INF/MSME/R/26  
 
6 July 2021  
(21-5349) Page: 1/3 
  Original: English  
 
 
INFORMAL WORKING GROUP ON MSME  
OPEN -ENDED MEETING OF 24 JUNE 2021  
Summary of discussions  
The following communication, dated 6 July 2021, is being circulated at the request of the Coordinator 
of the Informal Working Group on MSMEs.  
 
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The MSME Informal Working Group (MSME Group) met for its third open -ended meeting of 2021 on 
24 June. A total of 57 delegations1 attended the meeting, including eight non-working Group 
members (Bangladesh; Central African Republic; Georgia; Suriname; Thailand; Togo; United States 
of America ; and Uzbekistan).  
 
1  SUMMARY OF DISCUSSIONS  
1.1.  Members discussed the revised draft ministerial declaration which incorporates comments 
received following the February meeting and the small group discussion held in May 
(INF/MSME/W/33/Rev.1). Various edits and suggestions of additional language were made. The 
Coordinator announced that a s mall group consultation would be held in early July to try and finalize 
work on the declaration in time for the July meeting of the Group.  
1.2.  The Group received a number of presentations, including three on various aspects of 
UNCITRAL's Model Law on Electroni c Transferable Records (MLETR) starting with an explanation of 
what MLETR is; the importance of MLETR to MSMEs; and Bahrain's national experience as the first 
nation to transpose MLETR to domestic law. The ICC -UK called on the MSME Group to help to raise 
the visibility of the Model Law and of its importance for MSME growth and trade digitalization (see 
Annex  for further details on these presentations).  
1.3.  The Secretariat presented on a report completed in 2019 on MSME references in regional trade 
agreements (I NF/MSME/W/6/Rev.1), including the updated background database available at the 
MSME provisions in regional trade agreements webpage ( link). The Secretariat was invited t o update 
the 2019 report for discussion at a forthcoming meeting.  
1.4.  The newly inaugurated Chair of the ICC High Level Council on SMEs, Victor Dosoretz, gave a 
presentation on this new initiative to support the ICC's strategy to fully integrate the voice of SMEs 
in its engagement in intergovernmental fora. The ICC High Level Council on SMEs seeks to connect 
research, business, civil society, international organizations and public sectors together to support 
key SME issues including access to finance, digital transformation, trade facilitation, entrepreneurial 
 
1 Albania; Argentina; Australia; Bahrain,  Kingdom of ; Bangladesh ; Brazil; Canada; Central African 
Republic ; Chile; China; Costa Rica; Côte d'Ivoire; Czech republic; Ecuador; France; Georgia ; Germany; 
Honduras; Hong Kong, china; Hungary; Israel; Japan; Kazakhstan; Kenya; Korea, Republic of; Lao P eople's 
Democratic Republic ; Latvia; Lithuania; Mexico; Mongolia; Myanmar; Netherlands; New Zealand; Nicaragua; 
Norway; Peru; Philippines; Poland; Portugal; Romania; Russian Federation; Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of; Slovak 
Republic; Slovenia; Spain; Suriname ; Switzerland; Chinese Taipei; Thailand ; Togo; Turkey; Ukraine; 
United Kingdom; United States of America ; Uruguay; Uzbekistan  (Observer); Viet Nam (non -MSME Group 
members are in italics).  INF/MSME/R/26  
 
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  skills, international trade and investment, and climate action. Victor Dosoretz invited the MSME 
Group to cooperate with the High-Level Council.  
1.5.  Finally, updates were given on the new initiatives begun by  Brazil and Ecuador. Brazil gave a 
presentation on rural MSMEs and agritech in their economy and Ecuador updated the group on their 
recently issued questionnaire on MSMEs and innovation policies (INF/MSME/W/32) and invited MSME 
Group members to  fill it in the coming months.  
1.6.  The Group also heard a presentation from Abu  Dhabi Global Market in the context of the 
proposal by Ecuador on innovation policies on Abu Dhabi's Digital Lab and SME Platform including 
the ways it can support fintech development (see Ann ex).  
1.7.  The MSME Group also discussed implementation of the December 2020 MSME Package and 
updates were provided on initiatives MSME Group members have taken within WTO standing 
committees. C ôte d'Ivoire noted the discussion in the Working Group on Trade , Debt and Finance 
regarding their proposal WT/WGTDF/W/98 and WT/WGTDF/W/98/Add.1 following from Annex 6 of 
the MSME package. This proposal, which advocates for the development of a work programme to 
support MSME access to trade finance, received broad support  but was met with opposition by one 
Member . Canada also brought to the Group's attention a recent presentation by the Secretariat to 
the Market Access Committee reminding delegates of the possibility to arrange for the automatic 
transmission of tariff and trade data to the IDB . The presentation shows how Canada formalized 
such an arrangement and also  notes two documents created by the Secretariat to implement such 
a voluntary arrangement (RD/MA/81 and RD/MA/82) along with a technical note (JOB/MA/149). 
Canada called on other members  to consider establishing a similar automatic transmission process.  
1.8.  Members of the MSME Group then discussed the format of a possible overview list they could 
follow to keep track of implementation of the package. Members agreed that it is important to have 
a record of what has been accomplished but did not want to have a st rict monitoring document. The 
format of the overview list as proposed by the Coordinator  will be finetuned prior to the next meeting.  
1.9.  Mexico gave an update to the Group on the development of the Trade4MSMEs web platform, a 
concrete deliverable to be relea sed at MC12 by the MSME Group. They noted that the platform has 
entered the beta phase and will be made available for testing to interested members. Content for 
the page continues to be developed by the Tr ade4MSMEs team, including guides for MSMEs and 
policymakers.  
1.10.   As part of the next steps for the platform, Mexico proposed the launch of a Trade4MSMEs 
Hub, i.e. a partnership with other international and regional organizations working on MSMEs. 
Linking with these external organizations will help to ensure t hat the information on the platform is 
kept up to date; will contribute to the exchange of information and coordinated action with other 
organizations; and will allow for the exploration of joint work, including research. It was proposed 
that this hub shou ld also be launched at MC12 with the platform itself.  
1.11.   Finally, the Group was alerted to the WTO's MSME Day events, including the launch of the 
Digital Champions  for Small Businesses initiative ( webcast ) and the Trade and Gender Hour  with the 
Canadian, El Salvadorean and Uruguayan  Ambassadors along with representatives from Colombia 
and the United Kingdom.  
2  NEXT STEPS  
The next MSME open -ended meeting will be held on 26 July 2021.  
 
