WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/AG/W/73/Rev.1/Add.1 
26 January 2010 
 (10-0379) 
Committee on Agriculture  
  
 
IMPROVEMENT OF TIMELINESS AND COMPLETENESS OF NOTIFICATIONS UNDER 
EXISTING PROCEDURES:  MEMBERS' SUGGESTIONS OF " BEST PRACTICES " 
 
Note by the Secretariat
1 
 
Addendum  
 
1. This annotated compilation of "best practices"  is circulated at the request of the Chairperson 
in order to reflect the debate held during the in formal open-ended consulta tions on 16 December 2009 
and facilitate the consideration of  this matter by Members at the 10  March meeting of the Committee 
on Agriculture.  
2. During the consultations, participating Members highlighted the need for the "best practices"  
exercise initiated by the Committee to be underpinne d by a set of general principles, such as: 
(a) Members should aim to determine a set of practices that will be useful in guiding 
them to prepare and review notificati ons under existing procedures and formats  as 
underlined in paragraph 1 of G/AG/ W/73/Rev.1.  In particular:  
(i) any improvement should be without pr ejudice to the positions of Members, 
or to their rights and obligations under the WTO.  Some doubts were expressed as to whether some of the s uggestions should rather be addressed 
by the Committee on Agriculture in Special Session; 
(ii) any "best practice"  should be implemented by the Member concerned on a 
voluntary
 basis. 
(b) A balance must be found between the distinct but common goals of "timeliness"  and 
"completeness" .  Some participants felt that, while generally aiming at optimizing 
transparency, notably by improving the comp leteness of notified information, great 
caution should be exercised not to hamper  the timeliness of submissions.  In this 
light, some of the suggestions compiled in the original document were found: 
(i) to be more demanding on the "completeness" side (time and resource 
intensive), and as such, could be potentially burdensome, and therefore run counter the equally important objective to improve  "timeliness" ;   
(ii) to pertain more to the review process than to the submission  process.  While 
the additional information could easily  be supplied in the course of the 
review process undertaken by the Comm ittee at each form al session, some 
                                                     
 
1 This document has been prepared under the Secret ariat's own responsibility and is without prejudice 
to the positions of Members or to their rights or obligations under the WTO. G/AG/W/73/Rev.1/Add.1 
Page 2  
 
  participants felt that there was no n eed to include it upfront in their 
notifications. 
3. The table below summarizes the points made by participating Members during the 
consultations held on 16 December 2009.  The following table has to be read in conjunction with, and 
follows the structure of, document G/AG/W/73/Re v.1 and where follow-up action has been suggested, 
it has been identified in the last column with th e understanding that such best practices would be 
applied in accordance with the general pr inciples outlined in paragraph 2 above. 
  
