RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/COMTD/M/41
26 September 2002
(02-5180)
Committee on Trade and Development
Forty-first Session
NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 1 JULY 2002
Chairman:  H.E. Mr. Toufiq Ali (Bangladesh)
A. A DOPTION OF THE DRAFT AGENDA ...........................................................................................2
B. O BSERVERS ............................................................................................................................... ..2
(i) Request for attendance of ad hoc observers ...............................................................................2
(ii) 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. T ECHNICAL COOPERATION AND TRAINING ................................................................................3
(i) Statement by the Chairman of the Committee on Budget, Finance and Administration
in Relation to Pledges Announced and Payments Received to Finance the
Implementation of the Coordinated WTO Secretariat Annual Technical Assistance
Plan (WT/BFA/ SPEC/77).......................................................................................................... ..3
(ii) Implementation of the 2002 Technical Assistance Plan:  Report by the Secretariat
(CRP/1) ........................................................................................................................ ...............4
(iii) Advanced Training Course for Government Officials on the WTO Trade
Negotiations:  Update by the Secretaria t (CRP/1) .....................................................................4
(iv) Activities of the Tr aining Institute (CRP/2) ............................................................................... .4
(v) Preparations/Procedures for the 2003 Plan:  Information by the Secretariat (CRP/1).............4
F. R EPORT ON THE 35TH SESSION OF THE JOINT ADVISORY GROUP ON THE
INTERNATIONAL TRADE CENTRE UNCTAD/WTO..................................................................15
I. T HE NEW PARTNERSHIP FOR AFRICA 'S DEVELOPMENT :  PRESENTATION BY THE
NEPAD S ECRETARIAT ..............................................................................................................18
D. N OTIFICATION UNDER THE ENABLING CLAUSE - NOTIFICATION FROM INDIA AND
SRI LANKA (WT/COMTD/N/16)..............................................................................................20
E. G ENERALIZED SYSTEM OF PREFERENCES ................................................................................22
(i) Notification By Japan (WT/COMTD/N/2/Add.11)....................................................................22
(ii) Notification By Switzerl and (WT/COMTD/N/7/Add.1).............................................................22
G. P ARTICIPATION OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES IN WORLD TRADE
(WT/COMTD/W/100) ..............................................................................................................2 4WT/COMTD/M/41
Page 2
H. P ARAGRAPH 51 O F THE DOHA DECLARATION ON IDENTIFYING AND DEBATING
DEVELOPMENTAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS OF THE NEGOTIATIONS , IN
ORDER TO HELP ACHIEVE THE OBJECTIVE OF HAVING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT
APPROPRIATELY REFLECTED ....................................................................................................25
Submission by the European Communities ...............................................................................25
(WT/COMTD/W/99 – WT/C TE/W/208 - TN/TE/W/3) ...............................................................25
J. C ONSIDERATION OF ARTICLE XVIII A S MANDATED BY PARAGRAPH  12 O F THE
DOHA MINISTERIAL DECLARATION (WT/MIN(01)/DEC/1), T HE DECISION ON
IMPLEMENTATION -RELATED ISSUES AND CONCERNS (WT/MIN(01)/17), A ND IN
CONJUNCTION WITH TIRET 3 OF JOB(01)/152/R EV.1 O F 27 O CTOBER 2001 .........................27
K. E LECTRONIC COMMERCE ..........................................................................................................29
L. O THER BUSINESS ......................................................................................................................31
A. ADOPTION OF THE DRAFT AGENDA
1. The Chairman said that the draft agenda for the meeting was contained in airgram
WTO/AIR/1825/Rev.1 of 25 June 2002.  He proposed a slight modification of the Agenda and
suggested that Members dealt with the report of the Joint Advisory Group (JAG) on the International
Trade Centre UNCTAD/WTO (ITC) under item F after concluding the discussion on Technical
Cooperation and Training under item C.  That would enable the guest speakers, the Chairman of the
JAG, Ambassador Girard and the ITC Executive Director, Mr. Bélisle, to be present when Membersdiscussed agenda item F.  He said that he had been informed by the Secretariat that sub-item (4) on
training under item C would relate to all WTO training activities.  It would not be limited to those of
the Training Institute.
2. The representative of Canada said that her delegation wished to add an item under "Other
Business" regarding duty-free and quota-free market access for LDCs as well as details about an
African programme that her government had developed subsequent to the G-8 meeting.
3. The agenda was adopted as amended.
B. OBSERVERS
(i) Request for attendance of ad hoc observers
4. The Chairman recalled that in previous sessions of the CTD, Members had agreed to invite a
number of intergovernmental organizations on an ad hoc meeting-by-meeting basis.  Those were the
Arab Maghreb Union (AMU);  the Economic Commun ity of West African States (ECOWAS);  the
Economic Cooperation Organisation (ECO);  the Inter- Arab Investment Guarantee Corporation;  the
Islamic Development Bank (IDB);  the Organisation of African Unity (OAU);  the Organisation of the
Islamic Conference (OIC);  the South Centre;  the South Pacific Forum;  the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP);  the West Afri can Economic and Monetary Union (WAEMU);
and the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO).  He proposed that, in accordance with the
CTD procedures, those Organizations be invited to the next formal meeting.
5. It was so agreed.WT/COMTD/M/41
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(ii) 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
6. The Chairman said that at previous meetings the Committee had had before it a number of
outstanding requests for observer status.  Those came from the League of Arab States, OPEC, the
Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting, the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie and
the Common Fund for Commodities.  The positions of delegations were well known and on the
record.  He proposed that, unless there had been any recent change of position, Members revert to
those requests at the next formal CTD meeting.
7. It was so agreed.
C. TECHNICAL COOPERATION AND TRAINING
(i) Statement by the Chairman of the Committ ee on Budget, Finance and Administration in
Relation to Pledges Announced and Payments Rece ived to Finance the Implementation of the
Coordinated WTO Secretariat Annual Technical Assistance Plan (WT/BFA/SPEC/77)
8. The Chairman said that the first sub-item under item C on Technical Cooperation and
Training was a statement by the Chairman of the Committee on Budget, Finance and Administration
(BFA) in relation to pledges annou nced and payments received to finance the implementation of the
Coordinated WTO Secretariat Annual Technical Assistance Plan.  Further to the decision of the
General Council in December 2001, the CTD and the Committee on Budget, Finance and
Administration (BFA) were jointly responsible for monitoring the level of resources and expensesrelated to the execution of the Plan.  Mr. McMillan, Chairman of the Committee on Budget, Finance
and Administration, would therefore give a report to the CTD.
9. Mr. McMillan, chairman of the Committee on Budget, Finance and Administration, said that
he would report on funds received against the Doha Development Agenda Global Trust Fund
(DDAGTF).  He recalled that the General Council on 19 and 20 December had approved the terms ofreference for the DDAGTF which were contained in the report of the BFA (WT/BFA/56).  In
particular, the General Council had approved a targ et at that point of CHF15 million for the Trust
Fund for the year 2002.  That target was phased in three steps.  First, there was a target of 25 per cent
of that funding ,about CHF3.75 million, to be deposited in the WTO bank account by the end of 2001.
The second milestone of 75 per cent, or CHF11.25 million, should have been met in March 2002.  At
the end of June the full amount of CHF15 million shou ld have been received.  He said that the BFA
also had created a buffer account of a further CHF1 million out of the 2000 surplus account to covertemporary shortfalls in the Trust Fund in case the contributions did not keep pace with the expenses of
the various activities.  Since then the CTD had approved the Coordinated Annual Technical
Assistance Plan for 2002.  The Secretariat had estimat ed in that Plan a total cost of CHF17.3 million
after the deduction of an ambitious amount of cost sharing of CHF5 million with other institutions,
including UNCTAD and a number of regional development banks.  The Pledging Conference held on11 March had produced an unprecedented level of pledges from Members.
1  Donors had announced
pledges totalling CHF21.3 million to the DDAGTF for 2002 and a further CHF 4 million of related
funding earmarked to specific objectives.  He said because that had been put in place almost three
months into 2002, it had taken the BFA a little time to deliver on its commitments.  Since the last time
he had reported to the CTD on 25 April 2002, the situation had dramatically improved and the June
                                                     
1 The precise figures were available in document WT/BFA/SPEC/77 which had been distributed to the
CTD.WT/COMTD/M/41
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deadline had almost been met.  Document WT/B FA/SPEC/77 showed that the WTO had received a
total of CHF14.7 million by 25 June.  That change over the last three months was highly encouraging.
He thanked all donors that had helped meet that target.
10. However, he went on to say that Members should not be complacent as there was another
CHF6.6 million pledged for 2002 which had not been remitted.  He recalled that there was a clear linkdrawn in the Doha Ministerial Declaration between availability of technical assistance and agreement
to deal with the issues set out there.  Those funds needed to be received soon if the Secretariat was to
deliver an ambitious plan on time.  He urged all donors who had not yet done so to transfer their
promised contributions as quickly as possible.
11. The representative of Australia brought to the Committee's attention her Government's
contribution of AUD460,000 which had been paid in full.  Her delegation's support for the DDAGTF
was in addition to the AITIC contribution of AUD500,000 and the successful delivery of a trade
policy training course for African trade negoti ators which was run in cooperation with the
Government of South Africa in May 2002.  That training course was delivered to 25 participants from
16 African countries including seven LDCs and two WTO non-resident Members.  Her Government
would provide AUD25 million of trade-related  technical assistance during the 2002-2003 financial
year.  Overall, her delegation was pleased with the implementation of the 2002 Technical AssistancePlan including the advanced training courses for Government Officials and activities of the WTO
Training Institute.  Her delegation commended the Secretariat on the transparency of its reporting
process.  She trusted that the ongoing reporting provided would assist the Secretariat and the
Membership to fine tune the 2003 Plan, thereby allowing the WTO technical assistance strategy to be
continually improved.  Her delegation was especially appreciative of the work being done with otherorganizations, particularly the regional development banks.  She requested information on three points
so as to clarify the situation and to possibly identify areas where Members could make a contribution
to the process.  Those included the types of assistance being provided on an ad-hoc basis, the level of
response to the call for requests for technical assistance in 2003, and the issues that the WTO was
having problems resolving with other agencies.  It was in the interest of all WTO Members to makethe technical assistance strategy as effective and efficient as possible.  Her delegation would be happy
to look at ways of making that possible, including through action in other organizations.
12. The Committee took note of the presentation made by the Chairman of the Committee on
BFA and the statement made.
(ii) Implementation of the 2002 Technical Assistance Plan:  Report by the Secretariat (CRP/1)
(iii) Advanced Training Course for Government Officials on the WTO Trade Negotiations:
Update by the Secretariat (CRP/1)
(iv) Activities of the Training Institute (CRP/2)
(v) Preparations/Procedures for the 2003 Plan:  Information by the Secretariat (CRP/1)
13. The Chairman invited Deputy Director-General  Ravier to introduce all four remaining
subitems at the same time.  He said that the content of Mr. Ravier's presentation was available in two
conference documents with the symbol CRP/1 for technical cooperation and CRP/2 for trainingactivities.  He reiterated that the item on training dealt not only with the activities of the WTO
Training Institute but all WTO training activities.
14. Deputy Director-General Mr. Ravier said that the first conference room paper CRP/1,
prepared by the Secretariat was circulated on 26 June, an extract of which was available for Members.
That document intended to summarise the status of the implementation of the 2002 TechnicalWT/COMTD/M/41
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Assistance Plan and covered a number of specific points on technical co-operation activities that had
been raised by delegations during the last CTD meeting.  The paper covered eight points.
15. The first point was about the implementation of the 2002 Technical Assistance Plan.  What
Members needed to keep in mind was that, as of 30 June, a total of 261 activities had been
undertaken, including 185 planned activities.  That was 36 per cent of the activities in the 2002Technical Assistance Plan.  There was a discrepancy between planned activities and activities actually
implemented.  That discrepancy was due to the ad-hoc requests.  He said that he would not wish to
enter into the discussion on ad-hoc versus planned activities.  The number of ad-hoc requests were so
substantial that it might prevent the Secretariat from having an efficient management policy.  Ad-hoc
activities went against sound management and obliged the Secretariat to take difficult decisions in
order to fulfil the activities in due time.  The Director General had recently taken the decision to
recruit some professionals on yearly contracts to help the Secretariat deliver technical assistanceactivities.  That should allow the Secretariat to keep  to the Plan and enable it to present to Members,
by the end of the year, an implementation ratio close to one hundred percent.
16. The second point related to the cooperation with regional development banks.  He said that
the first meeting with heads of regional development banks had been convened by the
Director-General on 3 May 2002 in Geneva.  Participants in that meeting had reached anunderstanding to maintain the strategic partnership between the WTO and regional development
banks as seen in Annex I of the conference room paper CRP/1.  So far, collaboration had been
formalised with the Arab Monetary Fund, the Asian Development Bank, the Inter-American
Development Bank and the Islamic Development Bank.  The Secretariat was currently working
towards setting up the same kind of Memorandum of  Understanding with other regional development
banks, notably the African Development Bank.
