./.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/GC/W/195
2 June 1999
(99-2212)
General Council Original:  English
PREPARATIONS FOR THE 1999 MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
EC Approach to Duty-Free Market Ac cess for the Least-Developed Countries
Communication from the European Communities
The following communication, dated 28 May 1999, has been received from the Permanent
Delegation of the European Commission.
_______________
1. A new round should provide benefits to developing countries and assist their integration in
the multilateral trading system, via enhanced trade and investment flows.  The specific problems of
least-developed countries (LDCs) should be given particular attention.  This was already the case inGATT and now in WTO rules.  In this context, si gnificant efforts were focused on LDCs during the
two previous WTO Ministerial Conferences.  We must ensure that the momentum is maintained in the
next Ministerial and beyond.
2. Improved market access is a cornerstone of any effective policy to integrate the
least-developed countries in the world trading system and ensure that they have better opportunities to
share in the benefits accruing from liberalization.  The European Union is convinced that up front
action is needed in favour of the LDCs market access.
3. The EC has committed itself to offering tariff-free treatment for essentially all products from
LDCs already at the occasion of the High-Level Meeting on Integrated Initiatives for Least-
Developed Countries in October 1997.  We have at many occasions in the WTO called on other
developed countries to match the openness of our market and offer comparable market access to the
products of the least-developed countries.  The EC has also appealed to the most advanced developingcountries to consider making a contribution.  At the High-Level Symposium on Trade and
Development in March 1999, Sir Leon Brittan, the EC Vice-President responsible for trade policy, has
renewed this invitation to all industrialized countries and has specified that a commitment in this
sense should be endorsed already at Seattle.
4. The European Community thereby proposes that WTO Ministers meeting at Seattle at the end
of November 1999 for the third WTO Ministerial Conference enter into the commitment to ensure
duty-free market access no later than the end of the new round of negotiations for essentially all
products exported by the least-developed countries.
Most advanced developing countries should pledge to contribute as well.  They should
consider making a contribution to enhance the market access opportunities of the least-developedcountries, in particular by building on the considerable autonomous liberalization undertaken by many
developing countries.WT/GC/W/195
Page 2
5. The EC proposal, if adopted by WTO Members, would in itself be a major contribution to
ensuring preferential market access for the poorest countries.  In fact, WTO findings show that “the
bulk of LDCs' exports go to 23 main markets, mainly developed country markets; 60 per cent to the
European Union, Japan and the United States.  Thir ty four per cent of exports flow to emerging
markets in Latin America, East and South East Asia, and Southern Africa”.1
6. The commitment taken in Seattle could be implemented via autonomous measures, in
particular under GSP schemes, or via bilateral and/or multilateral regimes, and consideration should
be given to bindings, when appropriate.
7. It would be implemented progressively, but with in a target date, coinciding with the end of
the round of negotiations, that is three years from its launching.  The final elimination of duties on
products exported by the LDCs would in particular enhance their opportunities to gain share of the
markets for those products where they are more competitive.
8. Ministers would agree this measure of liberalization already in Seattle at the launching of a
new round.  In this sense, rather than being the result of an exchange of concessions, the commitment
would be based on the principle of the special and differentiated treatment as embodied in Part IV of
the GATT.
9. This proposal for duty-free market access for the LDCs would not, in any way, be the only
proposal that the EC intends to make to address issues of interest for the developing-country Members
of the WTO.  The EC will submit specific proposals addressing other elements, i.e. the supply-side
constraints of developing countries, under discussion in the preparatory process for the third
Ministerial meeting of Seattle.
__________
                                                     
1 WTO document WT/COMTD/LDC/W/11/Rev.1 of 14 December 1998.