RESTRICTED  
  
G/STR/M/24  
 
5 February 2013  
(13-0601)  Page: 1/4  
Working Party on State Trading Enterprises    
 
 MINUTES OF THE MEETING OF THE WORKING PARTY 
ON STATE TRADING ENTERPRISES 
HELD ON 30 OCTOBER 2012 
CHAIRMAN: MR PAUL BATIBONAK (CAMEROON) 
 
A. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA ......................................................................................... 1 
B. REVIEW OF NEW AND FULL NOTIFI CATIONS SUBMITTED BY MEMBERS ...................... 1 
C. REVIEW OF UPDATI NG NOTIFICATIONS SUBM ITTED BY MEMBERS ............................. 2 
D. OVERDUE NOTIFICATIONS: IMPROVING COMPLIANCE – ITEM REQUESTED BY 
AUSTRALIA ..................................................................................................................... . 3 
E. NOTIFICATION OF GAZPROM BY RUSSIA AS AN STE – ITEM REQUESTED BY 
THE EUROPEAN  UNIO N .................................................................................................... 3 
F. ANNUAL REPORT (2012) TO THE COUNCIL FOR TRAD E IN GOODS ............................... 3 
G. OTHER BUSINESS ........................................................................................................ 4  
 
A. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA 
1. The Chairman referred to the proposed agenda contained in document WTO/AIR/4028, 
circulated on 19 October 2012, and informed the Working Party that he would make a statement 
under "Other Business", relating to the date of the next regular meeting of the Working Party in 2013. 
2. The Working Party adopted the agenda, as amended. 
B. REVIEW OF NEW AND FULL NOTIFICATIONS SUBMITTED BY MEMBERS 
3. The Chairman recalled that, pursuant to paragraph 5 of the Understanding on the 
Interpretation of Article XVII of the GATT 1994, the Working Party is tasked with reviewing the 
notifications and counter-notifications submitted by  Members on their state trading enterprises. In 
light of this review, the Council for Trade in Goods, to which the Working Party reports, may make 
recommendations on the adequacy of notifications and the need for further information. The 
Chairman also reminded Members that, pursuant to document G/STR/8, new and full notifications on state trading were due every two years. 
4. The Chairman suggested that the Working Party conduct its review in the same manner 
used for the review of notifications at previous  meetings, that is, with a focus on two main 
elements: (i) whether the notification responded adequately to the information requested in the 
questionnaire contained in document G/STR/3/Rev.1; and (ii) whether more information was 
needed in order to permit – in the language of paragraph 2 of the Understanding – "a clear 
appreciation of the manner of operation of the enterprises notified and the effect of their operations on international trade". 
5. The Working Party then proceeded with the review of the new and full notifications 
submitted by Members. G/STR/M/24 
 
