WT/GC/W/874  
 
1 May 2023  
(23-3053) Page: 1/5 
General Council  Original: English  
 
WTO REFORM: INCREMENTAL CHANGES TO IMPROVE THE FUNCTIONING OF THE 
VARIOUS WTO BODIES  
COMMUNICATION FROM INDIA  
The following communication, dated 1 May  2023, is being circulated at the request of the delegation 
of India.  
 
_______________  
 
 
1.  The World Trade Organization (WTO) will complete 30 years of its functioning on the 
31 December  2024, post the signing of Marrakesh Agreement. Beginning next January, as we enter 
the thirtieth year of this organization as the central pillar of the global multilateral trading system, 
we have a collective opportunity to demonstrate Members ' continued commitment to the work of 
the WTO, thereby strengthening its eﬀectivenes s. 
2.  Towards this end, we propose to galvanize the collective resolve of this Organization behind an 
initiative we have dubbed as "30 For 30"  - a Member -led eﬀort to bring at least 30 operational 
improvements to the WTO before the Organization completes 30 y ears, i.e., by 1 January 2025. The 
organization would be able to showcase these incremental yet collectively very signiﬁcant 
transformational changes on completing 30 years of its existence.  
3.  The WTO bodies can beneﬁt from operational eﬃciency improvement t hrough interventions which 
may include technology adoption, cross -pollination of best practices amongst WTO bodies and 
adapting the working conventions in a way which beneﬁt delegates in Geneva and in the capitals on 
a day -to-day basis.  
4.  Furthermore, we rec all paragraph 3 of the Outcome Document of the MC12 (WT/MIN(22)/24), 
which stated: "The General Council and its subsidiary bodies will conduct the work, review progress, 
and consider decisions, as appropriate, to be submitted to the next Ministerial Confer ence."  
5.  In this context, we are presenting a ﬁrst list of ideas to help start the "30 For 30" discussions. 
This is a preliminary list meant to guide the discussion. We have attempted to group these 
suggestions by themes and also indicated the timeframe in w hich each suggestion appears 
achievable.  
6.  While deliberations on the larger WTO reform agenda are ongoing, these suggested incremental 
changes could be implemented quickly, as developing a common understanding on these would be 
easy considering the nature o f these suggestions for enhancing of operational eﬃciency of the 
organization.  
7.  We remain open to other ideas from Members. We welcome eﬀorts by various Councils and 
Committees to review these ideas and hope that the ideas that eventually get adopted for im proving 
the working of the various WTO bodies will have meaningful convergence.  
8.  We also propose that the Council and TNC Division of the WTO Secretariat collate the list of 
changes implemented and communicate to the WTO Members and external stakeholders on a 
periodic basis on this collective initiative by the Members.  
_______________  WT/GC/W/874  
 
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  SUGGESTIONS GROUPED BY THEMES  
No. Theme  Suggestion  Proposed Timeframe  
(in Months)  
6 12 24 
1. WTO  
Regular Meetings  WTO Meeting Calendar:  
A yearly meeting calendar to be published, with all divisions of 
WTO working together to streamline meeting schedule with best -
efforts attempt to avoid clashes including publishing of the dates 
for General Council meetings through the year by 15 January of 
the part icular year, so that other bodies can plan meetings around 
it. 
 
Additionally, the holidays on account of festivals and other events 
should be taken into consideration the sensitivities of all Members.  ●  
 
 
  
2. WTO  
Regular Meetings  Annotated Agenda:  
All WTO regular bodies to adopt a standard annotated agenda 
format, which remains an informal document, while taking into 
account the sensitivities of Members.  ●   
3 WTO  
Regular Meetings  WTO Committee Meeting Minutes:  
The minutes of the WTO Committee meetings should be made 
available within 2 weeks of completion of a one -day meeting, 3 
weeks of completion of a two -day meeting and 4 weeks of 
completion of meetings longer than two days.   ●  
4. WTO  
Digital Tools  WTO Digital Tools Overview Session:  
Conduct two overview sessions on WTO Digital Tools every year – 
once for the Geneva -based delegates and once for the capital -
based delegates (learning from the practice set by the Committee 
for Market Access and the Council of Trade in Goods in 2022).  ●   
5. WTO  
Digital Tools  WTO Website Management:  
Ensure that all WTO regular bodies have a standardized set of 
information on the WTO website, and each page remains uniform 
(not look diﬀerent) and provide time stamps to enhance the 
authenticity and the credibility of the website.   ●  
6. WTO  
Digital Tools  WTO Website Management:  
Put in place a standard content management system, improving 
digital asset management, content management and change 
control processes for managing the WTO website.    ● 
7. WTO  
Digital Tools  STC Dashboard:  
Create a Specific Trade Concern (STC) dashboard for Members 
(only for registered delegates), to check how STCs raised by and 
against each Member have evolved over time in different WTO 
regular bodies.   ●  
8. WTO  
Digital Tools  Productivity App:   
Develop a simple productivity app (Member Delegate Directory, 
Secretariat Directory, Meeting Calendar, Meeting Notifications, 
Meeting Room Booking) which is native to mobile platforms, to 
help increase institutional productivity and ease  of communication.    ● 
9. WTO  
Digital Tools  WTO Website Content : 
Develop a system that helps user to search for Members ' positions 
in a particular Council / Committee based on parameters like year, 
and agenda items and compile.    ● 
10. WTO  
External 
Communication  WTO Reports Calendar:  
Publish a yearly calendar for reports that the WTO Secretariat 
intends to publish. The calendar can then be revised quarterly as 
required.  ●   WT/GC/W/874  
 
