WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/COMTD/W/101/Add.3
30 July 2002
(02-4210)
Committee on Trade and Development
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE WTO TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PLAN 2002
Note by the Secretariat*
Addendum
1. This note summarizes the status of the implementation of the WTO Technical Assistance Plan
for 2002 as at 30 June 2002.  It also covers specific points on technical cooperation activities that
were raised by Delegations during the last meeting of the Committee on Trade and Development.
2. Implementation of 2002 TA Plan . As of  30 June 2002, a total of 261 activities have been
undertaken, including 185 planned activities, i.e. 36 per cent of the 2002 TA Plan has been executed
so far. Though this may appear to be somewhat slow in terms of rate of execution halfway through the
year, implementation is progressing smoothly and, with improved collaboration from beneficiary
Members, WTO activities will be more focused and productive. In addition, as the positions opened in
the L-series are now in the process of being filled, the WTO Secretariat will be able to step up thedelivery of TA activities in the second half of the year and be better equipped to meet the ambitious
targets established in the 2002 TA Plan. TA Activities have been conducted in the first semester
of 2002 on almost all sections of TA Plan (WT/COMTD/W/95/Rev.3), including Accession,
Agriculture, Competition Policy, Customs Valuat ion, Dispute Settlement, Government Procurement,
Implementation Issues, Information Technology and WTO Reference Centres, Integrated Framework
and LDCs, Investment, Mainstreaming, Market Access, Rules, Services, Short Trade Policy
Courses (STPCs), SPS and TBT, Textiles and Clothing, Trade and Environment, Trade Facilitationand TRIPs.
3. Regional Development Banks . A first meeting with the Heads of Regional Development
Banks was convened by the Director General on 3 May in the Centre William Rappard. At the
dialogue, participants reached an understanding to maintain a WTO-Regional Development Banks
strategic partnership.  Participants at the dialogue also agreed, inter alia , that the exchange would
continue within the framework of a WTO-Regional Development Bank Forum for the implementation
of the Doha Development Agenda. Attached as Annex 1 is the "Understanding" reached amongst the
participants, which was read out by the Director-G eneral and circulated at the meeting with the
membership.  The WTO Secretariat considers that  the explicit and co-ordinated involvement of
Regional Development Banks in the implementation of the Doha Development Agenda isindispensable for success. Involvement of the Regional Development Banks was one of the strategic
responses of the WTO for the implementation of the Doha Development Agenda, as stated in
paragraph 2 (v) of the 2002 WTO TA Plan.  Presently, collaboration has been formalized with four of
the regional institutions, namely the Arab Monetary Fund, the Asian Development Bank, the Inter-
American Development Bank, and the Islamic Development Bank. This Secretariat is also working ona regular basis with the African Development Bank and an MOU with that Institution will be signed
in the near future.
                                                     
* This document has been prepared under the Secr etariat's own responsibility  and without prejudice to
the positions of Members and to their rights and obligations under the WTO.WT/COMTD/W/101/Add.3
Page 2
4. Trade Mainstreaming through Ministerial Trade Conferences . Trade mainstreaming is one of
the core elements of the comprehensive WTO Strategy for Technical Assistance, as contained in the
New Strategy endorsed by Ministers in paragraph 38 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration.  The
experience obtained with a Ministerial Trade Conference organized in the Western Hemisphere by the
Inter-American Development Bank with the collab oration of the WTO in February 2002 showed very
clearly the usefulness of this format to put forward, and enhance the understanding of, the concept of
mainstreaming trade policies into global economic development policies in developing, least-
developed and transition economy countries. Getting together financial and trade authorities in one
single forum has proved to be essential in enhancing mutual understanding, avoiding conflict and, in
general, showing how trade policy contributes to economic development, by acting as an engine of
growth.  The Secretariat hopes to be able to institutionalize this format.  In partnership with the
Regional Development Banks, the Secretariat will work with Finance and Trade Ministries in thevarious regions of the developing world, to ensure that trade is mainstreamed into development plans
and strategies for poverty reduction.
5. Two Ministerial Conferences involving trade and finance officials have been organized, so
far, this year: the first was held in Tbilisi, Georgia for Central Asian and Caucasus countries on
21 and 22 May 2002, while the second, for Central and South East Europe was held in Zagreb,Croatia on 11 and 12 June 2002.  These meetings provided a unique opportunity for countries of the
two regions as well as WTO and regional and international agencies to exchange views on a broad
range of issues.  Many useful ideas and insights on how best to assist these regions to integrate into
the multilateral trading system emerged during the meetings.  The WTO Secretariat will circulate
separate reports for the two Ministerial Conferences and an overall report that takes stock of theoutcomes of these meetings and further work that will be required in this key area of trade
mainstreaming.
