WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  RESTRICTED 
WT/COMTD/LDC/W/54
WT/ACC/LAO/33 
WT/ACC/YEM/35 
3 May 2012 
 (12-2352) 
Sub-Committee on Least-Developed Countries  Working Party on the 
Accession of the Lao PDR 
 Working Party on the Accession of the Yemen Original:   English 
 
 
Report by the Chairman of the Sub-Committee on LDCs, 
the Chairman of the Working Party on the Accession of Yemen, and, 
the Chairman of the Working Party on the Accession of Lao PDR  
on the 
Chairperson-led Facilitation of the Outstanding Bilateral Market Access Negotiations on Goods 
between Ukraine and Lao PDR, and Ukraine and Yemen 
 
   
 The attached Report was presented to the Fourth Meeting of the Informal Group on 
Accessions, on 30 April 2012.  At the request of the Chairman of the Sub-Committee on LDCs, the 
Chairman of the Working Party on the Accession of  Lao PDR and the Chairman of the Working Party 
on the Accession of Yemen, the Report is being circulated to Members. 
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  TABLE OF CONTENTS 
I.  PURPOSE ....................................................................................................................... ........... 3 
II.  REPORT:  BILATERAL MARKET ACCESS NEGOTIATIONS ON GOODS 
OF UKRAINE WITH YEMEN AND LAO PDR .................................................................. 3  
A.  First Round of Informal Confidential Consultations - 15 March 2012 ................................ 4  
B.  Second Round of Informal Confidential Consultations - 27 April 2012 .............................. 5  
III. CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................... ..... 6 
A.  Specific Conclusions .......................................................................................................... ....... 6 
B.  Horizontal Conclusions ........................................................................................................ .... 7 
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  I. PURPOSE 
1. On behalf of Ambassador Yi, Chairman of the Working Party on the Accession of Lao PDR, 
and Mr. Hartmut Röben, Chairman of the Working Party (WP) on the Accession of Yemen, and, in 
my capacity as Chairman of the Sub-Committee on Least-Developed Countries (SCLDCs), I would 
like to warmly welcome you all to this Fourth Meeting of the Informal Group on Accessions (IGA).   
2. The purpose of our meeting is to report to you - Heads of Delegation, Group Coordinators and 
Representatives of Members - on the status of our facilitation efforts to assist the conclusion of the 
outstanding bilateral market access negotiations  on goods between Ukraine and Lao PDR and 
Ukraine and Yemen (two LDCs) .  In doing so, we are responding to a considerable number of 
increasing requests from WTO Groups and Coalitions and individual Members for a status report on our facilitation efforts.  We are also reporting to you in keeping with systemic transparency obligations. 
3. This report is on our own responsibility as WTO Chairpersons. 
II. REPORT:  BILATERAL MARKET ACCESS NEGOTIATIONS ON GOODS OF 
UKRAINE WITH YEMEN AND LAO PDR  
4. At the request of Yemen and Lao PDR, with  my colleagues Ambassador Yi Xiaozhun, 
Chairman of the WP on the Accession of Lao PDR, and Mr. Hartmut Röben, Chairman of the WP on 
the Accession of Yemen, we initiated a "facilitation exercise" with Ukraine, Yemen and Lao PDR.  
We acted pursuant to Section III:  "Process", of the 2002 Decision of the WTO General Council on 
"Accession of Least-Developed Countries"
1 (also known as the "2002 Guidelines on LDCs' 
Accessions"). 
5. WTO accession is one of the most sensitive areas of work.  Sensitivity is heightened in the 
specific area of bilateral market access negotia tions.  Bilateral market access negotiations are 
confidential to the parties.  However, for LDCs, the 2002 Guidelines clearly provide for "Good 
Offices" and hence "facilitation".  As a result, ability to play these roles entails knowledge of the 
confidential requests and offers made between the parties.  In good offices and facilitation, this 
knowledge is sine qua non  to be able to assess "restraint in seeking concessions and commitments 
from acceding LDCs", on the part of a Member; and, in assessing "reasonable concessions and commitments" on the part of the acceding LDCs.  Prior to this exercise, the 2002 Guidelines had 
never been tested for operability. 