17. The third point covered the questions of mainstreaming trade through Ministerial trade
conferences and experience had been gained with a trade ministers' Conference organised by the
Inter-American Development Bank with the collaboration of the WTO in February 2002.  That
Conference showed a way to enhance the unders tanding of the concept of mainstreaming trade
policies into global economic development policies in developing, developed and transition
economies.  He said that the Secretariat hoped to institutionalize that kind of format in partnership
with the regional development banks he had me ntioned.  The WTO Secretariat would work with
finance and trade ministries in various developing country regions to ensure that trade was, and
continued to be, mainstreamed into development plans and strategies for poverty reduction.  So far,
two ministerial conferences involving trade and fina nce officials had been organised, one in Tbilisi,
Georgia in May 2002 and the other in Zagreb, Croatia in June 2002.
18. The fourth point related to the establishment of the Doha Development Agenda Database on
Trade-Related Technical Assistance and Capacity-Building.  He said that it was a joint exercise
between the WTO and the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD and the idea was to set
up a database that would answer the  question of who did what.  The database was based on matrices
and its main unit was the "country file".  The idea was to develop a matrix for each country consistingof lines containing the different technical assistance activities and columns showing which activity
was undertaken by what agency in the field of trade related technical assistance.  One important step
had been to reach a common definition of those activities, and that work had already been completed.
He said the work was going well and a demonstration of the main features of the database would be
organised for the high-level meeting on technical assistance for senior officials on 16 July.  Therewould also be a demonstration at the next Trade Negotiations Committee on 19 July.
19. The fifth point related to Inter-Agency Cooperation.  He said that despite the fact that the
paragraph on inter-agency cooperation in document CRP/1 was short, cooperation was at the core ofWT/COMTD/M/41
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the Secretariat's activities and was functioning efficiently both within the frameworks that had been
set up with a number of inter-governmental organizations and on a day-to-day basis.
20. The sixth point related to the Report of the Pledging Conference.  He said that Members had
seen that WT/COMTD/37/Rev.1  reflected the comments made by delegations.
21. The seventh point concerned the Doha Devel opment Agenda Advanced Training Courses.
He said he would revert to that at a later time when speaking on the training activities.  Annex II of
document CRP/1 showed where Members stood on the Advanced Training Courses for Trade Policy
Officials.  It was an undertaking that was consid ered in Annex I of the 2002 Technical Assistance
Plan.  The programme for those advanced training courses would be jointly delivered in a tri-party
relationship between the WTO, Academic Centres of Excellence, Research Institutions, Policy
Oriented Think Thanks, and Regional Development Ba nks.  The first of those two-week courses had
been organised in June 2002 in the Western Hemisphere with the collaboration of the Organisation ofAmerican States and Georgetown University to the benefit of Latin American Countries.  Other
courses would follow according to the plan that appeared in Annex II.
22. The final point was with respect to item C (v) of the agenda on the 2003 Technical Assistance
Plan.  He recalled that the Secretariat had requested all delegations to forward their priority requests
for 2003 to the Secretariat by 31 July 2002, so as to allow the WTO Secretariat to submit thedraft 2003 Technical Assistance Plan immediately after the summer break.  The 2003 Plan would be
drafted in August.  However, that depended enti rely on delegations' inputs.  He reminded Members,
observers and international organizations of the initial announcement made at the Fortieth Session of
the CTD on 25 April.  The draft 2003 Technical Assistance Plan would be submitted to the CTD for
authorisation in October 2002.  A note on the financial implications of the 2003 Plan would besubmitted to the BFA Committee in November 2002.  A pledging conference would be held in
December 2002/January 2003.
23. He went on to say conference room paper CRP/2 contained a list of all the training activities
offered by the Secretariat as a whole in 2002.  The presentation in a single document should provide
Members with information on all the WTO's training activities.  There were three categories ofactivities. Those held in Geneva, long-distance training activities and field-based activities at the
regional level.  There were five types of Geneva-based activities .  The first four lines of the table in
CRP/2 covered trade policy courses organized in Geneva, which lasted for a period of 12 weeks.
They were the main pillar of the training provided by the WTO Training Institute.  The 19
th training
course, in English, had ended in April for the majority of the participants with the exception of those
from the Commonwealth.  The Training Institute and the Commonwealth Secretariat had organized
two extra weeks of training for the part icipants from the Commonwealth.  The 19th course had been
immediately followed by the 20th course, in Spanish, which would end at the end of July.  For the first
time, the Training Institute would hold two parallel trade policy courses beginning in
September 2002.  Those would be held in English in the two new training rooms that were being built
on the fourth floor of the WTO building.  Line five and six of the table showed the WTO introduction
courses for LDCs, which lasted for three weeks.  The first such course given by the Institute had beenheld in English in March 2002.  The programme and the training material had been updated and
through a strengthening of cooperation with the International Trade Centre (ITC), a concrete hands-on
approach had been used to attempt to address the specific interests of LDCs.  That type of approach
would be used for the second course in French to be held in November 2002.  The third type of
training involved the specialized courses on rules and procedures for dispute settlement, each lastingone week.  Delegations were already familiar with those courses.  The training programme and
material for that activity, which was conducted with the cooperation of the Legal Affairs Division and
the Secretariat of the Appellate Body, had been partially modified.  The fourth element of training
involved the WTO induction days which were mainly intended for new arrivals to Geneva.  Two of
those had already been carried out, one in February and one in May.  A third one would be held inWT/COMTD/M/41
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mid-September.  The fifth element of training concerned the training of trainers.  The first phase of
the programme, launched in the spring would continue through the fall.  The programme already
seemed to be yielding fruitful results which related to a qualitative change in the approach to training
carried out by the collaborators from the Secretariat.  The second phase would take place near the end
of the year and was currently being prepared by the Secretariat.  That would enable the Secretariat toaddress the needs of its training partners in the developing countries themselves.  He said that in the
CTD Members had always said that the Secretariat had to improve the quality of trainers so that those
following the training activities could benefit from the higher quality of the trainers' work.  That type
of activity only made sense if the training for trainers could be broadened to reach those in developing
countries, so that there could be teams of trainers in the countries which were benefitting from the
WTO training programmes.
24. He went on to speak about the other two categories of activities, the distance learning
activities and the activities in the field.  There were two types of distance learning.  The first was
video conferencing where the Training Institute, in close cooperation with the World Bank, had taken
part in five conferences held simultaneously in Geneva and Washington and four other sites in
developing countries.  To date there had been tw enty hours of training given in twenty developing
country partners, using the telecommunications technology and the infrastructure set up by the WorldBank as part of its "Global Development Learning Network" programme.  The second type of
distance learning was the new online courses.  After several months of designing the courses, the
Training Institute had initiated an introductory course to the WTO and its fundamental principles,
which was currently available on the Internet in English.  The participants were guided by tutors
which made the courses truly interactive.  It was still a pilot project in which around 50 nationalofficials from 30 developing countries took part.  The lessons to be learnt from that pilot project
would enable the Secretariat in 2003, to launch a se ries of Internet-based interactive courses in the
three official languages of the WTO on various subjects.  He said that the third category of training
activities at the WTO were the field-based activities.  Those were activities conducted outside
Geneva.  The first two lines under that heading showed two new trade policy courses lasting three
months.  They would be held in Casablanca in Fr ench and in Nairobi in English, and would start on
8 and 15 July respectively.  He said that those recent initiatives taken by the Director-General were
supplementary to the regular activities of the Training Institute.  It was a new activity that had been
launched over a short period of time.  He said that there had been problems with financing but he
hoped that the Secretariat would be able to obtain the necessary funds in the near future.  There were
also 15 short trade policy courses, which should involve more than 450 participants, and there were
four advanced training programmes for negotiators which should involve around 100 participants.
25. He went on to mention the strengthened cooperation between the WTO Training Institute and
universities.  The Training Institute was moving towards such cooperation which would be non-
exclusive.  He recalled that one of the reasons why the Training Institute had been created was to give
it a certain amount of independence which would facilitate the building of relationships with other
academic institutions throughout the world.  The Secretariat wanted to allow academic institutions tohave an independent partner to deal with.  The Secretariat's relationship with academic institutions
had since developed rapidly and there were several possibilities that had been realised in the
framework of that cooperation.  A large number of potential partners had shown a keen interest and
the Secretariat would have to choose some in a way that would not be discriminatory.  The Secretariat
would have to consider the logistical problems, the different types of cooperation, and the financialand human resources available in the Institute.
26. The representative of Japan said that his delegation felt that the technical assistance and
capacity-building activities were important instruments to effectively integrate beneficiary countries
into the multilateral trade system.  His delegation was ready to continue to support the efforts by
beneficiary countries through the WTO, other international organizations or through bilateralactivities.  He said that he wished to make three points.  The first was with respect to the revisedWT/COMTD/M/41
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version of the Report of the Pledging Conferen ce.  His delegation was one of those which had
registered concern over the previous version and it appreciated the improved version that the
Secretariat had provided.  The second point was that his delegation was pleased that the Secretariat
currently was better equipped to meet the target of the Technical Assistance Plan for 2002, since his
delegation had had certain concerns regarding the pace with which the Secretariat had implementedthe planned activities.  In that regard he noted that Mr. Ravier had mentioned that ad hoc requests
were being made that it would take time to respond to.  The preparation time for the 2002 Technical
Assistance Plan had been rather limited.  That was one of the main reasons why ad hoc requests were
being made by delegations.  The third point was that, in order to frame the 2003 Technical Assistance
Plan, Members needed to keep the pace explained by Mr. Ravier.  That would give for the 2003
Technical Assistance Plan a better prospect of success.  He said that in order for it to be successful it
was important to monitor the effectiveness and pace of the implementation of the activities and thenreport back to the CTD or any other fora.  That would provide Members with a view about what had
to be improved and what should be continued in the following year.  Reflecting on his Government's
bilateral experience with other developing partners, he said that it was important for beneficiary
countries to tactically choose the activities in or der for them to improve the capacity within that
beneficiary country's government.  His delegation would therefore welcome information from theSecretariat with respect to how it chose the trainees of the training activities, the effectiveness of those
activities, the pace of future activities and how the Secretariat could encourage the beneficiary
countries to provide their priority requests by the end of July.
27. The representative of Venezuela reiterated that her delegation attached great importance to
the issue of technical assistance and capacity building.  Paragraph 3 of document CPR/1 indicated that
185 different activities had been planned and carried out.  Of those, 75 had responded to requests by
members.  Her delegation was pleased that the Secretariat was taking into account requests which had
not been included in the Plan and which responded to the requirements of developing countries.  Her
delegation noted that 37 per cent of the activities under the Technical Assistance Plan had been
carried out and agreed with the representative of Japan in that the Secretariat had to improve the paceof implementation in order for all the planned activities to be carried out.  That would enable the
Secretariat to respond to the ad hoc requests made by  Members.  She said that she wished to make a
distinction between "regular" technical assistance coming from the WTO which related to the
application of the agreements and the "new" technical assistance which responded to the different
goals set for Members, especially the developing country Members, at the Doha Ministerial
Conference.  Her delegation would be concerned if the importance of the normal technical assistance
programmes which dealt with the application and implementation of Agreements, for example, thetrade policy review, were left aside.  There shou ld be no imbalance between the two types of technical
assistance and she hoped that the Secretariat could make a distinction between those two types of
technical assistance.  Her delegation was pleased with the efforts made to strengthen the ties with
regional development banks and to carry out the work plan approved by Ministers at the Doha
Ministerial Conference with respect to inter-agency cooperation.  She noted the distinction madebetween cooperation with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) which was referred to
in the document as "an effective form of fusion with WIPO", and cooperation with UNCTAD which
was progressing on an ad-hoc basis.  Cooperation between agencies was important and cooperation
with UNCTAD deserved special attention.  Her delegation hoped that future cooperation, in all its
aspects, would become effective and efficient.
28. She went on to say that DDG Ravier had reported that the training programmes were working
well and that their objectives had been updated in order to improve the participation in negotiations.
