RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/WGTTT/M/31 
24 June 2010 
 
 (10-3462) 
Working Group on Trade and Transfer of Technology 
Thirty-First Session  
 
 
 
NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 12 APRIL 2010 
 
Chairpersons:  H.E. Mr. Philip Richard O. Owade (Kenya) and  
 H.E. Mr. Hisham M. Badr (Egypt) 
 
 
A. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA .........................................................................................................1  
B. ELECTION OF THE CHAIRPERSON .................................................................................................1  
C. ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TRADE AND TRANSFER OF TECHNOLOGY ..............1  
D. ANY POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATIONS ON STEPS T HAT MIGHT BE TAKEN WITHIN THE 
MANDATE OF THE WTO TO INCREASE FLOWS OF TECHNOLOGY TO DEVELOPING 
COUNTRIES ............................................................................................................................... ...4 
E. OTHER BUSINESS .........................................................................................................................4  
 
 A. 
ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA  
1. The agenda contained in Airgram WT O/AIR/3532 of 29 March 2010 was adopted .   
B. ELECTION OF THE CHAIRPERSON  
2. Members formally elected, through acclamation, Ambassador Hisham M. Badr of the Arab 
Republic of Egypt as Chairperson of the Working Group on Trade and Transfer of Technology for the 
year 2010.  The incoming Chairperson thanked Memb ers for the confidence that they had reposed in 
him and for entrusting him with the important task of chairing the Working Group.  He also thanked the outgoing Chairman, Ambassador Owade of Keny a, for his leadership which had helped to 
advance the work in the Group during the past year. 
C. 
ANALYSIS OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TRADE AND TRANSFER OF TECHNOLOGY  
3. Under the agenda item relating to  the relationship between trade and transfer of technology, 
the Chairman started with a brief recapitulation of the work thus far undertaken in the Working 
Group.  Thereafter, useful discussions took place on the Food and Agriculture Organization's (FAO) 
presentation entitled "The linkage betw een technology transfer and productivity gains in agriculture'' 
that had been made at an earlier session of th e Working Group.  The discussions reiterated the 
usefulness of national experience sharing, particularly by countries that had undergone rapid 
technological development over the last few decad es and the important lessons drawn from their 
development process.   
4. The FAO presentation had highlighted the important role technology had played in increasing 
crop yields of a number of selected crops in developing countries, including wheat, maize, rice (paddy), sorghum and cassava during the period 1965-2000.  The Green Revolution had helped WT/WGTTT/M/31 
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  increase per capita food availability by over 18 per cen t. That improved the livelihood of several 
million farmers and helped increase crop yields on fixed-land areas.  The presentation had also noted 
that despite these positive changes, one out of ever y six people in the worl d still went hungry every 
day. The food crises in the recent past and the current economic downturn had only served to 
exacerbate this situation.  It further noted th at not all countries had benefited from the Green 
Revolution and that, in many instances, the natu ral resource base had been negatively affected.  
However, in view of the future growth in food  demand, expected to increase by 70 per cent, 
improving crop yields through substantially impr oved technology will be extremely important. 
5. In the discussion that followed, Members highlighted the fact that technology advancement 
was at the centre of globalization and economic inte rdependence and that its transfer could play a 
crucial role in developing countries' efforts to enha nce their trade opportunities and realize growth and 
development aspirations.  Consta ntly changing market demands with consumers requiring high 
product and service standards could become prohib itive and thus deny market access to products 
originating from countries that did not meet such re quirements.  It was, th erefore, necessary that 
countries kept pace with technological advancement and innovations so as to meet those new market 
requirements.  In that context, so me Members felt that effective transfer of technology was critical to 
the growth and development of de veloping and least developed countries. References were  also made 
to recent calls for common but differentiated respons ibility within the context of the climate change 
debate and the need to find appropriate solutions to the technological challenge faced by developing 
countries and LDCs if they were to play a critical  role in combating envi ronmental degradation and 
the effects of climate change.   
6. Members also felt that the presentation by sever al international organizations, including the 
FAO, had highlighted the positive linkage between  technology transfer and gains in trade and 
productivity.  Members, therefore, requested the c ontinuation of such presentations by Members and 
other international organizations, including if po ssible, the World Intellectual Property Organization 
(WIPO), UNCTAD and, in particular, the United Na tions Environmental Programme (UNEP) as most 
of the Multilateral Environmental Agreements (M EAs) contained elaborate technology-transfer 
provisions.  Members felt that WIPO could be inv ited to share its work on technology, innovation and 
its transfer with the Working Group.  These Member s also underlined the need to better understand 
how UN agencies might be contributing to technology tr ansfer – particularly agencies dealing directly 
with food and agriculture such as the FAO and International Union for the Protection of New 
Varieties of Plants (UPOV).  In the case of the FAO, further information was sought especially with 
