G/L/1494  
G/MA/413  
 
16 October  2023 
(23-6966) Page: 1/4 
Council for Trade in Goods  
Committee on Market Access    
 
REPORT  ON IMPROVEMENTS IN THE FUNCTIONING OF  
THE COMMITTEE  ON MARKET ACCESS1 
1  INTRODUCTION  
1.1.  This report has been prepared at the request of the Council for Trade in Goods (CTG)2 to update 
the Council on the recent discussions on measures to improve the functioning of the Committee on 
Market Access (CMA or Committee). It complements information contained in the report prepared 
by the former Chairperson  of the CMA , with the assista nce of the Secretariat, which was circulated 
on 1 December 2022 ( G/L/1460; G/MA/W/182 ). 
2  PROCESS AND PROPOSALS  
2.1.  As indicated in the 2022 report  by the former Chairperson of the CMA  to the CTG and the 
Secretariat comparative matrix ( G/C/W/824/Rev.1 ), the Committee  has introduced a number of new 
tools and practices in its work  over the past years. The considerable progress made by the CMA until 
now explains why only relative ly small changes were needed to improve the way in which this 
committee functions . 
2.2.  Following the CTG informal meeting of 31  January  2023, the CMA started the discussions on 
how to further  improve its functioning at its first informal meeting of 21 February  2023.3 At that 
meeting, Members were asked to reflect on whether the CMA should begin a process for discussing 
improvements to its functioning and, if so, what areas should be improved. Based on the suggestions 
by Members  at the meeting  and subsequent wr itten submissions , on 20 April 2023, the former  
Chairperson  of the CMA  circulated a document containing a preliminary list of issues for discussions 
by the Committee (document JOB/MA/162 ). The issues were grouped taking  into account the 
comparative matrix and the structure proposed in the preliminary list circulated by the CTG 
Chairperson in document ICN/CTG/9 . 
2.3.  The preliminary list of issues was included on the agenda of the CMA formal meeting of 
26-27 April 2023 .4 At that formal meeting, it was agreed that the Committee would hold substantive 
discussions on how to improve its functioning at its next informal meeting , which  subsequently  took 
place on  3 July 2023.  
2.4.  In preparation for the July informal meeting , and f ollowing the model  used by  the CTG and 
some  of its subsidiary bodies , the Chairperson asked the Secretariat to convert the preliminary list 
of issues in to a table showing  the current status of each proposal in order to inform Members' 
discussions. The draft table was circulated by email to all Members on 29  June 2023 and  was used 
during the informal meeting to record the discussions held and the proposed way forward under 
each item. The updated table reflecting the outcome of the informal meeting was sent to Members  
for review and comments on 6 July 2023 , and the final version was circulated in document 
JOB/MA/165  on 18 July 2023 .5 
2.5.  In this document, Members' proposals were divided into three groups: 1)  proposals that could 
be implemented without any additional action by the Committee ; 2) proposals for adoption by the 
 
1 Adopted  on 16 October 2023.  
2 See documents JOB/CTG/29  and JOB/CTG/33 . 
3 See documents ICN/MA/9 and ICN/MA /9/Add.1 . 
4 See document G/MA/M/78 , agenda item 10.2.  
5 See document ICN/MA/10/Suppl.1 . G/L/1494 • G/MA/413  
 
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  Committee through written procedures ; and 3)  proposals where n o specific follow -up was required . 
The document also identifie d proposals whose implementation has budgetary implications  and may 
not be implemented  or may face delays  due to resource constraints  (see paragraph 2.11) . 
2.6.  With regards to three  items  that Members considered  that required adoption by the Committee  
(see section 3) , on 20 July 2023, the proposed written procedures were circulated in document 
JOB/MA/166 , and a corrigendum was cir culated on 8 August 2023 ( JOB/MA/166/Corr.1 ) According 
to the  proposed procedures, the three proposals  listed in the annex of document JOB/MA/166  and 
its corrigendum would be considered to be adopted by the Committee unless the Secretariat received 
any objection in writing by 15 August 2023.  The outcome of these procedures , with the list of  
adopted proposals , was circulated in document G/MA/411  of 18 September 2023 . 
2.7.  At its informal meeting of 18  September  2023, the Committee was informed about the progress 
that was made in a number of other items identified in document JOB/MA/165 , including on  the 
implementation of several new features to the CMA eAgenda and  on the  proposal s by certain  
Members  for the organization of  thematic sessions in the CMA .6 At that meeting, the Chairperson 
proposed to reflect the status of the Committee's work on how to improve its functioning until that 
date in the report to the CTG , and to continue the discussions based on Members' interest s and 
request s. At the formal meeting of the Committee on 16 -17 October 2023 , the Chairperson reported  
about this area of work  under a dedicated agenda item .7 
2.8.  Specifically with regard to the proposals, t he list of issues for discussions by the CMA identifie d 
30 items  (see JOB/MA/165 ) based on written inputs received by Members, including two official 
communications circulated by the CMA:  
• Communication from Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay on 
"Functioning of the CTG and its subsidiary bodies" ( JOB/MA/ 158/Rev.2 ); and  
 
