. /. RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/WGTDF/M/21 
8 February 2011 
 
 (11-0627) 
Working Group on Trade, Debt and Finance  
  
 
REPORT OF THE MEETING OF 8 NOVEMBER 2010 
 
 1. The twenty first meeting of the Working Group on Trade, Debt and Finance (WGTDF) was 
held on 8 November, 2010 under the Chairmanship of Ambassador F. Gonzales (Paraguay).  The 
Working Group adopted
 the agenda. 
2. In his introductory remarks, the Chairman  recalled that Members had agreed to continue 
monitoring developments regarding th e availability of trade finance. In this context, the WTO Expert 
Group on Trade Finance had met under the chairman ship of the Director-General on October 22, 
2010. The Secretariat had circulated its report to Members shortly thereafter in WT/WGTDF/W/49.  
The Chairman also invited the Executive Secretar y of the International Chamber of Commerce's 
(ICC) Banking Commission to provide a different pe rspective to Members on what happened in this 
area, as requested by some Members.  
Discussion on Trade Finance between the Chai r, Members, the Secretariat and the ICC  
3. The Secretariat  based its report on Document WT/WGTDF/W /49. It appeared that despite the 
fact that the bulk of trade flows (both trans-Atlan tic and trans-Pacific flows) were fully financed, 
difficulties remained for low income  countries, as a result of risk aversion by the banking sector and 
the prospects of higher regulatory costs on international banks.  
4. The Chairman  opened the floor to delegations wishing to ask questions on the presentation by 
the Secretariat. The Secretariat  answered questions from the Representative of the United States  on 
the definition used for trade finance in the "pilot"  loss default register. The Representative of Turkey  
supported the efforts of the Director-General and the G-20 in general in providing additional trade 
finance resources to least-developed countries a nd to small and medium-sized enterprises. The 
Representative of the European Union  also supported the G-20 initiatives in favour of trade finance 
and took note of the regulatory asymmetries ment ioned in the context of the Basel III framework, 
which were worth looking into. The Representative of China  asked the Secretariat to elaborate on the 
possible impact of the new Basel III framework in the current international economic policy context. 
The Representative of Brazil  acknowledged that the trade finan ce situation was still worrisome for 
countries that proved to be vulnerable, in particul ar in Africa, during the recent economic crisis, and 
supported the G-20 efforts in their direction. He fe lt that the technological ga p between developed and 
developing countries in using modern trade finance products was also worrisome. On regulatory issues, he noted the reluctance of regulators to ac knowledge the safe character of trade finance. He 
supported the Secretariat's continued work on trade finance.  
5. The Representative of Pakistan
 did likewise, and expressed the view that the Basel III 
framework was unfair to trade finance, particularly  because of its effects on low income countries. 
The Representative of Venezuela  agreed that recent work on trade fi nance was useful, but wished that 
the Group would widen its scope, to examine the rela tionship between trade, debt and finance. Not 
enough attention was devoted to the issue of debt  and its impact on the trade opportunities of WTO 
Members. Ahead of the G-20 Meeting in Seoul, the Representative of China  made general remarks 
about the contribution of China to the global economic recovery, including the granting of WT/WGTDF/M/21 
Page 2  
 
international contracts, the appreciation of its currency, and outward foreign direct investment, 
although he felt that not all countries were prepared to see China as a global investor. Chinese foreign 
direct investment still met unjustified barriers in la rge developed countries, in particular industries. 
China had issues with respect to currency management and monetary policies in other countries that it 
wished to address at the G-20 Seoul Summit, along with other topics such as financial regulation, 
trade, currencies, destabilizing capital flows and the reform of the international monetary system. He 
informed the Group of the recent reform of IMF governance that provided greater voice and representation to emerging countries. His remarks we re broadly supported by the Representatives of 
Brazil
 and of Venezuela , who argued in favour of a widening of  the discussions in the Working Group 
to better link up trade, capital movements, and macroeconomic policies. This would allow an 
examination of the impact of macroeconomic imba lances on trade. Time and effort ought to be 
devoted to these issues. The delegation of Brazil  was considering a written contribution to the 
Working Group on such matters. 
6. The Chairman  said that the delegation of Brazil, lik e any other delegation, was welcome to 
raise issues that fell within the mandate of the Wo rking Group on the basis of a written contribution. 
He looked forward to receiving the submission by Br azil, and gave the floor to the Representative of 
the ICC. 
7. The Representative of the ICC  presented the activities of the ICC in the area of trade 
finance, in particular the production of market in telligence surveys and the creation of a loss default 
registry, which provided evidence that trade finance was safer than other classes of assets. He agreed 
to circulate his presentation to WTO Members (Document WT/WGTDF/W/50).  
8. The Chairman  thanked the Representative of the I CC for his presentation and summed up the 
discussion.  He also reminded the Working Group that  it had to report to the General Council. He had 
circulated a draft report in WTO Document WT/WGTDF/W/51, under his own responsibility. Members were encouraged to deliver their comments in time for the report to be ready by the deadline 
for its transmission to the General Council.  With this, he closed the meeting. 
 
 
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