Her delegation was pleased to see that courses had been organised jointly by the WTO and
Georgetown University.  Making a distinction between training provided in Geneva, distance training
and training in the field was positive.  With respect to distance learning activities, her delegationwished to know when the pilot courses would be established so that Members could follow them in
Spanish.  With respect to the training for trainers programme, she said that it would improve theWT/COMTD/M/41
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quality of trainers so that they could improve the quality of their work.  Her delegation had a concept
of training that went somewhat beyond that.  It fe lt that training was for public officials, whether or
not they were negotiators.  The consequence of that training would be to build the capacity of officials
in carrying out activities in relation to trade.  It was her delegation's understanding from the report that
the training of trainers programme was being strengthened.  Another aspect was the "export" of suchcourses to the regions.  Two pilot projects already existed in Africa and, at the last CTD meeting,
Members had been informed that such projects would be launched in other regions, including Latin
America and the Caribbean.  Her delegation's expectation was to have a broader group of public
officials in the regions making use of the resources made available to them.  Many of the facilitators
would be the negotiators and officials who had attended the training programme in Geneva.  The third
aspect was a much broader view of the training.  The fourth part of "Strengthening Cooperation
between the Institute and Universities" in the report referred to the training of professors who taughtWTO disciplines in universities and postgraduate institutes.  That was important and the WTO
Secretariat had to pay close attention to that group of people for two reasons.  Firstly, in addition to
professionals aiming for public service employment, universities also trained people intending to go
into private-sector firms and the private sector also needed a better grasp of WTO objectives and
principles since many firms were affected by the processes and the decisions adopted in the WTO.Countless professors from her country taught WTO disciplines in universities and postgraduate study
centres, with the best of intentions.  However, the knowledge they had about the WTO and its
Agreements was limited in many cases.  That was why her delegation felt that it was the Secretariat's
duty to provide the tools that those professors required to be able to teach in a more effective way.
That could contribute to improving the negative image in universities of what the WTO's principlesand long-term goals were.  Teaching clarified doubts which, in many cases, arose as a result of the
lack of information.  That was in line with what was proposed by the WTO on pages 17 and 16 in its
booklet "The Road to Doha and Beyond".  She concl uded by saying that it was important to keep the
spirit of independence which existed in universities.  That independent spirit brought with it
challenges but would enable Members to improve the image of the WTO in teaching institutions inher country.
29. The representative of Pakistan said that his delegation had a special interest in the field-based
activities because in 1999 it had made a similar proposal.  His delegation had proposed that in
addition to the trade policy courses conducted in Geneva it would be worthwhile to have ten to twelve
week duration trade policy courses in host countries on a regional or country-specific basis.  He said
that he was pleased that the Secretariat had been able to operationalize that proposal.  His delegation
sought clarification with respect to the location of the field-based training activities.  He askedwhether they were demand driven, in terms of the host country requesting for the courses, as was the
case with the delegations of Kenya and Morocco.  He asked if that was so, who would finance those
courses, whether the financing would be on a joint basis, and whether other governments could apply
to host such courses  Holding field-based trade policy courses was beneficial for any country as the
training could reach a larger number of people.
30. The representative of Colombia said that despite the fact that there were a large number of
technical assistance activities which remained to be carried out during the rest of the year, she
commended the effort put into implementing the agreed activities for 2002.  However, her delegation
hoped that the rate of implementation would improve in 2003.  Her Government was of the view that
predictability and regional balance in the distribution of activities were key factors on which the newtechnical cooperation strategy should be based.  Developing country beneficiaries would through such
capacity building be provided with additional knowledge and increased negotiating power which
would help them achieve fuller participation in the multilateral trading system.  Her delegation hoped
that those two elements, together with its request for technical cooperation activities, would be pivotal
in the preparation of the 2003 Technical Assistance Plan and that the personal decisions of somemembers of the Secretariat under no circumstances would be allowed to prevail and end up
obstructing the implementation of the activities.  She thanked the Technical Cooperation Division forWT/COMTD/M/41
Page 10
its contribution to the development of the regional dispute settlement seminar held in Bogotá and
attended by almost 40 Latin American officials.  The seminar had been highly successful and
achieved its objectives.  She supported the point made by the representative of Venezuela with respect
to the importance of the training of trainers. The technical assistance established in the Annual Plan
was of particular significance to her Government since it provided her Government's officials withtraining in important current issues in the short term.  It was essential that it be given greater
importance and that particular attention be paid to the allocation of resources to the second phase of
the Training of Trainers Project and the distance-learning trade policy courses, since those were
long-term projects which would enhance awar eness of WTO issues in Members and would
consequently have a great impact.  A training of trainers programme in a university and at an
international business department had been establis hed in her country, both of which had been met
with great success in all regions.  That project had been set up and coordinated by the Ministry ofForeign Trade in conjunction with a group of 50 universities throughout the country and had
succeeded in developing export culture.  Her delegation believed that it was the universities and
institutions that had made it possible to ensure that information on international trade was
disseminated in a coherent and consistent manner.  Students, officials and entrepreneurs were all
aware of the benefits accruing to them as a result of that.  It was important to increase resources forthe training of trainers programme, which would in crease the capacity of her Government's officials.
31. The representative of Indonesia sought clarification on the field-based activities and asked
whether the Secretariat would provide such ad-hoc trade policy courses in other regions.  The Doha
Development Agenda Advanced Training Course in Annex II of CRP/1 showed that the training for
government officials would be organised sometime in April 2003, but his delegation was not aware ofthe estimated number of participants for that course.  He asked if the Secretariat could provide the
estimated number of participants in those activities for the Asia Pacific Region.
32. The representative of Kenya said that he hoped that the delegation of Pakistan had not
proposed that the costs for the ad hoc field-based trade policy courses remain ad-hoc.  His delegation
wished to see the courses become permanent features in Africa.  That would enable African countriesto participate fully in WTO activities.  He said that he hoped that adequate funds would be sourced
and set aside to ensure that those courses were run on a permanent basis.  His delegation hoped that
the Geneva-based training of trainers activities could be included in the field-based activities.  He said
that perhaps they could borrow the form used in the JITAP programme which had a training
component, so that there would be trainers in the host countries who could expand the training.  He
said that with respect to the 2003 Technical Assistance Plan, a deadline of 31 July for the submission
of requests had been set.  That deadline was close in time and delegations sometimes needed technicalassistance to identify their technical assistance needs.  Members had to consider that when working on
the work programme.  He proposed that the Secretariat send missions to Members that had not been
responding in time to assist them identify their technical assistance needs.  That would make the work
programme comprehensive and minimise the number of ad-hoc requests.
33. The representative of Canada said that her delegation felt that the start, in the first part of the
year, in the delivery of the Doha Development Agenda Technical Assistance was impressive.
2002 was clearly a year of learning.  Many different modes of delivery were being tried, from short
and medium to long-term types of programmes bot h in Geneva and the field.  Her delegation hoped
that those were being monitored through the work of Mr. Paul Rolian, Director of the Technical
Cooperation Audit, and looked forward to a report on all those various activities.  She said that with
respect to the question of ad-hoc versus planned activities, her delegation had noted, as had other
delegations, that approximately a third of the technical assistance activities that had taken place were
ad hoc activities.  That was not necessarily good or bad.  However, it did have financial and staffing
implications.  Her delegation hoped that when the report was provided, it would indicate where the
planned activities had been delivered, where ad-hoc activities had been introduced, why the ad-hocactivities had been given priority over planned activities and what activities had not been deliveredWT/COMTD/M/41
Page 11
and why.  She said that she was certain there were good reasons why some planned activities were not
delivered.  There might for example be timing constraints.  Her delegation wished to see that
presented in the end of the year report to get the full picture.  Her delegation appreciated the
Secretariat's work towards a 2003 Plan which would reduce the number of ad-hoc activities bringing
the planned and delivered activities much closer together.
34. The representative of the European Communitie s said that the comments he was about to
make were only to allow for the optimal preparation of the mid-July event on technical assistance and
the preparation of a report at the end of the year.  He questioned whether the CRP form of documents
for the information on the Implementation of the 2002 Technical Assistance Plan was the best way to
proceed.  Those documents were not available on the website and he asked why the information could
not be provided in the form of normal WTO do cuments that would allow maximum diffusion and
distribution of that information.  He said that it was not clear whether the situation regarding thead-hoc activities had improved and what the financial implications would be of the planned activities
and the extra one third ad-hoc activities taking place.  He asked what criteria the Secretariat would use
when deciding on the execution of new ad hoc activities.  It was his understanding that unless the
criteria was made clear, the Trust Fund would be difficult to use.  His delegation felt that the database
was important.  However, there seemed to have b een problems with the information gathering with
the OECD with respect to how the activities wo uld be classified.  His delegation asked for
information on progress in that regard.  With respect to point 9 in CPR/1 on Inter-Agency
Cooperation, he suggested that the Secretariat provide Members with a short outline of what the state
of play was with the various other agencies in terms of what sort of memorandum had been
concluded, what cooperation had been made, and what  was envisaged.  That could be part of the
preparation of the 2003 Technical Assistance Plan.  It was sometimes difficult ex-post to evaluate and
consider the number of numerous activities, but it was important to get an idea on how the issue was
moving forward.
35. He went on to say that with respect to the activities under training, including those covered by
the Training Institute and by other parts of the Secretariat, his delegation wished to have moreinformation on who exactly did what and why.  Fr om his delegation's point of view, training was
different to technical assistance because it was mainly a deductive exercise and it might be useful to
ensure that the necessary know how and synergies, which were possible were fully utilised, even if
different WTO divisions were involved.  He noted that the number of participants in the African field-
based course had decreased from 25 to 19.  He asked what implication that would have on costs and
on the ratio of trainers to trainees, which, in his delegation's view, might not even initially have been
optimal.  He said that with respect to point 12 of CRP/1, it was interesting to hear what therepresentative of Kenya had said on the planning and the difficulty to get the necessary information.
His delegation was pleased that the Secretariat had undertaken steps to ensure that the information
necessary could come forward, not only from Members' missions but also directly from their
governments.  His delegation believed that there were other sources to ensure that the Plan broadly
covered all the issues that Members wished to address.  He gave the example of his delegation's wishto ensure that the information from other Co mmittees dealing with technical assistance was
adequately taken into account.  He asked the Chai rman to ensure that that source was used to fully
assess the needs of Members.  Going through what had been done in other WTO Committees on
technical assistance was one way to ensure that nothing was forgotten, no country was overlooked,
and that all aspects of what should be done were taken into account.  With respect to the point madeon auditing, he said that it was still early to talk about the first experiences with the 2002 Annual
Technical Assistance Plan because any auditing exercise had just begun and there would not be much
of a result available.  However, by the end of the year some sort of ongoing evaluation should be part
of the exercise in order to give delegations a full picture of what was taking place.
36. The representative of Morocco said that the trade policy course to be held in Casablanca in
July would be the first trade policy course in French to be held outside Geneva.  That course would beWT/COMTD/M/41
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held in partnership with the Institut Supérieur de Commerce et de Gestion d'Entreprise (ISCAE) in
Casablanca.  That was concrete proof of a good form of cooperation with universities which his
delegation had always advocated, particularly in the CTD.  His delegation believed that that additional
activity was a good initiative which would help to establish real proximity in a continent where there
was great need for technical assistance and capacity-building.  His delegation hoped that that type ofactivity would be expanded to other regions in the future.  He said that the Memorandum of
Understanding that had been signed between the Casablanca Institute and the WTO Training Institute
was a concrete example of the new strategy within a framework of activities which was strategic and
beneficial to the WTO and which was aimed at capacity building and bringing about a greater
proximity.
37. The representative of China said that his delegation, like other developing Member countries,
attached great importance to the issue of capacity-build ing.  However, it was unfortunate that, in spite
of the efforts made, it was still difficult to meet Members' increasing and diversified needs.  It was his
delegation's view that capacity-building was part of a country's development endeavour.  No single
agency, including the WTO, could meet all the demands in that area.  It was thus important to find
creative ways to match the resources of the WTO with other resources.  His delegation was pleased to
see that the WTO Secretariat had begun cooperation with regional development banks.  That was atypical example of how the WTO resources could be used as a leverage.  Cooperation with regional
development banks would be conducive to making the training activities more relevant in the regional
context.  It was his delegation's view that the potential capacity of developing country Members to be
involved in technical assistance activities should not be underestimated.  There were many existing
training facilities, human resources, and sometimes financial resources available in developingMembers countries that could be used.  The question was how to integrate all those factors into
professional training activities.  In that respect, his delegation suggested that the Technical
Cooperation Division develop a handbook to help developing countries develop and implement
training and technical assistance activities for themselves and by themselves.
38. The representative of Oman said that her Government had benefitted from several national
and regional activities in 2002.  The national and regional seminars had been well attended and
Omani officials had been satisfied with the results.  She said that her Government, as one of the
recently acceded Members, had extensive obligations that had to be implemented immediately,
without any transitional periods.  Her delegation believed that giving priority to the technical
assistance provided to her Government would enable Omani officials to enhance their understanding
of the obligations that had to be implemented.  Technical assistance should not only be provided in
the form of seminars or workshops.  It should also include sponsoring the participation of officialsfrom her capital to attend seminars and meetings in Geneva.  Without that type of assistance, it would
always remain difficult for her delegation to fully participate in WTO's work.  She concluded by
saying that her delegation would work with the Ch airman in order to ensure that its needs and
priorities were reflected in the 2003 Plan.
39. The representative of Tanzania said that the Secretariat needed to assist delegations, and
especially LDCs, in coming up with activities fo r the 2003 Plan as the July deadline was too close.
