WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  RESTRICTED 
WT/BFA/W/277 
17 July 2012 
 (12-3895) 
Committee on Budget, Finance and Administration  
  
 
WTO BUDGET AND FINANCE REPORT 
 
2
nd quarter 2012 
 
 I. CONTRIBUTIONS FROM MEMBERS AND OBSERVERS 
1. The receipt of Members' contributions continued to be satisfactory in the second quarter 2012. 
As at the end of June, the amount of CHF 160 million has been received from Members, of which CHF 150 million (or 77 per cent of the total assessme nt) is for the current year.  81 Members (or 52%) 
have no outstanding balance at the end of the first se mester.  The level of receipts in 2012 is so far 
better than in prior years at the same time of th e year.  An amount of CHF 59 million still needs to be 
received in the second semester. 
Total Annual Receipts in MCHF as at the end of June 
90.795.5114.2123.8140.4
126.6137.3 138.6 139.5147.2160.2
2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 
2. An amount of CHF 1.5 million remains outstanding for Observers at the end of the first 
semester.  Only 45 per cent of the total assessment for 2012 has been received, and only 11 Observers 
out of 29 have no outstanding balances. 
  155 Members 29 Observers 
Total net assessment for 2012 included new Members   194,187,731   864,928 
Payment received for 2012 (%  of total assessment) (77%) 150,338,497 (45%) 388,857 
Payment received for prior years   10,179,936   93,142 
No outstanding balance (% of total) (52%) 81 (38%) 11 
 WT/BFA/W/277 
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  II. CASH SITUATION 
3. The WTO cash situation at the end of June re mains satisfactory and exceeds the situation at 
the same date in 2011.  The cash situation is pa rtly distorted by the funds received from the Swiss 
Authorities related to the Building Project.  
Cash Situation as at 30 June 2012 
 
 
3358
33
1129 27
(17) (18) (22) (19) (21) (23)82121132124129134
-250255075100125
JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DECMillions CHF
Projected Receipts Actual Receipts Projected Expenditures
Actual Expenditures Total Cash 2011 Total Cash 2012  
 
III. MEMBERS UNDER ADMINISTRATIVE MEASURES 
4. The number of Members under Administrative Measur es has been reduced to six at the end of 
June.  In the second quarter, the following three Me mbers made payments and subsequently, are no 
more under Administrative Measures:  the Plurina tional State of Bolivia, Nepal and the Former 
Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.  In addition, the General Council has approved the payment plans 
of the following three Members in Category IV:  Chad, Djibouti and Sierra Leone. 
Members under Administrative Measures as at 30 June 2012 
Category I Category II Category III Category IV - Inactive 
Antigua and Barbuda 
Papua New Guinea Grenada Dominica 
Venezuela, Bolivarian Republic of Guinea-Bissau 
 
5. Thirteen Members are subject to a payment plan at the end of June.  Five of these Members 
have arrears related to 2011 and have been contacted  by the Secretariat.  Only three Members have 
already settled their dues for 2012.  These Member s are Chad, Côte d'Ivoire and Sierra Leone.  WT/BFA/W/277 
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  Members following a payment plan as at 30 June 2012 
Members 
 Plan 
duration
in years Last 
payment 
received Amount 
Outstanding
for 2011 Amount 
Outstanding 
for 2012 Total 
Outstanding 
Contributions 
Burundi 20 03-Mar-11 14,344 65,605  799,612 
Central African Republic 30 28-Jul-11 55,802 55,802  1,128,469 
Chad 15 20-Dec-11 0 0 1,262,412 
Congo 5 13-Apr-10 73,832 215,601  615,708 
Côte d'Ivoire 10 15-Feb-12 0 0  600,136 
Democratic Republic of the Congo 5 15-Nov-10 154,359 160,188  888,035 
Djibouti 10 15-Feb-12 0 41,428  369,677 
Gabon 3 25-Aug-11 12,260 158,218  170,479 
Gambia 10 28-Mar-12 0 25,156  513,977 
Mauritania 25 13-Jan-12 0 65,118  1,037,255 
Niger 15 20-Jan-12 0 37,221  642,754 
Sierra Leone 15 27-Feb-12 0 0 824,444 
Togo 5 01-Jul-11 14 115,802  289,128 
Total   310,611 940,139  9,142,086 
 
IV. 2012 BUDGETARY EXPENDITURE 
6.  Budgetary expenditure, which includes actual expenditure and commitments, remains overall 
on track at the end of the second quarter 2012, with an overall expenditure rate of 50 per cent or 
CHF 99 million.  
Consolidated Statement of Budgetary Expenditure 
for the first semester of 2012 
(in kCHF) 
 
