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Panitchpakdi’s speeches
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The new
chairpersons are:
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Committee on
Agriculture: Dr. Magdi Farahat (Egypt)
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Committee on
Anti-Dumping: Mr. David Evans (New Zealand)
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Committee on
Customs Valuation: Mr. Ivan Lee (Hong Kong)
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Committee on
Import Licensing: Ms. Philippa Davies (Jamaica)
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Committee on
Market Access: Ms. Jo Lomas (United Kingdom)
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Committee on
Rules of Origin: Mr. Syed Habib Ahmed (Pakistan)
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Committee on
Safeguards: Mr. Pornchai Danvivathana (Thailand)
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Committee on
Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures: Mr. Paul Martin (Canada)
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Committee on
Subsidies and Countervailing Measures: Ms. Olga Lucia Lozano
(Colombia)
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Committee on
Technical Barriers to Trade: Mr. Juan Antonio Dorantes Sanchez
(Mexico)
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Committee on
Trade-Related Investment Measures: Mr. Sivaramen Palayathan
(Mauritius)
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Working Party
on State Trading Enterprises: Ms. Judith Vankova (Slovak Republic)
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ITA
Committee: Mr. Hisashi Yoshikawa (Japan)
The Council
also welcomed its new Chairperson, Ambassador Milan Hovorka of the Czech
Republic, and paid tribute to its outgoing Chairperson, Ambassador M.
Supperamaniam of Malaysia.
The Council continued its review of the operation of the Agreement on
Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMs). Brazil and India, supported
by Colombia and Pakistan, reiterated their proposal (G/C/W/428)
for amending the TRIMs Agreement to give more flexibility to developing
countries to use TRIMs. Canada, the European Union and Japan said they
remained unconvinced about the need to amend the Agreement while the
United States said it believed the proposal went beyond the Council's
mandate.
The Council agreed to send to the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements
for examination the following: the Free Trade Agreement between Canada
and Costa Rica, and the Free Trade Agreement between the EFTA States and
Singapore.
The Council devoted 1-1/2 days (12-13 March) to its work on trade
facilitation (simplification of trade procedures). The following new
papers were presented:
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Canada said
its paper is aimed at providing an overview of how broad trade
facilitation principles could be advanced through the development of
appropriate WTO commitments (“Possible Linkages between Trade
Facilitation Principles, Measures, Potential Benefits and
Trade-Related Technical assistance”,
G/C/W/448).
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The United
States outlined a three-point approach to special and differential
treatment on trade facilitation, covering transitional periods,
technical assistance review and coordination mechanism, and
enforcement of commitments (“Trade Facilitation: An Integrated and
Comprehensive Approach to Special and Differential Treatment”,
G/C/W/451).
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New Zealand
presented its national experience on trade facilitation, including how
using computer system reduced customs clearance processing times from
ten days to an average of 12 minutes (“Trade Facilitation: National
Experience Paper from New Zealand”,
G/C/W/449).
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The European
Union presented an updated version of information regarding its
comprehensive technical assistance in the field of trade facilitation
(“Communication from the EC on WTO Trade Facilitation: Information on
Trade Related Assistance by the EC and its Member States”,
G/C/W/442/Rev.1).
Many members recognized the benefits of trade facilitation but some
developing countries continued to question the need for establishing
of new commitments in this area that would be subject to WTO dispute
settlement.
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