RESTRICTED  
  
WT/BFA/W/617  
 
2 December 2022  
(22-8991) Page: 1/4 
Committee on Budget, Finance and Administration  Original: English  
 
 
TEXTUAL PROPOSAL AND REQUEST FOR INFORMATION  
BY SRI LANKA  
Relating to the discussion that took place at the CBFA meeting on 1 December, t he following 
documents  are circulated on the request of the delegation of Sri Lanka.  
 
 
 
 
  WT/BFA/W/617  
 
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  Textual proposals presented for Recommendation of the CBFA on Agenda Item D  
 
Text proposed by the WTO Secretariat:  
 
Having considered Table 1 contained in document WT/BFA/W/614, the Committee  on Budget, 
Finance and Administration (CBFA) recommends to the General Council that the WTO 
Budgetary Surplus as at 31st December 2022, amounting to CHF six (06) million, be 
exclusively utilised to cover mandatory and unavoidable expenses.  
 
Text proposed by Sri Lanka:  
 
Having considered Table 1 contained in document WT/BFA/W/6141, the Committee on 
Budget, Finance and Administration (CBFA) recommends to the General Council that the 
WTO Budgetary Surplus as at 31st December 2022, amounting to CHF six (06) million, be 
exclusively utilised to cover mandatory and unavoidable expenses .    
  
 
1 The WTO Secretariat will provide the information in the suggested format requested by the delegation of 
Sri Lanka during the discussion of the CBFA in relation to the broad budget line, which is titled under ‘ Temporary 
Assistance/Interpreters’ and has been listed under ‘Mandatory and Unavoidable Expenses ’ for 2023, for which 
the WTO Secretariat is seeking authority of the Membership to use the 2021 Budget Surplus of CHF 6 million.    
 WT/BFA/W/617  
 
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  Request made by the Delegation of Sri Lanka  
For information on the meetings taking place on the WTO premises in 2021 and 20222 
 
This request is made i n view of the discussions taking place in the CBFA on the mid -term 
budget and the concerns  expressed by certain delegation, including Sri Lanka.  
 
The WTO meetings calendar is one such online, interactive tool which enables anyone to 
estimate how much time is allocated to the multilateral issues and non -mandated issues.  
 
The online tool accessi ble categorises meetings according to:  
1. WTO Regular bodies;  
2. WTO Negotiating bodies (TNC and its subsidiary bodies); and  
3. Other WTO events/meetings. This includes more sub -categories: Book Launches; 
Seminars /Symposiums /Workshops; Public Forum; Webinar; WT O Holidays; and 
Other.3  
 
Rationale  
 
Meetings are a major driver of the budget , because they cost staff time, interpretation and it is 
one of the justifications for increase in budget. More generally, meetings are a core function of 
the WTO to provide a forum for the negotiations and facilitate the implementation and 
administration o f WTO Agreements, as well as serving as a critical output of the WTO 
Secretariat.  
 
With this in mind, a deeper evaluation of the meeting allocation time, resources and budgets 
are needed to understand the work carried out in the WTO.  
 
Given that meetings  take up most time, it would be useful to have a disaggregated breakdown 
of what kind of meetings are taking place, when is interpretation provided, who is organising 
the meeting (the WTO Secretariat have organised several briefings/seminars this year), ar e they 
in-person, virtual or hybrid, how long are the meetings ( for example the CTD Monitoring 
Mechanism meeting is typically not longer than 30 minutes , but it is counted as one meeting 
slot).  
 
This information would be very useful to inform how Members want to address the issue of 
cost-savings in the future including the broader WTO Reform agenda to hone into the role, 
transparency, and activities of the WTO Secretariat.  
 
More clarity is also n eeded , when a broad budget line, which is titled under ‘Temporary 
Assistance/Interpreters’  has been listed under the Mandatory and Unavoidable Expenses for 
2023, for which the WTO Secretariat is seeking authority of the Membership to use the 2021 
Budget Surplus of CHF 6 million in meeting the anticipated expenses to be borne in 2023 
financial y ear.    
 
 
 
 
2 A “meeting” is a slot fo r a meeting in a particular day. A multiple (2, 3) day meeting is counted as multiple (2, 3) 
meetings.  
3 JSI meetings are part of “Other” under “Other WTO events/meeting”.  WT/BFA/W/617  
 
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  The data is sought in the following formats:  
 
Format 1: Breakdown of the total number of WTO meetings in the calendar , excluding 
WTO non -working days  
Meeting type  Number  
Of Meetings  Additional Info  on the 
Name and Number of 
Meetings  2021  2022  
Regular meetings     
TPR     
Informal     
Negotiating meetings (TNC and its 
subsidiary bodies)    NGMA,  
NGR SS  
TRIPS SS,  
DSB SS,  
CTE SS  
Other WTO events/meetings     
- JSI meetings     
- Other non-JSI meeting     
Other WTO meetings classified as webinar, 
book launch, workshops, public forum   
  
Total number of WTO meetings   
  
 
Format 2: The meetings published on the WTO calendar held on WTO working days, 
excluding WTO holidays  
Type of meeting  Total Number of 
meetings  Share in total WTO 
meetings  
2021  2022  
Regular meetings     
JSI meetings4     
Negotiating meetings (under TNC)     
.. CTE SS     
.. TRIPS SS     
.. DSB SS     
.. Negotiating Group on Market Access     
 
 
 
 
__________  
 
4 JSI meetings include the following :  Trade and Environmental Sustainability Struct ured Discussions (TESSD), 
Structured Discussions on Investment Facilitation for Development (JI), Meeting of the Joint Statement Initiative on Electron ic 
Commerce, Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender, Informal Working Group on MSMEs, Informal Dialog ue on 
Plastics Pollution and Environmentally Sustainable Plastics Trade (IDP) and Fossil Fuel Subsidy Reform (FFSR). Meetings 
which might relate to JSIs under are not included (e.g., World Trade Congress on Gender).