   G/AG/W/73/Rev.1/Add.1
 Page 3SUMMARY OF INTERVENTIONS MADE DURING THE 16 DECEMBER 2009 CONSULTATIONS 
 
REFERENCE IN 
G/AG/W/73/R EV.1 COMMENTS  S UGGESTED FOLLOW -UP 
I.    SUGGESTIONS OF A GENERAL NATURE (pp. 1-2 of G/AG/W/73/Rev.1) 
para 2.(a).(i)  Broadly supported: 
o The Excel format would greatly facilitate the review 
process, but need for a harmonized format to be used by all 
Members. 
o Unlikely to be troublesome from the point-of-view of a 
number of developing countries.  
 Members already operating on the basis of Excel formats found 
the conversion into Word format for WTO purposes both 
unnecessary and prone to error.  Secretariat to prepare standardized  Excel formats where calculations 
are required (notably in the case of Table DS:1). 
 Members with experience in using Excel formats are encouraged to 
contact the Secretariat to share inputs. 
 Draft Excel formats to be posted on the Members' web page in due 
course, for Members' review  and further discussion. 
 In the meantime, submissions may be made both in Excel and Word. 
2.(a).(ii)  The idea was supported.  This is a long-term WTO-wide objective.   
 Secretariat to brief Members as and when progress is made. 
2.(a).(iii)  Broadly supported the idea, but the proposed timeline for 
submission of written responses was not always shared:   
o the provision of some lead time is needed to align draft 
written responses with Members' oral statements as 
delivered during meetings.    Allow some flexibility to fulfill internal transparency procedures, 
perhaps 2 days (standard practice in several WTO Committees). 
2.(b)  Doubts emerged as to whether ch anging the established channels 
of communications between Members and the WTO Secretariat 
would alleviate, or worsen, the "tim eliness" issue.  In particular, 
caution to be exercised in cases of turnover of capital-based 
officials.  
 Annual " calls " and semi-annual " reminders " of unfulfilled 
notifications are regularly channe led by the Secretariat through 
Missions to capitals.   Maintain current channels of communications.   
o Members facing difficulties with the current system to be 
invited to communicate these to th e Secretariat w ith a view to 
receiving appropriate technical assistance. 
o In addition to the standard procedure, reminders could be sent 
directly to capital-based officials where Missions have 
explicitly instructed the Secretariat to do so.   
  G/AG/W/73/Rev.1/Add.1 
Page 4 REFERENCE IN 
G/AG/W/73/R EV.1 COMMENTS  S UGGESTED FOLLOW -UP 
I.    SUGGESTIONS OF A GENERAL NATURE (pp. 1-2 of G/AG/W/73/Rev.1) 
2.(c) and 2.(d)  Some support was received: such best practices would provide a 
greater level of precision in notified data in certain circumstances.   
 Serious concerns were also expressed.  These two suggestions : 
o could be difficult to implement and adversely impact 
timeliness.  
o are best addressed as part of the review process. - 
2.(e)  There was some support for this suggestion.  
 References to relevant official government websites : 
o might be useful where the additional information can be 
easily obtainable and is reconcilable with notified data. 
o should supplement, rather than supplant, notified 
information: references to particular measures and 
programmes should be fully described and explained in the 
notifications themselves.  
o should be up-to-date: the most common problem associated 
with referenced websites is obsolescence. 
 Some concerns were expressed about the usefulness of the 
suggestion, especially at  the submission stage.   Re-drafting was suggested to clarif y that references to official 
government websites could be supplied by Members where they 
deem it appropriate and useful.   
2.(f)  Generally supported and consider ed to facilitate the review 
process provided that the notifying Member is given flexibility to 
decide how best to reflect the changes.  Reason and reference to changes made to be explicitly stated on the 
cover page.  
   G/AG/W/73/Rev.1/Add.1
 Page 5 
REFERENCE IN 
G/AG/W/73/R EV.1 COMMENTS  S UGGESTED FOLLOW -UP 
II.    TARIFF AND OTHER QUOTAS (TABLES MA:1  AND  MA:2) 
Comments generally 
applying to Section II   Several concerns were expressed. 
 The priority is to improve compliance with notification obligations.  
By contrast, it was felt that the proposed practices : 
o went beyond the scope of the current " best practices"  
exercise; currently established notification formats; the 
Agreement on Agriculture; as well as the Committee's 
purview. 
o appeared to be time-consuming; could well lead to further 
delays in the submission of notifications as they imply 
additional burdens, particularly on developing country 
Members.   
o would be best addressed under the review process, in certain 
instances.  
3.(a) and 3.(c)  Introducing this practice would necessitate a redefinition of all 
administrative services in cert ain cases, which is unacceptable. 
 Involving different institutions to implement some of the 
suggestions would foster inter-agency communication but would 
perhaps cause further delays in the submission of notifications.  
3.(d)  Reason and rationale behind this suggestion remain unclear. 
 Similar discussions are already taking place in the Committee on 
Regional Trade Agreements. 
 Introducing this practice would necessitate a redefinition of all 
administrative services in cert ain cases, which is unacceptable.   
  G/AG/W/73/Rev.1/Add.1 
Page 6  
REFERENCE IN 
G/AG/W/73/R EV.1 COMMENTS  S UGGESTED FOLLOW -UP 
III.    SPECIAL SAFEGUARD (TABLES MA:3  TO MA:5) 
Comments generally 
applying to Section III   Similar to the comments made with regard to Section II above.  
Difficult to comply with these suggestions. 
 Doubts expressed on the rationale behind these suggestions in 
particular and clarification was sought from proponents as to how 
the timeliness and completeness of notifications would be 
improved.  
4.(a) and 4.(b)  The application of this suggestion on a shipment-by-shipment 
basis could be hampered by the la ck of sophisticated computerized 
customs systems and thus affect the timely submission of 
notifications.  The same consequen ce is foreseen if more agencies 
are also involved in compiling additional information. 
 In practice, it might not always be feasible to determine which 
exporting countries were actually affected by the triggering of the 
safeguard.  
IV.    DOMESTIC SUPPORT (TABLE DS:1  AND SUPPORTING TABLES DS:1  TO DS:9)  
Comments generally 
applying to Section IV   These practices could be easily implemented, in view of the 
relevance of informati on to be included.   
 Several Members already supply such information in their 
notifications. 
 Domestic support is an area that would best lend itself to the use of 
electronic spreadsheet s in Excel format.  Introduce as "best practice"  when submitting Table DS:1.  
 Include a calculator or a formula box with a view to providing 
subtotals and totals in the Excel formats (see also comments made in 
relation to para 2.(a).(i) above).   
   G/AG/W/73/Rev.1/Add.1
 Page 7 
REFERENCE IN 
G/AG/W/73/R EV.1 COMMENTS  S UGGESTED FOLLOW -UP 
V.    EXPORT COMPETITION (TABLES ES:1  TO ES:3  AND SUPPORTING TABLES ES:1  AND  ES:2) 
Comments generally 
applying to Section V   Difficult to comply with these suggestions (e.g. showing the actual 
expenditure per tariff line; ascertaining whether export subsidies 
have been granted to all the covered tariff lines given the broad definition of some product categories; harmonizing reporting 
periods in view of scheduled information, etc.).   
 Adherence to the suggestions would be time consuming and might 
not necessarily contribute to the better understanding of the notifications.  
VI.    INSTITUTIONAL CAPACITY BUILDING  
Comments generally 
applying to Section VI   The participating delegations expressed general support for all the 
items listed under this section, and readiness to participate 
 The "sharing of experiences" :  
o basically refers to mentoring initiatives through which 
Members help each other by sharing domestic experiences in 
preparing notifications and participating in review procedures. 
o The Cairns Group Manual made available in September 
2009 on the Members' web site is a valuable contribution in 
this context. 
 The section as a whole corres ponds more to the area of " technical 
assistance " than to the " best practices " exercise.    Withdraw this section from the co mpilation on best practices and 
include it in the Committee's Work Programme on the Timeliness 
and Completeness of Notifications  with a cross-reference to "best 
practices".   
 
7.(a) and 7.(c)  Further clarification/elaboration needed. 
 These practices are in the realm of the internal processes for 
training officials: setting up proper communication mechanisms 
between different institutions should be part of such practices.  
 
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