WORLD TRADE G/L/198
17November 1997
ORGANIZATION(97-5029)
REPORT (1997) OFTHE WORKING PARTY ON
STATE TRADING ENTERPRISES
I. Organization ofthework oftheWorking Party
1. TheWorking Party onState Trading Enterprises wasestablished bytheCouncil forTrade
inGoods atitsmeeting on20February 1995 pursuant toparagraph 5oftheUnderstanding onthe
Interpretation ofArticle XVII oftheGeneral Agreement onTariffs andTrade 1994 (hereinafter "the
Understanding"). Membership oftheWorking Party isopentoallMembers indicating theirwishto
serve onit.Observer governments intheGeneral Council oftheWTO haveobserver status inthe
Working Party. During theperiod under review, Mr. Peter May (Australia) and
Mr.Jacques Teyssier d'Orfeuil (France) respectively served asChairman oftheWorking Party.
2. Themandate oftheWorking Party, assetoutinparagraph 5oftheUnderstanding, is:(1)to
review notifications andcounter-notifications onstatetrading; (2)toreview, inthelight ofthe
notifications received, theadequacy ofthequestionnaire onstatetrading (BISD 9S/184-185) andthe
coverage ofstatetrading enterprises notified under paragraph 1oftheUnderstanding; and(3)todevelop
anillustrative listshowing thekinds ofrelationships between governments andenterprises, andthe
kinds ofactivities, engaged inbythese enterprises, which mayberelevant forthepurposes of
Article XVII.
3. Thisreport issubmitted under paragraph 5oftheUnderstanding. Itsetsouttheactivities
oftheWorking Party during theperiod under review (November 1996 -November 1997).
4. Participants intheWorking Party'smeetings todateare:Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh,
Brazil, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic,
Egypt,ElSalvador,EuropeanCommunitiesandtheirmemberStates,HongKong1,Honduras,Hungary,
India, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, NewZealand,
Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Singapore, Slovak Republic, South Africa,
Switzerland,Thailand,Turkey,UnitedStates,Uruguay,VenezuelaandZambia.China,ChineseTaipei,
Russian Federation andVietnam participated asobservers.
5. TheWorking Party held three formal meetings during theperiod under review: on
18February 1997, 18July1997and14November 1997. TheMinutes oftheWorking Party'smeetings
arecontained indocuments G/STR/M/7 -9.Inaddition, theChairman convened seven informal
meetings withtheobjective ofadvancing work onthetasks mandated totheWorking Party inthe
Understanding.
II. Notification andreview ofMembers 'statetrading activities
6. AllMembers arerequired under Article XVII ofGATT 1994 andparagraph 1ofthe
Understanding tosubmit annually notifications oftheirstatetrading activities. Inthefirstandfourth
years, "new andfull"notifications arerequired, while intheintervening years anupdating notification
1Thename ofthisMember haschanged to"Hong Kong, China" asfrom 1July1997.G/L/198
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istobemade indicating anychanges since thefullnotification. Ateachofthethree meetings, the
Chairmanmadeastatementconcerningtheneedfortimelycompliancewiththenotificationrequirements
under Article XVII andtheUnderstanding.
7. Since thefirstrequest for"new andfull"notifications ofstatetrading enterprises wascirculated
(inMarch 1995), suchnotifications havebeenreceived from 55Members, counting theEuropean
Communities andtheirmember States asone. Updating notifications for1996 havebeenreceived
from 28Members, andfor1997 from 16Members. (seetheAnnex tothisreport)
8. Atitsmeeting on18February 1997, theWorking Party conducted areview of:(1)newand
fullnotifications from Côted'Ivoire, ElSalvador, Iceland, Israel, Jamaica, Slovenia andTunisia;
updating notifications from Colombia, Indonesia, Japan, Slovak Republic, South Africa, Thailand,
PeruandtheUnited Arab Emirates. Anumber ofMembers raised detailed questions onsome ofthe
notifications, bothnewandupdating, andtheChairman commented thatsomeofthesequestions seemed
ofthenature ofcounter-notifications, ofwhich todatenonehadbeenmade.
9. Atitsmeeting on18July1997, theWorking Party conducted areview ofnewandfull
notifications from Botswana, Bulgaria, Mexico, Namibia andVenezuela, aswellasofupdating
notifications from Hungary, Korea, Mauritius, Pakistan andthePhilippines. Onedelegation raised
theissueofthedelay inwritten responses towritten questions submitted onthenotifications, andthe
Chairman stressed theneedforthewritten question-and-answer process toproceed inatimely fashion.
Thequestion andanswer documents arecarried intheseries G/STR/Q1/---.
10. Atitsmeeting on14November 1997, theWorking Party conducted areview ofnewandfull
notifications fromLiechtenstein andZambia, andreviewed updating notifications fromthefollowing
Members:Argentina,Canada,Chile,NewZealand,Norway,Peru,Romania,SouthAfrica,Switzerland,
Thailand, Turkey andtheUnited States. Anumber ofquestions wereputonseveral ofthenotifications,
andthere wasanexchange ofviews onwhether ornot,under certain circumstances, thegranting of
licences under tariff ratequotas mayconstitute anexclusive orspecial rightorprivilege inthesense
ofArticle XVII ortheUnderstanding.