Her delegation appreciated the effort made to organize field-based trade-policy courses in Nairobi and
Morocco.  She said that as thirty-four of the LDCs were in Africa, her delegation expected that one of
the courses would be held in one of those LDCs.  If the WTO was serious in assisting LDCs to build
capacity, then one of the courses should be held in an LDC.  Universities existed in the LDCs.  Itwould thus be possible to hold training there.  It was only a question of selection one LDC and begin
the course.
40. The representative of Malaysia asked whether the number of participants listed in CRP/2 for
the Geneva-based trade policy courses included those that were self-financed.  Her delegation would
appreciate to get a clearer picture of which participants were funded by the WTO and which wereWT/COMTD/M/41
Page 13
self-funded.  With respect to the ad hoc residential trade policy courses, she asked how the residential
trade policy courses being held in certain regions would affect the participation in the regular Geneva-
based trade policy courses.  She asked how it could be ensured that the quality of the field-based
training given in the residential trade-policy course s would be equally high as for those carried out in
Geneva.  With respect to the normal technical assistance activities, her delegation was aware that itmight not be possible for a Member's technical assistance needs to be solely met by the WTO.
Cooperation with other organizations, as well as regional development banks, could be useful to
ensure a more seamless delivery of technical assistance.  In some WTO Committees, such as the TBT
and SPS Committees, some of the technical assistance requested was of a technical nature and went
beyond the competence of the WTO.  She asked how the WTO could address such needs.  Her
delegation was aware that some WTO agreements provided for technical assistance on a bilateral
basis.  She asked how the Technical Cooperation Di vision could work with the bilateral providers to
meet some of those requests which could be met more substantively.
41. The representative of Egypt said that if he  had understood correctly, with respect to the
internet-based course in CRP/2, Deputy Director-General Mr. Ravier had said that the course would,
in the pilot phase, include 30 participants from di fferent countries.  There were currently only four
participants from Africa and he asked why that number was so low.  He also asked whether, in CRP/2under Distance-Learning Activities, "Pilot Project (English) Geneva" meant that participants in
capitals took the course via the internet.  He was therefore unsure what "Geneva" referred to.
42. The representative of Guinea said that her delegation attached great importance to the WTO
training courses since they provided trade-policy capacity-building for officials in her Government in
both the short and long terms.  She thanked the Secretariat for its contributions to the seminar onagriculture organized in Conakry by UNCTAD for ECOWAS member countries and said that her
delegation welcomed the continuation of such cooperation in the future.  Her delegation hoped that
the Secretariat would give priority to the training of civil servants in Member countries so that they
could train other trainers on trade policy.  Her delegation also wished to have residential trade-policy
courses, similar to those organized in Kenya and Morocco, organised in other capitals in Africa.  Shesaid that her Government would be pleased to host such activities in its capital in 2003.
43. The representative of Tunisia said that the date of 31 July was too close to enable his Capital
to identify its needs for 2003.  He said that, despite the progress made on the pace of implementation,
the national activities for 2002 had not even begun in some countries.  His delegation supported the
delegation of Venezuela's proposal on strengthening cooperation between universities and the WTO
Training Institute.
44. The Chairman said that technical assistance and capacity-building was an important part of
the work of the CTD.  A number of delegations had raised questions, commented on the programmes,
and made useful suggestions for the future.  He asked Deputy Director-General Mr. Ravier to respond
to some of the main questions that had been raised in the meeting.
45. Deputy Director-General  Mr. Ravier said that the Secretariat had noted the many statements
made and would respond individually to Members on questions he would not mention.  A number of
the questions asked dealt with the field-based activities.  The field-based activities related to three
different products.  They were the ad hoc residential trade policy courses in Nairobi and Casablanca,
the short trade policy courses and the advanced training programme for negotiators which was
described in Annex I of the 2002 Technical Assistance Plan.  All were new activities which had to be
evaluated before they were prolonged or extended.  The ad hoc residential trade policy coursesrepresented a first attempt to deliver ad hoc trade policy courses.  The reason why they were being
delivered in the African countries was because it was on the African continent that the needs were the
greatest.  Those courses were demand-driven and it was possible to hold them in other countries.  The
Director-General, during his trips to Africa ov er the past month, had noted that the needs wereWT/COMTD/M/41
Page 14
greatest there and thus the choice of having the courses in one Anglophone and one Francophone
African country had been made according to needs expressed.  That did not mean that there were no
needs elsewhere and that the Secretariat would not take other needs into account if they were
expressed.  However, the two courses first had to be held and evaluated.  In response to the question
posed by the delegation of Malaysia as to how it could be ensured that the quality of those courseswould be as high as those being held in Geneva, he said that once the courses had taken place, their
effectiveness could be evaluated.  The Training Institute had closely followed the process of preparing
the courses in line with the Geneva-based courses and the teaching staff would be a mix of local
trainers, people from the WTO Secretariat, and people from outside the WTO Secretariat.  There was
no reason to believe that the quality of the residentia l training courses would be lower than that of the
courses held at the WTO.  The only difference was that participants in a course held at the WTO
headquarters would be able to meet with delegations and attend WTO meetings.  From that point ofview there was an additional advantage of attending the Geneva-based courses.  Apart that, everything
else should qualitatively be the same as what took place in Geneva.
46. He went on to say that the Advanced Traini ng Programme for Government Officials and
Negotiators was a direct result of the fact that a round had been launched at the Doha Ministerial
Conference and that there was an upcoming Ministerial Conference.  Members had thereforeidentified the need to improve the negotiating capac ity of government officials in charge of trade
policy.  That was why those courses were going to  focus on negotiation skills.  They would not be
general courses on the WTO, but would focus on negotiation techniques.  He said that Members could
see in CRP/1 that one of the courses had already taken place and that other courses would take place
in Arab countries, Central Europe, the African Anglophone countries throughout 2002.  The courseswould then continue in 2003 in Asia and the Pacifi c.  With respect to the question on the Asia/Pacific
course, he said that it would in principle take place at the Beijing University with the help of the
Asian Development Bank, and that it would be given to 29 participating countries, with one
participant from each country.  The short-term trade policy courses were also the result of demand.
Members had expressed the view that the short-term trade policy courses were a good product thatshould be kept.  However, Members wished to have something more flexible so that those courses
could be delivered in the field over a shorter time-period.  The Secretariat had then offered courses
with a duration of three weeks in the requesting countries.  In response to the question from the
delegation of the European Communities regarding the difference between the WTO Training
Institute and WTO technical cooperation, he said that it was not useful to get into that debate.  There
were always difficulties in defining where the line between them should be drawn.  Within technical
cooperation there was constant progress with respect to its content, from basic technical cooperationwhich consisted of explaining the rules as they were, to a more proactive technical cooperation with a
stronger focus on training.  Of the three field-based activities, only the ad hoc residential trade policy
courses were entirely provided by the Training Institute.  The other two had a technical assistance
component.  That was a situation which he was not certain would last because the three field-based
activities needed to be defined in the future and re mained flexible.  He said that the situation that
Members currently saw was not necessarily the situation they would see in six months' or a year's
time.
47. He continued by saying that some delegations had felt that the 31 July deadline was too short
for Members to submit their requests for 2003.  He said that the Secretariat was in the hands of the
Members.  If Members could not submit their requests by 31 July, then the Secretariat would have todelay the creation of the 2003 Technical Assistance Plan.  However, it was necessary to stick to that
deadline if Members wished to present the 2003 Plan to the October meeting of the CTD and the
Budget Committee at the end of November and be able to finalise before the end of 2002.  Members
would otherwise find themselves in the same situ ation that they had found themselves in 2002, with
the 2003 Plan only to be approved by the CTD in March 2003.  That would delay and make theimplementation of the programme difficult.  The longer the deadline of 31 July was put off, the more
difficult it would be to have the Plan ready for 20 03.  He said that, with respect to identifying needs,WT/COMTD/M/41
Page 15
he had heard Members say that they needed techni cal cooperation to enable them to identify their
technical cooperation needs.  Everything was possible.  However, missions by definition were
expensive because people needed to be sent out to the different countries.  That was why the
Secretariat did not leave identification of needs by missions.  Sending out special missions to identify
technical cooperation needs meant that there would be less resources available to provide regulartechnical cooperation.  With respect to the question posed by the delegation of Egypt on the internet
courses, he said that the pilot programme includ ed some fifty participants from thirty different
developing countries.  Once the evaluation of that activity had been carried out, the Secretariat would
be able to see how to develop the programme further.
48. The Chairman said that the question of field-based training was of interest to Members in the
CTD.  He asked DDG Mr Ravier if he could provid e written responses to delegations on the questions
that had not been answered.  Members could then return to the topic at the next meeting of the CTD.
49. The Committee took note of the report on the technical assistance and training and the
comments made, and looked forward to receiving written replies to the questions that had not been
answered.
F. R EPORT ON THE 35TH SESSION OF THE JOINT ADVISORY GROUP ON THE INTERNATIONAL
TRADE CENTRE UNCTAD/WTO
50. The Chairman said that the Joint Advisory Group on the International Trade Centre
UNCTAD/WTO (JAG) held its 35th Session on 15 - 19 April 2002.  The report on that meeting was
contained in document ITC/AG/(XXXV)/191 of 6 May 2002.  He invited the Chairman of the JAG,
Ambassador Girard of Switzerland, to present the report.
51. Ambassador Girard said that, during its thirty-fifth session in April 2002, the JAG had
reviewed the work carried out by the International Trade Centre (ITC) in 2001.  The Report of the
JAG had been issued as document ITC/AG/(XXXV)/191.  In their opening statements, the UNCTAD
Secretary-General and the WTO Deputy Director-Gener al had underscored the high quality of ITC's
work.  They had both pointed out that ITC, UNCTAD and the WTO had pursued and expanded theircooperation, especially with regard to the LDCs.  The WTO DDG had also emphasized that, in the
Doha Ministerial Declaration, the Ministers had reaffirmed their support for the work done by ITC
and had stressed that it should be further enhanced.  In that connection, the DDG had expressed the
wish that ITC's donors allocate extra funding so that the ITC could step up its efforts to increase the
capabilities of developing countries.  The Director-General of UNIDO, who had attended a meeting of
the Joint Advisory Group for the first time, had referred to the increased cooperation between UNIDO
and ITC, UNCTAD and the WTO and trusted that such meetings would help UNIDO to find better
ways to interact and achieve joint objectives by working cooperatively.  In his introductory statement,
the Executive Director of the ITC had noted that, over the past three years, the ITC had worked
towards becoming a more focused organization.  Its emphasis was directly focused on the critical
issue of building national capacities for internatio nal competitiveness.  The Executive Director had
said that he hoped that the thirty-fifth session of the JAG would provide ITC with the guidance and
resources it needed to respond comprehensively to the challenge of delivering trade-related assistance
and capacity building in the post-Doha era.  The Joint Advisory Group had expressed its satisfaction
with ITC's performance in 2001, noting that the orga nization had maintained its role as a key niche
player in its sphere, and had offered high quality service to its clients.  A number of topics had been
addressed in the general debate.  The Joint Advisory Group considered that the Joint IntegratedTechnical Assistance Programme (JITAP) and its coordinated approach to technical cooperation had
worked extremely well.  Some representatives had recommended, not only that JITAP be continued,
but also that the approach be replicated in other developing countries.  Several representatives had
underscored the importance of the World Trade Net programme in building business capabilities forWT/COMTD/M/41
Page 16
timely inputs into preparations for negotiations a nd in reinforcing cooperation between the business
community and trade policy makers.  Comments had also been made on ITC's participation in the
Integrated Framework initiative, and the organization had undertaken to provide active export
development support for countries participating in the Integrated Framework.  Other delegations had
encouraged ITC to work towards an expansion of the number of LDCs involved.  The Joint AdvisoryGroup had mentioned the role played by ITC in fostering the public-private sector partnership both in
the preparations for and in the follow-up to the Do ha Ministerial Conference.  It had noted ITC's work
in the area of trade in services and commended the launching of the E-Trade Bridge programme,
which was seen to be relevant to the future international competitiveness of developing and transition
economies, despite the connectivity problems encountered by many of them.  In addition, the Joint
Advisory Group had taken note of the Report of the Consultative Committee on ITC's Global Trust
Fund.
52. He continued by saying that with respect to the specific topic of the Doha Development
Agenda, the JAG had registered that in a paper ITC had identified existing programmes and priorities
of developing countries, including LDCs and economies in transition, and had assessed its own
capacity to deliver.  The JAG had acknowledged that ITC was well positioned to make a contribution
but that it had to expand its resource base to implement its planned approach.
