JOB/GC/214  
 
1 March 2019  
(19-1180) Page: 1/2 
General Council    
 
AGENDA ITEM 2 : IMPLEMENTATION OF TH E BALI, NAIROBI AND BUENOS AIRES 
OUTCOMES – STATEMENT  BY THE CHAIRMAN  
THURSDAY, 28 FEBRUAR Y 2019  
1.1.  This item remains on the agenda so that the General Council can continue to follow up on the 
decisions adopted in Bali, Nairobi and Buenos Aires – and do so in a horizontal and transparent 
manner.  
1.2.  On 25 February, in preparation for this General Council meeting, I held a meeting with the 
Chairs of Regular Bodies, and I take this opportunity to warmly thank them for their coo peration 
and engagement during my tenure as Chair of the General Council. We had a useful discussion, and, 
as always, their updates on the implementation of the Ministerial mandates are the basis of my 
statement today.  
1.3.  A number of WTO bodies have not yet m et this year and since the last General Council meeting, 
and therefore my statement today will only focus on matters where there have been developments 
since my last report in December.  
1.4.  I will start with the Work Programme on Electronic Commerce.  You will recall that the General 
Council conducted its mandated review of progress at its meeting in December last year. On that 
occasion, I provided a brief overview of the work that had taken place in each of the four bodies and 
also reported on an informal open -ended meeting held on 27 November to discuss the e -commerce 
moratorium. My report was subsequently circulated in document WT/GC/W/756.  
1.5.  Since then, based on the discussions in the informal open -ended meeting, I have been 
consulting with the Secretariat on h ow to provide further analysis to better inform the discussion on 
the moratorium and its broad implications. In response, the Secretariat is planning to organize a 
one-day workshop in late April bringing together Members, academics, business, national stat istical 
offices, and international organizations.  
1.6.  The workshop will hopefully provide the basis for developing the terms of reference for a future 
study on the moratorium, which the Secretariat would undertake in co -operation with other 
organizations.  
1.7.  Further details about the workshop will be provided in due course.  
1.8.  Moving now to some of the Ministerial outcomes on Agriculture,  at its meeting earlier this week, 
the Committee on Agriculture continued its deliberations on the review of the Bali Decision on TRQ 
administration. As per the agreed process and timelines, the committee is expected to finalize the 
report and draft recommendations of the review by June 2019. In line with the Decision, the General 
Council is expected to take a decision on the recomme ndations arising from the review normally no 
later than 31 December 2019.  
1.9.  With respect to the implementation of the Nairobi Decision by Members with scheduled export 
subsidies reduction commitments, Australia, Colombia, Israel, Norway, South Africa, Switz erland, 
the United States and Uruguay have their revised schedule  certified. Canada and the European Union 
have circulated draft revised schedules in 2017, but these are not yet certified, and Mexico's draft 
revised schedule was circulated in January this year. Iceland submitted to the Secretariat its draft 
revised scheduled which should be soon circulated. The other remaining Members with scheduled JOB/GC/214  
 
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  export subsidies commitments had an opportunity to update the Committee earlier this week on the 
steps taken to implement the Decision.  
1.10.   Turning to the LDC Services Waiver , the Council for Trade in Services agreed to hold a 
dedicated meeting to exchange information as part of the mandate in the Nairobi Decision that the 
Council "initiate a process to review the op eration of notified preferences, on the basis of inf ormation 
provided by Members". Although the Services Council has not met since my last report, the CTS 
Chairman has started consulting with delegations on the format, date and organizational aspects of 
the dedicated meeting. The Services Council will again take up this issue at its next meet ing on 
21 March.  
1.11.   The situation regarding the Monitoring Mechanism on Special and Differential Treatment 
remains the same. No written submissions have been made, and the  Mechanism is yet to be tested 
or operationalized. Divergent views persist on how to proceed  with the review of the Mechanism, 
which is already long overdue. The CTD Chairman has recently facilitated a number of small -group 
informal discussions, at the req uest of some Members, regarding ideas on possible ways to trigger 
the operationalization of the Monitoring Mechanism, although these consultations would not replace 
discussions in the formal meetings. The next meeting of the Monitoring Mechanism will be he ld in 
June 2019.  
1.12.   The Bali Decision on Duty-Free Quota -Free market access for LDCs instructed the CTD to 
annually review the steps taken to provide DFQF market access to LDCs, and this review was to be 
based, inter alia , on a background paper to be prepare d by the Secretariat. For the last two years, 
it has not been possible for the Secretariat to prepare this paper, because of divergent views 
expressed by some Members on its scope and coverage. The CTD Chairman intends to continue 
interacting with Members on issues relating to DFQF and the Secretariat report and some 
consultations have already been held.  
1.13.   On Aid -for-Trade, two workshops were held earlier this month – one on digital connectivity 
and skills, and another on green growth. At the CTD Aid for Trad e meeting held on 6 February, an 
update was provided on preparations for this year's Global Review of Aid for Trade, which will be 
held from 3 to 5 July and whose theme is "Supporting economic diversification and empowerment". 
An outline agenda for this ev ent will be circulated next week, together with a reminder for Members 
to submit their requests for side event before 31 March.  
1.14.   And lastly, a brief update on the implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement , where 
we now stand at 141 ratifications, c orresponding to 86 % of the total.  
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