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  6. No questions were posed regarding the notifications of Argentina (G/STR/N/13/ARG and 
G/STR/N/14/ARG); Australia (G/STR/N/14/AUS); Canada (G/STR/N/14/CAN and 
G/STR/N/13/CAN1); Chile (G/STR/N/14/CHL); Colombia (G/STR/N/14/COL); Croatia 
(G/STR/N/13/HRV and G/STR/N/14/HRV); El Salvador (G/STR/N/14/SLV); the European Union 
(G/STR/N/13/EU and G/STR/N/14/EU); Georgia (G/STR/N/10/GEO, G/STR/N/11/GEO, 
G/STR/N/12/GEO, G/STR/N/13/GEO, and G/STR/N/14/GEO); Guatemala (G/STR/N/10/GTM, 
G/STR/N/11/GTM, G/STR/N/12/GTM, G/STR/N/ 13/GTM, and G/STR/N/14/GTM); Honduras 
(G/STR/N/14/HND); Hong Kong, China (G/STR/N/14/HKG); India (G/STR/N/12/IND and 
G/STR/N/13/IND); Korea (G/STR/N/14/KOR and G/STR/N/14/KOR/Corr.1); Kuwait 
(G/STR/N/1/KWT, G/STR/N/4/KWT, G/STR/N/7/KWT, G/STR/N/10/KWT, G/STR/N/11/KWT, 
G/STR/N/12/KWT, G/STR/N/13/KWT, and G/STR/N/14/KWT); Liechtenstein (G/STR/N/13/LIE); 
Macao, China (G/STR/N/14/MAC); New Zealand (G/STR/N/14/NZL); Nigeria (G/STR/N/10/NGA, 
G/STR/N/11/NGA, and G/STR/N/14/NGA); Norway (G/STR/N/14/NOR); Pakistan 
(G/STR/N/10/PAK, G/STR/N/11/PAK, G/STR/ N/12/PAK, and G/STR/N/13/PAK); Panama 
(G/STR/N/11/PAN, G/STR/N/12/PAN, G/STR/N/ 13/PAN, and G/STR/N/14/PAN); Switzerland 
(G/STR/N/14/CHE); Chinese Taipei (G/STR/N/1 4/TPKM); Turkey (G/STR/N/14/TUR); Ukraine 
(G/STR/N/14/UKR); United States (G/STR/N /14/USA and G/STR/N/14/USA/Corr.1); Uruguay 
(G/STR/N/14/URY); and Zambia (G/STR/N/12/ZM B, G/STR/N/13/ZMB, and G/STR/N/14/ZMB). 
7. At the regular meeting, Australia posed questions regarding Japan's notification 
(G/STR/N/14/JPN and G/STR/N/14/JPN/Add.1)2. With respect to dairy products, Australia asked 
Japan to elaborate on the current state of Japan's reform of its state trading activities. Australia 
also enquired about the reason(s) for an increasi ng number of tenders for butter being carried out 
under the Simultaneous Sell and Buy tender System  ("SBS"). In case these tenders are a response 
to a "serious shortage", Australia asked Japan to explain why the STE still continues to extract 
mark-ups as high as 247% on butter tenders. Finally, Australia asked Japan to elaborate on its 
previous explanation in document G/STR/Q1/JPN/18 that imports such as butter by the Agriculture 
and Livestock Industries Corporation ("ALIC") "have been contributing to the stabilization of the 
supply-demand and mitigation of price volatilities". With respect to wheat, Australia asked Japan 
to elaborate on (i) the status of the preparations reported by the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry 
and Fisheries' Study Group to Review the Pricin g Mechanism for Imported Wheat; and (ii) the 
extent of the reforms being considered, includin g whether they will cover expansions of SBS 
tenders. Japan stated that as Australia's questions were only presented at the regular meeting 
they would be conveyed to Capital and answered in due course3. 
C. REVIEW OF UPDATING NOTIFI CATIONS SUBMITTED BY MEMBERS 
8. No questions were posed regarding the notifications of Georgia (G/STR/N/9/GEO); 
Guatemala (G/STR/N/9/GTM); Kuwait (G/STR/N/2/KWT, G/STR/N/3/KWT, G/STR/N/5/KWT, 
G/STR/N/6/KWT, G/STR/N/8/KWT, and G/STR/N/ 9/KWT); Nigeria (G/STR/N/9/NGA); and Zambia 
(G/STR/N/2/ZMB, G/STR/N/3/ZMB, and G/STR/N/6/ZMB). 
9. Before moving to the next agenda item, the Chairman drew the attention of Members to 
the table in room document RD/STR/2, which contained the draft document G/STR/9. The 
Chairman explained that the table attempted to record  all notifications, including "nil notifications", 
made from N1 in 1995 to N14 in 2012, as of 22 October 2012. 
10. The Chairman noted that the large number of blank boxes in the table indicated that many 
Members remained in arrears in terms of completing  their notification obligations. In the light of 
the increased interest among Members regarding tr ansparency, as well as the duty of Members to 
comply with their WTO obligations, the Chairman encouraged Members to continue to work with their Capitals and, where necessary, to take ad vantage of the resources of the Secretariat, to 
improve the notification record. 
                                               
1 Canada's notification G/STR/N/13/CAN was reviewed  by the Working Party during its regular meeting 
on 19 October 2010. Canada submitted an addendum to this notification, providing the missing statistical information for the 2008/2009 period. 
2 Australia's questions were su bsequently circulated in docu ment G/STR/Q1/J PN/19, dated 
31 October 2012. 
3 Japan's responses were subsequently circulated in document G/STR/Q1/JPN/20, dated 
29 November 2012. G/STR/M/24 
 
