Summary of General Council meeting of 26 October 2011

1. Accession of Vanuatu — Report of the Working Party

The Council approved Vanuatu’s Protocol of Accession as contained in the report of the re-convened Working Party, adopted the draft Decision on the Accession of Vanuatu as also contained in the report, and adopted the report of the Working Party as a whole (WT/ACC/VUT/17 and Add.1 and 2), with the amendment that the deadline for the acceptance of the Protocol of Accession should be 31 December 2011. The Deputy Prime Minister of Vanuatu recalled various steps in the accession process of his country and stressed that the accession process was challenging, but that there would be significant gains for Vanuatu. Delegations commended Vanuatu’s efforts to conclude its accession process. Some members noted that Vanuatu was the first least-developed country (LDC) to accede to the WTO since 2004 and stressed that the process for LDC accession needed to be improved, including by streamlining the 2002 Guidelines or improving their implementation.

2. Report by the Chairman of the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC)

The Director-General reported on the TNC informal meeting held on 21 October. On that occasion, he had sensed broad support for the elements he had outlined, although some delegations felt that these elements were not yet ambitious or specific enough. He also noted that there was convergence on the centrality of the development dimension including delivering for LDCs as priority under any paragraph 47 exercise. For the way forward, he highlighted the need to generate trust in the ability of the WTO to keep moving the agenda forward. The Director-General also reported on the issue of trade finance that was raised at the G-20 meeting in Seoul regarding the technical changes to the regulatory regime of trade finance announced by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision. Several delegations highlighted the importance of keeping development at the heart of the WTO work.

3. Work Programme on Small Economies  — Report by the Chairman of the Dedicated Session of the Committee on Trade and Development (CTD)

Amb. Erwidodo, on behalf of the Chairman of the Dedicated Session of the CTD, informed members of the adoption of the CTD report to the General Council, and of a recent proposal for international financial institutions to extend Special and Differential Treatment to small economies with respect to their requests for funding for Aid-for-Trade initiatives. The Dedicated Session’s report made certain proposals for the General Council to recommend to Ministers at the Eighth Ministerial Conference (MC8) and indicated that small and vulnerable economies (SVEs) wished the language of the report be turned into a Ministerial Decision. Barbados and El Salvador highlighted the need for Ministers to reaffirm their commitment to the Work Programme on Small Economies at MC8.

4. Eighth Session of the Ministerial Conference

(a) Statement by the Chairman

The Chairman recalled that he had been conducting consultations on MC8 since May, and that this process had further intensified after the summer, including a recent meeting at level of Heads of Delegations on 21 October at which he had reported on the areas that had emerged in consultations. In the debate which followed, proposals that delegations were currently working on were highlighted. In terms of political guidance that Ministers should provide, some delegations said that there should be a clear message of reaffirming the commitment to resist protectionism, including through improving the Trade Policy Review Mechanism (TPRM) and trade monitoring mechanism. Also, transparency should be increased through prompt notification of measures. Ministers could also highlight the well-functioning of the dispute settlement system and urge members to promptly conclude Dispute Settlement Understanding (DSU) negotiations. Development issues, including LDC priorities, should remain at the forefront and one delegation noted that, in addition to sending a strong signal of the WTO having to perform its role of guardian of the multilateral trading system, Ministers should provide clear guidance on the Doha Development Agenda (DDA).

(b) Attendance of Observers from Governments and International Governmental Organizations (IGOs)¹

The Council agreed to repeat past practice with respect to the attendance of Observers from Governments, i.e. Governments with observer status at MC7 would be invited to MC8. With respect to the attendance of IGOs, the Council agreed to revert to this matter.  

(c) Attendance of Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs)

The Council agreed to repeat past practice with respect to the attendance of NGOs to MC8, based on a procedure agreed by the Council in 1996 and used for all previous Ministerial Conferences.

5. Appointment of Officers to WTO Bodies — Negotiating Group on Rules and Special Sessions of the Committee on Agriculture and of the Committee on Trade and Environment    

The Chair reported that his consultations had showed consensus among members to appoint Amb. Adank (New Zealand) as Chair of the Special Session of the Committee on Agriculture, Amb. Harun (Malaysia) as Chair of the Special Session of the Committee on Trade and Environment and Amb. McCook (Jamaica) as Chair of the Negotiating Group on Rules.

6. WTO Pension Plan

In presenting the Annual Report for 2010 (WT/L/820), the Chairman of the Management Board stressed that the Board had adopted a more conservative investment strategy that ensured a more cost-effective implementation. The General Council elected Ms Trudy Witbreuk (Australia) to serve as member on the Management Board and Ms Annie Ouellet (Canada) to serve as alternate on the Management Board of the WTO Pension Plan for the remainder of the Board’s term.

7. Committee on Budget, Finance and Administration (BFA) — Report on meeting of October 2011

The Chairman of the BFA Committee, reporting on its meeting in October, said that the Secretariat had identified a number of actions that could be taken to streamline the operations and could generate sufficient savings in order to achieve a zero nominal budget growth in 2012-13 and meet additional needs in dispute settlement and monitoring.

 

Under “Other Business”

8. Administrative measures for members in arrears: The Chair of the Budget Committee informed the Council that there were two members in Category II, one in Category III, and six in Category IV.

Notes:

1. In connection with this item, attention is drawn to the following documents: WT/L/161, Annexes 2 and 3; WT/MIN(09)/INF/6/Rev.1. Back to text