6. At the request of Yemen and Lao PDR, we in itiated "good offices facilitation" with Ukraine 
to assist the conclusion of their outstanding b ilateral market access negotiations on goods with 
Ukraine.  Before we did, we carefully weighed a range of issues revolving around five specific facts, 
as follows: 
a) first, the request from Yemen and Lao PDR was pursuant to the 2002 Guidelines on 
LDCs' Accessions.  The request could not be ignored; 
b) second, we received contacts, includi ng written communication, supporting this 
request from several Group Coordinators, such as the LDCs' Consultative Group, 
the Arab Group, the Asian Group, and ASEAN; 
                                                      
1 WT/L/508.   WT/COMTD/LDC/W/54 
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  c) third, we consulted with a range of  the Membership who gave support for a 
Chairperson-led, Member-driven, process of  "peer encouragement" and "good offices 
facilitation"; 
d) fourth, we were continually made aware of the compelling necessity for us, as 
Chairpersons, to act with sensitivit y in the context of the ongoing 
"Informal Consultations on LDCs' Accessions", pursuant to the Decision by WTO Ministers at MC8 contained in document WT/L/846.  We have been continually reminded that our treatment of the requests from Yemen and Lao PDR 
was a test of and directly reflected on the implementation of the MC8 Decision.  The 
question put to us was:  "if the 2002 Guide lines could not be applied in these specific 
instances, how could they work through a more general formulation of a decision, pursuant to document WT/L/846?"; and, 
e) fifth, fully conscious of the desi gnation of Lao PDR and Yemen as 2012 accession 
priorities, the Secretariat provided a technical review of the dossiers.  This assisted 
the Chairpersons to ascertain the substan tive state-of-play of these two accessions 
overall, and the specific results of the bilateral market access negotiations of Yemen and Lao PDR, so far.  The facts indicated that: 
 i. Yemen has concluded and signed b ilateral market access negotiations on 
goods with 9 Members with substan tial tariff concessions that make 
significant contributions to WTO Members on an MFN basis, when Yemen 
becomes a WTO Member.  Furthermore, its bilateral market access negotiation with Ukraine is the only outstanding negotiation in order to 
prepare its draft accession package for consideration and adoption by Members of the Working Party, before the summer break; and, 
 ii. Lao PDR has concluded and signed bilateral market access negotiations on 
goods with 8 Members with substantial tariff concessions that would make 
significant contributions to WTO Members on an MFN basis, when Lao PDR becomes a WTO Member.  In addition, Lao PDR is fully, technically, on track to conclude its accession negotiations and for its draft Accession Package to be considered for approval by Working Party Members 
in 2012 after the summer break.   
A. First Round of Informal Confidential Consultations - 15 March 2012 
7. On 15 March 2012, we organized a "First Round of Informal Technical Confidential 
Consultations".  At this Round, there was par ticipation from Ukraine, Yemen and Lao PDR.  
We would like to underline several points as a result:  
a) first, at this initial meeting, we got o ff to a promising start.  There was commitment 
on the part of all participants to  the 2002 Guidelines on LDCs' Accessions, 
particularly to ensure that Members exerci se restraint in their requests and the offers 
by acceding LDCs are reasonable; 
b) second, although Yemen had made significant tariff concessions to 9 WTO Members 
with whom it had conclude d and signed bilateral market access negotiations on 
goods, we encouraged Yemen, nonetheless, to  make a further effort and submit a 
full-fledged revised/improved offer to Ukraine; 
c) third, we encouraged Ukraine to re-e ngage intensively with Yemen and Lao PDR 
with the objective of concluding their negotia tions no later than end-March and at the 
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  to Yemen and Lao PDR for the purpose of c oncluding its outstanding bilateral market 
access negotiations with the two LDCs; 
d) fourth, specifically, we stressed that in  bilateral market access negotiations on goods 
with Yemen and Lao PDR, one of th e long-standing accession best practices, 
inter alia , should be respected, namely that, Members should not present requests to 
acceding LDCs that are below their individual applied rates; and, 
e) finally, in our scripted summary unders tanding, shared with the three parties 
(Ukraine, Yemen and Lao PDR), we specifically informed them that we would share 
the overall understanding with relevant  Members and Group Coordinators, as 
requested, and, in accordance w ith transparency obligations. 
B. Second Round of Informal Confidential Consultations - 27 April 2012 
8. On 27 April 2012, we invited Ukraine and Yemen to a Second Round of Informal 
Confidential Consultations. 
