RESTRICTED   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/TF/M/18 
2 July 2007 
 (07-2784) 
Negotiating Group on Trade Facilitation  
  
SUMMARY MINUTES OF THE MEETING 
 
Held in the Centre William Rappard
 
on 7-8 June 2007  
 
Chairman:  H.E. Mr. Eduardo Ernesto Sperisen-Yurt (Guatemala) 
 
 
1. The Chairman  recalled that the proposed agenda fo r the meeting had been circulated in 
WTO/AIR/3020 and that the purpose of the session mainly aimed at furthering the negotiating process by offering an additional opportunity to advance the Group's discussions by tabling new contributions 
and reacting to the proposals previously received.  Furthermore, Members would be invited to admit 
relevant international organi zations, including the IMF, OECD, UNCTAD, WCO and the World 
Bank, to attend the next meeting of the Group on an ad hoc basis, as in the past.  
2. The agenda was adopted
. 
A. CONTRIBUTIONS ON THE AGREED AGENDA OF THE NEGOTIATING GROUP  
3. The Chairman  said that the first and main item on the agenda sought to advance the Group's 
negotiating business by inviting further contributi ons on the agreed agenda of the Negotiating Group 
(NG). It  had been a standing item of the Group's discussions and had been the key focus of the NG from the start of the negotiations.  While familiar to  Members, he said that the matter should not be 
regarded as "business as usual" and continuation of approved traditions should not be confused with 
repetition of known arguments.  The Group did not need to be reminded of the importance of 
advancing in its work in this area and of staying on track within the now short time available to avoid 
falling behind.  He was pleased, in this regard, to see  that his earlier plea for more engagement and an 
intensification of the negotiating efforts had fallen on fertile ground and that Members had been very 
active in reaching out to each other in search fo r a common understanding and had engaged in a series 
of useful activities to this end.  Furthermore, for the first time in almost a year, new proposals had been submitted which would help make the n ecessary move towards focussed drafting mode, and 
revisions of earlier proposals had also been re ceived which would equally assist the required 
generation of draft texts.  These new contributions w ould be a focus of the Group's discussions, but, at 
the same time, other parts of the Group's agenda  – technical assistance and S&D, implementation, 
GATT Articles V, VIII and X, as well as customs cooperation – would not be  neglected.   These 
would be taken up as well and room would also be given for additional contributions from the 
participating international organizations. 
4. In organizational terms, he wished to stick to the traditional process of  keeping the debate as 
interactive as possible by having most of the discuss ions take place in informal mode, limiting formal 
elements to the introduction of new proposals and st atements Members explicitly requested to make 
for the record.  
5. The remaining part of the discussions under this agenda item took place in informal mode
 
with the exception of the introduction of new proposal s and of statements that were requested to be 
placed on record. TN/TF/M/18 
Page 2  
 
