RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/TF/M/27 
13 January 2009 
 (09-0096) 
Negotiating Group on Trade Facilitation   
  
 
 
SUMMARY MINUTES OF THE MEETING 
 
Held in the Centre William Rappard
 
from 1-3 December 2008  
 
Chairman:  H.E. Mr. Eduardo Ernesto Sperisen-Yurt (Guatemala) 
 
 
1. The Chairman  recalled that the proposed agenda for the session had been circulated in 
WTO/AIR/3285.  As Members would have seen from the airgram, the meeting aimed at advancing 
the Negotiating Group's work on all elements of  the mandate, refining Members' proposals and 
increasing their general acceptability. In addition,  delegations would look into the question of 
attendance by the Annex D organizations on an ad-hoc basis.   
2. The agenda was adopted.  
3. The Chairman  set out the plans for the organization of the negotiating sessions. Their 
structure resembled that of the last meeting, refl ecting the targeted objectives of advancing the textual 
work on Members' proposals. At the same time, delegations had less time at their disposal, forcing them to be even more efficient in accomplishing their tasks. 
4. Work would commence with the introduction of new proposals.  It would be followed by 
their detailed discussion in the context of a series of informal working sessions.  Opportunity would 
then be given to revisit the previously presented texts, starting with the ones on GATT Article V and 
continuing with the Article VIII a nd Article X domains.  Technical assistance (TA) and special & 
differential (S&D) treatment matters  would be taken up Wednesday morning. The afternoon of that 
final day would see the Negotiating Group (NG) addr ess a few additional items – such as work on 
assessing Trade Facilitation (TF) needs – be fore concluding in plenary mode.  
5. In terms of mode of operation, the NG would c ontinue its tradition of conducting most of the 
exchanges in open-ended, informal mode. The presen tation of new submissions would be considered 
formal whereas their detailed discussion would remain off the record.  
6. As in July, work would benefit from the par ticipation of capital experts from African and 
LDC states.  Their presence had been enabled by the generous funding support from the UK's 
Department for International Development, for whic h he wished to express his sincere thanks.    
7. The plenary session was adjourned
 and the informal working sessions commenced . 
A. NEW AND REVISED PROPOSALS  
8. This part of the meeting was conducted in informal mode  with the exception of the following 
interventions: TN/TF/M/27 
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  9. The representative of Canada
 introduced proposal TN/TF/W/136/Rev.2 on the separation of 
release from the final determination and payment of  customs duties, taxes and fees, co-sponsored by 
Switzerland. 
10. Members would recall Canada's intervention at the last meeting when they had said that this 
was probably one of the most truly "trade facilita ting" proposals which had the potential to create 
significant savings for Members in terms of both time and costs.  At that ti me, it had been announced 
that the sponsors would take Members' comment s on TN/TF/W/136/Rev.1 in to consideration and 
would be proposing a new text shortly.  
11. Specifically, Canada had expressed willingness to accept the suggestions to (i) include 
language making it clear that a Member did not have to  require a guarantee to secure clearance, (ii) to 
explicitly narrow the proposal so that it only covere d the financial aspects of release and clearance, 
i.e. that the proposal only covered duties, taxes and fees which did not have to be determined and paid 
in order to secure removal of the goods from custom s control - all other requirements still had to be 
met for release to occur; and (iii) to try to re word the proposal to avoid using WCO or other 
definitions which c ould be problematic. 
12. The first thing that would strike Members when looking at this revision was the change in the 
title.  This had given Canada consid erable angst – delegations would no tice that they had taken out the 
word "release" in the text.  The sponsors did not wa nt a title that was longer than the proposal itself, 
and since they understood that titles had no legal con sequence and they wanted some linkage back to 
their earlier proposals, it had been decided to leave "release" in the title for the time being. Co-sponsor 
Switzerland had suggested to borrow from the pop mu sic world and call it "the proposal formerly 
known as separation of release from clearance", but, in the end, they had decided against that. 
13. Canada would now present the changes in the text and would listen carefully to Members' 
suggestions for an appropriately descriptive title.  