6. DDA Database . The WTO Secretariat has begun to give practical effect to the inter-Agency
mandate for coordinated and coherent delivery of technical assistance established in the Doha
Ministerial Declaration, assisted by the OECD.  Agencies and country TA providers have met threetimes so far and significant progress has been made.  Agreement has been reached on common
objectives and also on the definition of comparable trade-related technical assistance and capacity
building categories that will be used in the Doha Development Agenda Trade-Related Technical
Assistance and Capacity Building Database (DDADB).
7. At the margins of the OECD Ministerial Meeting held in May in Paris, the Secretary-General
of the OECD and the Director General of the WTO formally launched a joint request for information.
Members of the Development Assistance Committee of the OECD, intergovernmental organizations,regional banks and other countries which provide TRTA and CB were invited to provide information
on their TRTA/CB activities in 2001-2002 by 31 July 2002.  This information will be verified,
consolidated and uploaded to the database, which will be accessible over the Internet by October, and
will provide an important input for the interim Report to be prepared by the Director General under
paragraph 41 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration. The information in the database will subsequentlybe updated for the 5
th WTO Ministerial Conference. At the same time, please note that the
programming of the main functions of the Database is well underway.  Using WTO and some OECD
data, a demonstration of the main features of the front-end of the Database will be organized for the
High Level Meeting on TA for Senior Officials o 16 July 2002 and for the next TNC in mid-July.
The Secretariat acknowledges with appreciation the funding provided by DFID to expand Secretariatcapacity for the establishment of this database.
8. Inter-Agency Cooperation.  Overall, the co-operation with other intergovernmental
organization is proceeding in a constructive manner despite the fact that some issues are still
unresolved.  Cooperation with the World Intellectual  Property Organization (WIPO) is functioning in
an effective and efficient manner.  Efforts to establish framework agreements with UNCTAD and theWT/COMTD/W/101/Add.3
Page 3
World Customs Organization, is work in progress.  Nevertheless, the execution of joint activities with
these two organizations is continuing w ithout major delays in an ad-hoc manner.
9. Report of the Pledging Conference . As you may recall, at the last meeting of the Committee, a
Report on the Pledging Conference held on 6 March 2002, was circulated to Members (document
WT/COMTD/37). A revision of that document is currently circulated which reflects the commentsmade by all Delegations, including some that fo r technical reasons were left out in the original
document.
10. Annex I - DDA Advanced Training Courses.  The Advanced Training Programme for
Government Officials (Annex I of the 2002 TA  Plan) focuses on the training of trade
negotiators/Senior Government Officials of WTO Members and Observers from developing countries
and economies in transition more systematically on the issues central to the Doha Development
Agenda.  The main purpose of the programme is to strengthen these countries' effective participationin the Doha negotiations and work programme through policy analysis and a deeper understanding of
the issues involved in the negotiations.  The programme will be jointly delivered in a tripartite
relationship between the WTO, an academic center of excellence (research institution and/or policy-
oriented think tank), and a regional development bank.  The first of these two-week courses was
organized in June in collaboration with the Organization of American  States and Georgetown
University in Washington for the benefit of Latin American countries.  Other courses of this kind will
be organized in the second semester of 2003 for Africa, Arab countries and Central and Eastern
Europe respectively and five more before the 5th WTO Ministerial Conference (see draft programme
attached, as annex II).
11. TA Plan for 2003. A t the last meeting of the Committee, the Secretariat called on all
delegations to forward to the Secretariat their prior ity requests for 2003 by the 31 July so as to allow
the Secretariat to submit the draft TA Plan for 2003 immediately after the summer break.  The
Secretariat reminds Members, observers, and international organizations of the initial announcement
made at the 40
th Session of the COMTD on 25 April 2002.  The calendar for the 2003 TA Plan will, as
earlier communicated, be as follows:
- October - submission of the draft 2003 TA Plan to the COMTD for authorization;
- November - submission to the BFA Committee for a note of the financial implications
of the agreed COMTD Plan; and,
- December or January - WTO Annual Pledging Conference.WT/COMTD/W/101/Add.3
Page 4
ANNEX I
DOHA DEVELOPMENT AGENDA:  THE ROLE OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT BANKS
• Clear agreement that Regional Development Banks are important to the effective implementation
of the DDA.  Effective TA and CB should be regional.
• Regional development banks, WTO and the World Bank will collaborate effectively to work with
trade and finance ministers on:
- diagnostic trade research;
- assisting trade and finance ministers coordination;
- the necessity of trade expansion for growth;
- explaining to beneficiary countries that grant  support will not be enough, but
that they also have to borrow for trad e expansion, and that it is in their own
interest to do so.
• RDBs expressed a need to know  and be briefed  on what is going on in WTO negotiations.  This
will effectively inform the support, TA and CB that RDBs can offer at the regional level.