  INF/MSME/R/26  
 
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  ANNEX  
 
PRESENTATION SUMMARIES  
UNCITRAL  
UNCITRAL began the meeting with a presentation on the history and purpose of the  Model Law on 
Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR). Adopted in 2017, MLETR enables the use of various trade 
documents in electronic format, including bills of lading and promissory notes. It also supports the 
use of emerging technologies like blockchain , IoT and smart contracts, but is a technology neutral 
agreement. MLETR is an enabling law – it does not create new regulations, rather it is built around 
functional equivalence rules meaning the same law applies to both electronic and paper -based 
document s. By enabling electronic records, MLETR makes it possible to put multiple regulatory 
documents together in one file, with permissions for each document selectively given based on 
relevance. It was noted that enacting MLETR can enable cross -border data flo ws, improve supply 
chain governance, reduce compliance costs, safeguard against fraud, and minimize manual inputs, 
all of which are especially useful for small businesses for whom compliance with regulations is a 
burden. Ultimately, MLETR is seen as a key enabler of digital trade financing and paperless trade 
facilitation moving the entire process online and reducing duplication of data. Currently it has been 
adopted in Bahrain, Singapore, and Abu Dhabi.  
1  ICC-UK  
1.1.  The ICC -UK presented on a recent joint report with Coriolis looking into the ways that digitizing 
transferable documents could support SME growth. Given the sheer number of trade documents, 
making them electronic can be a very practical way to support MSME s. Governments play a critical 
role in this digitization and the benefits can be enormous based on the study, namely an estimated 
£25 billion in new economic growth and 25% more SME Trade by 2024; up to a 75% reduction in 
the number of days needed to proce ss documents and up to £224 billion in efficiency savings. 
However, it's important that global harmonization is pursued when it comes to this transfer, which 
is provided by the MLETR framework. The ICC -UK made a call to action of the MSME Group to help 
to raise the visibility of the Model Law and of its importance for  MSME growth and trade digitalization.  
2  THE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT BOARD OF THE KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN  
The Economic Development Board of the Kingdom of Bahrain presented on its experience as the first 
economy in the world to implement electronic transferable records (ETR) for specific trade 
documents and instruments. Unlike the MLETR, the Kingdom of Bahrain chose to specifically name 
the trade documents it would make electronically transferable, namely bills of lading, letters of 
credit, warehouse receipts, cheques, bills of exchange, promissory notes, and other documents or 
instruments (in respect of delivering goods or paying a fixed amount of money) specified i n a 
regulation. They simultaneously issued a new Electronic Communications and Transactions Law 
(ECTL) to ensure consistency and avoid duplication with ETR. The Kingdom of Bahrain  concluded  by 
noting that ETR was not an isolated initiative, it required a n umber of complementary initiatives to 
implement not only in terms of making new laws available on the books ranging from personal data 
protection and revamping the electronic transactions law to ECTL, but also promoting the use of 
cloud computing and gover nment digitalization as well as providing training and pursuing continued 
customs modernization initiatives.  
3  ABU DHABI GLOBAL MARKET  (ADGM)  
ADGM presented on its various initiatives to transform Abu Dhabi's business and finance landscape 
through digitizati on, the development of frameworks related to APIs and crypto assets, and the 
creation of regulatory sand boxes for digital and FinTech. ADGM's labs in particular are meant to 
help make it possible for FinTechs and start -ups to get their ideas and solutions  in front of established 
banks. ADGM encourages all banks to participate in these labs where a problem is issued,  and 
solutions can be proposed and reviewed. Separately, ADGM is also currently working on an SME 
platform to create an ecosystem where SMEs in put their data and opt to receive offers from advisors 
providing finance, legal services, etc. in order to bring SME banking to a new level. This marketplace 
will be available at the end of 2021. The importance of the regulatory landscape was also 
undersco red, including how MLETR can support initiatives such as these.  
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