14. Several options had been looked at concerning the language of the text.  The sponsors had 
wanted to eliminate the need for definitions, if th ey could.  Since the word "clearance" could be 
misconstrued to refer to acquittal of  all import-related requi rements, they had thought that by focusing 
the proposal on just payment of duties, taxes and fe es, they negated the need to define what they 
meant by the word "clearance".  Consequently, th e term had been eliminated from the proposal.  
15. The sponsors had then looked at various options  to cover what they intended by the term 
"release". Although it was well established and widely  used, Canada had thought that one should try 
to avoid using terminology that might have broade r connotations than the intended or which might 
conflict with widely used definitions, such as WCO ones.  The first inclination, based on a suggestion 
from a Member, had been to replace "release" with  the word "withdrawal".  But it had soon be 
discovered that, in some legal systems, incl uding that of co-sponsor Switzerland, the word 
"withdrawal" meant something else, namely pulli ng back the goods intended for importation while 
they were under process by customs, renouncing theref ore to import them and presumably returning 
them from whence they came.  Since that had certain ly not been the intention, the sponsors had went 
on to look for other language.  They had finally se ttled on the language now co ntained in paragraph 1 
of the revised proposal as representing the desired out come as best as they could. The phrase "remove 
goods from customs control" was a clear and definiti ve statement of what was intended without using 
words like "release" with their attendant definitional issues.  
16. In response to calls for clarity on the scope of the proposal and for narrowing it explicitly to 
cover only the financial obligations of the importe r, the sponsors had changed both the title and the 
language in the first paragraph to  cover only "final determination and payment of customs duties, 
taxes and fees".  The inclusion of the words "and payment" contemplated situations where duties,  TN/TF/M/27 
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  taxes and fees had been determined but payment was deferred for some reason.  This provided 
precision and avoided confusion whic h could arise through the use of the broader language "prior to 
meeting all of the Member's import requirements".  
17. Another issue the sponsors had addressed concerne d the term "on arrival", which appeared in 
the first paragraph of the earlier document.  Since in many cases pre-arrival processing was already in 
place or would soon be in place, determination of  customs duties, taxes and fees would often take 
place before arrival of the goods.  Members would note at the end of the first paragraph in the revised 
proposal that the timing element had been expanded  to clarify the intended meaning of financial 
obligations that had not been determ ined "at or prior to arrival".  
18. Finally, the earlier version, in paragraph 2, had stated that "the guarantee shall be limited to 
an amount reasonably calculated to ensure compliance ... ".  The sponsors had felt that the word 
"reasonably" in this context did not add anything to the proposal - they would not expect that WTO Members would ever unreasonably calculate an amount owing and that the word "reasonably" could 
be construed to introduce a degree of flexibility an d an opportunity for creative mathematics that was 
not intended.  Consequently, the word "reasonably" was no longer found in the new text.  
19. Canada hoped that they had adequately expl ained their reasoning for making the changes 
Members had before them in TN/TF/W/136/Rev. 2 and looked forward to their comments either now 
or in the coming weeks.  This proposal was a core  element of trade facilita tion and Canada thanked 
Members for their ongoing consideration of it.  
20. The representative of Canada
 presented submission TN/TF/W/128/Rev.2 which was co-
sponsored by Norway. 
21. Canada wished to thank all Members who had provided comments on the Border Agency 
Coordination proposal contained in TN/TF/W/128/Re v.l dated 10 March, 2008.  Thanks were also 
due to the WTO Secretariat for the continuing provision of very useful aide-memoires and 
worksheets, cataloguing Members' discussions.  
22. In consultation with co-sponsor Norway, Canada had taken Me mbers' comments under 
consideration and had prepared a new draft of  the proposal which was now available as 
TN/TF/W/128/Rev.2.  
23. Members would note that paragraph 1 of the revised document (about co-operation and 
coordination among all export and import-related agen cies within a Member) was virtually unchanged 
from the previous version.  The only change that ha d been made was to insert "their procedures" after 
the word "coordinate" in order to be consistent thro ughout the proposal.  As Canada had stated in its 
intervention in October, they thought that since this commitment was directed internally, it was 
preferable to stick to obligatory language ("shall ensure") rather than using more hortatory language 
("shall endeavour to encourage"). 
