WT/COMTD/SE/W/33/Rev.1  
 
7 November 2016 
(16-6102) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Trade and Developmen t 
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"  
Revision  
The following communication, dated  4 November 2016, is being circulated at the re quest 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 WT O Tenth Ministerial 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 entit led: " 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 
small, vulnerable economies  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  Background 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 statisti cs on important sources of trade costs in goods and services  most commonly identified 
by small economie s in their survey responses , impacts from  policy  actions  taken  to reduce trade 
costs, and types of policy actions that have achieved the most positive re sults in reducing trade 
costs for goods and services.  
                                                
1 OECD/WT O (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/Rev.1  
 
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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  small, vulnerable economies . The aim of the session is to identify the specific 
challenges f aced by these Members and have an in depth conversation on the particularities. 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 acti ons 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 identified in the previous session.  
2.4  Partici pation  
2.6.  To facilitate an active participation of small economies representatives as speakers for the 
sessions, SVEs request that the WTO Secretariat finance the costs of the participation and travel of 
two representatives per session.  
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