Account Section 2012 Budget Expenditure and 
Commitments Balance % of 
Expenditure 
Sect  1 Work Years 127,002 59,032 67,970 46% 
Sect  2 Temporary Assistance 15,171 8,066 7,104 53% 
Sect  3 Communications 1,780 486 1,293 27% 
Sect  4 Building Facilities 4,314 3,437 877 80% 
Sect  5 Permanent Equipment 1,354 753 601 56% 
Sect  6 Expendable Supplies 1,201 953 248 79% 
Sect  7 Contractual Services 9,037 6,633 2,404 73% 
Sect  8 Staff Overheads 4,962 2,314 2,648 47% 
Sect  9 Missions 3,057 1,653 1,404 54% 
Sect 10 Trade Policy Courses 2,960 1,776 1,184 60% 
Sect 11 Various 6,257 4,154 2,102 66% 
Sect 13 ITC 18,911 9,455 9,456 50% 
Grand Total 196,004 98,712 97,292 50% 
7. Salaries for permanent staff and Temporary A ssistance expenditure remain on course with 
expenditure rates of 46 per cent and 53 per cent, re spectively.  The higher rate of expenditure for 
temporary assistance predominantly covers for perm anent staff on special leave and for consultants 
engaged in the Building Project.  Expenditures for pe rmanent and short-term staff are recorded when 
paid through the monthly payroll.  Communications  expenditure remains well below budget due to a 
lower volume of postal deliveries.  Building Fac ilities, Expendable Supplies and Contractual Services 
expenses remain all well above the 50 per cent mi dyear threshold as these expenses related to the 
maintenance of the building, as well as the building in surance, the rental of the annex building, the 
cleaning contract, the security contract, and the office and computing supplies have been committed WT/BFA/W/277 
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  for the entire year.  The annual replenishm ent of the Appellate Body Operating Fund 
(CHF 1.6 million) and the Ministerial Operating Fund (CHF 0.6 million) has taken place at the start of the year and explains the higher rate of expenditu re under Various.  Expenditure in other budgetary 
sections remains largely on track. 
V. UPDATE ON THE STREAMLINING OF THE ORGANIZATION'S OPERATIONS 
8. The 2012-2013 budget approved by the General Co uncil provided for zero nominal growth in 
2012 and zero real growth in 2013.  In order to ach ieve the necessary level of austerity amounting to 
some CHF 3 million, the General Council endor sed a number of measures to streamline the 
Organization's operations.  The savings embedded in the approved budget accrue from adjustments to 
services provided to Members and from modifications to  the internal operations of the Secretariat. 
The following table provides the implementation status of the key measures. 
Approved streamlining measures Implementation status 
1) Translation  
a) Reduction in the overall volume of official 
documents by 5% in 2012 and by a further 5% in 2013 
to reduce the maximum input volume to 22.8 million 
words in 2012 and 21.7 million words in 2013. a) The input volume amounted to 10.9 million words 
in the first semester of 2012 – which corresponds to 
95.4% of the target volume of 11.4 million words for 
the first semester.  This reduction has been achieved, to a large extent, by a lower level of overall activity 
rather than by a structural change in working methods. 
b) The Secretariat will conti nue to support the Chairs 
of all WTO bodies to find different solutions to have 
less wordy documents while not impacting their 
quality.  
2) Printing and distribution  
a) Discontinue the internal distribution within the 
Secretariat of official docume nts in printed form as of 
1 January 2012. a) The internal distribution of documents within the 
Secretariat was discontinued in January 2012. 
b) Review the list of subscribers of official documents in printed form and the number  of copies dispatched to 
each subscriber with the objective of creating an 
electronic subscription model as of 1 April 2012.  In 
revising such lists, the Secretariat will base its 
revisions on information obtained from Members. b) A survey was dispatched to all Delegation 
Coordinators in June 2012 to encourage them to 
reduce their number of subscribers and copies.  Replies received so far are encouraging. The 
electronic subscription model will become available in 
the last quarter of 2012. 
c) Provide ad hoc services to Members to subscribe to 
electronic distribution of documents or obtain specific 
documents on request in printed form. c) Ad hoc services were implemented in February 
2012, mainly for Observers who do not have access to 
Docs for Meetings at the moment.  
d) Establish common practices and tools for all committee secretaries to feed the electronic "Docs for Meetings" module so as to enable delegations to 
obtain timely download of electronic packs containing 
all the documents for specific meetings.  d) Secretaries of Committees were provided with 
information to ensure consistency and timeliness in feeding Docs for Meetings.  An information session 
for Delegation Coordinators will be organized in due 
course.  
e) After consulting with Members, discontinue the 
distribution of certain document series in printed form 
as early as practicable in  2012:  including TBT and 
SPS notifications and any other documents acceptable to Members for electronic distribution.  Committee 
Chairs shall also take steps to move towards the online 
submission and distribution of notifications. e) Following consultations with Members, certain 
document series in the areas of Trade Policy Review, 
Trade and Development, and SPS and TBT 
notifications are no longer distributed in printed form.  Further progress can still be achieved in this area.  WT/BFA/W/277 
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  f) Discontinue the distribution of official documents, 
previously circulated, in meeting rooms and at the 
document centre as of 1 January 2012. f) The distribution of offici al documents in meeting 
