06-3135 JOB(06)/213  28 June 2006  
 
 
 
INFORMAL TNC MEETING 
AT THE LEVEL OF HEAD OF DELEGATION 
 
Wednesday, 28 June 2006 
 
Chairman's Introductory Remarks (as delivered ) 
   Welcome and thank you all for coming to this mee ting.  I would also like to thank all of you, 
Ambassadors and Permanent Representatives, fo r your cooperation during these busy days.   
 
 The purpose of this meeting is to set out th e next steps in our process towards establishing 
modalities in Agriculture and NAMA on the basis of the texts circulated by the Chairs of these two 
negotiating groups on 22 June, and pa rticularly in view of the antic ipated presence in Geneva of a 
number of ministers this week.  I would also like to inform you of my activities over the past few 
days. 
 Background
 
  To begin with, as you know, the draft texts on Ag riculture and NAMA were circulated in line 
with our discussions at the informal TNC meeting held  on 30 May, and my fax of 16 June to all TNC 
participants regarding the next steps in this process.   Following their circulation, the texts were taken 
up for initial discussion in open-ended informal meet ings of the negotiating groups which were held 
last Friday, 23 June.     As I have said on several previous occasions, our present focus on Agriculture and NAMA 
does not in any way detract from the many other im portant elements on our negotiating agenda.  We 
are, and will remain, working under a Single Unde rtaking, but, as we have discussed in the past, 
modalities in Agriculture and NAMA are two vital oper ational decisions that need to be taken now – 
and I repeat now – in order to unlock other areas of  the negotiations, provide the parameters to allow 
each of you to draft schedules and to enable us to conclude the Round on time.   
 
 I would like also to reemphasize that esta blishing modalities in Agriculture and NAMA does 
not mean that the negotiations on these two issues are over.     The texts circulated by the Chairs have b een developed in line with our commitment to a 
bottom-up and transparent process. As a result, they  contain no surprises or "invented" solutions, and 
reflect fully the reality of where we are at this stage, for better or for worse.   
  As I anticipated in my Fax of 16 June, I saw the need, starting this week, to move to a more 
integrated overall consideration of the key issues which remain to be resolved in these texts.  
Accordingly, I have been consulting very closely with the Chairs of the General Council and the two 
negotiating groups, as well as with a number of delega tions, on the most appropriate way to move the 
process forward.   
  Also, in view of the quite substantial number of issues left to be settled in the two draft 
modalities papers, and in order to provide a structur e for the discussion among Ministers, I have held 
consultations with delegations this  week aimed at focussing the overall list as it appears in the Chairs' 
texts for a first discussion.  I will say a few words about this discussion later. 
  Let me add that, yesterday afternoon, I also a ttended a meeting of ACP Ministers in Brussels, 
which gave me the opportunity to consu lt with a large number of our Members. 
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 I have urged all the participants in these discu ssions over the past few days to share what has 
been discussed with those not present at these meetings.  Managing these negotiations is our collective responsibility, and while we all, I think,  recognize that small-group meetings are useful in 
making progress, we have to avoid an y notion of a privileged circle.  I will be playing my full part in 
this process.   
 
Further Process
 
  A few words now about the process over the coming days.  
 As mentioned in my Fax of 16 June, I intend th is consultative process to take place in various 
formats, with open-ended informal TNC meetings at its core.  Today's informal TNC meeting is part 
of that process.     I also intend to hold these informal meetings frequently, and culminate in a formal meeting of 
the TNC, which has been convened initially for Sa turday, 1 July, and which could be continued on 
subsequent days as necessary.     As I mentioned earlier, a number of delegations have indicated to me that Ministers will begin 
arriving in Geneva today to take part both in the informal consultative process and in the formal TNC 
meeting.  In order to  provide all delegations and ministers with adequate tim e to coordinate, consult 
and plan, I have considered it more productive to keep today and tomorrow free of any WTO 
meetings except for this informal TNC.   I intend to begin small-group consultations  involving a number of Ministers and their 
representatives on Friday morning starting at 9 a.m.  This will be followed by an informal TNC 
meeting at HODs level at 11 a.m., in order to ensure full transparency in the process.     
  In the late afternoon of Friday, I intend to r econvene the ministerial consultative group.  For 
the purposes of transparency, I can inform you that the ministerial consultative group has been composed along the lines of the group that met in Hong Kong, in order to ensure representation of as 
much as possible of the Membership. 
 