24. In paragraph 2, which dealt with co-opera tion between border agencies across a national 
border, there had been a discussion in October a bout strengthening the language.  Proposals ranged 
from maintaining the existing language "A Member  shall endeavour to cooperate with bordering 
Members ... " to "A Member shall, as far as possibl e, cooperate with bordering Members ..." , to "A 
Member shall cooperate with bordering Members ..."  The sponsors had chosen to take the middle 
ground.  While they agreed that the commitment sh ould be as strong as possible, and that this would 
be the first priority, the sponsors still felt that it was unlikely that they would be able to obtain consensus on obligatory language.  Members would not e that they had changed the suggested "as far 
as possible" to the more commonly used expression "t o the extent possible" for consistency reasons.  
They would also note that they had changed the re ference to "specific" border crossings to just TN/TF/M/27 
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  "border crossings". It was not intended to apply to every border crossing but would only be applicable 
to those border crossings where it made sense. 
25. Many interventions in October had called for additions to the examples of the kinds of 
coordination and cooperation that mi ght be contemplated.  While an earlier draft had included several 
examples, it seemed evident at the time that it would be difficult to achieve consensus on a list of such 
cooperation. As a result, TN/TF/W/128/Rev.1 had been written with only the seemingly benign 
example of "aligning working days and hours" as an example. It appeared from comments in October that Members now had an appetite for more meat on the bone. Consequently, the revision proposed a 
new paragraph 2 (b) which made clear that options  listed were simply illustrative of the kinds of 
coordination and cooperation that mi ght be considered by Members relative to paragraph 2 (a).  
Obviously, conditions and capacity varied greatly fro m situation to situation – the sponsors simply 
proposed a good faith commitment to consider them and any other appropriate means of smoothing 
the flow of goods across the border.  
26. Four examples were now provided. The first one  had already been there before. It proposed 
the "alignment of procedures and formalities including  working days and hours". To that the sponsors 
had added suggestions received by Members in Oc tober. They consisted of the "development and 
sharing of common facilities", the "provision of ex pedited processes for goods in transit such as a 
single channel" and the "development of procedur es for exchange of non-confidential information", 
qualified by the footnote "Subject to further nego tiations on how a Trade Facilitation Agreement will 
coexist in relationship to GATT Article X". All of them were mere examples of what Members might consider doing. 
27. Canada once again wished to thank all delega tions for reviewing the proposal and looked 
forward to further comments.  
28. The representative of Norway
 introduced discussion paper TN/TF/W/157 regarding a Trade 
Facilitation Committee (TFC) from Guatemala, Hondur as, Hong Kong China, Norway, the Separate 
Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Ki nmen and Matsu, and Switzerland.  
29. Recapitulating the history of previous work on th e issue, Members would recall that in July 
2006, Chinese Taipei had submitted a proposal for the establishment of Committee on Trade 
Facilitation. However, little discussion had taken place on the matter after that, probably as a result of 
the fact that the negotiations had not matured e nough and that the focus understandably had been on 
the substantive issues rather than the institutional ones.  
30. The more the NGTF had delved into the issue of  how commitments were to be implemented, 
particularly regarding the discussions on S&D, the clearer it had become that there was a need to 
discuss the institutional aspects, including questions of oversight, as well. A framework was needed. 
Members now had many textual proposals which refe rred to the functioning of a TFC as a forum for 
notifications, consultation and revi ew. This fell under the S&D chapter that would be discussed later 
in the week. One could see the functions that the TFC would have to cover.  
31. Before the summer break, Canada had brought up cross-cutting and institutional issues for a 
possible Agreement on TF (TFA). Some Members had taken the opportunity to look at what a text on a possible TF Committee might include, based on lik e texts regarding Committees dealing with other 
WTO Agreements. In this context, Norway wish ed to thank the Secretary of the NGTF for an 
informal compilation of the information on which the current discussion paper had been based.  
32. The paper TN/TF/W/157 was divided into two pa rts. The first, and longest one, discussed 
what had been included in the textual proposal forming the second part of the document.  The  TN/TF/M/27 
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  discussion section was divided into two parts as well , looking at both what had been included in the 
proposal and at areas that had not been included, but might be added at a later stage.  
