the representative of 
Pakistan to restate his proposals so as to give guidance to the Secretariat on how to deal with 
e-commerce at the next meeting of the CTD.    WT/COMTD/M/49 
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 120. The representative of Pakistan  said that he had, in his statement, raised a number questions to 
the CTD on various e-commerce related issues incl uding those relating to global governance, control 
of the Internet, access to technology, taxation matter s, classification issues, issues relating to policy 
flexibility and capacity building and the role of SMEs .  His delegation believed that those were issues 
on which Members needed to further reflect.  T hose were points for discussion and although the 
arguments in favour of that categorisation of issues might not be exhaustive they would lead to further 
discussions.  He said that Members were free to deal with any of those delibera tions.  He said that his 
last proposal related to inviting other intergovernmental organizations to make presentations.  The 
UNCTAD Secretariat for example, had a section that dealt solely with e-commerce issues which had 
prepared various annual reports and publications.  In that context, he had gone through the 
e-commerce reports that UNCTAD had prepared in 2002 and 2003 as well as a report prepared by the 
OECD Secretariat for the purpose of that meeti ng.  He said that Members had not engaged in 
discussions on e-commerce for a long time and in order to reactivate their discussions and to get ideas 
from the specialized agencies, his delegation felt that  it would be relevant for the work of the CTD to 
invite the different intergovernmental organiza tions to give presentations on the different 
developmental aspects of e-commerce. 
121. The representative of Sri Lanka  said that, during the informal consultations, the Chairman had 
suggested that the item on e-commerce be temporarily suspended from the agenda and the 
representative of Pakistan had given reasons why it should not be suspended.  He said that it was 
useful to discuss e-commerce in the Committee.  However, he was also aware that e-commerce was 
an issue that UNCTAD had been working on for the pa st ten years.  He said that the United Nations 
had also recently appointed an Executive Director  for a new ad hoc agency dealing with e-commerce 
governance, and that work was being undertaken in other organizations on the broader perspective of 
e-commerce.  He said that what the CTD needed  to focus on was how the negotiations related to 
e-commerce and what the developmental aspects of it were.  He gave an example of when he was 
involved in developing an electronic user system for textile exports in the Unites States.  Originally 
when that was proposed, experiences of other countries that had adopted the system were given, in 
terms of whether a country like Sri Lanka could afford  to set up an electronic user system.  However 
when his Government had entered into the system  at a low-cost level, it found that it was not 
extremely expensive.  E-commerce was not always costly and developmentally challenged due to the 
costs.  He said that the CTD needed to cons ider the experiences of various countries, how 
e-commerce added to their development needs and the needs in their foreign trade sector.  It also 
needed to consider the implications and develo pment dimension of e-commerce in the services 
negotiations and in trade facilitation, should Me mbers decide to launch negotiations on that.  The 
CTD had a role to play and that role needed to be  limited to areas where there were WTO implications 
and not duplicate but rather learn from the work that had been carried out by other international 
organizations.   
122. The Chairman  said that the item on e-commerce would remain on the agenda and that work 
would include presentations from other relevant organizations.  He said that Members would do 
justice to the issue as they moved ahead.   
123. The Committee took note  of the statements made.   
H. GRADUATION OF THE MALDIVES FROM LDC  STATUS (WT/COMTD/W/128) 
124. The Chairman  said that Members had been given the background to the issue of the 
graduation of the Maldives from LDC status at the informal consultations that he had held.  The item 
had been put on the agenda at the request of th e delegation of the Mald ives which had made a 
submission on the matter contained in document WT/COMTD/W/128. WT/COMTD/M/49 
Page 34  
 
 125. The representative of the Maldives
 said that his Government was concerned about the 
possible consequences of graduation of the Maldives from LDC status as the Maldives had a narrow 
economic base and limited supply capa city which made it vulnerable to external shocks.  He said that 
graduation could also lead to the decline in special and differential treatment (S&D) with increased 
obligations.  His delegation had already raised the issue in the General Council and was now 
submitting document WT/COMTD/W/128 to the CTD.  He said that his delegation appreciated the 
support given by other delegations on the matter and looked forward to them showing understanding 
for his Government's efforts to secure a mechanism which would make the graduation process smooth 
and not too burdensome.   