• Communication by the United Kingdom on " UK views on the functioning of the CMA" 
(document JOB/MA/163 ). 
2.9.  Noting that the Committee has already been applying many of the suggestions proposed by 
Members8, discussio ns in the CMA have focused on the following additional improvements that could 
be undertaken in the work of the Committee:  
a) Assistance to capital -based and Geneva -based delegates ; 
b) Planning and organization of meetings ; 
c) Working procedures for formal and info rmal meetings;  and 
d) Use of digital tools (which were divided into CMA -specific tools and WTO -wide tools).  
2.10.  It was also recognized that several of the proposals raised by Members in the CMA did not 
require any specific action by the Committee or the Secretari at as they were horizontal in nature 
and were linked to ongoing discussions in other WTO bodies.  
2.11.  With regards to the improvement that has budgetary implications (i.e. , online notification 
system for quantitative restrictions), at the informal meeting of 3 July, it was suggested that the  
Chairperson send a communication to the  Committee on Budget and Finance Administration  (CBFA) 
and inform the General Council, through the CTG . On 31 July , the Chairperson of the CMA met with 
the Chairperson of the CBFA who had  indicated that delegations interested in obtaining additional 
resources for the implementation of measures resulting from the  "reform by doing" process  should 
attend the  CBFA meetings  and raise this issue in that committee  as the best way to secure  the 
resources that are needed to carry out the projects of interest to the CMA .  
 
6 See document  ICN/MA/11/Suppl.1 . 
7 See document WTO/AIR/MA/19 . 
8 See annex table in document G/C/W/824/Rev.1 . G/L/1494 • G/MA/413  
 
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  3  IMPROVEMENTS  ON THE FUNCTIONING  OF THE COMMITTEE  
3.1.  As a result of the process and proposal s described above , the Committee agreed to implement 
12 improvements to the way it is  functioning , including three where formal decisions were taken  by 
the Committee and nine where the Secretariat was requested to introduce changes to the way in 
which it supports the work of the Committee .  
3.2.  The improvements included or to be included in the work of the Committee are: 
General area  Improvements  in the functioning of the Committee  on Market Access  
A. Assistance to delegates  • The Secretariat will schedule  its presentation on the functioning of the 
CMA for delegates at its first informal meeting of the year . 
• The Secretariat  started to send  reminders for outstanding notifications  
of quantitative restrictions (QRs)  and notifications to the Integrated 
Databases ( IDB) to the email addresses of delegates that have 
registered on E-Registration  as following the CMA in addition to the 
mission's general email address  
• The Secretar iat developed a new section of the WTO  website that serve s 
as a manual to explain the work of the CMA and also consolidates in one 
page all the digital tools used by the Committee9. 
• Following the creation of the new CMA webpage, t he Secretariat will 
create a factsheet  on QR s to be posted online . 
• Following the creation of the new CMA webpage, t he Secretariat will 
develop a short description of the CMA digital tools to be posted online . 
B. Planning and 
organization of meetings  • The Secretariat will circulate a written explanation for the cancellation or 
postponement of a meeting, as required.  
C. Conduct of formal 
meetings  • The Committee adopted a decision  to extend the closing of the agenda 
to at least 15  calendar days p rior to the date of the formal meeting, to 
allow delegations more time to prepare for each meeting  (see 
G/MA/411 ). 
• The Committee adopted a decision to instruct the Secretariat to include 
a new subsection in the agenda of formal meetings of the CMA to 
separate "new" trade concerns and place them before "previously raised" 
trade concerns  (see G/MA/411 ). 
D. Conduct of informal 
meetin gs  
E. Digital tools used by the 
Committee  • To facilitate the work of delegates and improve access to information 
after a meeting, t he Committee adopted a decision  to change the default 
option for statements in the CMA eAgenda  to automatically make 
statements  available to all Members after the meeting  (see G/MA/411 ). 
• To facilitate the preparation and follow -up of meetings for delegates, t he 
Secretariat has added  a number of new features to the CMA eAgenda  
(i.e. addition of opening/closing remarks by the Chairperson under each 
agenda item ; the inclusion of all reports by the Secretariat, the 
Chairperson, and observe rs as statements ; list of all the delegations that 
take the floor at a meeting ). Based on information available on eAgenda, 
the system can generate a document compiling all the information  
available under each a genda item  that can be downloaded by delegates 
at the end of the meeting . This document  could be used by delegates as 
a preliminary report of formal meetings  and will contribute to facilitate  
the production of the minutes by the Secretariat.  
• The online no tification system for QRs, which the Committee considers 
to be an important improvement that could help Members submitting 
notifications, will be developed subject to budgetary constraints.  
 
9 https://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/markacc_e/markacc_com_e.htm . G/L/1494 • G/MA/413  
 
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  General area  Improvements  in the functioning of the Committee  on Market Access  
F. Substantive work  • Based on the positive experience with the CMA experience -sharing 
sessions on trade in COVID -19 related goods , the Committee will 
continue its practice of organi zing thematic sessions based on proposals 
by Members.  
G. Other   
 
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