regard to the innovative access and benefit-shari ng mechanism – the first of its kind set up and 
functioning in the UN system - and whether the mechanism, in any manner, facilitated technology 
transfer.  While highlighting the significance of innovative access and the benefit-sharing mechanism 
and how they facilitated technology transfer, one Member expressed the desire to learn more from the 
FAO's global experience through concrete exam ples where countries receiving technology had 
become food exporters.   
7. Underscoring the usefulness of country-specifi c presentations on national experience with 
technological advancement, some Members stated that  the dramatic transformation of some countries 
in Asia, particularly in East and South-East Asia, that had climbed a steep industrialization curve in a 
very short span of time, could provide good lessons  for developing countries to emulate.  Such 
experience-sharing would not only enrich discussions in the Working Group but would also provide 
useful lessons which could allow the developing countries to make more informed choices.   
8. Pakistan shared its experience as a beneficiary of the Green Revolution and stated that the 
Green Revolution had had a positive impact on crop yields such as rice, maize and wheat.  Between 
the period of 1967-77, Pakistan's production had increased from 4 million tonnes to 9 million tonnes and had, at present, reached 23 million tonnes.  Mo re than a 100 per cent increase in one decade and a 
400 per cent increase in four decades was a result of active collaboration with international-research  WT/WGTTT/M/31 
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  organizations like the Consultative Group on In ternational Agriculture Research (CGIAR) and 
effective bilateral cooperation with USAID which ensured, among others, the availability of plant 
nutrients (fertilizer).  The research breakthr ough in wheat crop yield was the development of 
so-called, short-straw varieties.  The internati onal flow of germ-plasm through CGIAR had played a 
crucial role in spreading the benefits of Green Revol ution.  Despite those productivity gains, gaps still 
existed between the per hectare yield of a progressive  farmer (60 monds per hectare) and the average 
yield (27 monds per hectare) of wheat in Pakist an.  Notwithstanding these achievements, challenges 
remained, for policy makers in Pakistan in ensu ring availability of plant nutrients, quality seed, 
mechanization of farms and in br idging the gap between progressive farmer and average yield.   
9. In highlighting its Government's efforts in building capacity in developing countries to 
conduct and apply agricultural research through tr aining and exchange programmes for scientists and 
educators, the representative of the US particul arly mentioned the United States Department of 
Agriculture's (USDA) "cold chain" programme, whic h provided US technical assistance to emerging 
economies in building their capacity to move pe rishable agricultural products from farm to 
consumers, and maintaining safety and quality of these products by temperature control.  In addition, 
the USDA programme also aimed to foster public-private partnerships in these countries by providing 
technical assistance in designing and implementing a supportive regulatory environment for the cold 
chain infrastructure.   
10. A short briefing was made by Switzerland on the salient features of Lausanne Group 
initiative,  a joint public-private initiative that the Écol e Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) 
had taken on innovation and technology generation.  The briefing highlighted the fact that the 
Lausanne Group could benefit from Switzerland's  experience in generation of technology and 
developing methodologies with a vi ew to transferring technology to developing countries as its 
project was about building and maintaining a sm all group of competences in which people would 
meet to develop new methodology and operational procedures to be made available to governments 
and other stakeholders. The Group aimed to involve four key types of competences to address the 
technology-related issues:  (i) practitioners of technology  and its transfer;  (ii) academics;  (iii) related 
federal agencies;  and (iv) networ ks/associations of firms.  This initiative was timely as the Swiss 
Government anticipated increasing obligations for de veloped countries to perform technology transfer  
towards developing countries and the LDCs in the:  (a) post-Copenhagen period in the field of climate 
change:  (b) global health area as envisaged in the World Health Organization Guidelines:  and 
(c) fields and sectors like water, food and urba n development as new global crises continued to 
emerge.  
11. It was mentioned that The Lausanne Group r ealized that an underutilized extraordinary 
competence and potential existed in Switzerland. It could be realized at "low costs" to contribute to global technological advancement.  Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) that were specialized in 
developing technological solutions c ould be encouraged to modify and transfer at low costs and yet 
allow for a margin of profit.  In order for the technology to meet real entrepreneurial needs and 
initiatives in the least-developed countries, support w as needed to adjust and configure technology 
with the host-country environment.  The fundament al goal of the Lausanne Group was to finalize an 
operational methodology to help governments fulfil th eir technology-transfer obligations which would 
be amplified in the near future in an effective and efficient way for the mutual benefits of the SMEs in 
the North as well as the local economies in the South.  
12. Members welcomed the briefing by Switzerland and expressed their desire to have a more 
detailed presentation on the EPFL Lausanne Initiative at the next meeting of the Working Group.   
13. UNCTAD also briefed the Working Group on the st atus of its study on the role of science, 
technology and innovation in im proving food productivity and how innovative capabilities could be 
built specific examples of their experience of work ing with African farmers were also made.  The WT/WGTTT/M/31 
Page 4  
 