126. The representative of Benin  said that the arguments put forward in the submission made by 
the delegation of the Maldives, as well as the remark s that the representative of the Maldives had just 
made, led his delegation to request that the gra duation from LDC to developing country status be 
made with the necessary flexibility and adjustments to  ensure that there was a proper transition rather 
than an abrupt rupture.  That would prevent other graduating countries from fearing the loss of 
advantages such as preferences, S&D, technical a nd financial assistance and other support given.  His 
delegation therefore supported the request by the delegation of the Maldives for WTO Members to 
consider mechanisms and approa ches that would facilitate the graduation process and offer the 
necessary flexibility.   
127. The representative of the United States  said that her delegation appreciated the submission 
made by the delegation of the Maldives on its graduation from LDC status.  She said that her 
delegation looked forward to working with that and other delegations to establish a workable process 
that would facilitate a smooth graduation from LD C status for the Maldives in the WTO.  Her 
delegation believed that discussing such a process might alleviate some of the concerns the 
Government of the Maldives had.  She said that her delegation wished to hear from other Members, 
but also offer some ideas of its own.  For exampl e, the Government of the Maldives had completed a 
Trade Policy Review (TPR) in March 2003 which she suggested the Government of Maldives and the Secretariat could update.  That would give the G overnment of the Maldives and other Members the 
opportunity to review its trade regime and consid er specific areas where WTO-related transitional 
mechanisms were needed, and develop a plan for th e implementation of its commitments in light of 
the graduation.  Her delegation was open to disc ussing, where necessary, what an appropriate 
phase-out of LDC status would be from the specific S&D provisions that provided exemptions for 
LDCs.  That would be made on the understanding that the Government of the Maldives provide Members with an action plan and that the result would be specific to the Maldives.  She added that the discussion in the CTD concerning how to assist the Government of the Maldives with a smooth 
phase-out from LDC status was not a precondition for discussions in other fora concerning the 
decision on graduation.  She said that her delegation looked forward to an expeditious presentation 
from the delegation of the Maldives on a WTO-speci fic action plan and to the final announcement of 
the graduation of the Maldives.   
128. The representative of Sri Lanka
 said that he first wished to congratulate the Government of 
the Maldives on the economic success of that country.  He said that his delegation nevertheless 
understood the concerns of the Government of the Ma ldives regarding the adverse trade implications 
that graduation from LDC status would have.  The s ituation was further aggravated by the fact that 
there was hardly any precedence with regard to graduation from LDC status.  The limited experience available was not relevant to the case of the Mald ives because it's economy was largely dependent on 
tourism.  The loss of market access in products with high preference margins would therefore have 
adverse implications.  He said that his delegation understood the concerns of the delegation of the 
Maldives and supported its request for smooth transition from LDC to developing country status.  He 
said that he also agreed with the proposal by the representative of the United States that WTO 
Members should consider what the WTO implications of the graduation of the Maldives would be and 
then design a reasonable and smooth transitional process.   WT/COMTD/M/49 
 Page 35 
 
 
 129. The representative of India  said that the concerns and difficulties that the delegation of the 
Maldives had raised were real and his delegation hoped that, as the debate developed, Members would 
collectively recognize the valid natu re of those concerns and the need to develop a smooth transitional 
process from LDC to developing country status for th e Maldives.  He said that, as the case of the 
Maldives to his knowledge was the first case of such a graduation, Members needed to realize that the 
transition process would have precedent-setting implications.  Members needed to approach 
graduation in the WTO as a process rather than an event, and it should be made as smooth as possible.  
He said that, during the informal consultations that had been held on the issue of the graduation of the 
Maldives, there had been a proposal for the WTO Secretariat to prepare a paper on the WTO 
implications of graduation from LDC status.  He said that such a paper would be a helpful input into the Committee's work, as would keeping track of the debate on graduation in other fora.  He said that he was not suggesting any sequencing or laying down of preconditions.  There were other fora which 
were debating the issue and those were the fora which had conceived the LDC category.  Since 
development was a broader concept than trade competence alone, work in the CTD would be assisted 
by keeping track of what was happening in other fora with respect to the issue.   
130. The representative of Pakistan
 said that, although the Maldives were to be congratulated for 
their change of status from LDC to developing country status, his delegation fully understood and was 
sympathetic to the dilemma that the Government of th e Maldives faced as a result of that graduation.  
He said that the issues highlighted in the submission were self explanatory and gave a clear picture as 
to the type of problem that it was facing.  He said  that, while his delegation remained sympathetic to 
the request made by the delegation of the Maldives, he agreed with the delegations that had pointed 
out that it would be necessary for the Secretariat to  study the implications of such a mechanism and 
how such a mechanism could be developed both within and outside the WTO.  He said that, although 
it was not completely clear what the representative of the United States had meant when she 
suggested an update of the TPR on the Maldives, he be lieved that there was merit in carrying out that 
exercise.   
