RESTRICTED
WORLD TRADE WT/COMTD/M/3
23October 1995
ORGANIZATION(95-3225)
Committee onTrade andDevelopment
Third (Special) Session
NOTE ONTHE MEETING OF14SEPTEMBER 1995
Chairman: Mr.Haron Siraj(Malaysia)
1. TheChairmanindicatedthattheagendaforthemeetingwascontainedinairgramWTO/AIR/149.
Inabsence ofanycomments, theagenda wasadopted.
A. TermsofReferenceoftheWorkingPartyontheSouthernCommonMarket(MERCOSUR)
Agreement
2. TheChairman recalled thattheMERCOSUR Working Party, which wasestablished bythe
GATT 1947 Committee onTrade andDevelopment inMay1993, hadnotbeenabletomeet since
then. FortheWorking Party tooperate under GATT 1994, anadaptation ofitsterms ofreference
wasneeded -andthatrequired aformal Decision bytheCommittee onTrade andDevelopment. Also
ofrelevance werethetransitional arrangements adopted bytheGeneral Council on31January 1995,
which applied toregional arrangements andbyimplication totheMERCOSUR Agreement. From
aprocedural point ofview, adaptation oftheoriginal terms ofreference wasnecessary, since they
stated thattheWorking Party would report totheGATT 1947Committee onTrade andDevelopment
andalsomentioned theCONTRACTING PARTIES andtheCouncil, bodies transformed under
GATT 1994.
3. TheChairmanindicatedthatthedrafttextofthemodifiedtermsofreferencefortheMERCOSUR
Working Party (document WT/COMTD/W/3) followed thesubstance ofthose agreed forthe1995
Working Party ontheEnlargement oftheEuropean Communities. Heproposed theadoption ofthe
following terms ofreference: "Toexamine theSouthern Common Market Agreement (MERCOSUR)
inthelightoftherelevant provisions oftheEnabling Clause andoftheGATT 1994, including Article
XXIV, andtotransmit areport andrecommendations totheCommittee onTrade andDevelopment
forsubmission totheGeneral Council, withacopyofthereport transmitted aswelltotheCouncil
forTrade inGoods. Theexamination intheWorking Party willbebased onacomplete notification
andonwritten questions andanswers". These terms ofreference should bereadtogether withthe
following Understanding: "Itisunderstood thatthestatement readoutbetheChairman oftheCouncil
forTrade inGoods under item7oftheAgenda ofitsmeeting on20February 1995, ascontained in
document WT/REG3/1, applies mutatis mutandis tothisWorking Party." TheCommittee onTrade
andDevelopment soagreed.
4. TherepresentativeoftheEuropeanCommunitiesexpressedhisdelegation'sregretthatnomeeting
oftheMERCOSUR Working Party hadtaken place andindicated hisdelegation 'sexpectation that,
withtheterms ofreference adopted, thefirstmeeting oftheMERCOSUR Working Party could take
place.WT/COMTD/M/3
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B. Other Business
5. TheChairman briefly commented onsome relevant issues which would bediscussed atthe
nextmeeting oftheCommittee onTrade andDevelopment. Onthesubject ofobservership, herecalled
thatthismatter wasstilloutstanding intheGeneral Council, andthattheCommittee hadbeendeciding
ateachmeeting which organizations itwould invite foritsnextmeeting. TheChairman informed the
Committee thatinAugust 1995, hereceived aletter fromtheDirector-General ofUNIDO requesting
observer status intheCommittee, andthathehadasked theSecretariat toreplythatadefinitive response
could notbegiven astheissueofobservership wasbeing considered bytheGeneral Council. However,
inlightoftheinterim procedures under which theCommittee onTrade andDevelopment wasworking,
heinvited comments onwhether UNIDO could beinvited tothenextmeeting oftheCommittee on
Trade andDevelopment. Inresponse toaquestion posed bytherepresentative oftheEuropean
Communities, theChairman indicated thatUNIDO didnothaveobserver status intheGATT 1947
Committee onTrade andDevelopment. Intheabsence offurther comments andinlightofthead
hocprocedures, heproposed thattheCommittee onTrade andDevelopment agree toinvite a
representative ofUNIDO toitsFourth Session aswellasalltheorganizations thatwereinvited toits
Third Session. TheCommittee soagreed.
6. Turning totheforthcoming meeting oftheCommittee onTrade andDevelopment, theChairman
indicated thatitwould takeplace onFriday, 17November 1995. Hewould propose anagenda based
ontheagreed programme ofwork inaddition totwoitems from thelastmeeting oftheCommittee
onTrade Development: i.e.(i)review oftheimpact oftheresults oftheUruguay Round ondeveloping
country Members, inparticular ontheleast-developed country Members; and(ii)consideration of
measures andinitiatives toassist theexpansion oftrade andinvestment opportunities ofdeveloping
country Members, inparticular theleast-developed country Members. Under thislastitem,thequestion
ofcredit andrecognition forautonomous tradeliberalization measures could bediscussed further and,
thenetfood-importing developing countries 'issue would alsobeaddressed. TheChairman recalled
thatbackground documentation hadbeencirculated bytheSecretariat fortheJulymeeting. Items
derivingfromtheprogrammeofworkwere(i)reviewoftheparticipationofdevelopingcountryMembers
inthemultilateral trading system; (ii)review oftheapplication ofspecial provisions intheWTO system
infavour ofdeveloping country Members, andinparticular least-developed country Members, including
thesupervision oftheimplementation ofPartIVandtheEnabling Clause andtheannual report of
theCommittee ofParticipating Countries ontheoperation oftheProtocol Relating toTrade Negotiations
Among Developing Countries; (iii)annual review ofWTO technical cooperation activities asthey
relate todeveloping country Members; (iv)workoftheSub-Committee onLeast-Developed Countries;
and(v)future workprogramme oftheCommittee onTrade andDevelopment. TheChairman expressed
thehope thatatthenextmeeting, constructive comments would bemade, forthebenefit ofthe
Committee itself andofalldeveloping country Members.
7. Onthequestion ofnotification requirements, theChairman indicated thattheseminar on
notificationobligationshadbeenveryusefulandinstructive.HerecalledthattheGATT1947Committee
onTrade andDevelopment dealtwithnotification requirements in1965, 1966 and1980; however,
notalldecisions taken onthose occasions, were strictly followed andanumber ofpoints remained
unsettled. Hewasoftheviewthatgiven theimportance theWTO attaches tonotification obligations
asexemplified bytheestablishment ofaWorking Group onNotification Obligations andProcedures,
theCommittee should devote some timetoreviewing thenotification requirements ofthetextsithad
beengiven responsibility for-i.e.Article XVIII:A, CandD,PartIV,andtheEnabling Clause. HeWT/COMTD/M/3
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asked delegations toreflect onthismatter soastoallow afirstexchange ofviews attheCommittee
onTrade andDevelopment 'sNovember meeting. Following arequest made bytherepresentative
ofArgentina, theChairman indicated thattheSecretariat would circulate documents containing
notification obligations related todevelopment issues aswellaspastdecisions oftheCommittee on
Trade andDevelopment onthismatter. TheCommittee tooknoteofthecomments made.