RESTRICTED  
  
WT/COMTD/SE/M/27  
 
23 October 2014  
(14-6144)  Page: 1/2  
Committee on Trade and Development 
Twenty-Seventh Dedicated Session    
 
 NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 10 OCTOBER 2014 
Chairperson: H.E. Mr Pierre Claver Ndayiragije (Burundi) 
 
A. ADOPTION OF TH E AGENDA .................................................................................... 1  
B. FOLLOW-UP TO THE MINISTERIAL DECISION ON SMALL ECONOMIES 
TAKEN AT THE WTO'S NINTH MINISTER IAL CONFERENCE (WT/MIN(13)/33 - 
WT/L/908) ..................................................................................................................... . 1 
-  Statement by th e Chairman ....................................................................................... 1  
 
A. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA 
1. The Chairman welcomed Members to the Committee on Trade and Development's 
27th Dedicated Session on Small Economies. He recalled that the agenda for the meeting had been 
circulated in Airgram WTO/AIR/4355 on 30 September 2014. The agenda was then adopted. 
B. FOLLOW-UP TO THE MINISTERIAL DECISION ON SMALL ECONOMIES TAKEN AT 
 THE WTO'S NINTH MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE (WT/MIN(13)/33 - WT/L/908)  
 - Statement by the Chairman 2. The Chairman said that he placed this item on the agenda so that Members could follow-up 
on the Ministerial Decision taken in Bali concerning the Work Programme on Small Economies. He 
explained that in their Decision, Ministers took note of all the work conducted to date under the 
Work Programme on Small Economies and especially work conducted since 2011 on the effects of Non-Tariff Measures. Ministers also instructed the General Council to direct relevant subsidiary 
bodies to frame responses to the trade-related issued identified by the Committee on Trade and 
Development (CTD) with a view to making recommend ations for action. He added that they further 
instructed the WTO Secretariat to provide relevant information and factual analysis for discussion 
among Members on the CTD's Dedicated Session und er item "K" of its Work Programme and, in 
particular, the challenges and opportunities expe rienced by small economies when linking into 
Global Value Chains (GVCs) in trade in goods and services. 
3. He said that the proponents of Small Economies had begun discussing their priorities for 
2014 and follow-up activities to the Bali Decision. They had also begun identifying relevant issues 
and areas of possible research and analysis concerning the challenges and opportunities experienced by small economies when linking into GVCs in trade in goods and services. He said 
that the various issues had been compiled in an outline and that these were topics which the 
proponents of Small Economies wanted to see examined in a Secretariat report. He suggested that the outline be circulated as a working document and proposed giving Members up to 
24 October 2014 to make specific comments concerning the outline. He added that if no comments 
were received then then it was understood that Members agreed on the outline and that the Secretariat could start its research. In the case that Members did have substantive comments, he explained that the Secretariat would then issue a revised outline. He added that in any case, 
Members would have a chance to discuss the draft report at a subsequent meeting of the 
Dedicated Session.   WT/COMTD/SE/M/27 
 
- 2 - 
 
  4. The representative of the United States said that he supported the Ninth Ministerial 
Conference (MC9) Decision on Small Economies and that the United States was committed to 
advancing this work, including the report that was called for in the Decision. He added that in order to produce the best possible report, he felt that it was important that the guidance provided 
to the Secretariat should reflect a consensus among Members, as the Chairman had just outlined. 
His delegation would support such a path. He asked that Members be provided with ample time to review the outline. If the outline were to come out soon, then the 24 October deadline for 
comments would provide ample time for comments. This would produce a final outline that reflects 
the consensus of Members and puts the report on the best possible path for work by the 
Secretariat. 
5. The representative of Guatemala spoke on be half of the Small and Vulnerable Economies 
(SVEs) and recalled that the SVEs had been working to identify priorities for the period 2014-2015. 
In this respect, she said that GVCs were a topic that was linked to the increasing commercial ties that were emerging between countries, regions and worldwide markets. She added that many 
studies have provided general information on the subject of GVCs. However, for the first time, a 
request had been for specific research to be conducted on the challenges and opportunities that SVEs experience when linking to global and regional value chains. She said that the SVEs would 
like to tackle the specificities of their countries ' conditions and examine tendencies of how their 
economies had dealt with GVCs. 
6. She said that Guatemala and the SVEs fully su pported the way forward as proposed by the 
Chairman and expressed her intention of engaging  with other delegations in case they had any 
comments. It was hoped that the outline could be approved as soon as possible in order for the 
Secretariat to start its work.  
7. The representative of El Salvador said that it supported the statement made by Guatemala 
on behalf of the SVEs. She said that there were currently many studies on Value Chains, but that 
as a group, the SVEs was looking for specific information on the opportunities and challenges they face in regard to GVCs. She believed that such a study would provide important information for 
SVEs in regard to overcoming the identified challenges and would contribute to the better 
integration of SVEs in global trade. She hoped that an agreement could be reached soon on the outline for the study which she believed did not include any controversial issues which could represent a problem for some countries. On the other hand, she thought the issues raised were 
extremely useful for SVEs such as El Salvador. 
8. The representative of the Plurinational State of Bolivia said that he supported the 
statement made by Guatemala on behalf of SVEs. For the Plurinational State of Bolivia, GVCs were 
a reality that had existed in the world for many years and had grown in particular in the last 
20 years. Value chains could be analyzed from diffe rent perspectives and Bolivia wanted to have a 
study from the point of view of SVEs and one wh ich described how SVEs are linked to the different 
value chains. He said that he agreed with Guatemala that any input or suggestions on the outline 
were welcome, but that comments should resp ect the general spirit of the proposal.   
9. The Chairman thanked Members for their interven tions and took note of all interventions. 
The meeting was adjourned.  
 
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