RESTRICTED
WORLD TRADE WT/GC/M/17
10January 1997
ORGANIZATION(97-0052)
GENERAL COUNCIL
26November 1996
MINUTES OFMEETING
Held intheCentre William Rappard
on26November 1996
Chairman: Mr.W.Rossier (Switzerland)
Subjects discussed: Page
1. Committee onBudget, Finance andAdministration 1
- Report oftheCommittee 1
2. Observer status forinternational intergovernmental organizations 3
1. Committee onBudget, Finance andAdministration
- Report oftheCommittee (WT/BFA/28)
MrYokota (Japan), Chairman oftheCommittee, introducing theCommittee 'sreport onits
meetings on24September, 8October and13November 1996, saidthatmostofthepoints ofthisreport,
apart from therecommendation regarding the1997 budget estimates, hadbeen presented inthe
Committee 'sannual overview ofactivities for1996.1TheCommittee hadconsidered various
administrative up-dates andprogress reports, theassessment ofcontributions tothe1996 budget and
advances totheWorking Capital Fund onnewWTO Members, budget estimates for1997, andthe
Director-General 'sfinancial report onthe1995 accounts oftheGATT/WTO andthereport ofthe
External Auditor thereon.
With regard totheDirector-General 'sfinancial report onthe1995 accounts, andthereport
oftheExternal Auditor thereon, theCommittee hadrecommended thattheGeneral Council approve
theaudited accounts for1995andconvey totheExternal Auditor itsthanks forthevaluable assistance
provided intheaudit ofthese accounts (paragraph 4ofWT/BFA/28).
With regard tothe1997 Budget Estimates, theCommittee hadundertaken aline-by-line
examination oftheproposed budget andhadheard explanations from Secretariat officials. The
Committee hadagreed torecommend that,given theindependent nature oftheAppellate Body, and
inorder tohavemore transparency intheallocation ofresources, thebudget estimates oftheAppellate
Body anditsSecretariat should beestablished separately fromthatoftheWTO Secretariat. Also, given
thatthenumber ofcases brought totheAppellate Body forreview might varyconsiderably fromone
yeartoanother, thefinancing oftheAppellate Body should bedivided intotwocategories: (i)permanent
1WT/BFA/29.WT/GC/M/17
Page2
costs, and(ii)variable costs. Thepermanent costsformed partoftheregular budget procedure. The
variable costsshould becharged against anAppellate Body Operating Fundearmarked forthatpurpose.
The1997 budget estimates fortheWTO Secretariat andthepermanent costs fortheAppellate Body
anditsSecretariat amounted toSwF115,692,850, i.e.SwF114,111,750 andSwF1,581,100,
respectively. The1997 budget estimates relating tothevariable costs fortheAppellate Body andits
Secretariat amounted toSwF2,105,900. Thefinancing ofthisamount should befromanOperating
Fund established byanextra-ordinary expenditure inthe1996budget intheamount ofSwF2,500,000.
Therecommended 1997 budget estimates therefore showed adecrease ofSwF413,000 from
theoriginal proposal ofSwF114,524,750 fortheWTO Secretariat, andadecrease ofSwF733,000
fromtheoriginal proposal ofSwF4,420,000 fortheAppellate Body anditsSecretariat, permanent
andvariablecostsincluded.TheCommitteethereforesubmittedtotheGeneralCouncilforconsideration
andapproval thedraftresolution contained inparagraph 20ofitsreport inWT/BFA/28.
Withregard tothefinancing ofthevariable costsfortheAppellate Body thathehadjustreferred
to,ithadbeenunderstood intheBudget Committee thattheamount ofSwF2,500,000 might berevised
upwards when, some timeearly nextyear, onewould know forcertain howmuch thebudget surplus
forthecurrent yearwould be.Clearly, thiswould bedoneafterdeliberations intheCommittee and
subsequent approval bytheGeneral Council.
Astotheassessment ofcontributions tothe1996budget andadvances totheWorking Capital
Fund onnewMembers, theCommittee hadmade recommendations regarding Angola, Bulgaria, Chad,
Gambia,PapuaNewGuinea,Rwanda,theSolomonIslandsandtheUnitedArabEmirates(paragraphs23
to30).
Hethenrecalled thattheprincipal oftheWorking Capital Fund hadbeenincreased toalevel
ofSwF4million in1988. Theprincipal hadincreased fromSwF4million asat31December 1988
toSwF6.5million asat31December 1995duetocontributions made bynewMembers andinterest
yielded bytheFund itself. However, therelative sizeoftheFund inrelation tothebudget hadbeen
diminishing. Inthecourse of1997, therefore, onemight lookintothedesirability ofanupward revision
oftheWorking Capital Fund.
Turning tothecostofinterpretation formeetings, hesaidhewished todraw totheattention
ofMembers thatcosts wereinvolved forsimultaneous interpretation services formeetings thatwere
scheduled butsubsequently cancelled atshortnotice. Adocument recently circulated fortheinformation
ofMembers (WT/GC/W/47), contained thenumber ofinterpreters thathadalready beenhired for
suchmeetings, andforwhom theWTO hadhadtopay.
TheGeneral Council took note ofthestatement, approved theCommittee 'sspecific
recommendations inparagraphs 4,20,23,24,25,26,27,28,29and30ofitsreport inWT/BFA/28,
andfurther approved thedraftResolution referred toinparagraph 20.TheGeneral Council thenadopted
thereport oftheCommittee inWT/BFA/28, including therecommendations contained therein and
theResolution ontherevised expenditure oftheWTO in1997 andtheways andmeans tomeetthat
expenditure.WT/GC/M/17
Page3
2. Observer status forinternational intergovernmental organizations
TheChairman, speaking under "Other Business", recalled that,inaccordance withtheadhoc
arrangementsforobserverstatusforinternationalintergovernmentalorganizationsapprovedataninformal
meeting ofHeads ofDelegations on16March 19952,andasagreed attheGeneral Council meeting
on7November 1996, thefollowing organizations hadbeeninvited asobservers tothepresent meeting:
United Nations, UNCTAD, IMF, World Bank, FAO, WIPO andOECD. Itwashisunderstanding
that,pending agreement ontheorganizations tobeaccorded observer status intheGeneral Council,
inaccordance withtheguidelines forsuchstatus agreed on18July3,theabove organizations would
alsobeinvited tothenextmeeting.
TheGeneral Council tooknoteofthisinformation.
2SeeWT/GC/M/3, Item 3.
3SeeWT/L/161, Annex 3.