RESTRICTED  
  
WT/COMTD/SE/M/35  
 
9 February 2018  
(18-0907)  Page: 1/2 
Committee on Trade and Development  
Thirty -Fifth Dedicated Session    
 
NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 7 NOVEMBER  2017  
H.E. Mr Taonga M ushayavanhu  (Zimbabwe)  
A. ADOPTION OF THE AGEN DA ................................ ................................ ....................  1 
B. WORK PROGRAMME ON SM ALL ECONOMIES: COMMU NICATION FROM 
GUATEMALA ON BEHALF OF SMALL ECONOMIES ( WT/COMTD/SE/W/36)  .......................  1 
C. DRAFT REPORT OF THE CTD IN DEDICATED SES SION TO THE GENERAL 
COUNCIL (WT/COMTD/SE /W/37)  ................................ ................................ ...................  2 
D. OTHER BUSINESS  ................................ ................................ ................................ .... 2 
 
 
A. ADOPTION  OF THE AGENDA  
1. The draft agenda as contained in WTO/AIR/COMTD/SE/7  was adopted . Nothing was added 
under other business.  
B. WORK PROGRAMME ON SM ALL ECONOMIES: COMMU NICATION FROM GUATEM ALA 
ON BEHALF OF SMALL E CONOMIES (WT/COMTD/S E/W/36 ) 
2. The Chairman  said that this submissi on was a proposal for a Ministerial Declaration 
regarding the Work Programme on Small Economies. It was based on the C ommittee on Trade and 
Development' s (CTD's)  previous reports to the G eneral Council , and it recommended  that Ministers 
take note of the work carried out since the last Ministerial , including that on the challenges and 
opportunities faced by small economies when linking into global value chains in trade in goods and 
services. He asked  the representative of Guatemala to  introduce the document . 
3. The representative of Guatemala  requested a correction in the title of the document.  She 
said that i t should read "Work Programme on Small Economies. Proposal for Ministerial Decision" 
and not Declaration. Also , she clarified that the communication had been made at the request of 
Guatemala on behalf of the Group of Small and Vulnerable Economies, and asked that this be also 
corrected in the document.  
4. Regarding the substance of the  document , the representative sai d that the proposal 
presented was mainly agreed language from previous Ministerial Decisions on the Work 
Programme, in particular from the Decisions of MC9 and MC10. There were only two variations. 
The first  one appeared on the second line of the first par agraph , where document number  
WT/COMTD/SE/W/22/Rev.8  was updated. This was a compilation document , regularly updated by 
the Secretariat , which reflected the state of play of all the small e conomies ' issues discussed in 
WTO bodies and negotiating groups. Th e second change was in the last sentence of the second 
paragraph where Ministers would instruct the Secretariat to continue its work on the challenges 
small economies experience d in their efforts to reduce trade costs, particularly in the area of Trade 
facilitation . The representative highlighted that the topic of reducing trade costs had been agreed 
at the last Ministerial Conference , but unfortunately , Members had not been able to conclude 
discussions in the past two years . For this reason , they were requ esting the Secretariat to continue 
its work in this area. In order to facilitate work on the Decision, the Small and Vulnerable 
Economies  (SVEs) had decided to use already agreed language from  previous Ministerial Decisions, 
in particular because the objec tives of such language were still valid. She hoped that Members WT/C OMTD/SE/M/35  
 
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  could approve the proposa l so that it would be added to S ection 3 on Future Work of the report of 
this Dedicated Session to the General Council contained in document WT/COMTD/SE/ W/37.  
5. The Chairman said a corrigendum would be issued to take into account the corrections made 
by Guatemala.  
6. The representative of Panama  said that his delegation fully supported the document.  
7. The representative of the United States  wondered if any additional information could be 
provided regarding the kind of work that was envisioned , since the last Ministerial Decision also 
called for work on reducing trade costs particularly in the area of trade facilitation. She asked how 
the Ded icated Session would build on the work that had already been completed.  She also asked 
what would the Secretariat undertake given that the draft would have the Dedicated Session 
instruct the Secretariat to continue its work on the challenges that small eco nomies faced and the 
Secretariat had already produced a report.  
8. The representative of Guatemala  stated that regarding the work that had been done, as 
agreed by Members , the Secretariat had prepared a factual document on the topic and the 
Dedicated Session had already had a first meeting to discuss it and express initial reactions. 
Nevertheless, the Committee had also agreed to a proposal by the SVEs to hold two different 
meetings based on this document. The first one was intended to identify the challenges,  and the 
second one to present possible solutions. These meetings were still pending and would probably 
take place in 2018.  She further explained that the Secretar iat would organize the meetings and  
find speakers to make presentations . In the last meetings , it was agreed that representatives from 
SVE countries would be invited to participate .  
9. The representative of Hong Kong, China  said that she had noticed that in the third sentence 
in the Draft , mention was made to work carried out since 2013 and wondered  whether it should be 
since 2015 instead.  
10. The Chairman  asked whether, with the clarifications that were going to be made, Members 
agreed to the proposal by the SVEs.   
11. It was so agreed . 
12. The Chairman  said that the revised  document would be out by Thursday , 9 November 2017 
and asked Members to provide  comments , if any,  by Monday , 13 November 2017 so that it could 
be and submitted to the General Council.  
C. DRAFT REPORT OF THE CTD IN DEDICATED SES SION TO THE GENERAL COUNCIL 
(WT/COMTD/SE/W/37 ) 
13. The next item in  the agenda concerned  the Dedicated Session's report to the General 
Council on the Work Programme  on Small Economies.  The Chairman  said that  a draft had  been 
circulated to Members the previous  week as document WT/COMTD/SE/W/37. A factual paragraph 
about the present  meeting would be added to the report. He propose d to include something along 
the lines that in this meeting Members had discussed and approved a proposal from the SVEs for a 
draft Ministerial Declaration. A revised version would be circulated  and, once agreed, the report 
would be forwarded as document (WT/COMTD/SE/10) to the General Council for proposed action 
by Ministers at the Eleventh  Ministerial Conference.   
14. It was so agreed . 
D. OTHER BUSINESS  
15. The Chairman said that no issues  had been raised under this agenda  item. However, he 
again  asked if any delegation wanted to raise an issue at that point. There were no requests for 
the floor.  
16. The meeting was adjourned . 
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