WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/COMTD/W/44
28 May 1998
(98-2223)
Committee on Trade and Development Original:  English
FOLLOW-UP TO THE SINGAPORE MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
AND THE HIGH-LEVEL MEETING ON LEAST-DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
Communication from Switzerland
The following communication has been received from the Permanent Mission of Switzerland
with the request that it be circulated to the Committee on Trade and Development.
_______________
At the Singapore Ministerial Conference, Ministers called for the High-Level Meeting on
Integrated Initiatives for Least-Developed Countries' Trade Development (HLM) and agreed "to seek
to give operational content to the Plan of Action, for example, by enhancing conditions for investment
and providing predictable and favourable market access conditions for LLDC's products".
As Switzerland announced at the HLM, it keep s under constant review its instruments for
trade-related co-operation with the least-developed countries, and is offering since March 1997 duty-
free access to its markets for all industrial products as well as for most agricultural products
originating from the least-developed countries.  Ninety-eight per cent of least-developed countries'
exports now enter the Swiss market duty-free.  The coverage of the Swiss GSP regime has been
considerably extended, also for products originating from other developing countries.  Switzerland'snew GSP scheme was notified to the Committee on Trade and Development (WT/COMTD/N/7, dated
11 April 1997).
Switzerland understands its latest GSP revision as a follow-up to the Singapore Ministerial
Conference where Ministers called for the HLM.  In addition to these improvements in the market
access conditions, Switzerland - before and after the HLM - has been progressively expanding its
assistance to the least-developed countries.  In  this respect, Switzerland would like to inform
Members about the recent opening in Geneva of the Agency for International Trade Information andCo-operation (AITIC).  This Agency is designed to assist in priority the least-developed countries to
follow regularly and to participate actively in the work of the Geneva-based multilateral trade
organizations.
__________