WT/TPR/R/6  
 
20 March 2013  
(13-1502)  Page: 1/4  
Trade Policy Review Body   
 
REPORT ON THE MEETING HELD ON 12 MARCH 2013 
 
CHAIRPERSON:  H.E. MR. EDUARDO MUÑOZ GÓMEZ  
 
The agenda contained in Airgram WTO/AIR/4085 was adopted. 
1  AGENDA ITEM 1 - REVIEW OF THE TPRB WORK PROGRAMME FOR 2013 
1.1.  The Chairman drew attention to th ree areas of the work programme for 2013. 
1.2.  The first was to conduct the trade policy reviews of individual Members and the periodic trade 
monitoring exercise (Annex I). He noted that it had been necessary to move three TPRB meetings 
into 2014 to avoid a clash with the timing of MC9 - those were the TPRs for Tonga, Mongolia and 
Myanmar. This had been done in consultation with respective delegations. 
1.3.  He also noted that over the past two year s the TPRB had reduced by quite a bit the backlog 
of TPRs that had been delayed beyond the due date  according to the agreed schedule of reviews of 
two-four-six years. He was pleased to note that in 2012 the TPRB conducted the reviews of 
26 Members, which was a record. He indicated that the Secretariat was doing its best to provide an annual programme of 24 TPRs, as instructed by  Members in the Fourth TPRM Appraisal in 2011. 
He said that he had been informed that resource co nstraints were making it increasingly difficult to 
meet that target. He had also been informed th at in a few cases the Secretariat had found it 
difficult to reach agreement with Members on when the next review of their trade policies were to 
take place. In his view, that was something which the TPRB would need to look at more closely 
this year. 
1.4.  On the periodic trade monitoring exercise, h e  s a i d  t h a t  a  s e r i e s  o f  v e r y  u s e f u l  e x c h a n g e s  
involving Members, the Chair, the Director-General  and the Secretariat had been held. As a result 
a number of changes had been implemented which hopefully would bring about a more precise 
and relevant exercise. He urged the TPRB to watc h the effects of the new changes with a view to 
constantly improving and enhancing the exercise itself. 
1.5.  The second area of the work programme wa s to conduct the Fifth Appraisal of the TPRM and 
to report the results to the Ninth Ministerial Conf erence in Bali in December. One area where, he 
believed, the TPRB had faithfully implemented the recommendations from the last Appraisal was in improving the organization and structure of TP RB meetings. He believed that the TPRB was 
steadily engaging in a more interactive and fruitf ul discussion, and using its time more efficiently. 
He noted that there was more that could be done, and that it would be up to his successor and Members to reflect on the implementation of other recommendations from the Fourth Appraisal 
and to conduct the Fifth Appraisal this year; his only advice was to set aside plenty of time for this, 
since it could be a fairly lengthy process. 
1.6.  The third area was to continue informal discussions on reducing documentation costs and 
improving the scheduling and management of meetings. He reminded Members that these 
discussions were launched at the request of the General Council with a view to achieving cost savings in the 2012-13 budget. He indicated that the TPRB had already implemented a number of innovations in this regard, notably by discontinui ng the distribution of paper copies of TPRB 
documentation. There had also been an exchange  of views on the possibility of eliminating the 
translation of TPRB minutes and replacing them with  a trilingual podcast of each TPRB meeting. He WT/TPR/R/6 
 
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  said that he had not yet detected any consensus emerging from the discussions on the issue, but 
that, for the sake of clarity and in the spirit of continuing to try to meet the mandate of the General Council, his feeling was that more inform al consultations should be held this year. 
2  AGENDA ITEM 2 - ELECTION OF THE TPRB CHAIRPERSON FOR 2013 
2.1.  The Chairman noted that at its meeting on 25 February 2013, the General Council had noted 
the consensus on the slated of names of Chairpersons for WTO bodies, including Ambassador Joakim Reiter as the Chairperson of the Trade Policy Review Body. He suggested that 
Members of the TPRB confirm their support for the election of Ambassador Reiter with a round of 
applause. 
2.2.  Members confirmed their support for the election of Ambassador Joakim Reiter as 
Chairperson of the TPRB. 
2.3.  Delegations took the floor and expressed thei r appreciation for the leadership, the dedication 
and the remarkable work of the outgoing Chairp erson, Ambassador Muñoz. They welcomed and 
congratulated the new Chairperson, and said that they were looking forward to working with him. 
2.4.  Ambassador Joakim Reiter took the floor to thank Members for entrusting him with this role, 
and expressed his appreciation and gratitude to his predecessor. WT/TPR/R/6 
 
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  ANNEX I  
  
TRADE POLICY REVIEW MECHANISM 
PROGRAMME OF REVIEWS FOR 2013 
Note by the Chairperson 
Revision 
Japan 19 and 21 February 
Argentina 20 and 22 March Indonesia 10 and 12 April Mexico
1 17 and 19 April 
Switzerland and Liechtenstein  23 and 25 April 
Macao, China1 13 and 15 May 
Suriname1 10 and 12 June 
Brazil 24 and 26 June European Union
1 16 and 18 July 
CEMAC (Cameroon, Central African Republic2, Chad2, 
Congo, Rep. of2, Gabon) 29 and 31 July 
Viet Nam 17 and 19 September 
Costa Rica1 24 and 26 September 
Peru 13 and 15 November Kyrgyz Republic
1 19 an 21 November 
FYR Macedonia 27 and 29 November Tonga Postponed to 
11 and 13 February 2014 
Myanmar
2 Postponed to March 2014 
Mongolia Postponed to May 2014 
 
 
 This programme has been established in consultation with delegations and taking into consideration the overall timetable of WTO meetings planned for 2013 
 
                                               
1 Schedule of Review to follow the alternative timelines (WT/MIN(11)16 and WT/TPR/6/Rev.3). 
2 Least-developed country. WT/TPR/R/6 
 
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TRADE POLICY MONITORING 
 
Report to the TPRB from the Director-General on   
Trade-Related Developments 22 July 
Overview of Developments in the International Trading 
Environment, Annual Report by the Director-General November (date to be 
decided) 
 
 
FIFTH APPRAISAL OF THE TRADE POLICY REVIEW MECHANISM 
 
Fifth Appraisal of the TPRM3 November (date to be 
decided) 
 
 
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3 Fourth Appraisal of the Trade Policy Revi ew Mechanism, WTO document WT/MIN(11)/6, 
25 November 2011.