53. He went on to draw Members' attention to paragraphs 89 to 91 of the JAG Report, that was,
relating to item 8 of the JAG agenda.  At the thirty-fourth session of the JAG, held in the spring
of 2001, a proposal had been made for issuing official documentation of the JAG in the Arabic and
Chinese languages, in addition to the four current languages of publication.  The request had been
costed and included in the ITC budget submission to the United Nations and the WTO.  However, nopolitical decision had been reached at the WTO General Council or the UNCTAD Trade and
Development Committee, which would have enabled the budgetary organs to consider the increased
costs involved.  The question had been raised once again at the JAG's thirty-fifth session in 2002.
Following that meeting, he had received a communication from the Egyptian Ambassador urging him
to reiterate to ITC's parent organizations how important it was for the documents of the JAG to betranslated into Arabic and Chinese.  He asked the CTD Chairman to consider that request so that a
decision could be reached during the next budget cycl e.  He concluded by expressing, on behalf of the
JAG, his gratitude to the numerous governments that had announced financial contributions to the
ITC at that session, namely the delegations of Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany,
India, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway , Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom.
54. The representative of Egypt said that his delegation appreciated the quality of the technical
assistance provided by the ITC and hoped that it would be extended to as wide a range of sectors as
possible.  That was why his delegation, on behalf of the Arab Group, wished to see the CTD, and
subsequently the General Council, approve the proposals made in paragraphs 89, 90 and 91 of the
JAG Report.  He reiterated that translation into Arabic of the documents of the meetings of the JAG,
especially the annual report, would lead to wider dissemination of information on the activities and
the technical assistance provided by the ITC in the Arab world.  The greatest beneficiaries of suchinformation dissemination would be the SMEs, which was the group that was supposed to benefit
most from the ITC's activities.
55. The representative of Mauritania said that the ITC efficiently supported developing countries
in a concrete way.  His delegation hoped that support would be given to ITC so that its high quality
work could continue.  His delegation supported the delegation of Egypt's request for the translation ofthe JAG documents into all of the working languages of the United Nations (UN) system.  That was
important for all the documents within the WTO and would enable all delegations to work on a level
playing field.WT/COMTD/M/41
Page 17
56. The representative of China supported the request made by the delegations of Egypt and
Mauritania with respect to the translation of documents.  It was his delegation's view that the reports
of the JAG and the ITC annual report should be translated into all UN working languages.  He said
that his delegation had also brought up that issue in the UNCTAD Trade and Development Board and
sought the support of the CTD in that respect.
57. The representative of Senegal said that ITC's high quality technical cooperation contributions
explained why the work of the JAG was followed cl osely by so many delegations, including his own.
His delegation ensured that delegates from his capital participated every year.  That was why his
delegation, like others, wished to draw attention to the request for translation of documents by
emphasising the fact that the preparatory documentation for the preparation of the JAG was important.
Delegates from capitals were often faced with the problem that the documentation was only available
in English.  His delegation hoped that that problem would be resolved in the future given theimportance of the work that was being done.
58. The representative of the European Communities said that Members' continued support for
ITC's work had been well expressed by Ambassador Girard and by what was reflected in
paragraph 87 of document ITC/AG/(XXXV)/191 where the announcement of trust fund contributions
were stated.  He said that with respect to the point raised on the translation of documents, his
delegation would have to revert to it after some reflection.  It was not clear to him how the discussion
on the language issue had gone in the JAG and what the nature of such a precedent would be.
Members needed some more information to consider that.
59. The Chairman asked DDG Ouedraogo to provide a clarification on the issue of the translation
of documents into Chinese and Arabic.
60. Deputy Director-General Ouedraogo pointed ou t that Members were in a WTO forum and
that at the WTO the official languages were French, English and Spanish.  For the time being,
Members had not taken a decision regarding Chinese or Arabic.  He said that asking for an
endorsement from the General Council might constitute a problem.  The General Council might find it
difficult to take a decision on languages which, for the time being, the WTO had not adopted asofficial working languages.  It was true that prob lems of translation of documents had always been a
thorny issue within the WTO and many delegations had already flagged that point.  Efforts were being
made at the budgetary level in order to fill the gaps.  He said that it was up to Members to decide.  For
the time being, the WTO as an organization which only worked in three official languages.
61. Mr. Bélisle said that the ITC were at Members' disposal, not only from a technical assistance
perspective but also from that of languages.  He said that if Members wished more elaborate
information regarding what had been done on the issue of languages following the previous year'srequest, such information could be provided as he  had followed the issue closely with both parent
organizations.  The ITC was there to service the Members as well as it could and in languages
Members deemed appropriate.
62. The Chairman said that it was important that the information be available in other languages
for wider dissemination.  That would enable Members to understand and interpret what was
happening.  He said that it would be helpful if the ITC Secretariat could provide something about the
background in writing.2  Members would revert to that subject at a later stage.
63. The representative of Egypt sought clarification with respect to the ITC report.  He asked if it
was acceptable, when the CTD presented its report to the General Council, to specify that the proposal
                                                     
2 The ITC Secretariat subsequently provided Me mbers with information regarding the issue of
languages in document WT/COMTD/40.WT/COMTD/M/41
Page 18
regarding translation of documents had been supported by several delegations and that one delegation
had expressed its wish to have additional information in that regard.  He asked if it would be possible
to then ask the General Council to adopt the decision, as the delegation of the European Communities
would then have had additional time to consider the issue and the supplementary information that they
had asked for by that time.
64. The Chairman said that the Committee would report on the discussion that had been held in
the Committee when the report was put forward to the General Council.  He had requested the
Executive Director of the ITC to provide a full account of the discussions that had taken place on the
translation.  They would be an important element of the report to the General Council.
65. The Committee took note of the report by the Chairman of JAG and would forward it to the
General Council for adoption.
I. T HE NEW PARTNERSHIP FOR AFRICA 'S DEVELOPMENT :  P RESENTATION BY THE NEPAD
SECRETARIAT
66. The Chairman said that the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD) was a
development policy framework first adopted by African Heads of State/Government in Lusaka in
July 2001.  It was a commitment by African leaders to eradicate poverty and to place Africa on a pathof sustainable growth and development.  NEP AD was considered as a long-term vision of an
African-owned and African-led development programme.  It was a plan for Africa's development
which would promote, through a peer review mechanism, good governance, democracy, the rule of
law, and good economic and corporate governance, in return for increased investments, aid and
development support from the West, and full market access for Africa's exports.  At the recentlycompleted G8 Summit in Kananaskis, Canada, NEPAD had been on the agenda.  He invited Professor
Wiseman Nkuhlu, head of the NEPAD Secretariat to say a few words on the results of the G8 Summit
for NEPAD, and suggest how the WTO, through its work on technical assistance and market access,
could support the work of NEPAD, Africa's new development framework.
67. Professor Wiseman Nkuhlu said that the African Heads of State that were leading the
initiative had met the G8 in Kananaskis a few days earlier.  He had prepared an input that dealt with
the market assess initiative of the NEPAD programme.  He said that due to the time constraints he
would not deal with why the WTO should be interest ed in development.  He would rather give an
input on the issues that NEPAD had been dealing with.  He would deal with the introduction of
NEPAD and the market access initiative and also look at the relationship that NEPAD had with the
WTO and the type of support that it wished to get from the WTO.  He said that NEPAD was a
political process.  After approval of the policy framework document by the  OAU Summit in 2001,the Heads of State Implementation Committee of Fifteen, three from each of the OAU regions had
been appointed.  The nominations had come from the African Ambassadors in Addis Ababa and those
fifteen countries became the members of the Heads of State Implementation Committee.  The focus of
the Heads of State Implementation Committee was twofold.  One element of focus was to accelerate
the social, economic and political reforms in Africa and the second was to strengthen Africa's capacity
to negotiate at a global level, especially with re spect to trade issues.  The internal focus was mainly
initiatives that were directed at consolidating democracy and sound economic management, and
covered conflict prevention;  management resolution;  promotion of intra-Africa trade;  strengthening
the regional economic community structures;  as well as further measures to deepen democracy and
promote sound economic management.  The Heads of State Implementation Committee believed thatthose kind of initiatives were necessary not to address the concerns of the international community,
but to deal with the fact that for Africa to develop it needed in the first place to give security to its
own people.  There had to be political stability and Africans needed to feel that their leaders took
democracy seriously and that the issues of corruption were addressed.  The Heads of StateWT/COMTD/M/41
Page 19
Implementation Committee believed that it was time for African leaders to take leadership in ensuring
that those measures were taken.  Since the establishment of the Heads of State Implementation
Committee in October 2001, the focus had been on the social, economic and political transformation
processes that needed to be accelerated in the continent and the roles that political leaders needed to
play in that.  He said that he was pleased that the outcome of that was a far-reaching agreement on aninstrument called "A Declaration on Political Economic Cooperate and Financial Governance" which
was going to be presented by the Committee to the OAU as well as an "African Peer Review
Mechanism".  The African Peer Review Mechanism's primary purpose was to enable African
countries to share experiences on good practices and reinforce those practices.  It was less of a
punitive mechanism, that African leaders had in mind.  It was actually to say that, if for example
Botswana had done well in providing a conducive environment in the mining sector and as a result
made itself attractive to mining companies, other countries could learn from that.  It was also toensure that those experiences in macroeconomic management were shared.
68. He went on to say that the second leg focused on the relationship between Africa and the
international community, primarily on issues that required coordination such as market access issues,
the resolution of conflicts, and issues involvin g the reforms of Official Development Assistance
(ODA).  After the approval of the framework document by the Heads of State in July 2001, the headsof state had made a presentation on NEPAD to the G8 in Genoa explaining that the African leaders
were serious about accelerating the pace of reform in Africa to make it attractive to domestic and
foreign investors, but for that to succeed it woul d need additional resources from the international
community.  The response of the G8 was that it would constitute a committee of personal
representatives, which would prepare a response to that presentation.  The Steering Committee whichsupported the Heads of State Implementation Committee had spent from October 2001 to May 2002,
providing inputs and having interaction with the G8 personal representatives to ensure that there was a
common understanding on what Africa saw as priorities and how African leaders felt that those
priorities should be addressed.  That interaction made a significant input in the preparation of the
response by the G8 personal representatives.  The response was presented in Kananaskis in the formof a G8 Africa action Plan.  That Plan covered all the priority areas as identified by the Heads of State
Implementation Committee.  The main point that the African leaders had been emphasizing was the
need to build a new partnership that was anchored on mutual respect and mutual accountability.  Not
the kind of relationship that countries had then, where when a problem arose, it was only the LCD's
that needed to reform.  When things went wrong it was rare that it was the developed countries which
had to take corrective action.  It was that balanced partnership that African leaders were hoping for.
He said that it also had, to a large extent, been achieved in the Kananaskis declaration.  If one lookedat the number of interactions that had taken place between African leaders and the G8 leaders during
the last year, an agreement had been reached that those interactions were going to continue over the
following years.  There had been a commitment to  accept NEPAD as the framework that would form
the relationship between Africa and the developed countries.  There had also been the commitment
that no country that was genuinely committed to poverty reduction, good governance and economicreform, would be denied the chance to achieve the millenium development goals.
69. He continued by saying that according to their statements, President Obasanjo,
President Boreflecker, President Mbeki and President Watt, were satisfied with the response because
it was an initial response, a point of departure.  What the response said was that the invitation to
change the partnership had been accepted and that new partnership would be based on certainprinciples and that as a start, the G8 was going to support actions and projects in order to kick start the
programmes.  The content of the programmes was still to be worked out.  For example, there was a
long list of actions under peace and stability, economic growth, and trade, and the next stage was to
work out the detailed projects under each of those as well as the costing of those projects.  That was
possibly where the real test was going to be, in terms of working out those details and negotiating thesupport of the programmes.  He said that the response from the African leaders was expected to be
more concrete than it had been.  That was a matter of concern.  He said that for priorities likeWT/COMTD/M/41
Page 20
universal primary education the costing had been made and what was required was a project such as
the one that had been recently completed by the World Bank.  That report went into detail country but
country and it could have been taken as a starting-point to provide knowledge about how much money
was needed to enable African countries to achieve universal primary education.  NEPAD had worked
out a detailed programme with the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) which clearly showedwhat should happen in each country under four pr ogrammes.  NEPAD believed that there was enough
material in that area to go further than they had done.  He concluded by saying that the Heads of
States Implementation Committee was a committee of  the OAU, Pr esident Obasanjo, as Chairman of
that Committee, would soon report to the OAU in full.  The question of how the response of the G8
would be followed up was a matter for the OAU.  A star t had been made and like all projects of that
kind it could have been better, however he believed that the foundations that were there were better
than before.
70. The representative of Ghana said that he had been eager to hear what concrete role the WTO
was expected to play in the NEPAD process.  If there was a role that the NEPAD process was hoping
the WTO would play, then his delegation appreciated if they could be made aware of what that was.
71. The representative of Mauritius said that his delegation appreciated what Professor Nkuhlu
had said about the need for a new partnership based on mutual respect and mutual accountability.  He
referred to an article that had appeared in a publication the previous week, where a commentator had
made disparaging remarks about NEPAD.  It was compared to a "knee pad", suggesting that it was a
symbol of capitulation.  Such remarks about a bold and ambitious programme could do a lot of harm.