131. The representative of Norway  congratulated the Government of the Maldives for being in the 
process of graduating from LDC st atus.  It was a positive development which should be commended.  
As had been pointed out by other delegations, graduation was a new issue that had implications, not 
only for the Maldives, but also for other LDCs whic h her delegation hoped would eventually graduate 
out of LDC status.  Her delegation believed that wh en a country had graduated into a higher economic 
and social level of development it needed to step out of the LDC group.  The LDC definition would become irrelevant if it was not taken seriously an d that would have implications for other LDCs 
which had not come as far as the Maldives.  On the other hand, she said that her delegation believed 
that countries that were in the process of graduating  had to be met by a flex ible attitude in order to 
ensure that they did not have a social and economic recess as a consequence of losses of preferential 
arrangements which had been established for LDCs.  Members should therefore be open to consider 
ways of making the graduation a smooth process that was beneficial to both the graduating LDC and 
remaining LDCs.  How that could be achieved was not clear.  However, her delegation was interested 
in a paper by the Secretariat on the WTO implicatio ns of graduation.  When considering graduation, 
Members should not only consider it in terms of the graduation of the Maldives but from a more 
systemic point of view as a general issue for all LDCs.  She said that it also would be useful, as 
pointed out by the representative of India, to take account of the deliberations taking place in other 
relevant fora such as in the United Nations (UN) and the United Nations Economic and Social 
Council (ECOSOC). 
132. The representative of Canada
 congratulated the Government of the Maldives on the economic 
success of the Maldives.  She pointed out that th e issue of graduation of the Maldives was on the 
agenda for a substantive session of ECOSOC to be he ld in July 2004 and that that was the appropriate 
forum to discuss the matter.  Howeve r, she said that her delegation wa s sensitive to the issues that had 
been raised.  The Government of Canada had its own legal issues to consider as it had a market access WT/COMTD/M/49 
Page 36  
 
 initiative for LDCs.  Her Government  was still studying the issue.  A paper by the Secretariat on the 
WTO implications of graduation would help Members in that respect.  She said that her delegation 
welcomed the thoughtful suggestions put forward in the submission by the Government of the 
Maldives. 
133. The representative of th e European Communities
 thanked the delegation of the Maldives for 
their submission and congratulated them upon their imminent graduation from LDC status.  He said 
that his delegation hoped that other LDCs would graduate in the near future.  He said that he agreed 
with other delegations that the objective that Members should aim for was to support graduation 
through some appropriately phased transitional arrangements in the WT O.  He said that he agreed 
with the three broad issues identified by the dele gation of the Maldives as the ones on which Members 
should concentrate, namely WTO rules, preferential trade arrangements, and questions relating to TA.  
He said that his delegation looked forward to engage in consultations on the issue of graduation in 
order to take it forward.   
134. The representative of the Solomon Islands  said that his delegation supported the proposal 
made by the delegation of the Maldives for the se tting up of a mechanism that would allow a smooth 
and less burdensome transition from LDC to developing country status.  He said  that he feared that, 
without such a mechanism, LDCs graduating to devel oping status might slide back into LDC status.  
The transitional mechanism was required to provid e graduating LDCs with some breathing space. 
135. The representative of Switzerland  said that his delegation supported the request made by the 
delegation of the Maldives for the establishment of a smooth transitional mechanism for graduating 
LDCs.  He said that his delegation agreed with a two-staged approach.  The first stage would be the 
consideration of a paper elaborated by the Secretariat treating the issue in a broad and systemic 
manner to determine what the necessary adjustment s were for a graduating LDC to comply with the 
WTO provisions.  The second stage would be the prep aration of an action plan by the Government of 
the Maldives in which it indicated where it needed special treatment.  He reverted to the question he 
had raised at the informal consultations as to wh en the UN envisaged to grad uate the Maldives from 
LDC status and whether there would be a transition phase in the UN decision that would relieve some 
of the problems faced in the WTO.   
136. The representative of China  said that the situation of the Maldives was a dilemma because, on 
the one hand the Government of the Maldives was to be congratulated for graduating from LDC 
status, and on the other hand his delegation had sympathy with the graduating country as it might slip 
back into LDC status when it was deprived of preferences.  Such a situation had to be avoided.  He 
said that, at that time, his delegation had no clear position but was interested in the issue and in taking 
part in any consultations that might follow.   