- 3 - 
 
  No. Theme  Suggestion  Proposed Timeframe  
(in Months)  
6 12 24 
11. WTO  
External  
Communication  Disclaimer in WTO Reports/ Publications:  
All WTO Secretariat reports prepared in partnership with external 
stakeholders should carry a disclaimer that the report is not 
endorsed by WTO Members and is authored on the responsibility 
of the Secretariat. WTO digital media communication on the 
reports should carry the same disclaimer.  ●   
12. WTO  
External  
Communication  Public Forum Schedule:  
Move the Public Forum dates to early July. So as to free up and 
utilize ~2 -3 weeks end September / early October for WTO regular 
meetings (for widening the calendar window for regular meetings).  ●   
13. WTO  
External  
Communication  Review of Regular WTO Reports:  
WTO should institute a process to review the structure of all regular 
reports (Aid for Trade, Trade Forecast etc.) in a Member driven 
process. This will help Members in re -e valuating the underlying 
assumptions and methodolo gy, and also keep them relevant and 
non-partisan.   ●  
14. WTO  
External  
Communication  Social Media:  
The WTO actively uses and harnesses the reach provided by social 
media platforms. With the proliferation of the number of platforms 
and their wide use by WTO Secretariat staff, the content 
disseminated and presented through these platform needs to be 
neutral, objective, non -partisan, taking cognizance of diverse 
views of Members. Formulate a policy for the oﬃcials of the 
Secretariat with regard to their engagement on the social media 
especially in their capacity as WTO Secretariat staff.  
  ●  
15. WTO  
External  
Communication  WTO News Scrutiny before Publishing :  
News items at times provide information that are factually 
inaccurate, and partisan not reflecting the discussions in the 
Council / Committees in entirety. Therefore, there must be a 
proper procedure for ensuring balanced and factual drafting and 
accountability for the items reported.   ●  
16. WTO  
External  
Communication  Transparency in WTO News Items:  
WTO news items published in media or on own website make 
statements like 'some Members agreed' or 'some Members 
disagreed'. Such news items should clearly state the number of 
Members agreeing and disagreeing, rather than ed itorializing the 
text.  ●  
17. WTO  
External  
Communication  LDC Experience Sharing:  
Institute an annual LDC Experience Sharing day, where LDCs can 
present their gain made from trade  and the problems faced, so 
that they become inputs to ongoing improvements of the 
multilateral trading system.   ●  
18. WTO  
External  
Communication  Member Driven Process for Identification of Studies Carried 
by WTO with International Organizations:  
WTO collaborates with other international organizations for various 
studies. However, Members do not play any role in either selecting 
such topics, or identification of agencies for study, or need for any 
such study or analysis of studies. These studies, r eport often 
contain only select views and are released as fait accompli , thus 
creating distortion.   ●  
19. WTO Rules and 
Procedures  Geneva Hiring Cooling -Off Period:  
WTO should institute a cooling -oﬀ period of 12 months before 
hiring any Ambassador and PR to the WTO in any permanent or 
consulting roles in the WTO and for any consulting roles through 
third party organizations.  ●   WT/GC/W/874  
 
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  No. Theme  Suggestion  Proposed Timeframe  
(in Months)  
6 12 24 
20. WTO Rules and 
Procedures  Binding Constraints :  
For the reform process to progress, binding constraints must ﬁrst 
be identiﬁed and addressed under each pillar. The binding 
constraint is that constraint which has the predominant role to play 
if any outcome has to be achieved.   ●  
21. WTO Rules and 
Procedures  One Step Backwards to Take Two Steps Forward: 
Outstanding issues are not resolved but new issues are added. 
Need to pause resolve old issues before adding new ones.   ●  
22. WTO Rules and 
Procedures  Organization of Ministerial Conferences (MC):  
This format needs to be streamlined, taking into account the 
experiences gained from the previous MCs including MC12.  
 
Delegations had ﬂagged a number of process and procedural 
issues with respect to MC12 org anization and the WTO Secretariat 
was collating those suggestions. That collation could form the basis 
for preparing a standard and streamlined guidance document for 
organization of the future MCs. The Secretariat could consider 
placing the same before the  Membership for discussion and 
adoption.  
  ●  
23. WTO Rules and 
Procedures  Reforming Green Room Meetings:  
The meetings held in the Green Rooms have come in for criticism 
for exclusivity. Process and modalities for Green Room have to be 
reformed.   ●  
24. WTO Rules and 
Procedures  Text based negotiation:  
There are two ways in which text -based negotiations are 
conducted, the texts are either proposed by Member/Groups of 
Members or by the Chair (which reﬂects common position/views), 
which is negotiated.  
 