  6. The representative of Turkey
 introduced submission TN/TF/W/132/Rev.1, explaining that the 
fruitful discussions on Turkey's earlier proposal on the matter and Members' reactions received 
thereon – both in the NG and in the context of a workshop – had made it appear timely to present a 
revision of Ankara's proposal on internet publication.    
7. In preparing the revised proposal, Turkey had drawn upon common views as had emerged 
from several earlier proposals (TN/TF/W/26, W/30, W/70, W/96, W/107, W/114, W/115 and 
W/129/Rev.1).  Regarding the issue of Special and Differential Treatment (S&D T), Turkey referred to 
the outcome of the discussion on proposals TN/TF/W/137 and TN/TF/W/142.  
8. The revision of Turkey's proposal on internet publication reflected the utmost importance the 
country attached to the matter. Turkey believed that  determining the scope of trade regulations to be 
published was an initial step to designing new rules on transparency.  Turkey appreciated the lists 
provided by Japan, Mongolia and Switzerland in docum ent W/114 in that regard and had taken them 
as a basis for drafting its own document. 
9. Another issue that should be considered related to  the availability of information.  Publication 
in the conventional media like an official journal was necessary, but did not guarantee to provide the 
exact piece of information looked for. What was proposed in the current proposal was to make all 
trade-related legislation available on a nationa l website, which was the most easily accessible 
medium.  TN/TF/W/114 also referred to this idea but  proposed it as an additional tool, proposing for it 
to be used whenever practicable. 
10. Enquiry points were the second issue in Turkey's  proposal which would also contribute to the 
aim of trade facilitation.  Turkey was proposing a comprehensive text, formulating rules regarding 
enquiry points with the aim of providing interested pa rties with an effective tool to obtain information 
for specific requirements regarding trade legisla tion. Turkey acknowledged that small, vulnerable 
economies might need some flexibilit y to establish regional enquiry points. In that regard, one had 
benefited from the ideas set out in proposal TN/TFW/129/Rev.1. 
11. The representative of the United States  introduced the US proposal on internet publication 
(TN/TF/W/145),  explaining that it was a draft text which built on two previous papers submitted to 
the Negotiating Group.  The current US proposal sought to build upon and improve existing GATT 
Article X requirements by establishing a new WTO commitment for each Member to publish two particular kinds of information on a publicly accessi ble internet website:  First, a full and precise 
description of its customs procedures, and second, the forms and documents required for importation 
and exportation.  
12. GATT Article X already required the publicatio n of customs laws, regulations, rulings, 
decisions, and so forth, and several proposals by other Members before the Negotiating Group addressed this. A crucial underlying obj ective of this provision in Article X was to ensure that traders 
could understand the practical steps needed to import and export.   
13. But, as Members had discussed in  the Negotiating Group and as the US had often been told at 
home, the fact was that regulations and other legal documents themselves could be complicated, 
highly technical, and difficult for traders to decipher.  
14. Therefore, the United States considered that it would be an improvement also to have 
Members publish on the internet a user-friendly d escription of a Member's customs procedures as 
well.  This was proposed in paragraph (a) of the United States' proposed text.   TN/TF/M/18 
 Page 3 
 
 
  15. Similarly, a requirement to publish on the internet the necessary customs forms for export and 
import would almost certainly save traders the time a nd resources to try to obtai n hard copies of the 
forms by mail or even by personal appearance.  
16. With respect to implementation and the effects of this proposed practice, it had to be said that, 
while it was undeniable that there were certain up-front costs associated with the development and 
maintenance of an internet website, these cost s had been dropping as technology improved and had 
become more readily available. 
17. The most significant beneficiaries of this internet publication proposal were small- and 
medium-sized enterprises, given that small business es typically did not maintain either an economic 
presence or representation in the territory of export markets.  The US proposal would enable such 
small- and medium-sized companies from all around the world – in developed, developing and LDC 
economies – both to gain a greater initial understanding of each Member's customs procedures through a non-technical explanation on the intern et, and also to enjoy ready access to the forms and 
documents necessary to import and export.  
18. Regarding S&D and implementation, the uni que situation of each Member regarding 
implementation of the proposed commitment could be addressed through the use of diagnostic tools 
providing an assessment of specific needs.  This  then permitted the calculation of reasonable 
transition periods coupled with targeted technical assistance.  
19. As a practical matter, the US could share the fact that its analysis had shown that many 
developing-country Members had already establishe d websites and were well down the path towards 
implementation of the proposed commitment. Some  countries, such a Kenya, had even established 
state-of-the-art versions. 
20. What the US was proposing was a concrete undert aking that lent itself well to technical 
assistance and the development of a path to impl ementation reflecting whatever special situation 
existed for a developing-country Member.   
21. The representative of the Unites States
 introduced proposal TN/TF/W/144 on expedited 
shipments, saying that the US w as pleased to propose a draft text of the third-generation variety.  
There had been two previous papers from the US on the matter, TN/TF/W/15 in 2005 and 
TN/TF/W/91, which laid out elements of a commitment, in 2006.  The current US proposal sought to provide a significant enhancement of certainty an d consistency for the treatment of expedited 
shipments by setting out specific commitments to  provide for separate customs procedures for 
expedited shipments.  As the US had noted in su bmitting the United States' previous papers, expedited 
shipment operators were an increasingly important el ement of Members' supply chain infrastructure.  
They were also a key element to the cu rrent just-in-time business environment. 
22. For example, a significant part of today's expedited shipments business involved the shipment 
of spare parts needed to fill specific customer or ders.  Also, expedited shipments operators were 
particularly important to small- and medium-sized enterprises because those small businesses often 
relied on an expedited shipment to  maintain competitiveness.   
23. The specific commitments set forth in the US proposal were set out in several paragraphs. 
First (a), there would be advance electronic submission and processing of information necessary to release the expedited shipment prior to its arrival.  Next, there would be an allowing for the electronic 
submission of the single manifest covering all goo ds in the expedited shipment.  Paragraph (c) 
provided for clearance of goods with a minimum of  documentation.  Paragraph (d) provided for the 
release of expedited shipments within one hour of  the submission of necessary customs documents.  It 
was also suggested that there would be no weight or value restrictions.  Furthermore, the system TN/TF/M/18 
Page 4  
 