33. Generally, the option had been taken that Comm ittee articles should be institutional articles, 
not substantive ones.  In doing so, the new proposal did not deviate much from the former proposal by Chinese Taipei. It was the most common way of doing things. 
34. In the introduction section of the paper, para graph 4 set out the general functions of the 
Committee. Paragraph 5 outlined in more detail what  had to be set up in the substantive articles, 
referring to S&D discussions on timelines, ph asing in of commitments and the like. 
35. The entire paper was hoped to be self-explanator y. With respect to the textual proposal as 
such, paragraph 1 dealt with the establishment of the Committee, followed by provisions on its 
composition and election in paragra ph 2 and on frequency of meetings in paragraph 3, which pointed 
to one of the functions of the TFC relating to c onsultations "on any matters". Those matters would 
have to be defined in substance in other parts of  the TF Agreement. Paragraph 4 stated that "the 
Committee shall carry out such responsibilities as  assigned to it under this Agreement or by the 
Members", again pointing to the substantive part of the TFA.  Paragraph 5 dealt with subsidiary 
bodies that the Committee might set up.  
36.       Paragraphs 1-5 should not be unknown to anyone. They ha d more or less been contained 
in the earlier proposal by Chinese Taipei. The relative ly new elements were set out in paragraph 6, 
referring to other international organi zations in the field of trade facilitation. That was very natural for 
this Agreement. The negotiating ma ndate had already established a clo se relation to the five Annex D 
organizations by explicitly referring to them.  
37. Paragraph 7 set out provisions for reviewing the operation and implementation of the TFA.  
That could be dealt with elsewhere, but had been included here for the time being. Omitted from the 
earlier proposal by Chinese Taipei was a reference to the WTO Secretariat. Assuming that the WTO 
Secretariat serviced the TFC, it had not been consid ered necessary to put that into the text on the TFC 
as such. However, some of the other substantive pr oposals had mentioned a special role for the WTO 
Secretariat. One would have to look at specific wo rding for that aspect when coming to that point.  
38. In summing up, it should be said that it was necessary to look at a TFC and its functions at 
this juncture in the negotiations. It was a long paper and a short proposal. The discussion part was 
presented to Members in order for everybody to see th e reasoning behind the proposal, the linkages to 
other areas and the possibilities for changes, depe nding on where Members decided to go with the 
other parts of the negotiations.         
39. The representative of th e European Communities
 introduced JOB(08)/120. As mentioned by 
the Chair, it was work in progress, reflecting comments Members had made on an earlier version of the proposal in previous NGTF meetings.  
40. He wished to take delegations through the cha nges and explain the underlying reasons. In the 
first paragraph, the change was basically a reacti on to delegations' comments.  The EC had tried to 
harmonize paragraph 1 with paragr aphs 3 and 4 where the terms "additional facilitation measures" 
were used. For that reason, paragraph 1's referenc e to "simplified import and export formalities" had 
been replaced by the words "make ava ilable additional facilitation measures". 
41. Substantial changes had been made to paragr aph 2, reacting to comments received. The 3 
specific criteria most frequently found in authorized  trader/trusted operator schemes had been listed 
down as specific mandatory criteria for obtaining authori zed traders status.  This was not a closed list, 
but those 3 criteria should definitively figure under such a list.  A fourth criterion contained in an TN/TF/M/27 
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  earlier version of the proposal had been deleted as a result of a comment by a Member. The EC 
agreed that security and safety standards did not belong  as intrinsically to the core of authorized trader 
criteria as the other ones. 
42. The proposal first set out a definition of the auth orized trader status in paragraph 2, followed 
by a list of the measures a Member had to provide to these authorized traders in paragraph 3.  The 
four items on the list formed the essence of au thorized trader/trusted operator schemes.   