9. However, prior, to this Second Round of Info rmal Confidential Consultations, we should also 
inform Members of three specific developments: 
a) first, as follow-up to the First Round of In formal Confidential Consultations, Yemen 
submitted a comprehensively revised offer to Ukraine on 22 March 2012 .  
The Chairpersons were copied.  To provid e perspective, Yemen also submitted to us, 
as Chairpersons, a Summary Table of the substance of the "cycle of request and 
offer" in its 6 negotiating encounters with  Ukraine, over a 3-year period, in a 
twelve-year accession.  However, as agreed, the details of actual negotiations remain "confidential", at this stage; 
b) second, at the request of Ukraine, there has been exchange of communication and 
direct contacts between Ukraine and myself as Chairman of the Sub-Committee on 
LDCs, leading this facilitation exercise.  Al so, at the request of Ukraine, there has 
been direct contact between Ukraine and Ambassador Yi, as Chairman of the Working Party on the Accession of Lao PDR.   In these contacts, Ukraine has sought 
to explain its overall approach to WTO accessi ons.  On our part, we have explained, 
clarified and responded to questions, issues a nd concerns raised by Ukraine.  We have 
sought to improve understanding.   We have also stressed the strategic priority that 
WTO Members attach to the facilitation a nd acceleration of the accession of LDCs; 
and, 
c) third, as Members already know, as Chairman of the Working Party of the 
Sub-Committee on LDCs, on 8 March 2012, I invited Ukraine to join my "Informal Consultations Process on LDCs' Accessions", pursuant to WT/L/846.  Ukraine began 
participation at the 7
th Round of Consultations, on 15 Ma rch 2012.  I have repeatedly 
stressed the inter-relationship between the negotiations to implement MC8 Decision 
WT/L/846 and the "facilitation" efforts to conclude the outstanding bilateral market 
access negotiations on goods of Ukraine with Yemen and Lao PDR. 
10. In this context, we, the three Chairpersons, invited Ukraine and Yemen, to the Second Round 
of consultations, on 27 April 2012. 
11. This Second Round was dedicated to facilitating the outstanding bilateral between Ukraine 
and Yemen only.  Both Ukraine and Yemen were pr esent, with the Yemeni Delegation led by H.E. 
Mr. Saadaldeen bin Talib, Mini ster of Industry and Trade. WT/COMTD/LDC/W/54 
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  12. In this Second Round of Informal Confid ential Consultations, there were notable 
developments: 
a) first, Ukraine had submitted a revised request  to Yemen on 26 April.  In this 26 April 
request, Ukraine had eliminated its requ est for Yemen to offer tariff concessions 
below its applied rates and also dropped its demands for bindings at zero per cent of 
tariff concessions; 
b) second, Yemen acknowledged the revised request  of 26 April, noted the improvement 
from previous offers, but considered that  the existing gap between the 26 April 
request and Yemen's offer remained "considerably large"; 
c) third, Yemeni Minister bin Talib confirme d to the consultations that he was in 
Geneva with a mandate to conclude Yeme n's outstanding bilateral negotiations with 
Ukraine by "going the extra mile" and o ffering concessions that would be more 
liberal than the concessions in the 9 Bilateral Agreements already signed and 
concluded with:  Australia, Canada, Chin a, El Salvador, the European Union, 
Honduras, Japan, Korea and the United Stat es.  However, Yemen requested Ukraine 
to show restraint because the outcome ha d to reflect "reasonableness", so as to be 
acceptable domestically; and, 
d) fourth, Yemen committed itself to work over th e weekend (28 to 29 April) to generate 
a new revised offer for Ukraine, before another (7
th) scheduled Round of bilateral 
negotiation with Ukraine fixed for Monday, 30 April 2012.  Yemen stressed that it 
was in Geneva to conclude and would stay as long as possible to finalize with 
Ukraine.  Given its limited resources and, in relation to challenging national 
priorities, it was constrained from engaging in a "protracted, endless request and offer 
process". 