• RDBs, World Bank and WTO together  should demonstrate cooperation.  This will enable
leveraged  resources for some agencies whose trade-related TA envelopes are shrinking .
Therefore, RDBs, the World Bank and the WTO must demonstrate more coherent country
strategies.
• The necessity and value of diagnostic trade integration studies that lay a basis for effective
capacity building.  Need to pursue trade diagnostic collaboratively.
• The database is very critical in order to cover gaps, achieve transparency, and common
approaches to building capacity at the local level.
• Necessity of collaborating effectively in convening meetings of trade and finance ministers.
• Although there should be priority focus on LDCs, it needs to be recognized that there are non-
LDC low income economies in dire need.  If we do not take account of this, we would be creatinga more unjust world.
• Massive institutional problems at the domestic level for developing countries, particularly in
Africa in managing trade negotiations.  Assistance needed in this regard.
• Developing countries need to know how to nego tiate positively for growth and poverty reduction
and not defensively.
• The understanding was reached that Regional Development Banks, the World Bank and the WTO
will pursue this dialogue annually, and that the IMF should be invited to the next meeting.
• The Director-General Mike Moore undertook to convey the above understanding to the WTO
Membership and to Dr. Supachai, his successor.WT/COMTD/W/101/Add.3
Page 5
ANNEX II
DDA Advanced Training Courses
Country
GroupingDate Regional Body Academic
InstitutionTCD contact
Latin America 10 – 21 June 2002 Organization of
American StatesGeorgetown
University,
WashingtonT. Gómez Torán
Arab Countries Sep/Oct 2002 Arab Monetary
FundAmerican
University of CairoS. Seif  El Yazal
Central and  Eastern
Europe15-29 October 2002 European Bank for
Reconstruction and
DevelopmentJoint Vienna
InstituteM. Smeets
English-speaking
AfricaNov/Dec 2002 New Partnership for
Africa's
Development &
African
Development BankStellenbosch
University,
South AfricaD. Yeboah
Asia and the Pacific April 2003 Asian Development
BankBeijing University R. Krommenacker
Non-resident April 2003
[back-to-back with
Geneva Week]IMD, Lausanne C. Osakwe
A. Breckenridge
M. Oshikawa
Caribbean countries 2003 Organization of
American StatesUniversity of the
West IndiesT. Gómez Torán
[OAS to contact
UWI]
French-speaking
Africa2003 New Partnership for
Africa's
Development &
African
Development BankAfDB
Training Institute,
AbidjanD. Yeboah
Central Asian and
Caucasus2003 Centre for Trade
Policy and Law,
CanadaTbilisi, Georgia M. SmeetsWT/COMTD/W/101/Add.3
Page 6
List of invited Members and Observers*
East Asia and the Pacific (29): Bangladesh; Bhutan*; Brunei Darussalam; Cambodia*; China,
People's Republic of; Chinese Taipei; Fiji; Hong Kong, China; India; Indonesia; Korea; Republic of;
Lao People's Democratic*; Macau, China; Malaysia; Maldives; Mongolia; Myanmar; Nepal*;Pakistan; Papua New Guinea; Philippines; Singapore; Samoa*; Solomon Islands; Sri Lanka; Thailand;
Tonga*; Vanuatu*; Viet Nam*.
French-speaking Africa (26): Algeria* , Angola, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape
Verde*, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Congo Dem. Rep., Côte d'Ivoire, Djibouti ,
Equatorial Guinea*, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania , Morocco , Niger,
Rwanda, Senegal, Togo, Tunisia .
English-speaking Africa (21): Botswana, Egypt , Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi,
Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Seychelles*, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan* ,
Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
Latin America (18):  Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador,
Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela.
Caribbean countries (15): Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cuba, Dominica,
Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint
Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago.
Central and South East Europe (17): Albania, Belarus*, Bosnia and Herzegovina*, Bulgaria, Czech
Republic, Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Former Yugo slav Republic of Macedonia*, Federal Republic of
Yugoslavia*, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovak Republic, Slovenia.
Central Asian and Caucasus Countries (11): Arme nia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz
Republic, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan
Arab Countries (16): Algeria*, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon*, Mauritania,
Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia*, Sudan*, Tunisia, UAE,  Yemen*
Non-residents (35): Andorra*, Antigua and Bar buda, Armenia*, Bahamas*, Burkina Faso, Chad,
Dominica, Fiji, Gambia, Grenada, Guinea Bissau, Guyana, Laos*, Macao, China, Malawi, Maldives,
Mali, Namibia, Niger, Papua New Guinea, Samoa *, Sao Tome and Principe*, Seychelles*, St. Kitts
and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Suriname,
Swaziland, Togo, Tonga*, Uzbekistan*, Vanuatu*
__________