rooms and at the Document Centre was discontinued 
in March 2012.  
Overall, the WTO is expected to achieve a net 
reduction of 15% or 6 million print runs in 2012, from 
a total of 40 million in 2011.  The Secretariat 
continues to reduce its printing capacity.  In 2009, it 
operated 7 large black and white document printers.  Today, it operates with 5 and it will be reduced to 3 by 
the end of 2012.  
3) Scheduling and Management of Meetings   
a) Improve the scheduling and conduct of meetings 
with a view towards reducing the overall number and 
length of such meetings and optimizing the use of 
existing resources supporting official meetings. a) The planned budgetary reduction in interpretation 
expenditure of CHF 200,000 in 2012 is being 
achieved.  The amount of expenditure incurred to 
recruit freelance interpreters  has been halved in the 
first semester of 2012, comp ared to the same period in 
the two prior years.  The saving has been achieved by 
a reduction by 50% in the number of meetings during that period and by a greater usage of internal 
interpreters. 
The Secretariat will continue to monitor the use of 
resources and raise awareness of the cost of 
interpretation and of the need to optimize resources 
through better planning of meetings and by starting meetings on time. 
9. In addition to the above key measures that m odify the services provided to Members, the 
Secretariat has taken a number of actions to streamlin e and reduce the cost of its internal operations.  
10. Restrictions in the funding availability for temporary assistance, especially in respect of 
vacant posts, have been implemented in January  2012.  Those measures are expected to save 
approximately CHF 1 million per year. 
11. The implementation of a new set of modern and harmonized document formatting standards 
is expected to take place in the third quarter of 201 2.  Specific standards are prepared for dispute and 
trade policy review related documents.  Those standards should increase document legibility, 
production efficiency and timeliness. 
12. The revision of the travel policy for staff and c onsultants is currently being considered by the 
Joint Advisory Body.  A new policy, more economic al, should be adopted by the end of the year.  
13. The reduction in the Secretariat's transportation services has been completed in the May 2012. 
The fleet of vehicles has been reduced by half by disposing four vehicles in six months.  Drivers are 
now primarily serving the Director-General and the staff shuttle services to language training classes. 
Deputy Director-Generals maintained some access to the service.  Public transportation solutions have 
been introduced in June for staff requiring tr avelling within Geneva for official purposes. 
14.  The internal distribution of mail and documents to each office has been  fully discontinued in 
April 2012 and replaced a by self-service collection system.  Temporary contracts with messengers 
have been terminated. 
15. The distribution of newspapers and magazines in printed version has been replaced by an 
online subscription model that is saving some CHF 100,000 per year.  WT/BFA/W/277 
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  VI. INTERNET DOMAIN NAME 
16. The Secretariat would like to inform Members a bout changes in the registration of internet 
domain names;  the potential impact for the WTO and the actions taken by management to address the situation. 
17. In April 2012, ICANN, a not-for-profit corporati on registered in the United States in charge 
of attributing domain names on internet, has opened for registration a new category of internet domain 
names called Generic Top-Level Domains (gTLDs).  Wh ereas the situation, until now, was to put the 
name of the entity on the left of the  internet addr ess, followed by ".org", ".int", ".edu", etc., gTLDs 
will provide the possibility to place the entity's name on the right of the dot, e.g. : "appellatebody.wto".  
18. When designing the gTLD level, ICANN excl uded States' names and its own name from 
potential registration.  It nevertheless refused to gr ant similar blanket exclusion to intergovernmental 
organizations (IGOs), even though their names are protected by the Paris Convention. 
19. ICANN has, however, addressed requests for excl usion on an individual basis, granting it to 
the Red Cross and the International Olympic Comm ittee.  Other internatio nal organizations have 
decided to register their names, such as ".CERN", or  a particular name, such as ".post", registered by 
the Universal Postal Union. 
20. A large number of IGOs, including the WTO and WIPO, have forcefully requested the 
general exclusion of IGOs names from potential regist ration.  If the attempt of IGOs to have their 
names and acronyms excluded from potential gTLD re gistration on a blanket basis fails, IGOs will 
have either: 
(a) to seek individual exclusion on the basis of cr iteria which they believe are not consistent with 
international law;  or 
(b) to apply for registration;  or (c)  to object on a case-by case basis to applications for registration of their names and/or 
acronyms by third parties. 
 
21. Options (b) and (c) have the tremendous disadva ntage to be very costly:  a 180,000 $ deposit 
for registration, a 5,000 $ deposit for each objection.   Option (b) includes an additional disadvantage: 
registration implies that the applicant accept to ope rate also as registrar of domain names, something 
IGOs are not equipped for.  The WTO Secretariat is in the view that it would be inappropriate to use 
public funding for this purpose. 
22. In the event that the situation cannot be addr essed, the WTO faces the risk that private entities 
might register its name and that the related c onfusion might impact its image and reputation. 
__________