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  11. The Chairman then briefly reviewed the tabl e, noting that for N13, the new and full 
notification requirement for 2010, the Working Part y had, to date, received notifications from 
39 Members. With respect to N14, the new and fu ll notification requirement for 2012, the Working 
Party had, to date, received notifications from just 27 Members. The Chairman urged Members to 
continue to make every effort to improve their performance, and encouraged them to do what 
they could to ensure compliance with their outstanding notification obligations. 
12. The Working Party took note of the Chairman's statement. 
D. OVERDUE NOTIFICATIONS: IMPROVING COMPLIANCE – ITEM REQUESTED BY 
AUSTRALIA 
13. Australia, supported by Canada, the European Union, and the United States, recalled the 
importance of transparency and noted that it wa s encouraging to see some improvements over the 
past twelve months. However, Australia noted that a number of Members still had outstanding 
notifications from before 2004, highlighting th at it would appear that some Members were 
experiencing problems with their notification obligations. Australia suggested that the Working 
Party make further efforts to improve compliance with notification obligations, including the 
preparation of questionnaires to identify Members' impediments to timely notification, and organize a workshop on notifications. 
14. The United States and the European Union said they remained very interested in the 
reasons and challenges of Members in arrears with their notifications, in order to develop tailor-
maid solutions to improve the record of notificati ons. Barbados expressed its support for capacity 
building and working with Members, in particul ar developing and least developed countries, 
towards instituting measures to improve compliance in a neutral way. 
15. The Working Party took note of the statements made. 
E. NOTIFICATION OF GAZPROM BY RUSSIA AS AN STE – ITEM REQUESTED BY THE 
EUROPEAN UNION 
16. The European Union, supported by the United States, noted that Gazprom had not yet 
been notified as an STE, despite the Russian Federation's commitments in its Working Party 
Report, in particular in paragraph 88. While noti ng that paragraph 88 of its Working Party Report 
was a descriptive paragraph and did not contain any specific commitment, the Russian Federation 
confirmed that its STE notification was nearly fina lized and would be submitted in the near future. 
17. The Working Party took note of the statements made. 
F. ANNUAL REPORT (2012) TO THE COUNCIL FOR TRADE IN GOODS 
18. The Chairman recalled that the Working Party considered the format of its annual report at 
its informal meeting on 11 October 2012. In the lig ht of the discussion that took place that day, 
the Chairman understood that Members agreed on the elimination of certain paragraphs of the 
annual report and the Annex relating to the list of WTO Members. However,  Members had different 
views on whether to separate Table 1 with the notification status of all WTO Members from the 
annual report. 
19. The Chairman stated that Members had left it to him to propose a new format to the 
annual report taking into consideration their concerns with regard to transparency and conciseness, as well as the instructions from the General Council in document WT/BFA/128, 
paragraph 29, "to reduce the overall volume of official documents". Thus, the Chairman instructed 
the Secretariat to (i) prepare the draft annual repo rt that was made available to Members as room 
document RD/STR/1, and (ii) place the updated tabl e with the status of notifications since 1995 in 
a separate Working Party document, that was made available to Members as room document 
RD/STR/2. 
20. The Chairman noted that, as compared to previous versions of the annual report, 
Section III was expanded to maintain the same level of transparency with regard to the period 
under review, and that a reference to the document containing the status of notifications since G/STR/M/24 
 
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  1995 had been added. The Chairman also noted that a new paragraph would be inserted after 
paragraph 8 of the draft annual report to include a reference to the questions posed by Australia to Japan regarding the latter's new and full notificati on at the regular meeting of the Working Party. 
21. The United States considered the draft annual report to be a reasonable compromise that 
reduced paper in line with the WTO's efforts to conserve resources, at the same time that it did 
not sacrifice important content regarding Members' notifications and the principle of transparency. 
22. The Working Party took note of the statements made and adopted the Annual Report 
(2012) to the Council for Trade in Goods, which was subsequently circulated as document 
G/L/1007. 
23. The Chairman also stated that the table with th e status of notifications would be issued as 
document G/STR/9 and updated annually before the regular meeting of the Working Party. 
G. OTHER BUSINESS 
24. The Chairman informed Members that the ne xt meeting of the Working Party would be 
held during October 2013, and that the exact date would be informed in due course. 
25. Before concluding the meeting, the Chairman urged all Members to respect the deadline of 
30 June 2014 for submitting notifications. The Ch airman strongly emphasized the significance of 
this deadline in order to give Members ample opportunity to study the notifications ahead of the 
meeting in their preferred WTO working language. In case of delays, Members should endeavour 
to submit their notifications at least 10 weeks prior to the date of the meeting at which the 
notifications were to be reviewed. The Chairman also requested that written questions be provided 3 weeks before the date of the meeting, and that  written answers to written questions should be 
provided well in advance of the meeting. 
26. The meeting was adjourned. 
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