Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 6 • Number 7 • 26th February 2002
WTO General Council To Allocate Small Economy Concerns To CTD
On 1 March, the WTO General Council will reconvene from its deferred meeting of 13/15 February to conclude consideration of the organisation’s work programme on small economies. Paragraph 35 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration mandates Members to establish a work programme on small economies in order to "frame responses to the trade- related issues identified for the fuller integration of small, vulnerable economies into the multilateral trading system. The General Council shall review the work programme and make recommendations for action to the Fifth Session of the Ministerial Conference."
On 13 February, Members agreed that Deputy Director-General Ablasse Ouedraogo would pursue consultations on this matter in order to reach agreement on a framework for the conduct of the work programme. According to sources, Mr. Ouedraogo has held two rounds of consultations on the matter with interested delegations. Based on proposals submitted by a number of small-economy delegations, General Council Chair Sergio Marchi will submit a document (WT/GC/W/469) for consideration by Members at the 1 March General Council session outlining the procedures for how this work programme could proceed. According to the document, substantive work on the work programme will begin in dedicated sessions of the Committee on Trade and Development (CTD) once Members have taken note of the procedures.
These procedures say that the General Council shall have the work programme on small economies as a standing item on its agenda, and that the Chairperson of the regular CTD shall also be the Chair for the dedicated sessions of the CTD. The document encourages Members to make their own contributions to the CTD, and states that the WTO Secretariat will provide relevant information and analysis in areas such as: (a) the impact of WTO rules on small economies; (b) the constraints faced by small economies in institutional and administrative capacities; and (c) the effects of trade liberalisation on small economies.
BRIDGES Weekly will report further on this meeting in next week’s edition.
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