III. Mandated work programme oftheWorking Party
11. Regarding itsmandated work programme, theWorking Party decided atitsmeeting in
February 1996 thatsubstantive work ontherevision ofthe1960 questionnaire onstatetrading and
thedevelopment ofanillustrative listwould betaken upininformal consultations opentoanyMember
wishing toparticipate.
12. Atthemeeting on18February, theChairman reported totheWorking Party ontheinformal
consultation hehadjustheldonthetwoissues. Hesaidthatwhile therewerestillproblems toresolve,
itappeared thattheGroup wasclose toreaching consensus onadrafttextofarevised questionnaire
(subsequently circulated asG/STR/W/30/Rev.1) thatcould beputtotheWorking Party andconsidered
foradoption. Healsoreported thatwhile work ontheillustrative listhadnotkeptpacewiththaton
thequestionnaire, therewereproposals onthetableanditwashoped thataworking textofanillustrative
listcould soonbedeveloped.
13. Atthemeeting on18July, theChairman reported totheWorking Party onthetwoinformal
consultations hehadheldonthetwoissues. Hesaidthattheearlier prognosis forconsensus onthe
draftrevised questionnaire hadproved tobetoooptimistic. While good progress hadbeenmade on
some parts ofthetext,other parts -particularly thetypeofstatistical information toberequested in
thequestionnaire -were proving quite difficult. Hewould continue theinformal consultations andG/L/198
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wasencouraged byparticipants 'commitment toresolve theoutstanding differences. Healsorecalled
theneedforparallel work ontheillustrative listandthequestionnaire.
14. Atthemeeting on14November, itwasstressed byanumber ofMembers thatthedevelopment
ofanillustrative listshould assist inclarifying whatconstituted anexclusive orspecial rightorprivilege
inthesense ofArticle XVII andtheUnderstanding. TheChairman made aprogress report onthe
informal consultation hehadheldonthetwoissues. Hesaidthatgood progress hasbeenmade on
therevised draftquestionnaire andthatitseemed possible toreach agreement onafinaltextinthe
nearfuture. Work wasalsoaccelerating onanillustrative list,andaconsolidated drafttextwould
beconsidered atthenextinformal meeting. Hewould continue hisinformal consultations andhoped
toseebothtasks completed bytheearly partof1998, inorder toenable arevised questionnaire to
beputinplace forthesubmission ofnewandfullnotifications duein1998.G/L/198
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ANNEX
NOTIFICATIONS2SUBMITTED BYWTO MEMBERS UNDER
ARTICLE XVII:4(a) OFGATT 1994 AND PARAGRAPH 1OFTHE
WTO UNDERSTANDING ONTHE INTERPRETATION OFARTICLE XVII
Status asof10November 1997
Member NewandFullNotification Updating
Notification
(1996)Updating
Notification
(1997)
Angola
Antigua andBarbuda
Argentina X X X
Australia X X
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados X
Belize
Benin
Bolivia
Botswana X
Brazil X
Brunei Darussalam
Bulgaria X
Burkina Faso
Burundi
Cameroon
Canada X X X
Central African Republic
Chad
Chile X X X
Colombia X X
Congo
Costa Rica X
2An"x"indicates thenotification hasbeenmade. Where a"new andfull"notification wassubmitted
laterthanthedeadline forupdating notifications, itwasconsidered asresponding alsototherelevant
request forupdating notifications.G/L/198
Page5
Member NewandFullNotification Updating
Notification
(1996)Updating
Notification
(1997)
Côted'Ivoire X
Cuba
Cyprus X
Czech Republic X
Democratic Republic oftheCongo
Djibouti
Dominica
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Egypt
ElSalvador X
European Community X X
Fiji
Gabon
Gambia X
Ghana
Grenada
Guatemala
Guinea Bissau
Guinea, Rep. of X
Guyana
Haiti
Honduras X
Hong Kong X X X
Hungary X X
Iceland X
India X
Indonesia X X
Israel X
Jamaica X
Japan X X X
Kenya
Korea X X
Kuwait
LesothoG/L/198
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Member NewandFullNotification Updating
Notification
(1996)Updating
Notification
(1997)
Liechtenstein X X X
Macau X
Madagascar
Malawi
Malaysia X
Maldives
Mali
Malta X
Mauritania
Mauritius X X X
Mexico X X
Mongolia
Morocco X
Mozambique
Myanmar
Namibia X
NewZealand X X X
Nicaragua
Niger
Nigeria
Norway X X X
Pakistan X X X
Panama
Pap.NewGuinea
Paraguay
Peru X X X
Philippines X X
Poland X
Qatar
Romania X X X
Rwanda
Saint Kitts&Nevis
Saint Lucia
Saint Vincent &Grenadines
SenegalG/L/198
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Member NewandFullNotification Updating
Notification
(1996)Updating
Notification
(1997)
Sierra Leone
Singapore X X
Slovak Republic X X
Slovenia X
Solomon Islands
South Africa X X X
SriLanka
Suriname
Swaziland
Switzerland X X X
Tanzania
Thailand X X X
Togo
Trinidad &Tobago
Tunisia X
Turkey X X X
Uganda
United Arab Emirates X X
United States X X X
Uruguay X
Venezuela X
Zambia X
Zimbabwe
Total*55/117 28/117 16/117
*The denominator used here (117) reflects thefact that foreach obligation, theECsubmits asingle notification that covers all
15member States. The official total membership oftheWTO (132) includes theECplus the15individual member States.