RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/WGTDF/M/10 
13 May 2005 
 
 (05-1951) 
Working Group on Trade, Debt and Finance  
  
 
REPORT OF THE MEETING OF 18 APRIL 2005 
  
1. The Working Group on Trade, Debt and Finance held its tenth meeting on 18 April 2005 
under the Chairmanship of Ambassador Kweronda-Ruhe mba (Uganda).  Prior to adopting the agenda, 
contained in WTO/AIR/2550, the Chairman
 drew the Working Group's attention to two new 
documents received since the airgram had been issued .  One was a Note prepared by the Secretariat, 
"The Interlinkages Between External Liberali zation and Internal Reform", contained in 
WT/WGTDF/W/29, which he suggested could be taken up under the second item of the agenda.  The 
other document was a submission from the ACP Group contained in WT/WGTDF/W/30.  He noted 
that the submission addressed the work of the Wo rking Group from a broad perspective and that it 
encouraged the Group to look forward and start th inking already about how it should make its report 
at the end of the year to the General Council fo r the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference.  In this 
context, he proposed that a third item be added to the agenda  for this and future meetings 
"Preparations for the Group's Report to the General Council".  One delegation sought clarification as 
to the language of this agenda  item for future meetings.   
2. The agenda was adopted , as modified. 
A. BETTER COHERENCE IN THE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF TRADE -RELATED REFORMS 
AND MONITORING  
3. Under this agenda item, the Chairman  reminded Members that this topic had already been on 
the agenda in December 2004.  At that time, there had been a presentation by UNCTAD on the 
coherence between trade and financial policies and one by the World Bank on its efforts to improve 
trade capacity in low-income developing countries by  easing supply-side constraints, including in the 
context of the Integrated Framework. However, dele gations had felt that the examination of the theme 
had not been exhausted and it wa s therefore on today's agenda. The Chairman considered that 
Members  might wish to discuss how they saw the interface between the C oherence mandate and the 
mandate of the Working Group.  He referred to ea rlier communications to the Working Group on this 
topic (WT/WGTDF/W/8 and WT/WGTDF/W/17) and reminded Members that at the last General 
Council on Coherence in October 2004, the Director-G eneral's call for work at the more technical 
level on coherence issues in the Working Group on Tr ade, Debt and Finance had been well-received.  
4. Although there were no comments from the floor on this agenda item, the representative of 
the United States  said that her Government might wish to revert to this topic. 
5. The Working Group agreed  that this item be kept on the agenda for future meetings. 
B. THE INTERLINKAGES BETWEEN EXTERNAL LIBERALIZATION AND INTERNAL REFORMS  
6. The Chairman  then turned to the second item of the ag enda.  He referred to the Secretariat 
Note (WT/WGTDF/W/29) which provided some background material for the Working Group's 
examination of this theme.  The Note highlighted areas of internal reform designed to stimulate the 
supply response, and touched upon policies supportive to an improved investment climate.  It noted WT/WGTDF/M/10 
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 that trade liberalization can act as a catalyst to dome stic reforms and cited studies that suggested that 
priorities in domestic reform to enhance the effect  of external liberalization included a relatively 
stable macroeconomic environment, good governan ce, and pro-competitive policies including the 
removal of entry and exit barriers to business.  He remarked that the paper also drew attention to 
financial sector strengthening and the work being done under the auspices of the IMF and the World 
Bank on assessing weaknesses and strengths of national financial systems. 
7. The representative of Japan
 congratulated the Chairman on his appointment and thanked the 
Secretariat for the background paper. In her view, tr ade liberalization was one of the important drives 
for economic growth.  However, as the text point ed out, there was no automatic linkage between 
them. Her Government  believed that in order that  developing countries benefit from:  (i) improved 
market access, and (ii) balanced  rules obtained from trade liberalization, supply-side constrains 
including structural adjustment should be tackled holistically.  Her delegation also agreed that, as 
stated in paragraph 3, the task of achieving harmony among structural, macroeconomic, trade and 
financial policies fell primarily on governments at the national level.  As evidenced by various studies 
conducted by international organiza tions, measures to be taken in th e area of trade facilitation would 
increase the overall volume of trade and contribute to growth of all countries.  The Secretariat paper 
touched upon broader measures in trade facilitation than ones being discussed in the negotiations.  
