WT/COMTD/SE/W/33  
 
24 October 2016  
(16-5796) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Trade and Development  
Dedicated Session  Original: English  
 
 SVE GROUP PROPOSAL T O ADVANCE WORK ON "C HALLENGES SMALL ECON OMIES 
EXPERIENCE IN THEIR EFFORTS TO REDUCE TR ADE COSTS,  
PARTICULARLY IN THE AREA OF TRADE FACILI TATION"  
The following communication, dated  21 October 2016 , is being circulated at the request of 
the delegation of Guatemala on behalf of the Group of Small, Vulnerable Economies (SVEs).  
 
 
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1  BACKGROUND  
1.1.  Ministers adopted a decision contained in document WT/MIN(15)/40  - WT/L/975  on the Work 
Program me on Small Economies on the WTO Tenth M inisterial Conference in Nairobi. In such 
decision, Ministers instructed the C ommittee on Trade and Development (CTD)  to continue its wo rk 
in the Dedicated Session on global value chains in trade in goods and s ervices and requested the 
Secretariat to also conduct work on the challenges small economies experience in their efforts to 
reduce trade costs, particularly in the area of trade facilitation.  
1.2.  On the topic of reducing trade cos ts, the WTO Secretariat issued  a joint p ublication with 
OECD entitled: " Aid for Trade at a Glance 2015 "1 for the Global Review of Aid for Trade. This 
publication provides a solid basis for discussions within the CTD Dedicated Session on reducing 
trade costs.  
2  PROPOSAL  
2.1  Objective  
2.1.  The objective of this work is to identify and discuss the spec ific challenges experienced by 
SVEs in their efforts to reduce trade costs, and then analyze best practices and policy approaches 
for reduc ing the negative impacts of these challenges in their productive capac ity and export 
competitiveness.  
2.2  Back ground Statistics  
2.2.  In order to facilitate a focused discussion, SVEs propose that the Secretariat disag gregates 
the relevant statistical informati on from the "Aid for Trade at a G lance 2015 " study, in particular, 
the statistics on important sources of trade  costs in goods and services  most commonly identified 
by SVEs in their survey responses , impacts from  policy  actions  taken  to reduce trade costs, and 
types of policy actions that have achieved the most positive results in reducing trade costs for 
goods and  services. This information will serve to focus the discussion on the SVE countries ' 
results.  
                                                
1 OECD/WTO (2015), Aid for Trade at a Glance 2015: Reducing Trade Costs for Inclusive, Sustainable  
Growth, OECD Publishing, Paris. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/aid_glance -2015-en. WT/COMTD/SE/W/33  
 
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  2.3  Meetings  
2.3.  SVEs propose that the discussion of the topic of "challenges small economies experience in 
their efforts to reduce trade costs, particularly in the area  of trade facilitation ", be taken in two 
sessions to be held in the first semester of 2017.  
2.4.  The first session will focus on the most important sources of merchandise and services trade 
costs reported by SVE countries. The aim of the session is to identify  the specific challenges faced 
by SVEs and have an in depth conversation on the particularities for these countries. In this 
session, substantive discussions will follow the elements from the results of the Aid for Trade at a 
Glance 2015 publication.  
2.5.  The second session will focus on the actions  and policies  associated with the most positive 
results in reducing trade costs for goods and services. The aim of this session is to discuss best 
practices  and policy approaches for addressing the challenges identif ied in the previous session.  
2.4  Participation  
2.6.  To facilitate an active participation of SVE representatives as speakers for the sessions, SVEs 
request that the WTO Secretariat finance the costs of the participation and travel of two SVE 
representatives per s ession.  
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