43. The first was the right to make simplified declarations, followed by reduced physical 
inspections.  Requests had been made to define "e xceptional circumstances", but the EC continued to 
believe that such a definition shou ld be left to each Member. With respect to the third item contained 
in paragraph 3 (iii), the language had been mo dified to include the most common reduced 
documentary and data requirements  as an example.  This was why the text now referred to " including  
the right to submit for processing a single document".  Changes to the fourth element were a reaction 
to some Members' request to make it more specific.  What was meant was not a reduction of release time below three hours, as contained in the expedi ted shipments proposal, but a more rapid release 
time "in comparison with the standard or aver age release times for non-authorized traders". 
44. The logic of the proposal was to first have a de finition of authorized traders followed by the 
measures Members must provide to them and, fi nally, a list of additional facilitation measures that 
could be provided. One of those additional f acilitation measures was local clearance, defined as 
clearance on the importer's premises.  Another one consisted of remote fili ng which could be done 
from anywhere in the world, mainly by electronic means. Two other optional measures had been included, which spoke for themselves: deferred payment and reduced guarantees. 
45. Paragraph 5 should be read w ith paragraph 2 which outlined the criteria for obtaining 
authorized trader status.  Paragraph 5 simply sai d that those rules could not create any kind of 
arbitrary or unjustifiable discrimination. A sentence had been added which required those rules to be  
transparent. 
46. Paragraph 6 was in square brackets because the EC agreed with the comments made in the 
previous NGTF meeting that this could be part of the risk assessment proposal.  Depending on the 
direction in which risk assessment devel oped, this paragraph could be dropped.  
47. In paragraph 7, some Members had requested to  drop the reference to international standards 
or to make it more lax. The EC believed that th ere already was an in-built flexibility in the wording 
and had therefore opted to maintain the text in its current form.    
48.  The representative of Tanzan ia, on behalf of the LDC Group
, introduced JOB(08)/123, 
explaining that it did not contain any new ideas apar t from what he had verbally mentioned during the 
NGTF meeting of 18 July. Those comments had been repeated during the last NGTF session in 
October, and it had been promised to circulate them in writing. This had led to the current document.  
49. The main elements were the following: There was an agreement that Job(08)/44/Rev.1, from 
Argentina represented work in progress.  On the issue of schedules, the LDCs were of the view that a 
needs assessment should not represent a pre-conditi on for implementing commitments, but a valuable 
step towards that goal. However, they could agr ee that measures identified under category A, which 
normally emerged clearly when conducting a needs assessment, could be scheduled during signature. 
50. Regarding the categories of commitments, the LD Cs were of the view that flexibility should 
be given to Members to decide whether they wanted two or three categories.  TN/TF/M/27 
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  51. With respect to the implementation capacity building plans, the LDCs believed that there 
should be flexibilities in their implementation plans,  hence the importance of having early warning 
mechanisms.  LDC Members should notify implemen tation plans  regarding commitments for which 
they had already secured donors. They hoped that do nors would be very forthcoming in indicating on 
which commitments they were ready to provide TA. 
52. The implementation plans should be simple a nd in standard form.  Measures for whose 
implementation LDCs had not been able to find donors would not have to be notified and no time 
frames had to be identified.  But the LDCs might  reconsider the issue of identifying time frames 
because such time frames might also be beneficial to  them.  It was perhaps a way of putting pressure 
on the donor community to provide TA&CB to developing countries and LDCs. 
53. Unfortunately, the special paragraph on LDCs  proposed by the LDC Group was missing in 
the communication from Argentina. and was also not contained in the present document. This 
language was very dear to the LDCs and it was th eir bottom line.  They therefore requested the 
Secretariat to include the followi ng sentence in a revised version of job document (08)/123: "LDCs 
shall not be required to undertake mandatory co mmitments until their acquisition of the necessary 
capacity to implement such provisions".  That w as very important to LDCs.  They were open to 
discussing the question of assessing the capacity acquisition for LDCs. 
54. Finally, the LDCs wished to thank Argentina fo r the important role it had played in the NG's 
work on S&D.  Another coordinator would be necess ary in the not too distant future to enable 
Members to reach a balanced outcome beneficial to all.  
55. The representative of Paraguay  wished to make a statement fo r the record in his capacity as 
coordinator of the work of the Group of Landlocked Developing Countries (LLDCs) on issues of 
trade and development.  