III. CONCLUSION A. Specific Conclusions 
13. This is our report to Members.  At this stag e, we have several conc lusions to share with 
Members.  Following: 
- our review of the details of the state-of-p lay in the outstanding bilateral market access 
negotiations on Goods between Ukraine a nd Lao PDR, and Ukraine and Yemen; 
- one round of "facilitation consulta tions" with Ukraine and Lao PDR; 
- two rounds of "facilitation consultati ons" with Ukraine and Yemen; and, 
- direct intervention by individual WTO Members and Groups of which we are aware: 
a) For Yemen, in its 12th year of WTO accession negotiations, We the three Chairmen: 
 
i. assess its tariff concessions to 9 Members, already on the table, including its 
most recent offer, as making a substan tial contribution to improvements in 
market access to all WTO Members, when it applies on an MFN basis with its membership; 
ii. welcome the engagement between Ukraine and Yemen, as described, to 
conclude the outstanding bilateral ma rket access negotiations on goods.  By 
institutional mandate, the WTO is a forum for negotiations; and, 
iii. consider, however, that: the subs tantial tariff concessions already on the 
table; the mandate, formally expresse d by Minister bin Talib, the Chief 
Negotiator for Yemen, to conclude  its outstanding negotiations with  WT/COMTD/LDC/W/54 
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  Commissioner Valeriy Pyatnytskiy, Chief WTO Negotiator for Ukraine; the 
context of the MC8 Decision; and, the mid-June timeline for the final meeting of the Working Party on the Accession of Yemen, compel us to 
conclude that the outstanding negotiatio ns should be concluded by the end of 
this week, but no later than mid-May, by  when the Secretariat is obliged to 
circulate the Draft Accession Package for Yemen for consideration and approval by Members. 
b) For Lao PDR, in its 14
th year of WTO accession negotiations, collectively, we have 
agreed to support the lead on the outstanding negotiations by Ambassador Yi, Permanent Representative of China and Ch airman of the Working Party on the 
Accession of Lao PDR.  Ambassador Yi has arranged for a round of facilitation 
consultations between e nd-May and the first half of June.  We shall share the result of 
this round of the facilitation exercise with Members, and draw appropriate 
conclusions at that time. 
B. Horizontal Conclusions 
14. We conclude our Report with several overarchi ng points of systemic importance, emerging, 
inter alia , from our "facilitation consultations".  We be lieve that these points have a bearing in 
strengthening the 2002 Guidelines on LDCs' Accessi ons, pursuant to the MC8 Decision in WT/L/846: 
a) first, the WTO accession of LDCs is a strategic priority for this Organization and all 
Members should work to this end purposefully and objectively to achieve results; 
b) second, the "facilitation consultations" of the outstanding bilateral negotiations 
between Ukraine and Lao PDR and Ukraine and Yemen test whether the WTO can implement MC8 Decision WT/L/846 to strengt hen, operably, the 2002 Guidelines on 
LDCs' Accessions; 
c) third, the strength of the WTO is in both rules and "best practices".  Accession 
negotiations should be undertaken within  the framework of "Best Practices in 
WTO accessions".  These have served the system well.  These "Best Practices in 
WTO accessions" should be clearly identified,  regularly and openly explained in the 
engagement of the WTO Secretariat with Members and acceding governments, at technical assistance, capacity building and outreach exercises.  For example: "Best 
Practices in WTO accessions", inter alia , indicate that LDCs should not be asked to 
undertake tariff concessions below their a pplied rates, so they can like other 
Members, have flexibility.  Also, con cessions requested by any Member must 
exclude extraction of concessions, to leverage  "benefits" that will not apply on an 
MFN basis to all WTO Members.  This is why we welcome the "Beijing 2012 Round 
Table on Best Practices in WTO Accessions",  organized by the WTO Secretariat and 
hosted by the Government of China; and, 
d) finally, reaffirm the unquestioned value of our Member-driven Organization.  
In doing so, We, the three Chairpersons, commend the WTO Secretariat and in this particular instance, its Accessions Division, for its professionalism in service to the WTO Membership. 
15. On the "Next Steps", We intend to: 
a) sustain our efforts, and, 
b) provide an updated Report to Memb ers and Group Coordinators in the: 
Informal Group on Accessions (IGA); WT/COMTD/LDC/W/54 
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  Working Party on the Accession of Yemen; 
Working Party on the Accession of Lao PDR; 
Informal Consultations on LDCs' Acces sions, pursuant to the implementation 
of Decision WT/L/846 by Ministers at the Eighth WTO Ministerial Conference; and, finally, 
to the Chairman of the General Council for information only. 
16. This concludes our Report. 
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