WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  RESTRICTED 
TN/TF/M/43 
13 October 2011 
 (11-5044) 
Negotiating Group on Trade Facilitation  
  
 
MINUTES OF THE MEETING 
 
Held in the Centre William Rappard 
from 26 – 30 September 2011 
 
Chairman:  H.E. Mr. Eduardo Ernesto Sperisen-Yurt (Guatemala) 
 
 1. The Chairman welcomed Members to the mee ting of the Negotiating Group.  He hoped that 
delegations had had a nice break and that they had been  able to recharge their batteries. Thanks to the 
generous funding from Norway and the EU, he wa s able to extend his welcome to capital-based 
experts from LDC and ACP countries which were present this week. 
2. The agenda for the session had been circulated  in WTO/AIR/3797. As Members would have 
noticed from the airgram, the meeting sought to adva nce the negotiations on all elements of the Draft 
Consolidated Text. While the broader landscape mi ght look somewhat different from the situation 
Members had faced during the first half this year , he sensed a continued willingness to advance the 
important mission of this Group - and hoped to see th is commitment translate into fruitful work.   
3. The week's negotiations started with plenary discussions on S&D. Members then took up the 
other areas of the Draft Consolidated Negotiating Text, addressing its provisions in reverse sequential 
order. Time was also accorded to Members' b ilateral, plurilateral and open-ended activities. The 
afternoons of the first four days ha d been reserved to this end. De legations wishing to organize such 
initiatives had been invited to report on their results in Friday's closing plenary.  On Friday, Members 
also had the opportunity to discuss the next steps a nd to give their views on how they felt work should 
proceed. 
4. The agenda was adopted. 
A. REPORTS BY THE FACILITATORS , CONSIDERATION OF REVISED TEXTS FOR INCLUSION INTO 
THE DRAFT CONSOLIDATED NEGOTIATING TEXT AND REVIEW OF NEXT STEPS  
5. This part of the meeting w as conducted in informal mode. 
6. 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  
7. 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. 
8. It was so agreed. TN/TF/M/43 
Page 2  
 
  C. O
THER BUSINESS  
9. The Chairman addressed the issue of the dates for the Negotiating Group's next meeting. He 
recalled that this had already been dealt with ear lier. He was aware that some delegations faced 
difficulties with regard to those dates and apologised for not being able to su ggest alternatives.  For 
the reasons that had already been mentioned, the session had been planned to take place from 7-11 
November. The scheduling would allow delegations to also attend the symposium which was going to 
take place during part of that week. He theref ore sought Members' understanding and asked whether 
they could approve those dates for the next meeting.  He thanked Members and recorded that it was so 
agreed.  
10. The representative of India asked to be inform ed about the concrete progress made in the 
different negotiating areas so that there would not be  any surprises. He was not sure about the precise 
changes Members had agreed on.  He said that it woul d be useful if the Secretariat could give a brief 
summary of what had been decided.  
11. The Chairman said that he would invite the Secr etariat to provide such a summary, but that he 
had recognized Egypt's flag and wanted to give them the floor first.  
12. The representative of Egypt sought clarification on the question of whether the proposal by 
Senegal, Saudi Arabia and Egypt concerning the tim e for the next round was going to be considered 
or not. How would it be dealt with? 
13. The Chairman informed that, as he had al ready mentioned earlier, it was practically 
impossible to move the dates, given that hotel and flight arrangements had already been made for the 
delegations coming from capital and that it was also the week of the symposium. The availability of 
facilities such as meeting rooms and the like had to be  taken into account as well.  It really was not 
possible to organize the meeting during any dates other than the ones Members had already agreed 
upon.  
14. The representative of India asked whether the dates had already been announced.  
15. The Chairman confirmed that this had indeed been the case and recalled that dates were the 
days from 7-11 November. He then asked the Secret ariat to give a summary of the changes Members 
had agreed on during the week. 
16. The Secretariat informed that the number of te xtual changes Members had been able to agree 
on was rather limited.  There had basically been no change in the area of S&D other than a correction 
of the cross-reference currently found in footnot e 38 dealing with an issue related to heading 9 
("Provision of technical assistance [,financial assist ance] and capacity building.")  As suggested by 
Mauritius, the footnote should re fer to paragraphs 9.2 and 4.5 instead of 9.2 and 5.3 as currently 
listed.  It was nothing but a correction without amounting to a change in substance.  
17. No change had also been made to Artic le 15 ("Preamble/Cross-cutting Matters").  
18. In the area of Article 14, dealing with the National Committee of Trade Facilitation, Members 
had been able to adopt the new language that had emerged from the week's negotiations conducted by 
Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Panama.  The text that had been circulated to delegations 
previously and that had also been circulated that morning would therefore be the new basis of further 
work.  TN/TF/M/43 
 Page 3 
 
 
  19. With respect to Article 13, it had not yet been  possible to agree on the new language proposed 
by Chinese Taipei on the grounds of there not having been a translation into French. It therefore remained a pending issue that would have to be revisited at the next meeting. 
20. The largest number of changes had been agreed  upon in the area of Article 12 - Customs Co-
operation.  Here, Members had deci ded to delete the brackets around the word "strictly" in paragraph 
8.  In paragraph 12, they had agreed to remove the comma after the words "request" in the second line 
of the English version as suggested by India.   
21. In paragraph 16, Members agreed to stop the sentence after "requesting Member".  The 
subsequent part of the sentence would be removed. 
22. In the next paragraph, paragraph 17, delega tions agreed to remove the brackets around the 
word "notifying" and to rephrase the rest of the sente nce for it to read: "… the requested Member of 
the measures referred to in sub-paragraphs (a) and (b)." 
23. Finally, in paragraph 19, in the first line, Me mbers agreed to replace the word "proposal" by 
"Article". 
24. In the area of transit, delegations agreed on tw o changes. The first related to paragraph 3 (b) 
of Article 11. Members had agreed to the deletion of  the word "policy" together with the surrounding 
brackets in the first line as proposed by Ecuador. Fu rthermore, as a result of the text proposed by 
Carlos from Mexico, Members had equally agr eed to remove the outer brackets surrounding 
paragraph 15.   
25. On Article 10, there had been no opposition to a proposal by Singapore which was basically 
just a correction in the sense of a renumbering of paragraph 10.2.4.4. Singapore had made the point 
that this should actually be listed as an independe nt sub-paragraph and renumbered as 10.2.5.  It did 
not amount to a change in language but  merely represented a renumbering.  
26. Finally, on Article 6.2 - Penalty Provisi ons, Members had agreed on the new language 
proposed by the US with the small change  that had been discussed this morning. 
27. The Negotiating Group took note of the statements made. 
28. The meeting was adjourned. 
__________