Japan hoped that the outcome of the trade facilitati on negotiations, accompanied by  broader measures 
taken at the national level and supported by intern ational organizations, would  boost the growth of 
developing countries.  Regarding cooperation between the WTO, the IMF and the World Bank, the 
paper cited examples of cooperation among the three organizations, e.g., the Integrated Framework 
and the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers.  In add ition to these, Japan considered  that the Doha 
Round Initiative of the World Bank and the Trade Integration Mechanism (TIM) of the IMF were 
important.  The objective of the two initiatives was to ameliorate temporary adverse effects that 
developing countries might face in the course of trad e liberalization.  Another point she felt should be 
considered was how to utilize the information of Trade Policy Reviews of the WTO and Article IV 
consultation of the IMF in domestic reforms.   
8. The representative of Benin  thanked the Secretariat for th e study on external linkages and 
reform, important issues which when examined s howed that there were links between domestic 
legislation and international reform , and trade and economic developmen t.  He believed that the study 
would help in the process of reflection upon wh ich  the Working Group had embarked.  The ACP 
Group would undertake an in-depth review of this work and come back to the study with focused 
observations.  On page 8, on trade facilitation, he  wondered if the Secretariat could provide more 
details on the quoted study by the World Bank.   
9. The representative of Korea also thanked the Secretariat for this working document which he 
believed provided a well-balanced picture of the in terlinkages between external liberalization and 
internal reform and could be revert ed to at a future meeting.    
10. The Chairman  proposed that the suggestion that this topic be on the agenda at the next 
meeting be adopted. 
11. It was so agreed . 
C. PREPARATIONS FOR THE WORKING GROUP 'S END-OF-THE-YEAR REPORT TO THE GENERAL 
COUNCIL  
12. The Chairman  pointed out that the Working Group needed to draft a report to the General 
Council and that there were only a few meetings sche duled for the remainder of the year, in July and 
October. He invited the representative of Benin, on  behalf of the ACP Group, to introduce their 
submission.  WT/WGTDF/M/10 
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 13.  The representative of Benin , on behalf of the ACP Group , said he appreciated that the 
Chairman had taken on this duty and that he was so willing to make progress.   He regretted that other 
members of the ACP Group could not be  present at  this meeting since there were conflicts with 
meetings taking place at the same time. He emphasi zed that the linkage between trade, debt and 
finance was fundamental and it was important that  the correlation between these three subjects be 
examined in depth.  In this perspectiv e, the ACP Group had submitted a communication 
(WT/WGTDF/W/30) which recalled the mandate of th e Working Group as set out in paragraph 36 of 
the Doha Declaration. He went on to say that due to a number of factors, including declining 
commodity markets and market access barriers, developing and least-developed countries were prevented from benefiting from international trade a nd were caught in a vicious cycle of debt.  The 
ACP Group was suggesting that the Group recomme nd to the General Council that a Committee on 
Trade, Debt and Finance, as outlined in paragr aph 5, be established. If the Group were to give 
consideration to the recommendations contained in th e submission, he was convinced that this would 
enable developing and least-devel oped countries to improve their par ticipation in international trade 
helping to ensure their development and fight against poverty.  
14. The representative of Cuba
  said that  her Government w ould make more detailed comments 
on the Note by the Secretariat.  She expressed the wish that  the Group consider the ACP submission  
in detail and  that delegations be prepared for th e meeting in July in order to give their opinion on 
possible recommendations with a view to the July meeting of the General Council.   
15. The representative of Argentina  also congratulated the Chairman on his selection and thanked 
the representative of Benin for the ACP Group's submission.  He considered this an important 
document for the development of the Group's work .  Although received only very recently, he saw 
that there were elements which called for discussion and commentary.  He appr eciated the perspective 
taken in the communication which tried to situate the trade, debt and finance linkages in a more global 
context as spelled out in paragraph 2 of the document, referring to issues which needed to be analyzed 
in due course.  In future meetings , he believed there could be a focu sed debate on this document with 
a view towards possible recommendations to the General Council.   
