. /. RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/BOP/R/78 
13 May 2005 
 (05-1950) 
Committee on Balance-of-Payments Restrictions  
  
 
NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 26 APRIL 2005
 
 
1. The first meeting of the Committee on Balance-o f-Payments Restrictions in 2005 was held on 
26 April 2005 under the Chairmanship of Mr. Vict or Echevarría Ugarte (Spain).  The Chairman  
expressed his appreciation to the membership for th eir vote of confidence in him as the choice for 
Chairman of this Committee. 
2. The Chairman  informed the Committee that the present meeting had been convened 
(WTO/AIR/2550) to discuss the status of consu ltations on outstanding impl ementation issues under 
paragraph 12(b) of the Doha Declaration.  He r ecalled that the Chairman of the Trade Negotiations 
Committee had requested him, along with Ch airs of other Committees addressing these 
implementation issues, to assist him in his consultati ons in accordance with paragraph 1(d) of the July 
Package (WT/L/579).  The Chairman of the TNC had now asked the relevant Chairs to report to him 
on the results of their consultations no later than 30 April 2005, so as to allow him to report to the 
TNC and the General Council in May.   
3. The Chairman went on to inform the Members that, in his capacity as Chairman of the 
Committee, he had held an informal consultati on on 23 March 2005 with a few delegations and had 
reported to the Director-General on the results of these consultations on 30 March.  He now wished to 
brief the Committee formally on the situation.   
4. He noted that the Committee had before it th e Report to the Trade Negotiations Committee 
(WT/BOP/R/66) of 19 November 2002  relating to the work undertaken by the Committee in 2002.  At 
that time, over the course of five meetings, the Committ ee had considered tiret 1, and part of tiret 3, of 
JOB(01)/152/Rev.1.  He quoted from that report, in  which the Chairperson had noted that there had 
been no consensus of views on tiret 1, which read:  "Only the Committee on Balance-of-Payments 
shall have the authority to examine the overall justification of  BOP measures".  The Report went 
on to say, in paragraph 7:  "One view is that WT O Members need to clarify the relationship between 
Article XVIII:B and the invocation of the DSU with a view to confirming that only the Committee on 
Balance-of-Payments Restrictions shall have the authority to examine the overall justification of 
balance-of-payments measures. The other view is th at WTO jurisprudence has settled the issue".  On 
tiret 3, which read "a complete review of Article XVIII shall be undertaken with a view to ensure 
that it subserves the original objective of facilitating the progressive development of the 
economies in developing countries and allows th em to implement programmes and policies of 
economic development designed to raise the ge neral standard of living of their people" ,.  At that 
time, the Chairperson had noted that while no co nsensus had been reached, further consideration 
could usefully be given to responding to the concer ns raised under tiret 3 along the lines contained in 
the four bullet points in the final paragraph (paragraph 14) of the Report. 
5. The Chairman recalled that consultations had been held in the first half of 2003, and that the 
Chairman of the TNC had reported, in July 20 03, on the situation as he saw it, as follows:   
"There are two tirets in which BOP issues arise.  On one of these – tiret 3 – our 
consultations suggest that further refinement  of the draft language prepared at the end WT/BOP/R/78 
Page 2  
 
 of last year in the BOP Committee might offer a way forward.  I believe we should 
therefore encourage the BOP Committee to take another look at the issue under the 
supervision of the TNC, and report back to us as soon as possible.   
"On the second issue – tiret 1 – our consultati ons showed that delegations continue to 
hold differing views on the subs tance of the issue and the desirability of undertaking 
further work on it.  It would appear difficult, therefore, at present to suggest a course 
of action that could lead to a satisfactor y conclusion."  (TN/C/M/11, paragraph 406) 
6. The Chairman noted that, since the July Packag e, which mandated that the Director-General 
report to the TNC and to the General Council on the outstanding implementation issues by May 2005, 
the consultative process with Comm ittee Chairs as Friends of the TNC Chair had continued.  The 
Chairman drew the attention of the Committee to  the Chairman's Non-paper (JOB(05)/60) which 
showed the status of consultations on the Ou tstanding Implementation I ssues under paragraph 12(b) 
of the Doha Ministerial Declaration, including the drafting suggestions on pa ragraph 14. After reading 
the text, he invited comments from the floor. 
7. In response to a query raised regarding the possi bility of broadening the level of participation 
in consultations in order to help bridge remaining differences, the Chairman said that that was one of 
the reasons why he had convened the present meeting.  The Chairman a dded that he would reflect this 
comment in his report to the Director-General. Another question was posed asking if, and how, the Chairman proposed to report on tiret 1, to which the Chairman responded that the situation regarding 
this tiret had not changed since the 2002 Report. 
8. In conclusion, the Chairman explained that it was his task following the present meeting to 
report to the Director-General by 30 April so that he, in turn, could report to the TNC on 19 May.  He 
therefore planned to report to the Director-Gener al that the Committee had met and that divergences 
of views still remained in relation to the role of the analytical input provided by the IMF to the 
Committee’s deliberations and conclusions and with the reference to the inclusion of medium-and 
long-term implications among the factors  to whic h the Committee shall pay special attention when 
drawing up its conclusions. In spite  of these differences, he intended to report to the TNC Chairman 
that if Members of the General Council felt that furt her consideration could be  given to responding to 
the concerns contained in tiret 3, he believed th at the Committee could make a valuable contribution 
to further work in this area.  
9. The Committee agreed
 and the meeting was adjourned . 
 
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