WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  RESTRICTED 
TN/TF/M/34 
27 April 2010 
 (10-2208) 
Negotiating Group on Trade Facilitation   
  
 
MINUTES OF THE MEETING 
 
Held in the Centre William Rappard 
from 8 – 12 March 2010  
 
Chairman:  H.E. Mr. Eduardo Ernesto Sperisen-Yurt (Guatemala) 
 
 1. The Chairman recalled that the proposed agenda  had been circulated in WTO/AIR/3516.  As 
delegations would have seen from the airgram, th e meeting sought to complete the first round of 
reviewing the Draft Consolidated Negotiating Text .  The idea was for Members to pick up work 
where they had left it off in February, looking at th e sections they did not get to address at that time. 
2. To help organize work, the agenda listed the speci fic items that were to be discussed at each 
session, starting with Article 9 of the Draft Consolidat ed Text.  This was not meant to be a straitjacket 
and should not prevent delegations from moving faster, but served as an indication for when an item was likely to come up.  
3. Special and differential treatment would be a ddressed on Thursday, both in the morning and 
in the afternoon.  Time would also be accorded for Members' bilateral, plurilateral and open-ended 
activities.  The afternoons of Tuesday and Wednesd ay had been reserved to that end.  Members 
wishing to organize such initiatives would be expected  to report on their results in Friday's closing 
plenary.  That last day would also allow Members to revisit two items they had addressed in February: 
(i) publication and availability of information, base d on a document received from the delegations of 
Hong Kong, China, Japan, Norway, Switzerland and Turkey (JOB/TF/2) as well as (ii) fees and 
charges imposed in connected with importation and exportation, guided by JOB/TF/4 submitted by 
the EU.  After that, Members would take up a few technical assistance and needs assessment matters as they had done in the past. 
4. The agenda was adopted. 
5. The Chairman outlined the organization of work .  The goal was to complete the first run 
through of the Draft Consolidated Text initiated in  February, reviewing its provisions and trying to 
clean up the language. 
6. This could be done in several ways.  Eliminati ng some of the many square brackets would be 
one obvious possibility.  Members could either agre e to accept the language in the brackets or delete 
it. There were also many parts of the text that c ontained duplicative and repetiti ve elements that could 
be streamlined and/or combined.  
7. The number of areas that required such work was considerable and exceeded the amount of 
what could reasonably be expected to be accompli shed in one week.  He therefore considered it 
advisable to start with those parts that did not refl ect deep-rooted differences in opinion and would not 
affect the level of commitment of the text.  It seemed much more promising to focus on what he had 
referred to as “easy brackets” at the February meeting, "easy" in the sense of them consisting of repetitive text or representing mere stylistic or lin guistic differences.  These would be words or TN/TF/M/34 
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phrases that were almost identical and had the same mean ing, or terms that were simply repeated in a 
slightly modified form.  
8. To make best use of the available time, it was essential that Members refrained from 
repeating themselves.  For that reason, he would urge delegations not to take the floor if it was just to 
express support for a view already communicated by a delegation before.  In light of the consensus-
based nature of work, a single opposing view by one delegation would already suffice to prevent a 
modification of the text.   
9. As at the last session, he would draw Members' attention to areas he considered to merit 
consideration by the Negotiating Group, proposing for cer tain brackets to be eliminated or for their 
contents to be removed from the main text.  Any opposition to such action, and be it only from one 
delegation, would preserve the text in its current  form.  Subsequent expressions of support for the 
initial suggestion, or for the opposing view, woul d therefore no longer be necessary and should be 
avoided.  Rather, he would suggest for the Group to move on. 
10. He equally urged Members to concentrate thei r interventions on the actual questions, and to 
limit their answers to clear indications of oppositio n or support. This was not to say that comments 
could not be made.  But he would like to ensure  that the negotiations remained focussed and did 
justice to the textual character of the work.  It w as equally not to suggest that delegations could not 
raise issues on their own.  Delegations would remain  free to address any matter they liked.  But to 
allow for a certain structure in the discussions, and for the debate to remain to the point, he would 
request that delegations first intervened on the items  he would present them with before then turning 
to additional matters they might wish to raise.  
11. The text Members would using for this exercise  had been recently revised by the Secretariat 
to reflect the results of the February session.   The updated version had been circulated as 
TN/TF/W/165/Rev.1.  It would form the basis for this week’s work. 
A. W
ORK ON THE  DRAFT CONSOLIDATED NEGOTIATING TEXT 
12. This part of the meeting was conducted in informal mode.  
13. The Negotiating Group took note of the statements made.  
B.  A D HOC ATTENDANCE OF RELEVANT INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS , INCLUDING THE 
IMF, OECD, UNCTAD , WCO AND THE WORLD BANK, AT THE NEXT MEETING OF THE 
NEGOTIATING GROUP  
14. The Chairman suggested inviting relevant inte rnational organizations, including the IMF, 
OECD, UNCTAD, WCO and the World Bank to attend the next formal meeting of the Negotiating 
Group on an ad hoc basis, as provided for in the Work Plan. 
15. It was so agreed. 
C. O THER BUSINESS  
16. The Chairman addressed the issue of the Nego tiating Group's next meeting, suggesting to 
hold it from 31 May – 4 June.  Details regarding its content and structure would be communicated to 
Members in due course.  
17. It was so agreed.   TN/TF/M/34 
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18. The Negotiating Group took note of the statements made. 
19. The meeting was adjourned. 
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