16. The representative of Barbados  wished to join in congratulating the Chairman on his 
appointment and further expressed the full support of his delegation for his work.  He lent his support 
to the suggestion  that the preparation of th e Report for the General Council and the Hong Kong 
Ministerial  Conference be a standing agenda item.  On a third point, he also wished to support Benin 
and the ACP Group in their submission and drew atte ntion to paragraph 5(g) which contained some 
very useful and specific ideas on how to address con cerns not only in the Working Group but also 
elsewhere in the WTO.  He suggested that tradi ng partners might wish to look at this document 
critically and that it could serve as a very strong basi s for the proposed item C of the agenda.    As to 
WT/WGTDF/W/29, this was a very good document a nd there were many points his delegation could 
support, with one exception  Seem ingly, the document made an assumption about the kind and pace 
of liberalization which did not fully recognize the c oncept of special and differential treatment and the 
need take into view the different realities of develo ped and developing countries.  He ended by saying 
that these were preliminary comments on his part until he was able to receive concrete comments 
from "headquarters".  
17. The representative of Rwanda  said that, for the record, his authorities supported the paper 
submitted by Benin on behalf of the ACP countries. 
18. The Chairman  proposed that the Group revert to the submission at its next meeting and noted 
that agenda items A and B had also been left open.  Given that there were few meetings left between 
now and the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference, he suggested that delegations come prepared to 
address these three items, including drawing c onclusions on agenda items A and B.   WT/WGTDF/M/10 
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 19. It was so agreed
. 
D. OTHER BUSINESS  
20. The Chairman  reminded delegations that the next meeting of the Group had been re-
scheduled from 23-24 June to 4-5 July so as not to conflict with the Services negotiations.  The final 
meeting, during which the Group would need to dr aft and adopt its Report to the General Council, 
was scheduled for 4-6 October.  He noted that from th e list of eight themes that were agreed on in the 
Group's Report to the General Council of July 2003 (WT/WGTDF/2) three topics remained for further 
examination in the Group.  These were (i) trade liberalization as a source of growth, (ii) the importance of market access and the reduction of other trade barriers in the DDA negotiations, and (iii) external financing, commodity markets and e xport diversification.  He urged delegations to 
consider submitting written contributio ns on one or more of these themes in order to provide a basis 
for the Group's discussions.  In addition, he asked wh ether delegations felt that the Secretariat should 
be invited to prepare background notes to assist the Gr oup.  On the third of the themes, he wished to 
note that the question of commodity prices and export dependence was under discussion in the Committee on Trade and Development (CTD).  Th e CTD had mentioned that it might wish to 
transmit some issues in this area for further examin ation to other WTO bodies, including the impact of 
declining commodity prices and the debt liabilities of  commodity exporters to this Group.  Since it 
was desirable to avoid duplication of work with other bodies, he encouraged those delegations who 
had made proposals in the CTD to clarify now, or at  the next meeting, what specific issues they would 
like to see examined by the Working Group.   
21. The representative of Benin
 said that with respect to the di fferent issues to be examined or 
reviewed, it would be useful to have from the S ecretariat a short summary on the different points 
which could focus the Group's work on the most important issues and serve as  a guide to the discussion. 
22. In his concluding remarks, the Chairman
 summed up that the three items, "Better Coherence 
in the Design and Implementation of Trade-Rela ted Reforms and Monitori ng", "The Interlinkages 
between External Liberalization and Internal Refo rm" and "Preparation of the Group's Report to the 
General Council" had remained open for the next mee ting.  Written submissions had been invited on 
the remaining three topics – trade liberalization as a source of growth;  the importance of market access and the reduction of other trade barriers in the DDA negotiations; external financing, 
commodity markets and export diversification – which should be received well in advance of the next 
meeting.  Finally, Members were requested to fo cus on the ACP submission and, drawing on some of 
the proposals therein, to start thinking about how to draft the Report to the General Council. 
 
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