That was why his delegation were gratified when Professor Nkuhlu had said that the G8 recognised
that NEPAD was a bold and clear sighted vision of Africa's development.
72. Professor Nkuhlu in response to the delegation of Ghana's question about the WTO's
relationship with NEPAD, said that the major issue for NEPAD was the issue of coordination.  The
primary support was in the area of capacity building.  It was important that, in a complex environment
where African countries had liberalised and were continuing to do so, the imbalances in the capacity
to negotiate and defending positions that they wished to take remained a matter of concern.  TheWTO's role would be to provide technical support and capacity building.  The NEPAD process on the
African side was strengthening the political leadership.  There was nothing more important than the
issues related to trade to enable Africa to industr ialise and become a meaningful player in the global
economy.  That was an area where NEPAD needed capacity and better coordination on the African
side.  NEPAD was not taking over the role of the individual countries that negotiated those positions,
it needed better coordination and insurance that on the African side there was stronger coordinated
political leadership.  He thanked the delegation of Mauritius for stating the correction that NEPADwas not "Knee-pad".
73. The Chairman thanked Professor Nkuhlu for his presentation which he said was a learning
experience for him.  He was pleased that NEPAD had taken the right step forward.
74. The Committee took note of the presentation and the statements made.
D. NOTIFICATION UNDER THE ENABLING CLAUSE - NOTIFICATION FROM INDIA AND SRI LANKA
(WT/COMTD/N/16)
75. The representative of Sri Lanka said that his statement was being made on behalf of his
delegation and the delegation of India.  The Free Trade Agreement (FTA) which had been signed
between the Governments of India and Sri Lanka on 28 December 1998 had entered into force on15 December 2001.  The objectives of the Agreement were:WT/COMTD/M/41
Page 21
(i) to promote through the expansion of trade the harmonious development of
the economic relations between India and Sri Lanka;
(ii) to provide fair conditions of competition for trade between India and Sri
Lanka;
(iii) for the contracting parties to pay due regard to the principle of reciprocity in
their implementation of the Agreement;  and
(iv) to contribute, to the harmonious development and expansion of world trade
by the removal of barriers to trade.
76. He said that the Government of India would grant duty-free access to all exports from
Sri Lanka with respect to items freely importable into India.  As the respective phase-out schedule of
each country was concerned, zero duty would be applied by both governments to some items from the
date of entry of the Agreement.  For the remainin g items, except for items contained in the negative
lists, tariffs would be gradually reduced to zero per cent by the Government of India within three
years from the entry into force of the Agreement.  The Agreement provided for an eight year period
for reducing the tariffs to zero level for the Government of Sri Lanka.  The different time schedule for
phasing out tariffs as well as the respective negative lists, reflected the recognition in the Agreement
of the different levels of economic development in the two countries.  He said that, with respect toArticle XVII, the Agreement would enter into force on the 30
th day after the parties had notified each
other that their respective constitutional requirements and procedures had been completed.  Following
completion of those requirements and procedures by both the Governments, the FTA had entered into
force on 15 December 2001 and had been notified to the WTO pursuant to the Decision of
28 November 1979, under the GATT on Differential and More Favourable Treatment, Reciprocityand Fuller Participation of Developing Countries, known as the "Enabling Clause".  The Governments
of India and Sri Lanka believed that the establishment and promotion of FTAs would help the
development of their respective national economies and strengthen intra-regional economic
cooperation as well as world trade.
77. The representative of India thanked the representative of Sri Lanka for his statement on behalf
of the Governments of India and Sri Lanka and endorsed what he had said.  His delegation understood
that there were constraints in scheduling the meetings and he suggested that the Secretariat bear those
constraints in mind when drafting the agenda, instead of having to resort to last minute changes.  He
had noticed that technical cooperation had been taking up a few hours of the last two CTD meetings.
It was important for delegations that the procedure for discussing various agenda items be made
smooth.  He suggested that one Session of the CTD session be allocated fully to technical
cooperation.  It would then be easier to know wh en the items would come up for discussion and the
concerned officers could be present.  In some missions various agenda items were dealt with by
different officers.  Given that there normally were a number of simultaneous meetings, coordination
was necessary.
78. The Chairman said that the representative of  India had made some valid points that the
Secretariat needed to keep into account.
79. The representative of the United States said that her delegation had received the document
late and did therefore not have many comments to make.  She asked what the status of the notification
was, whether it was for information purposes or wh ether Members were to engage in discussing it.
Additionally, she asked whether notifications under the "Enabling Clause" required notification in the
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements (CRTA).WT/COMTD/M/41
Page 22
80. The representative of Pakistan said that, like the delegation of the United States, his
delegation needed more time to look at document  WT/COMTD/N/16.  His delegation might make
comments during the next meeting of the CTD if item D of the agenda was taken up again.  He said
that the comment made by the representative of the United States was valid and his delegation
endorsed it.
81. The Chairman said that he believed the best option was to keep item D on the agenda and
revert to it at the next CTD meeting, along with  the clarification that had been sought by the
delegation of the United States.
82. The representative of India said that the problem that had been highlighted by the delegations
of the United States and Pakistan was genuine.  The reason behind the document's
(WT/COMTD/N/16) late circulation was that his delegation had submitted the document after the first
version of the agenda had been issued.  It could therefore not have been included in the originalversion of the agenda.  In view of that, his delegation had no problem in having the item included on
the agenda for the next meeting of the CTD for further discussion.  His delegation looked forward to
clarification and consultation with the Secretariat with respect to the point made by the representative
of the United States as to whether the FTA between India and Sri Lanka should be notified to the
CRTA.  He said that the last time that an agreement had been notified to the CTD under the "EnablingClause", his delegation had raised some questions which remained unanswered.  Firstly, his
delegation wanted the full text of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) which had been
notified and not made available at that meeting.  Only the list of items on which some concessions
were being made had been circulated at the meeting.  He asked whether the full text of the AGOA had
been received, and if so, if it had been circulated to Members.
83. The representative of Pakistan sought clarification on whether the annexes that were referred
to in footnote 1 of WT/COMTD/N/16 would be circulated in hard copy or were to be retrieved from
the WTO website.
84. The Secretariat said that it was custom not to circulate voluminous annexes to notifications of
FTA's.  If received in electronic form from the signatories, the Secretariat would make the annexes
available electronically.  The documentation was ke pt in hard copy with the Secretariat so that
Members could consult it or request copies of it from the Secretariat.
85. The representative of the United States said in response to the representative of India's inquiry
regarding the AGOA that, a notification had been made to the CTD concerning certain preferences
under it.  The AGOA had been notified to the extent that preferences were given to LDCs.  Her
delegation would notify the AGOA and request a waiv er in the Council for Trade and Goods.  For the
purposes of the CTD, the notification had been made by way of information on certain tariffpreferences given to LDCs in Africa.
86. The Committee took note of the statements made and decided
 to revert to the notification at
its next meeting.
E. GENERALIZED SYSTEM OF PREFERENCES
(i) Notification By Japan (WT/COMTD/N/2/Add.11)
(ii) Notification By Switzerl and (WT/COMTD/N/7/Add.1)
87. The Chairman said that a notification by the delegation of Japan was contained in document
WT/COMTD/N/2/Add.11.WT/COMTD/M/41
Page 23
88. The representative of Japan said that the main point of his delegation's notification
(document WT/COMTD/N/2/Add.11) was that Sene gal had been added to the list of LDC
beneficiaries as it had been designated an LDC in April 2001 by the United Nations General
Assembly.  His Government's Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) Scheme for LDCs was open
to all LDCs.  Any LDC that wished to be a beneficiary of that Scheme was requested to make anofficial request to the Government of Japan.
89. The Chairman said that a notification received from the delegation of Switzerland was
contained in document WT/COMTD/N/7/Add.1.
90. The representative of Switzerland said that he would be happy to answer any questions on his
delegation's notification.
91. The Chairman said that to the extent that the two notifications related to measures in favour of
LDCs, Members should, according to the reporting procedures, agreed to at the thirty-second Session
of the CTD, forward them to the Sub-Committee on LDCs for substantive consideration and reporting
back.
92. The representative of Sri Lanka sought clarification from both the delegations of Japan and
Switzerland with respect to whether their revised GSP schemes contained more flexible rules of origin
criteria in order to give more favourable treatment to LDCs.  She asked whether the rules of origincriteria which prevailed with the Swiss 1997 GSP Scheme and the Japanese scheme remained as they
were, or whether flexibility had been added to the criteria.
93. The representative of India asked the delegation of Japan how the ceiling quotas for industrial
products for Fiscal Year 2002 were allocated between the various LDCs.
94. The representative of Japan said, with respect to the representative of Sri Lanka's question,
that his delegation's notification did not include any change with respect to the criteria for deciding
rules of origin.  In response to the delegation of India's question, he said that Table 2 on page 6 of
WT/COMTD/N/2/Add.11 related to the allocation of ceiling quotas for industrial products for Fiscal
Year 2002 for LDCs.  However, the ceiling quotas for industrial products were not limited to the
Japanese GSP Scheme for LDCs, it was a GSP Sc heme for the developing countries in general.
95. The representative of Switzerland said that there had been no change to the rules of origin
criteria that were already valid with the 1997 Preference Scheme.  He was not certain what kind of
change the delegation of Sri Lanka would have expected and what problem it had with the existing
rules of origin.
96. The Chairman said that those subjects would be discussed in the Sub-Committee on LDCs
and delegations would have a chance to ask more detailed questions and seek answers at that stage.
97. The representative of India said that the delegation of Japan had clarified that the main annex
to the notification (WT/COMTD/N/2/Add.11), on page s 2 to 5 related to the GSP Scheme which was
applicable to all developing countries.  He asked how that could be referred to the Sub-Committee on
LDCs.  He thought that the last page of the annex in WT/COMTD/N/2/Add.11, which dealt with just
one item and the fact that Senegal had been added to the list of LDCs would go to the Sub-Committee
on LDCs, and not the entire notification.
98. The Chairman clarified that to the extent that  they related to the LDCs, both notifications
would be referred to the Sub-Committee on LDCs.  However, the representative of India was correct
in noting that the overall GSP Scheme it was for the CTD to consider.WT/COMTD/M/41
Page 24
99. The representative of Sri Lanka said that the question posed by the representative of India had
not been completely answered.  The representati ve of India had asked how the ceiling quotas for
industrial products would be allocated.  She assumed that, within the quota, the preferential duty
would be applicable so that once the quota was excee ded the normal rate of duty would be applicable.
That was why there was a GSP ceiling.  However, there were different ways to allocate that quota.  Itcould be allocated on a first come first served basis, which meant that the country which exported first
would fill the quota or it could be allocated by reserving country quotas.  She sought clarification
from the delegation of Japan as to whether the Government of Japan allocated what she assumed was
a global quota on a first come first served basis or whether each beneficiary country had a quota
which was determined based on the country's export performance during previous years.  Her
delegation did not expect those questions to be responded to at that meeting but wished to get further
information at a subsequent meeting.
100. The representative of Japan said that he would ask his capital to provide him with confirmed
responses to those questions.  With respect to the ceiling quotas for industrial products for LDCs, he
said that his Government had already achieved almost 100 per cent duty-free and quota-free treatment
for LDCs.  Therefore, he did not believe that each of the items listed on pages 2 to 5 of
WT/COMTD/N/2/Add.11 affected the imports from LDCs.  Only page 6 of WT/COMTD/N/2/Add.11
had a quota which related to a couple of LDCs.  There was a detailed description with respect to the
ceiling quotas for the items listed on pages 2 to 5 of WT/COMTD/N/2/Add.11 which related to the
first come first served scheme.  For instance, wher e one of the exporting country's exceeded a certain
percentage of a whole quota then it reached the ceiling for that country.
101. The Chairman said that the questions posed required more detailed answers.
102. The Committee took note of the notifications and would forward their LDC segments to the
Sub-Committee on LDCs for substantive consideration and reporting back.  The other parts that
related to developing countries in general would be kept on the agenda for the next Session.  That
would enable delegations to receive responses to the questions posed.
G. P ARTICIPATION OF DEVELOPING COUNTRIES IN WORLD TRADE (WT/COMTD/W/100)
103. The Chairman said that the CTD had the mandate to keep under continuous review the
participation of developing country Members in the multilateral trading system.  In order for the
Committee to fulfill that part of its Mandate, the Secretariat had produced a paper contained in
document WT/COMTD/W/100.