137. The Chairman  said that, during the informal consultations he had held, a number of proposals 
had been made.  One was that the Committee as k the relevant UN body to provide it with a 
background note on the UN process of designating and graduating LDCs, its history, previous cases, 
procedures and processes and also including some sp ecific information on the cases of the Maldives 
and Cape Verde which to his understanding was also  due to graduate soon.  The second suggestion 
was that the Committee ask the Secretariat to prepar e a note on the WTO impli cations of graduation 
from LDC status. 
138. The representative of the United States  said that, at that stage, her delegation was only 
prepared to support work involving revising the information provided in the TPR of the Maldives, 
which could involve the Government  of the Maldives working with the Secretariat, and to further 
discuss how Members might proceed with the issue of graduation in a way which would enable them 
to move expeditiously to support the Maldives sm ooth graduation with respect to the possible WTO 
implications.  In that light, the delegation of the Maldives could provide Members with an action plan  WT/COMTD/M/49 
 Page 37 
 
 
 on what they believed was necessary.  An outline of an action plan already existed in the submission 
by the Government of the Maldives.  She said th at what her delegation wished to see was what 
transitional mechanisms the Governme nt of the Maldives believed was necessary in light of the areas 
of concern that it had raised.  He r delegation was hesitant  to agree to an overall process which might 
inhibit Members from addressing the issue at hand which the Government of the Maldives was facing.  
Cape Verde was not yet a WTO Member.  WTO Members were yet to hear when the actual decision 
would be taken in ECOSOC.  She reiterated that  her delegation was not prepared to merge the 
discussions Members were having in the CTD with the ongoing process at ECOSOC.  She said that 
her delegation looked forward to the Chairman's guidance through consultations with Members on 
how they could proceed expeditiously and efficiently.   
139. The Chairman  said that he had suggested that background information be sought from the UN 
on the UN process for LDC designation and graduation, and the status of the Maldives in that respect.  
The history would enable Members to understa nd the process and would provide a clearer 
understanding on what was likely to happen to the Maldives when it graduated.   
140. The representative of the United States  said that her delegation would welcome a consultation 
with the Chairman.  She said that her delegation wished to see the case of the graduation of the Maldives handled smoothly and expeditiously, gathering whatever information was needed regarding 
that case.  She said that her de legation therefore was willing to recei ve a status report.  However, it 
was not necessary for Members to wait for a study that would examine the broad issue of LDC 
graduation from LDC status to address the specific concerns raised in the submission made by the 
delegation of the Maldives.  That submission relate d to the specific situation of the Maldives.  The 
CTD had not received a submission suggesting it to proceed in a systemic manner.  She said that her 
delegation was limited with respect to how far it  could take the current discussion.  It was 
nevertheless willing to receive a status report from  the Secretariat who was communicating with the 
UN.  The Secretariat might obtain a status report  from the relevant UN entity and then inform the 
Members.  However, her delegation was no t interested in merging the processes. 
141. The representative of UNCTAD
 said that, if Members so wished, UNCTAD would be willing 
to provide up-to-date documentation which would clar ify the complex issue of graduation.  He drew 
Members' attention to the fact that, even if it look ed probable, the graduation of the Maldives had not 
yet taken place.  A decision was imminent and might even be taken before the substantive session of 
ECOSOC in July 2004.  The decision would relate to the possible graduation of the Maldives and 
Cape Verde.  However, the decision would not be based on the latest report from April 2004 of the Committee of experts who were competent on the matter, but on the 2003 report which observed that both the Maldives and Cape Verde satisfied th e criteria for graduation.  The 2003 report did 
nevertheless not recommend the graduation of those countries.  The situation had evolved since then as the Committee for Development Policy had again considered the matter in April 2004 and gone a 
step further by recommending that the two countries  be graduated.  However, before taking action on 
the 2004 report, ECOSOC needed to take action on th e 2003 report.  That should have been done in 
2003, but due to the complex nature of the matter ECOSOC was yet to make a decision.   
142. He further recalled that there were two school s of thought within ECOSOC on the matter.  
The first, which might currently be the dominant one, considered that once the Committee for 
Development Policy estimated that  a country satisfied the criteria for graduation, it needed to 
graduate.  The development partners needed, at the same time, to be presented with the fact that a 
country was graduating in order  for them to adopt measures which would ensure a smooth transition.  