 The focus of these meetings will be to help build bridges on the key outstanding issues which 
we need to do in order to move formally to est ablishing the modalities in agriculture and NAMA.  I 
anticipate that on both Saturday, 1 July and Sunday, 2 July we may organize further meetings of the 
ministerial consultative group as well as informal open-ended HODs.   
 
 At this stage, it is probably premature to pr edict the precise number of informal open-ended 
meetings we will have, but I believe we need to est ablish a fairly regular rhythm between small group 
consultations and the open-ended pr ocess.  I have discussed this n eed for transparency with both 
negotiating group Chairs as well as the Chairman of the General Council and we all agree that every 
effort must be made to ensure a transparent pro cess, underpinned by a constant information flow.  I 
would therefore be grateful if all delegations coul d be on call at very short notice this week, and to 
watch the notice-boards for timings of the informal open-ended meetings.   
  I also intend each day
 to leave most of the afternoons free to allow delegations  to meet among 
themselves and in regional and other groupings, and also to allow me and the Chairs to meet with 
individual delegations and Ministers, as necessary.   
    As we enter this intensive period, I cannot  over-emphasize the urgency of our task and its 
significance in terms of the Round as a whole.  The Chairs and I will make every effort to respect the capacity constraints of delegations, especially the smaller ones.   
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 I would also hope that all delegations are fully aware of the specific security and logistical arrangements that are in place in the context of this  week's meetings, particularly in light of the 
anticipated presence of a number of ministers.  An In formation Note in this regard was circulated to 
delegations on 16 June (WT/INF/111).  If you have no t yet provided the information requested in this 
Note, please do so as soon as possible. 
 
Substantive Issues
 
  Let me now turn very briefly to substance.  
 As I mentioned earlier, I have held consu ltations with delegations  to see how we might 
prepare the discussion among Ministers, given the quite substantial number of issues that remain to be resolved in the two draft texts on the Agriculture  and NAMA modalities.  Delegations recognized in 
these discussions that certain key issues – such as fo r example the level of ambition, which includes 
flexibilities – must be resolved before one can move to resolving other issues.    
 
 As a result, I have concluded that Minister ial discussion should be focussed, in the first 
instance, on a number of issues considered to be key in both areas.  This is what we will do.  
However, it must be clearly understood – and I wish to underline this – that this is intended only to 
pave the way for a second round on other issues, and that all
 topics contained in the two draft texts are 
important to one constituency or another and will a ll have to be addressed.  This is purely a question 
of sequencing, and not a ranking by importance.  
  The sequencing I have adopted is as follows.     In agriculture, initial discussions should con centrate on market access, including the formula 
for tariff reductions, the number and treatment of  sensitive and special pr oducts and the special 
safeguard mechanism; on domestic support, initia l discussions should concentrate on the overall 
reduction of trade distorting support, reduction in AMS, Blue Box and de minimis, disciplines in 
AMS and blue box and cotton. These topics should be  followed by export competition, tariff capping, 
special agriculture safeguard, tropical products, preference erosion, recently acceded members and 
LDCs in market access and green box in domestic support.  
 
 In NAMA, initial discussions would concentrate on formula and coefficients, the treatment of 
unbound tariffs and flexibilities for developing Memb ers subject to the formula. This would be 
followed by LDCs duty-free and quota-free, flexib ilities for developing Members with low binding 
coverage, small and vulnerable ec onomies, recently acceded members, non reciprocal preferences and 
implementation period. 
  This is the sequence on which we will be working with Ministers.  This is no more than an 
organisation of the work ahead of us to ensure that  an orderly discussion allows us to establish these 
much-needed modalities and move to the next stage of the negotiations in these areas, which is draft 
schedules.   
 
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