104. The representative of the United States said that the type of analysis provided by the
Secretariat in preparing the document WT/COMTD/W/100, helped inform Members' discussions and
provided useful insight.  One aspect of the report  that her delegation found not  worthy was that countries
that diversified into higher technology sector s, from exporting only primary products, had increased
their participation in global trade in the longer te rm.  According to the WTO Secretariat Report, world
exports were correlated with the level of technology.   The highest growth rates were recorded in the
high technology category, accounting for more than a quarter of world exports in the year 2000.  The
lowest overall growth rate of 3.2 per cent was reco rded in primary products.  Her delegation particularly
appreciated the fact that the Secretariat had provided  both regional and country level analysis to reflect
the wide range of participation of Members.  Am ong the points highlighted was the fact that some
Members had had greater success in increasing their part icipation in the trading system than others.  The
report also highlighted the well known success of As ian economies such as China; Hong Kong, China;
Chinese, Taipei;  The Republic of Korea and Singapore;  and their increasing share in global trade.
China had become the fourth largest trader in the wo rld.  In addition, there were other regions that had
experienced some growth in trade.  The Secretar iat report also mentioned dynamic exporters includingWT/COMTD/M/41
Page 25
some Members from other geographic regions whose merchandise exports had increased by more than
10 per cent annually.  In future reports, her delega tion would be interested to learn more from the
Secretariat and Members about other relevant factor s, domestic and others, that assisted countries in
increasing their participation in the global trading system.
105. The representative of Paraguay said that document WT/COMTD/W/100 contrasted to the
report presented by UNCTAD and that WTO Memb ers therefore could reflect upon both documents.
His delegation found the document useful with respec t to the information it contained on the trends,
evolution and increase in the industrial production of developing countries as well as their exports of
industrial products.  His delegation also noted a slight improvement in some regions or in some
countries.  He requested that the Secretariat carry out a more detailed analysis with respect to the
participation of developing countries, in referring specifically, for example, to a region such as Latin
America which contained both giant industrial countr ies and other less industrially developed countries.
The information did not reflect the realities of all countries in one region when the two types of
countries were merged into one regional image.  Hi s delegation asked the Secretariat to issue a revision
of the document providing a breakdown of the in formation by region, including for example more
details on the Asian, African, Latin American and Caribbean regions.
106. The representative of the European Communities said that Members might have to revert
back to the document (WT/COMTD/W/100) at the next meeting as delegations would then have had
more time to study it.  His delegation found the document interesting and some of the trends that had
been identified might warrant an in depth discussion.  The representative of the United States had
already alluded to some of them when mentioni ng the relationship between high technology and
commodity exports, the problem of commodity prices, the disparities among developing countries andthe value of regional integration.  He said that Charts 1 to 4 of the Annex were intriguing in showing
the progress that some countries had made in reducing their dependency on primary products, while
others had not been able to do so.  If that was coupled with the actual growth of GDP or exports it
would probably be more significant.  His delegation looked forward to a deeper discussion along the
themes he had just indicated.
107. The Chairman said that when he first had seen document WT/COMTD/W/100, he had felt that
it required serious consideration and deep examina tion and that Members would not have enough time
to react to it at that meeting.  He therefore proposed that the item be kept on the agenda and that
document WT/COMTD/W/100 be discussed at the ne xt meeting.  The Secretariat would make a
revision of the paper with more desegregated data as  had been requested by the delegation of Paraguay.
H. P ARAGRAPH 51 O F THE DOHA DECLARATION ON IDENTIFYING AND DEBATING
DEVELOPMENTAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL ASPECTS OF THE NEGOTIATIONS , IN ORDER TO
HELP ACHIEVE THE OBJECTIVE OF HAVING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT APPROPRIATELY
REFLECTED
Submission by the European Communities
(WT/COMTD/W/99 – WT/C TE/W/208 - TN/TE/W/3)
108. The Chairman said that agenda item H actually contained two sub-issues.  One was the
submission by the European Communities contained in multi-symbol document WT/COMTD/W/99 –
WT/CTE/W/208 - TN/TE/W/3 and the other was the overall question of how the CTD s hould proceed
with work on the agenda item.  He suggested that Members treat those sub-items simultaneously.
109. The representative of the European Communitie s said that the main purpose of submitting
that document was to ensure that Members were aware that it existed.  His delegation believed that
Members needed to seriously consider what was in the Doha Ministerial Declaration aboutWT/COMTD/M/41
Page 26
encouraging voluntary sustainability impact assessment.  To be precise on what that could mean, his
delegation had provided two documents, one was on the methodology that had been used by the
European Communities.  The methodology was important in terms of the type of assessment in
question.  The second part provided an example of how an assessment could be done, considering
some sectors and some products.  He urged Members to read the introductions as well as themethodologies and case studies, as they would give an idea of what his delegation was doing.  Further
information was available on the website http://idpm.man.ac.uk/sia-trade as indicated in the covering
letter in WT/COMTD/W/99 – WT/CTE/W/208 - TN/TE/W/3.  The studies and especially with
respect to the question of major crops, warranted a closer look.  He urged Members to look at that in
order to see whether they also considered it an interesting exercise.  His delegation was in favour of
more work on paragraph 51 .  He referred to the minutes of the last meeting where Members had set
the ideas of a tracking exercise in the CTD.  His delegation had listened to the reactions in theinformal meeting and still believed that it would be useful to have some kind of comprehensive
overview, in one document, which would allow Members to see where they were on the
"Development" part of the DDA agenda.
110. The representative of Australia said that her delegation had registered in the Committee on
Trade and Environment (CTE), some concerns with the approach and methodology outlined in the
submission by the delegation of the European Communities (WT/COMTD/W/99 – WT/CTE/W/208 -
TN/TE/W/3).  Those were issues on which her delegation had expressed the wish to make additional
comments.  Her delegation was likely to make those comments in the CTE in the first instance.
111. The representative of Argentina said that his delegation had only been able to look at the
document (WT/COMTD/W/99 – WT/CTE/W/208 - TN/TE/W/3) briefly but wished to thank the
delegation of the European Communities for the tran sparency that it had shown in presenting the
document in the CTD.  He said that his delegation had concerns with respect to some of the aspects of
the document.  There was no mention of the impact of rural development in developing countries, and
the way in which the high level of subsidies in some developed countries could disturb investment
flows in rural zones of developing countries and the poorest zones of those countries.  His delegationhad expressed its non-trade concerns about the lack of trade liberalization in agriculture in CTE
document (WT/CTE/W/138).  It had also been presented in the first stage of the negotiations in
agriculture (under document symbol  G/AG/NG/W/88).  Another concern was the lack of any mention
of the dependence caused by food export subsidies on which the MERCOSUR and other Members
had presented a document (G/AG/ NG/W/38) under phase 1.  His delegation noted that there were
some omissions in the document WT/COMTD/W/99 – WT/CTE/W/208 - TN/TE/W/3 and it would
continue studying the submission.
112. The representative of Chile said that the submission by the delegation of the European
Communities was an interesting exercise in transparency.  His delegation would have to look at the
document (WT/COMTD/W/99 – WT/CTE/W/208 - TN/TE/W/3) in greater detail.  There were some
elements that were inherent to constraints of the study, as the paper itself recognised.  Some elements,
as stated by the representative of Argentina, had not been included in the analysis and there weresome indications which pointed to certain concer ns as to how the methodology had been developed.
113. The representative of the European Communities clarified that the question of subsidies was
part of scenario number three, the liberalization scenario, which was based on the assumption that all
forms of export subsidies, domestic support measures, and import duties would be abolished.  The
effects on rural development were also taken into account.  The first paragraph on page 21 of hisdelegation's submission considered the issue of rural women in the agricultural sector.  The third
paragraph considered small-scale farmers and the rural poor in general.  He said that he would not go
into that in more detail, but he wished to ensure that all the elements had been put on the table.WT/COMTD/M/41
Page 27
114. The Chairman said that, at the last formal meeting of the CTD, Members had decided to keep
item H as a standing item on the agenda.  It had been decided that open-ended informal consultations
be held on item H, including a proposal that had been made by the delegation of the European
Communities for a process of tracking the developmental aspects of the negotiations and other WTO
work.  Those informal consultations had been held and it was clear that delegations required more timeto consider all aspects of the topic, and needed ti me to react to the proposal made by the delegation of
the European Communities.  He had enquired at that Meeting if delegates felt that it would be fruitful to
continue the informal consultations. Some delegations had expressed support for continuing the informal
consultations.  A few delegations had said that they wished to examine document WT/COMTD/W/99 –
WT/CTE/W/208 - TN/TE/W/3 further.  He also understood that the delegations which had not had the
chance to consider it wished for an opportunity to do so.  He proposed that informal consultations be
held on the topic and that item H be kept on the agenda for the next meeting of the CTD.
115. It was so agreed.
J. C ONSIDERATION OF ARTICLE XVIII  AS MANDATED BY PARAGRAPH  12 O F THE DOHA
MINISTERIAL DECLARATION (WT/MIN(01)/DEC/1), T HE DECISION ON IMPLEMENTATION -
RELATED ISSUES AND CONCERNS (WT/MIN(01)/17), A ND IN CONJUNCTION WITH TIRET 3
OF JOB(01)/152/R EV.1 O F 27 O CTOBER 2001
116. The Chairman said that Article XVIII had been one of the issues discussed at the informal
consultations which he had just referred to.  He had concluded from those consultations that there had
been no objection to deal with Article XVIII, apar t from section B relating to balance-of-payments, as
an outstanding implementation issue in the regular sessions of the CTD as long as it was without
prejudice to work related to Article XVIII carried out elsewhere.  The questions before the CTD were
firstly, how it should deal with Article XVIII, ex cluding Section B, as an outstanding implementation
issue;  secondly, what delegations wished to get out of the consideration of it;  and thirdly, what the
goal with the reporting in December should be.
117. The representative of India said that the implementation-related issues and concerns regarding
the various WTO agreements had been raised by some developing countries in the run up to the
Seattle and Doha Ministerial Conferences.  Decisions on certain implementation concerns had been
reached at the Doha Ministerial Conference, which were contained in the Doha Decision on
Implementation-Related Issues and Concerns (WT/MIN(01)/17).  Some implementation-related
concerns remained outstanding and needed to be dealt with as per paragraph 12 of the Doha
Ministerial Declaration.  Paragraph 12(b) of the Doha Ministerial Declaration stated that "the otheroutstanding implementation issues shall be addressed as a matter of priority by the relevant WTO
bodies, which shall report to the Trade Negotiations Committee, established under paragraph 46
below, by the end of 2002 for appropriate action."  Ministers had agreed that negotiations on
outstanding implementation issues should be an integral part of the work programme.  Accordingly,
her delegation drew Members attention to its earlier proposal on Article XVIII, sections A and C ofGATT 1994 as contained in document WT/GC/W/363 dated 12 October 1999.  She recalled that
Article XVIII recognised the need for Members to take protective or other measures affecting imports
in order to implement programmes and policies of economic development with the objective of
raising the general standard of living.  In that endeavour, additional facilities would be provided to
enable them, inter alia, "to maintain sufficient flexibi lity in their tariff structure to be able to grant the
tariff protection required for the establishment of a particular industry" and to take other specific
measures effecting imports envisaged in Section C in the process of economic development.
Article XVIII, sections A and C, also specified the procedure to be followed by a Member wishing to
promote the establishment of a particular industry with a view to raising the general standard of living
of its people.  The underlying intention of those provisions was based on the recognition thatWT/COMTD/M/41
Page 28
Members with limited resources might not, at all times, be able to rely exclusively on WTO consistent
measures to deal with issues arising from the implementation of their programmes of economic
development.  While WTO Members, acting jointly, could under specific circumstances release the
concerned Member from its obligations under the WTO Agreement to the extent necessary to apply
that measure, the obligation of having to make additional concessions or face temporary suspension
by other WTO Members of a substantially equivalent  concession on account of an impairment due to
the introduction of the measure in question, actually nullified the very intention of allowing
developing countries to promote industrial development.
118. She went on to say that her delegation's proposal (in document WT/GC/W/363) sought to
ensure that for the purposes of paragraph 7(b) and 18(b) of Article XVIII, as the case might be, it
should be sufficient for WTO Members, acting jointly, to concur in the proposed measure if they were
satisfied that all reasonable efforts had been made by the concerned Member to reach an agreementwith any relevant Member, without having to face the prospect of suspension of equivalent concession
and/or retaliation.  The mandate before the CTD was to conduct a complete review of Article XVIII,
with the view to ensure that it served the original  objective of facilitating the progressive development
of economies in developing countries, and to allow them to implement the programmes and policies
of economic development designed to raise the general living standards of their people.  The proposalthat she had outlined drew upon one set of issues in that context.  Her delegation had also noted the
proposals by the delegation of Saint Lucia (TN/CTD/W/ 8).  Her delegation had in particular noted the
need to clarify certain procedural ambiguities in Article XVIII:C, the need to interpret broadly the
circumstances involving "infant industries" read along with the Addendum note to paragraphs 2, 3, 7,
13 and 22 of Article XVIII and the need to reconsider the concept of compensation and/or retaliationin order to make the provisions of Article XVIII ef fective, as well as to facilitate the implementation
of sustainable economic development programmes in developing member countries.  While the
delegation of Saint Lucia had made those proposals in the Special Session of the CTD, her delegation
had been working on similar issues.  She hoped to concretize similar aspects related to the
development of industries in developing members in  the context of the current work in the regular
sessions of the CTD and under implementation-related issues in the near future.