In the former, if the text is not stabilized, the positions of Members 
are attributed to them. Therefore, there is transparency of what a 
particular Member 's position is. The latter, however, does not 
reﬂect the position of Members and therefore is a non -transparent 
process. Transparency in text -based negotiations is sine quo non  
and therefore positions attributable to Members always need to be 
reﬂected, whether in text based or Chair 's text.   ●  
25. WTO Rules and 
Procedures  Adopt UN Accounting Practices:  
Align WTO accounting and audit practices to the UN system in 
terms of auditor selections, procedures and reporting.   ●  
26. WTO Rules and 
Procedures  WTO Bodies - Rules and Procedures:  
The WTO should undertake a one -time study to harmonize rules 
and procedures of the WTO regular bodies, so that a common code 
of behaviour  and conduct emerges for the WTO Chairs. This will 
help reduce time and eﬀort for Members to understand operational 
differences between diﬀerent WTO bodies.    ● 
27. WTO Rules and 
Procedures  Review Work of "Facilitative " WTO Bodies:  
Undertake a one -time review of the work of "facilitative" WTO 
regular bodies and explore opportunities for the re -invigoration of 
their work - e.g., Committee on Balance of Payments, Working 
Group on Trade, Debt and Finance, Working Group on Trade and 
Transfer of Technology.    ● 
28. WTO Rules and 
Procedures  WTO Documents:  
Undertake a one -time project to harmonize WTO   document series 
across WTO regular bodies (e.g., M for Meeting Minutes, N for 
Notification etc.). Assign a revised symbol to old WTO documents 
where required and ensure that the search facility works for old as 
well as new symbols for a transition period - maybe 5 years - after 
which the new symbols should be used exclusively.    ● WT/GC/W/874  
 
- 5 - 
 
  No. Theme  Suggestion  Proposed Timeframe  
(in Months)  
6 12 24 
29. WTO Rules and 
Procedures  Ethics - Refining Conduct Rules:  
Eliminating conflict of interest is a core element of ethical code 
conduct across all corporate and government organizations. This 
needs immediate attention in the WTO, both in Committee 's 
Chair's appointments and staﬀ position appointments.    ● 
30. WTO Rules and 
Procedures  Efficient Chairs Selection:   
Publish appropriately a list of chairs of all WTO bodies since 
inception, so that an evidence -based decision -making process may 
be facilitated for Chairs selection in the future.  ●   
31. WTO  
Committee - 
Speciﬁc  
Suggestions  Time Bound Work Program on Making Dispute Settlement 
Accessible:  
Constitute a time -bound work programme - say 3 years - via a 
General Council declaration on speciﬁc steps required to make 
dispute settlement more accessible for the developing countries, 
including the LDCs.  ●   
32. WTO  
Committee - 
Speciﬁc  
Suggestions  Committee on Budget Finance & Administration: WTO, unlike 
other national governments and International Organizations, does 
not have a contingency measure to handle the situation when the 
WTO regular budget is not timely approved by the Members. There 
are proposals which have been under discussion to address this 
issue, but no decision has been taken yet. It is important that WTO 
Membership addressed this important housekeeping issue at the  
earliest, by adopting a provision that will keep the organization 
running, whenever there is a delay in adoption of the WTO regular 
budget.  
  ●  
33. WTO  
Committee - 
Speciﬁc  
Suggestions  Capacity Building and legal assistance in Dispute 
Settlement:  
Capacity building in WTO law and dispute settlement procedures 
for national lawyer should be increased. For instance, there could 
be a separate component for dispute settlement in the WTO's 
technical assistance and training program and after recommencing 
of the Dispute Settlement Body a system of hiring legal assistants 
can be introduced. The intention is to provide high -quality, 
independent legal advice to panelists and Appellate Body 
Members. There can be various models which can be considered. 
For instance, a panelist can have the option to select her own law 
clerk, or, the WTO can have a panel of law clerks who can be 
allotted to various panels.   ●  
34. WTO  
Committee - 
Speciﬁc  
Suggestions  Trade Policy Review Mechanism : 
The current TPRM should be reformed in such a way that its revised 
format becomes an enabler for developing countries to frame and 
better implement trade policies, than merely as a forum to cri ticize 
Members policies.  
 
This can be done by utilizing the intervening day between the TPR 
meetings to organize informal discussions between the Reviewed 
Member and other WTO Members, for a free and frank exchange 
on issues that the Reviewed Member wishe s to take it up with other 
Members, with a view to learn from others ' best practices in the 
area of Trade Policy. The use of digital tools in the TPRM process 
needs to be enhanced, especially with respect to handling of the 
Advance Written Questions by Mem bers. 
   ● 
 
__________