WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/GC/46
11 July 2001
(01-3448)
General Council
ACTIONS TO INCREASE THE PARTICIPATION OF DEVELOPING
COUNTRY MEMBERS  IN THE WORK OF RELEVANT INTERNATIONAL
STANDARD-SETTING ORGANIZATIONS
Information from Financial Institutions
Report of the Director-General
1. You will recall that you had requested that I "explore with the relevant international standard-
setting organizations and relevant intergovernmental organizations financial and technical
mechanisms to assist the participation of developing countries in standard-setting activities".1  I have
previously reported to you regarding our consultations with the standard-setting organizations2, and
since we have established an on-going process, I will continue to report periodically on thiscollaboration.  This report is with respect to my contacts with the relevant intergovernmental
organizations which could provide financial assistance to developing countries.
2. In response to the General Council's request, I sent letters to the World Bank, the Asian
Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank and the
UN Development Programme.  I drew their attention to the fact that one of the principal provisions ofboth the TBT and SPS Agreements is to encourage governments to harmonize their national
requirements with international standards in order to facilitate trade.  I informed them that many
developing countries were concerned about their difficulty to effectively participate in the work of
international standardizing bodies, which was due in part to their lack of technical expertise and of
financial resources to attend meetings of these bodies.
3. I requested each of these organizations to provide information regarding the kind of technical
and financial assistance that they may already be providing to developing countries to facilitate theirparticipation in the work of international standard izing bodies, and of any planned activities in this
regard.  I also asked whether these organizations had scope to expand their assistance to developing
countries.  The responses I have received to date from the World Bank, the Inter-American
Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank and the Asian Development Bank are summarized
below.  To date, we have received no response from the UN Development Programme, despite havingsent them a reminder of our request.
World Bank
4. The World Bank  has an active programme of research and capacity building in the area of
standards, technical regulations, and trade.  This work centers on a programme in the World Bankdevelopment research group, supported by the Bank and the Trust Funds established by the United
Kingdom and the United States.  The World Bank also offers support through their lending operations
                                                     
1 WT/GC/M/59, Minutes of Meeting of 18 October 2000.
2 WT/GC/42 and WT7GC/45.WT/GC/46
Page 2
for infrastructure modernization, export promotion and policy reform initiatives in a number of
developing countries around the world.
5. It is estimated that in FY99 World Bank proj ect funding with direct and indirect goals of
support for infrastructures related to standards totaled US$ 419.2 million.  Standards-related projects
included goals such as:  (1) adoption of international conventions and directives relating to the
standardization and simplification of documents accompanying trade in goods and services;(2) investment in standards infrastructure, including metrology, calibration and laboratory
accreditation systems;  (3) assisting firms in the adoption of international quality standards (ISO
9000) and environmental management standards (ISO 14000);  (4) supporting access to business
information technology and providing advice on packaging and quality control;  and (5) government
regulatory reform projects in the health, safety, and environmental regimes across industry sectors.
6. The World Bank is committed to capacity-building initiatives in standards from a
development perspective, including work with trade-related objectives.  In order to assist the WTO aspart of a continuing dialogue on standards, the World Bank has proposed hosting a meeting on
"Standards, Trade, and Development".  The objectiv e of the meeting would be to allow for interested
international institutions and other groups, along with  the WTO, to systematically review current aid
to developing countries and discuss with senior officials creative proposals for meeting trade-related
objectives in this area over the long-term.
7. A more detailed understanding of the economic, institutional, and policy aspects of standards,
technical regulations and trade is central to the Bank's new work agenda.  In order to expand
understanding of these issues, the World Bank launched new work on international standards,
technical regulations, and trade policy in November 1999.  The overall goal of a three-year series of
initiatives centers on (1) increased understanding of the quantitative significance of standards andregulations as barriers to trade, and (2) analysis of trade policy aspects of government's technical
regulations, with particular emphasis on developing countries.  These issues are of particular
importance to developing countries as they seek to strengthen industrial performance, increase
agricultural production, and expand trade opportunities in the world markets.  A series of workshops
and a conference in 2002 to enhance dissemination of the research and policy recommendations fromthis part of the work programme is under consideration.
8. With additional resources, the Bank is prepared to develop educational tools and sponsor
training seminars on international standards and best practices in standards and regulatory reform.
The goal of this part of the work programme would be to provide direct assistance from the World
Bank to developing countries on international standards development systems, information onprogrammes available for modernization of standards infrastructure, and other topics related to
understanding the role of standards on development.
Inter-American Development Bank
9. In the area of standardization, the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) is currently
providing several types of support.  In particular, borrowing member countries can access a series of
instruments geared towards strengthening key institutional aspects of international trade and regionalintegration.  The IADB's support mechanisms include:  (1) regular or special credit programmes;  (2)
non-reimbursable national and regional technical cooperation programmes;  (3) financial support to
the private sector through the Inter-American Investment Corporation (IIC);  and (4) non-
reimbursable national and regional technical cooperation programmes geared towards the private
sector through the Multilateral Investment Fund (MIF).
10. The IADB has also recently established a "Trade Facility".  This is a special trade facility by
which borrowing member countries can obtain a credit line for up to US$ 5 million through fast-trackWT/GC/46
Page 3
procedures for the strengthening of their trade institutions.  To date several countries, including
Guatemala and Honduras, have taken advantage of this facility.  These programmes have heretofore
not included TBT and SPS-related projects in a very significant way.  The facility, nevertheless, is
broad and flexible in nature so as to allow for the consideration of support programmes in such areas.
Islamic Development Bank11. The Islamic Development Bank (IDB) has been providing technical assistance to member
countries since 1998.  Their main aim is to assist member countries in understanding the various
WTO agreements and in meeting their obligations.  The IDB is also giving special attention to
capacity building in member countries in the context of WTO.  For this purpose, the IDB has
organized various training courses, issue-specific workshops and seminars.  A total of 34 programmes
have been implemented for the relevant officials in member countries. The IDB has made use of
resource persons provided by the WTO in some of its WTO related technical assistance activities.  Inaddition, the IDB is focusing its activities on preparing member countries for future multilateral trade
negotiations.  To date, the IDB has organized four seminars related to the SPS and TBT Agreements.
Asian Development Bank
12. [The Asian Development Bank has indicated that they will provide us soon with a substantive
response regarding their SPS- and TBT-related activities, which I will promptly share with you.]
__________