. /. WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  RESTRICTED 
TN/MA/M/12 
26 May 2004 
 (04-2259) 
Negotiating Group on Market Access  
   
MINUTES OF THE MEETING 
 
Held in the Centre Willia m Rappard on 10-12 May 2004 
 
Chairman: Ambassador S. H. Jóhannesson (Iceland) 
 
 
Subjects discussed                     Page 
 
1. Statement by Participants ..................................................................................................... ... 1 
______________ 
 
 
 The Negotiating Group adopted the agenda for the meeting as contained in WTO/AIR/2306. No items were proposed under other business.  Following an Information Session on NTBs  
conducted by the Secretariat on 10 May 2004, the m eeting was suspended. The meeting resumed on 
12 May 2004 in informal mode at which time many statements were made.  Malaysia and Brunei Darussalam requested that their statements be  reflected in the minutes of the meeting.  
 
1. Statement by Participants 
1.1 The representative of Malaysia stressed th e importance of having a NAMA framework that 
was balanced in terms of the leve l of ambition and the genuine concer ns of developing countries.  In 
this respect, he wished to highlight a number of points which he hoped that Members would take into 
account.  First, Malaysia had relatively low tariffs an d this situation was a result of concessions made 
during the Uruguay Round and autonomous liberali zation measures that Malaysia had undertaken 
since the end of that Round. Moreover, these aut onomous liberalization measures were being pursued. 
As a result of the relatively low tariffs in Malays ia, developed and developi ng countries had benefited 
from the openness of Malaysia's markets. In tu rn, Malaysia needed the benefits of further 
liberalization of the global market.  Second Malays ia was committed to further liberalization in the 
current Round.  But Malaysia underscored that the sh aring of the burden and expanding benefits to all 
would be crucial in the level of liberalization th at Malaysia decided to undertake. He hoped that 
Malaysia's trading partners would also be committe d to the Doha mandate.  Malaysia was willing to 
undertake inter alia  further binding tariff reductions, but such action could only be considered in the 
context of a global level playing field and the overall ambition of the DDA.  Malaysia would seek 
leadership from the developed countries to substan tially lower or eliminate high tariffs and tariff 
escalation that would benefit exports  from developing countries.  This  was within the mandate of the 
DDA and would help to underpin th e development dimension of the Round.  Within the mandate of 
the NAMA negotiations, Malaysia hoped that others  would make the necessary contributions that 
would enhance South-South trade.  Third point, an d this was where the balancing part came in, the 
principle of less than full reciprocity had to be respected. Equally the genuine difficulties of 
developing countries like Malaysia within the context of further liberalization needed to be addressed 
through special and differential treatment.  One difficulty that Malaysia faced, among others, was  the 
level of binding to be considered when unbound tari ffs were already extremely low. The Group also 
had to look at low bound tariffs which were curren tly in place, and at how to deal with certain TN/MA/M/12 
Page 2  
 
sensitive products.  He stressed that if Malaysia were  to bind, then Malaysia would consider that a 
concession. He hoped that trading partners would view such action in the same light.   1.2 The representative of Brunei Darussalam  agreed with Malaysia's statement.  
 
1.3 The Negotiating Group took note of the statements. 
 
__________ 
 
 
 
 