  representative of UNCTAD informed the Group that the results of the study would be shared with the 
Working Group at one of its future meetings. 
D. 
ANY POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATIONS ON  STEPS THAT MIGHT BE TAKEN WITHIN THE MANDATE 
OF THE WTO TO INCREASE FLOWS OF TECHNOLOGY TO DEVELOPING COUNTRIES  
14. Under the standing agenda item on possible recommendations that the Working Group could 
make in the future, Members continued their discussion of an earlier submission by India, Pakistan 
and the Philippines entitled ''Facilitating Access  to Information on Appropriate Technology 
Sourcing''.  While supporting the submission by Indi a, Pakistan and the Philippines, some Members 
emphasized the importance of access and disseminati on of information on appropriate technologies as 
the cornerstone of the transfer of technology pro cess and its adaptation to suit national needs for the 
purposes of its effective application.  They stressed  that the Working Group should intensify its work 
towards finalizing appropriate recommendations that would increase flows of technology to developing countries.  That could be a significant c ontribution to the Doha Development Agenda.  It 
was also felt that the promise of developmen t through sharing and transferring the fruits of 
technology, could only be materialized thr ough sustained internati onal cooperation and the 
participation of the public and private sectors. 
15. Some developing country Members reiterated th e request that the WTO develop a web-page 
on technology, its transfer, requests and on specific technology needs and/or technology offers, as 
well as links to intellectual property clearinghouses, et c.  It was pointed out that similar web-pages 
had already been launched in the WTO in the p ast year on Regional Trade Agreements and on the 
Enhanced Integrated Framework.  By doing so, the WTO could play a role in promoting and 
disseminating information on technology transfer.  These Members also recalled that the Working 
Group had received, in 2003, contributions from nine WTO bodies on their work pertaining to transfer of technology.  Given that it had now been seven years since that reporting, the Secretariat should receive updates from those Committees on their work  on technology transfer.  These Members also 
requested the Secretariat to prepare a compilation of all transfer of technology-related provisions in 
the WTO Agreement and also compile an analysis of  the impact of technology transfer to LDCs of 
Members' fulfilment of their obligations under Artic le 66.2 of the TRIPS Agreement with a view to 
better understanding the extent to which the transfer  of technology to LDCs had actually contributed 
to an increase in their trade.  
16. However, some other Members cautioned against substituting the expertise other WTO 
bodies had built up over many years in the area of tec hnology.  They did not favour the proposal made 
on undertaking an impact assessment of technology transfer activities under Article 66.2 of the TRIPS 
Agreement.  They also wanted more time to ex amine the proposal on receiving an update from other 
WTO bodies on their work on technology transfer.  Th ese Members reiterated their reservations about 
the creation of a WTO web-page on technology tran sfer on the grounds that the establishment of a 
WTO web-portal on technology transfer would raise a host of legal and commercial issues and that 
such a website would be outside the core functions  of the WTO as a "rule maker" on trade issues.   
E. 
OTHER BUSINESS  
17. No issue was raised under "Other Business".   
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