119. The representative of the United States reiterated that her delegation did not oppose dealing
with Article XVIII in the CTD as long as it was clear that the CTD was handling over-arching aspects
of the proposals and that its work was without pr ejudice to any view on which the WTO body would
handle Article XVIII invocations.  Her delegation believed that there was precedence in the BOP's
Committee concerning Article XVIII:B and in the Council for Trade in Goods concerning
Article XVIII:C.  She asked if the delegation of India could make its statement available so thatdelegations could examine its details more carefully.
3  It was faxed to all delegations on 10 July 2002.
Her delegation was not persuaded that, at that time,  a review of Article XVIII:A and C was warranted.
However, her delegation was still prepared to listen and reflect on any views expressed, in light of
what the representative of India had said.  Members had spent a considerable amount of time on some
of the issues before they had reached that stage and were now fulfilling the mandate of the DohaImplementation-Related Issues and Concerns.  Her delegation's reflection would also be related to its
concern with the implications of the proposal.  The phrase "with a view to ensure" in Job 152 was
particularly problematic to her delegation.  Initiating a review based on past discussions would be of
concern, especially when that would weaken ex isting obligations or predetermine the outcome.
120. The representative of Sri Lanka said that her delegation supported the statement made by the
representative of India regarding Article XVIII and that a review needed to be undertaken.  Her
delegation believed it was the right time to undertake that review since Members were going to
engage in negotiations both for the liberalization in the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors.
Developing countries would be able to understand how they could exercise the flexibilities provided
                                                     
3 It was faxed to all delegations on 10 July 2002.WT/COMTD/M/41
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in the agreement, particularly the GATT Articles once the ambiguities had been clarified.  They
would then also be able to formulate their positions in future negotiations.  Her delegation had raised
concerns with respect to Article XVIII and subsequent agreements which had come into effect with
the establishment of the WTO.  At the Special Session of the CTD, her delegation had highlighted that
there was a lack of coherence in the WTO Agreements and had requested the Special Session to lookinto the issue of coherence in the architecture of those agreements.  She said that was something that
would be of relevance to the CTD in regular session.  Her delegation believed that the proposal by the
delegation of India would guide the CTD to the solutions that Members needed to look for in relation
to that implementation issue.
121. The representative of the European Communities said that, at the last meeting of the CTD,
there had been a request for the Secretariat to compile some factual information.  Views had been
expressed of how difficult that would be and he asked the Secretariat to inform  Members about itsefforts.  He said that he raised that issue because he found it difficult to engage in a debate on the
virtues of lowering some of the barriers or, as the delegation of India might  say, "loosening the strait
jacket of Article XVIII", because Members were still not certain how it would work and whether there
were cases where it had already been used.  He suggested that the minutes of the meeting should
contain some answers on the experience which was available.  It would be difficult for Members tohave a hypothetical discussion without case studies, where for example, there was no possibility for
Members to ask for concessions elsewhere or suspend concessions.  His delegation's concern was that
if Members were not aware of how that would opera te, they might be creating a bigger loophole than
even the proponents might want.  He asked other delegations to reflect on how Members could make
progress on that issue, and in particular whether they had experience of cases where the protection ofan infant industry was not possible because of the restraints of Article XVIII.
122. The Chairman said that the proposal for the delegation of India to provide a copy of their
statement was noted and that statement would be circulated.3 There had also been a request for a
summary of the record of the usage of Article XVIII:A, C and D.  The Secretariat had prepared an
initial draft which he would look at before it was circulated to Members.
123. The Committee took note of the proposal made by the delegation of India and the comments
made and agreed that agenda item J would remain on the agenda for the next CTD meeting and that
informal consultations would be held.
K. E LECTRONIC COMMERCE
124. The Chairman said that Item K was included in the agenda because the Committee had earlier
agreed to have electronic commerce (e-commerce) as a standing item on its agenda.
Ambassador Whalen's written report on the seminar on revenue implications of e-commerce had been
attached to the minutes of the previous CTD meeting.  That report was a useful source of information
on the revenue implications of e-commerce.  He recalled that the Committee's work programme on
electronic commerce was contained in document WT/COMTD/35 and sought Members guidance as
to what, if anything, they wished the Committee to do on the topic in the near future.
125. The representative of Pakistan said that his delegation attached great importance to the aspect
of e-commerce in the work programme of the CTD.  Most developing countries had little or no
national experience, expertise or technical capacity in the field of e-commerce and thus had not fully
analysed the possible and often unpredictable implications of its development in their economies and
their societies.  His delegation understood that in the present day world, e-commerce presentedopportunities.  However, it posed many threats to the economies of the developing countries and the
LDCs along with those opportunities.  In a world of  a digital divide between the North and the South,
there were many aspects of that particular mode of commerce which needed to be examined.  In oneWT/COMTD/M/41
Page 30
of the publications appearing in the International Herald Tribune, the Director General of the WTO
had said that "there are more internet connections in Singapore alone than that in all of Africa".  If the
scenario was that two-thirds of humanity did not even have access to e-commerce, it seemed unjust
and unfair to be talking about globalisation with respect to e-commerce.  In that regard, his delegation
was pleased with the work done by the CTD and hoped that the CTD would be able to examine issuesin more depth and come up with concrete suggestions to the General Council which would lead to
meaningful results.  Though there was little doubt that e-commerce was an important issue for world
trade, there were several aspects of it that needed to be further studied, especially from the point of
view of its implications for the developing world.  There were several impediments to the availability
of and access to that medium in developing countries and unless those were addressed, the gap
between the North and South and that between the poor and the rich would only widen.  His
delegation therefore suggested that the Committee deal with the issues of infrastructure, investment,availability of hardware and software, awareness, education and training when considering e-
commerce.  Developing countries needed to be given adequate time to thoroughly study the
implications and the optimal ways of placing the internet and e-commerce in the service of
development.  The granting of S&D for developing countries with reference to the infrastructure
development had to be duly considered by the CTD.
126. He continued by saying that as regards the issue of transfer of technology, one of the major
barriers to the interests of developing countries was the non-availability of encryption technology.
Developing countries faced special challenges and responsibilities to create a conducive policy
environment that, on the one hand allowed for the development of e-commerce, and on the other
ensured the social objective of providing access and benefits for those that could not afford it.  Ifdeveloping countries were to benefit from the new technological and economic boom which the
growth of e-commerce represented, they would need to get access to technology and develop their
infrastructure.  His delegation reminded the CTD about the concerns raised by the developing
countries regarding the non-operationlization of Article IV of the GATS.  Article IV provided for the
participation of developing countries, through enhanced market access in areas of export interest tothem, and through better access to technology, including encryption technology and security of
transactions and efficient telecommunication services.  The existing restrictions on the export of state-
of-the-art encryption technology by some Members wa s of particular concern to his delegation.  The
striking disparity between the developed and developing countries' capacity to engage in e-commerce,
especially in terms of the infrastructure that was required, had to be central to Members' discussions.
To address that disadvantage and to ensure a level playing field, a package of measures would have to
be considered.  That package could include access to, and transfer of, related technology such as thesharing of encryption and security technology to allow secure transactions.  In addition mechanisms
that facilitated the ability of developing country firms to engage in e-commerce were necessary.  In
that regard, there was a need for subsidized access to e-markets and assistance in the establishment of
banking systems for all types of e-commerce transactions.  He concluded by saying that standards
related to various aspects of e-commerce should be formulated with the effective participation ofdeveloping countries.  Such standards should not be complex and onerous to observe as that would act
as a barrier to entry of developing country firms into e-commerce.
127. The Chairman said that delegations had a great deal of interest in the issue of e-commerce and
had not had the opportunity to examine it in detail and consider the report.  He therefore suggested
that the Committee revert to the topic at the next CTD meeting.
128. It was so agreed.WT/COMTD/M/41
Page 31
L. O THER BUSINESS
129. The representative of Canada said that on 27 June 2002, the Canadian Prime Minister,
Jean Chrétien had announced initiatives that her Government would take to support Africa's
development, including enhanced market access, trade and investment, resources for good
government, conflict prevention, education, health, agricultural research and water management.  The
announcements represented a commitment of Canadian $6 billion in new and existing resources over
five years to Africa's development, including a Canadian $5 million Canada Fund for Africa that had
been previously announced.  The new initiatives would bring together governments, the private sector
and civil society to promote African initiative, human development and critical infrastructure services.
They would include public participation and capacity-building to develop African solutions to its
challenges and were in complete alignment with the NEPAD and the G8 Africa Action Plan.  There
would be a Canadian $100 million programme to enc ourage private sector investment by creating an
African investment fund which would support and leve rage private sector resources for investment in
infrastructure such as roads, water supply and pipeline construction.  Canadian $20 million would be
set aside for three new initiatives to increase Africa's trade capacity by working to promote exports
within and outside Africa and to strengthen the role of African countries and institutions in the
multilateral trading system.  Those included Canadian $7 million, over three years to further theJITAP programme, $8 million over three years, to the ITC and the Trade Facilitation Office of
Canada for a creative new programme of export promotion, and $5 million over three years to develop
a trade policy expertise centre for Africa in partnership with the Economic Commission for Africa.
There would also be Canadian $35 million for three initiatives to help bridge the digital divide by
supporting African initiatives that expanded the use and benefits of new information andcommunications technologies.
130. Another representative of Canada said that on 27 June 2002, Canadian Prime Minister
Jean Chrétien announced that, effective from 1 January 2003, Canada would provide duty free and
quota free access to imports from 48 of the world's LDCs for all products except dairy products,
poultry and eggs.  That action was being taken to he lp LDCs develop by increasing their opportunities
to trade and by encouraging investment in those countries .  His Government had received direct
representations from LDCs to provide improved market access.  A number of international
organizations, including the WTO, IMF, the World Bank and the UN, had noted the benefits of
granting greater market access to LDCs.  Canada's LDC market-access initiative covered the major
products of interest which those LDCs exported to Canada, including apparel which accounted for
more than half of Canada's imports from LDCs.  His Government was also developing new rules of
origin and rules of origin procedures for textiles and apparel for those preferences.  Those rules oforigin were designed:
(i) to provide real opportunities and benefits that LDCs could realize by directly
taking into account the production capacity of LDCs;
(ii) by allowing for accumulation, they extend benefits to developing countries,
as well as LDCs, who produced inputs, such as yarn and fabric, that was usedby LDCs to produce apparel and other finished textile products;  and
(iii) to ensure that the benefits went to where they were intended while protecting
against illegal transhipment and without imposing undue administrative
burdens.
131. He gave the example of apparel imported from an LDC, which would qualify for duty free
and quota free access if first, the apparel was assembled in that LDC; second, it was made from fabric
cut or knit to shape in that same LDC;  and third, if the fabric or yarn originated in that same LDC.
Apparel cut and sewn in an LDC could also qualify if it used imported fabrics or yarns so long as first,WT/COMTD/M/41
Page 32
there was 25 per cent value added in the LDC in producing (cutting and sewing) the apparel;  and
second, the imported fabric or yarn originated in another LDC or a developing country.  For fabric to
be considered originating, it needed to be made from yarn produced in an LDC or developing country,
and the yarn needed to be spun or extruded in the LDC or developing country.  In short, the rules of
origin for apparel would allow cumulation not ju st from other LDCs but also from developing
countries, hence encouraging greater trade with developing countries as well as from Canada.  To
further ensure that the benefits went where they were intended, LDCs would be required to sign an
undertaking to cooperate on the exchange of information for verification purposes.  His Government
would also be putting in place an enhanced and more targeted monitoring, verification and
investigation regime on textiles and apparel.  The purpose of that action was to deter illegal
transhipments that would erode the benefits to LDCs.  In addition to apparel, his Government
extended the duty free and quota free regime for LDCs  to also cover other products of key interest to
those countries, including textiles and most agricultural products, as well as other industrial products.
He said that more details would be provided in the fall as his Government prepared to implement its
new duty free and quota free regime on 1 January 2003.  He concluded by saying that his
Government's new LDC market access initiative was far-reaching and designed to give LDCs
preferential treatment in the products of key interest to them.  His delegation would provide anotification on that new regime in due course.
132. The Chairman said that the delegation of Canada's statement referred to 48 LDCs, whereas
there were 49 and he hoped that no particular LDC had been excluded.
133. The representative of Canada said that in his Government's initiatives for LDCs, one LDC had
been excluded for political reasons.
134. The Chairman said that that was someth ing that could be discussed in the LDC
Sub-Committee.  He reminded Members that the next formal CTD meeting was tentatively scheduled
for 8 October 2002.  In the meantime there would informal consultations.
135. The Committee took note of the statements made.
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