The other school of thought in the ECOSOC, which was almost as important, represented the opposite 
view.  That school of thought considered that the impact of graduation would be negative, and that 
that was a problem.  Therefore, before taking the decision to graduate a country, it was important to 
consider how to ensure a smooth transition.  The development partners had to be asked, especially 
within the multilateral trading system , how that country would be treated if it graduated.  The second WT/COMTD/M/49 
Page 38  
 
 school of thought thus implied the suspension of the idea of graduation in order to advance the idea of 
a smooth transition.  In reality, that meant that the ball would be placed in the court of the 
development partners, i.e. WTO and the donor co untries who sponsored development.  Those two 
schools of thought were currently opposing each othe r, and it was probably because that confrontation 
was difficult that the decision had been delayed.  He  said that the current situation was that a decision 
was imminent.  However, it was premature to predict the outcome, and it was therefore important not 
to skip any stages.  In light of the complexity of the subject, it was possible that the UN might 
suspend the decision to graduate the Maldives to an undetermined date in order to ensure a smooth 
transition. 
143. The representative of Canada
 suggested that, since the ECOS OC, which was the appropriate 
forum to take a decision on the graduation of the Maldives, had not decided whether the Maldives 
would graduate, the CTD should suspend its disc ussion on the matter until the next meeting when 
Members would have a better understanding of the situation.   
144. The representative of the United States  agreed with the representative of Canada and 
reiterated the remarks her delegation had made.  As part of a Member-driven organization she said that it was important for the Chairman to hold consul tations before the next meeting to ensure that he 
was aware of what Members were prepared to do under the item.  Her delegation did not support a 
precondition that the WTO attempt to decide on th e criteria which another institution used to make its 
decisions.  Members in the WTO would act according to their mandate to assist trading partners 
undergo what was necessary in the WTO.  There wa s no linkage between the WTO and the decisions 
that needed to be taken in other institutions, and her delegation would not agree to any attempt to 
make such a linkage. 
145. The Chairman
 said that, since the decision on the graduation of the Maldives had not yet been 
taken in ECOSOC, there was still time to revert to th e matter at the next meeting of the CTD.  In the 
meantime, he would consult with interested delega tions in order to be better informed about how 
Members wished to proceed in the CTD.  
146. The Committee took note  of the submission and the statements made. 
I. WORK PROGRAMME FOR 2004 
147. The Chairman  said that a draft 2004 CTD Work Programme had been sent to Members, and  
he hoped Members could adopt it.   
148. The representative of Canada  said that her delegation could adopt the 2004 Work Programme.   
149. The representative of the European Communities  said that his delegation wished to add an 
item to the agenda of the CTD meeting to be held in September 2004.  It was a sub-item to the one 
dealing with technical co-operati on and training and concerned th e conclusions of the mid-term 
review that Members, in November 2003, had decided to hold in the first half  of 2004.  His delegation 
was willing to adopt the draft 2004 Work Program me with the addition of that bullet-point under 
technical co-operation and training. 
150. The representative of India  said that his delegation had no major difficulty with the draft 2004 
CTD Work Programme.  However, with respect to footnote 4 which referred to Paragraph 51 of the 
Doha Ministerial Declaration, he said that his delega tion preferred to have Paragraph 51 reflected as it 
was.  Members had earlier discussed what Paragr aph 51 meant, and since the Committee's Work 
Programme was a formal document, his delegati on preferred to see the actual language of 
Paragraph 51 reflected in the footnote.  WT/COMTD/M/49 
 Page 39 
 
 
 151. The 2004 CTD Work Programme was adopted  as amended.   
J. OTHER BUSINESS  
152. The representative of Canada  said that her delegation had made available to Members, at the 
meeting, a notification containing an addendum to th e Government of Canada's General Preferential 
Tariff (GPT) and Least-Developed Country Tariff (LDCT).  That notification informed Members that 
the Government of Canada had ex tended the GPT and LDCT by ten years until 30 June 2014 and had 
changed the list of beneficiaries.  As of 30 May 2002, Senegal had been designated a beneficiary of 
the LDCT, effective 24 July 2003 Mongolia had be en designated a beneficiary of the GPT, and 
effective 1 May 2004 the Government of Canada had withdrawn the entitlement to the GPT from the 
ten countries which had acceded to the European Union.  
153. The Chairman  suggested that the Committee took note of the notification and, as far as it 
related to LDCs, the Committee referred it to  the Sub-Committee on LDCs for substantive 
consideration and reporting back, according to th e reporting procedures agreed to at the 32nd Session 
of the CTD. 
154. It was so agreed . 
 
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