Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 6 • Number 16 • 2nd May 2002

Committee On Trade And Development Meets With Ambitious Agenda


Convening near the end of ‘Geneva Week’ — whereby Members and observers without permanent missions in Geneva attend a series of WTO meetings (see related WTO In Brief, this issue) — the WTO Committee on Trade and Development met for its second session of the year on 25 April 2002. Delegates faced a demanding agenda, looking at a number of technical assistance-related items, including the WTO’s annual technical assistance plan, the organisation’s March 2002 pledging conference, and an audit on technical cooperation in 2001. Further agenda items included a discussion on the review of Art. XVIII of GATT 1994 (concerning the need for additional flexibilities for developing countries), paragraph 51 of the Doha mandate (dealing with developmental and environmental aspects of the negotiations), and the election of the chair for the Sub-Committee for Least Developed Countries (LDCs).

Technical assistance plan revisited

At the 25 April session, Deputy Director-General Paul-Henri Ravier provided a brief update on the 2002 technical assistance plan — covering the 11 March pledging conference, implementation of the technical assistance plan to date, monitoring of technical assistance activities, the new training session for negotiators, upcoming meetings with regional development banks, and Geneva Week.

In order to commence with the implementation of the technical assistance plan (WT/COMTD/W/95/Rev.3), Members had agreed at an informal meeting in early March to take note of the plan as it stood in revision three. Thus while not having been formally adopted per se, Members continued to view it as a "work in progress" and it will be "subject to regular reviews" (see BRIDGES Weekly, 12 March).

The plan’s third revision established two new levels of action, including the creation of a WTO trade-related technical assistance database and a focus on strategic partnerships with regional banks, institutions, and commissions. Following strong comments made by developing country delegates, environment and the ‘Singapore’ issues (investment, competition, transparency in government procurement, and trade facilitation) have been integrated into the overall framework as opposed to being in separate Annexes (for in depth treatment of the technical assistance plan, see BRIDGES Monthly, March/April 2002 ).

Pledging conference report

The report from the Chair of the Budget Committee on the WTO’s 11 March pledging conference (where 30 million Swiss francs were pledged for a trust fund to finance technical assistance; see BRIDGES Weekly, 12 March) was dealt with quickly. At the time of the meeting, however, only 8.4 of the 30 million Swiss francs had in fact been received.

Technical cooperation audit for 2001

The first annual technical cooperation audit was also presented at the CTD meeting. The 11-page document outlines a review of activities from 1 February 2001 until 31 December 2001 — and takes note especially of the changing environment it faced relative to the role of technical assistance throughout 2001. The report goes on to look at methodology, organisation and planning, conduct, and concludes with some "lessons learned". At time of press, the document (WT/COMTD/W/97) was not as yet de-restricted.

Article XVIII of GATT 1994

Discussions on Article XVIII did not progress far since consensus did not prevail as to whether the CTD has a mandate to engage on this matter. Article XVIII deals with the need for additional flexibility with regard to GATT obligations for developing country Members. The Decision on Implementation-Related Issues agreed at the WTO’s Fourth Ministerial Conference in Doha last November reaffirms, inter alia, that Art. XVIII is a special and differential treatment provision. Furthermore, tiret 3 of the Compilation Text on Outstanding Implementation Items (JOB(01)/152/Rev.1) proposes a "complete review" of the article with a view to ensuring that it "subserves the original objective of facilitating the progressive development of economies in developing countries [...]".Canada and the US intervened at the CTD to indicate that a discussion on the complete review would be acceptable, without prejudging which was the appropriate body to address issues under Art. XVIII. India followed with a request that the Secretariat clarify this matter before moving ahead. As such, the chair suspended the item for further consultations.

Reflecting sustainable development

Paragraph 51 of the Doha mandate instructs both the CTD and the Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) to "act as a forum to identify and debate developmental and environmental aspects of the negotiations, in order to help achieve the objective of having sustainable development appropriately reflected." This session of the CTD saw the first discussion of that mandate surface. The EC suggested that the Secretariat issue regular updates on development-related work progress in all areas of the negotiations. Canada also made mention of a proposal it put forward in the CTE, whereby a joint CTE-CTD session could be convened. With most Members wanting more time to contemplate the options, the Chair will hold consultations on how to proceed on this matter and report at the next session.

New LDC chair elected

The session ended with the election of Ambassador Johan Molander of Sweden as new Chair for the Sub-Committee on LDCs. Amb. Molander takes over from former chair, Amb. Fuller (UK)

The regular session was followed by a dedicated session on small economies (see related WTO In Brief, this issue)

The CTD has two more sessions for 2002, taking place on 1 July and 8 October.

ICTSD Internal Files.