56. The LLDCs placed high hopes on the work of the NGTF.  There were 31 landlocked 
developing countries of which 8 were still in the pr ocess of accession to the WTO. It was of great 
importance that when they acceded to the WTO, they would find it to o ffer rules that facilitate transit. 
At the last meeting of the Group, he had been asked to deliver a statement relating to the ongoing 
negotiations on GATT Article V.  
57.  Ten per cent of the total population of the de veloping world lived in landlocked countries. 
This represented approximately 350 million people.  Between 1990 and 2001, 40 per cent of this 
population was living on less than 1 dollar a day.  
58. One reason for this enduring poverty was that LLDCs struggled to get integrated in the world 
economy. Trade of LLDs had been highly underpe rforming, with trade flows reaching only one 
quarter of those of other developing countries that were not landlocked.  
59. Research in the 1990s had shown that being landlocked raised the transport costs of a 
country's foreign trade by around 50 per cent. In so me cases, the increase reached up to 72 per cent, 
reducing a country's trade volume by 30-60 per cen t and cutting annual economic growth by 1 to 1.5 
percentage points.  
60. Research in the 1990s had also shown that improving a country's infrastructure and that of 
transit countries from the 25th percentile to the 75th percentile overcame more than half of the 
disadvantage of being landlocked. Poor infrastruct ure was only part of the picture. New research 
showed that other problems were just as costly, if  not more so, like unpredictable transit times, anti-
competitive regulations and transit overheads. Unpred ictable transit times added costs since each extra TN/TF/M/27 
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  day added expenses amounting to nearly one per cen t of the shipment's value, about ten times the 
costs of capital tied up in goods moving.  
61. These figures showed that many LLDCs had not been able to compete efficiently in the 
international trade market, mostly as a conseque nce of the high cost of transport. As trade 
liberalisation continued, the e ffective rate of protection provided by transport costs was now 
considerably higher than that provided by tariffs in the case of LLDCs.  
62. Against this background Members would easily understand why he wished to stress the 
importance LLDCs attached to the on-going negotia tions on GATT Article V in the context of the 
trade facilitation negotiations. LLDCs viewed these  negotiations as a precious opportunity to clarify 
and improve the rules on transit of GATT Article V. Such work could not only be an important 
contribution to LLDCs' efforts to overcome their geogr aphical disadvantage, but would be of interest 
to all Members touched by transit and interested  in maintaining and strengthening a rules-based, 
global trading system.  
63. It was not his intention to address any particular proposal or paragraph. Rather, he wished to 
underline once again the importanc e Landlocked Developing Countries attached to the negotiations 
on clarifying and improving GATT Article V and to encourage all Members to engage actively in 
these negotiations.   
64. The Negotiating Group took note  of the statements made  
65. Upon resumption  of the plenary meeting, the discussions continued in informal mode with the 
exception of the following items: 
66. The representative of Tanzania, speaking on behalf of the LDC Group,  wished to make a 
statement for the record. The LDCs wanted to regi ster their appreciation and to express their thanks 
for the financing of the participation of capital-b ased officials from LDCs and the African Group. It 
was crucial for them to take part in the t echnical discussions on proposals that the Geneva 
representatives were not always able to fully comprehend. 
67. The fund for such participation, to which donors had been generously contributing, was in 
line with the spirit envisaged in Annex D of th e July package.  The LDC Group hoped for that 
assistance to continue for the next meeting of the NGTF.     
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  
68. The Chairman  suggested inviting relevant internati onal 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. 
69. It was so agreed . 
C. O THER BUSINESS  
70. The Chairman  addressed the issue of the Group's next meeting. Given the current state of 
affairs, this was a somewhat challenging undertaki ng, considering the developments that the coming 
days might - or might not - bring.  Not knowing what the next steps would be, the NG had to remain 
flexible in its planning. This was why he proposed to postpone the determina tion of a concrete date  TN/TF/M/27 
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  until Members had more clarity on the road ahead a nd the related time-frames.  He would get back to 
delegations with a suggested date at the earliest possible moment.      
71. It was so agreed .  
72. The Negotiating Group took note  of the statements made. 
73. The meeting was adjourned . 
 
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