  would need to allow for the rele ase of expedited shipments pending the final determination of the 
customs duty if the importer provided a surety or bond or similar instrument.  Finally, the provision would provide that there would be no assessment of customs duties or taxes or requirement of formal entry documents for expedited shipments valued unde r US$200.  The US also wished to note that this 
proposal did not prevent Members from conducting scr eenings and examinations that were necessary 
to maintain appropriate border control including risk management screening.   
24. In terms of implementation, the costs associ ated with adopting commitments for expedited 
shipments were relatively modest with the ex ception of the costs of after hours processing and 
clearance of expedited shipments.  But, arrangement s could generally be made that allowed the costs 
associated with this after hours processing to be direc tly borne by the shipment operator.  In addition, 
in some cases, commitments on expedited shipments might involve modification of existing 
regulations.  That would need to be taken into account.   
25. With respect to S&D, much like the situation w ith the establishment of an internet website for 
providing information to traders, many Members ha d already taken some steps towards recognizing 
the need for special treatment fo r expedited shipments.  A diagnostic tool to assess the status of 
individual Members would be useful in moving forward.  Based on the results of these assessments, 
the negotiations could begin to look at needs for tr ansition periods and timelines for implementation. 
With respect to technical assistance, this was a se ctor that was very well suited for private sector 
participation in technical assistance efforts.  
26. The representative of Switzerland
 announced that Switzerland w as in the last stage of 
finalizing a Memorandum of Unde rstanding with the WTO Secretariat for a donation of CHF200.000 
for the Secretariat's needs assessment programme.   
27. The Negotiating Group took note  of the statements made. 
B. AD HOC ATTENDANCE OF RELEVANT INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS , INCLUDING THE 
IMF,  OECD,  UNCTAD,  WCO  AND THE WORLD BANK, AT THE NEXT MEETING OF THE 
NEGOTIATING GROUP  
28. The Chairman  suggested inviting relevant internati onal organizations, including the IMF, 
OECD, UNCTAD, WCO and the World Bank to attend th e next formal meeting of the NG on an ad 
hoc basis, as provided for in the Work Plan. 
29. It was so agreed . 
C. OTHER BUSINESS  
30. The Chairman  addressed the issue of the Negotiating Group's next meeting, proposing to hold 
the next session from 16-20 July. Details of how to structure that session had already been explained 
and could be discussed further in the context of informal open-ended cons ultations on the matter 
ahead of the July session. 
31. It was so agreed . 
32. The meeting was adjourned .  
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