WTO OMCPage 1

WTO MONTHLY bulletin FOR ngoS

April 2001

No. 003

This electronic newsbulletin is an initiative by the Director-General of the WTO to facilitate access of non-governmental organizations to publicly available WTO information. Subscription is open to all interested organizations and/or individuals. For new subscribers, should you wish to receive this newsbulletin, please send an e-mail to the following address: . It would be highly appreciated if readers could let us know whether they find this newsletter useful. For any comments, suggestions or questions, please sent them to the above-mentioned e-mail address.

CONTENTS:

  • WTO and NGOs:

- 4th Ministerial Conference in Qatar

- Selected upcoming WTO meetings

- Outreach activities

- Links to selected recent official WTO documents

  • Director-General weekly bulletin
  • Main WTO News in Brief
  • Special issues
  • Selected speeches by the DG
  • Upcoming meetings

4th WTO Ministerial Conference in Qatar

As of now, this issue will permanently feature in the NGO bulletin in order to provide you with both general and NGO-specific information related to the organization of the 4th Ministerial Conference in Doha, Qatar on 9-13 November 2001.
Please note that preparations are underway. For the expected thousands of participants — delegates, observers, journalists and NGOs — detailed information on transportation, accommodation and accreditation will be available on the WTO website soon. Prospective participants are therefore requested to hold making arrangements for the Conference until that time. Concerning NGOs, the registration procedure is expected to be published by May 14, 2001.

Selected upcoming WTO meetings

  • For the tentative weekly schedule of meetings, please go to For a complete list of WTO meetings, see below.
  • On 27 April, the WTO General Council will meet in Special Session to deal with implementation related questions. The Chairman of the General Council and the Director-General will report on ongoing consultations with WTO Members.

OUTREACH ACTIVITIES

  • WTO Secretariat Activities with NGOs: On 12 April 2001, the WTO Secretariat has published a note indicating intended activities involving NGOs from now to the Doha Ministerial Conference, as well as during the Conference in November. The document is available in all three official WTO languages and can be found at
  • WTO Community/Forums: This electronic facility is still up and running on our website . You're invited to make your views known to the WTO and other users of the site by participating in ongoing on-line forums and chats or by starting your own discussion on a WTO-related topic. If you want to participate, you can go directly to the forums page of our website at has a link to the discussion area. Or, you may click on Community/Forums at the top of our homepage. Please note: you will need to fill in a registration form before entering the discussion area for the first time.
  • WTO Internship Programme. The WTO Secretariat maintains a limited internship programme for post-graduate students wishing to gain practical experience and deeper knowledge of the multilateral trading system. For further information on how to apply go to
  • Access to SPS documents. All unrestricted documents to the Agreement on the application of Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) are now publicly available through a self-subscribing electronic mailing list. Documents will be sent through e-mail, usually twice a week. To subscribe to the list, send an e-mail message to with the following in the body of the message (leave subject line blank): SUBSCRIBE SPS your full name. Your email address will be automatically registered. To unsubscribe, please follow the same procedure but with the following message: UNSUBSCRIBE SPS + your full name. Please note that the SPS documents will be sent in the language originally received.

Links to selected recent official WTO documents

As of 1 February 2001, a revised documents online system has been installed on WTO's website. The new documents database provides access to the official documentation of the World Trade Organization. You may retrieve and consult documents online and also download selected documents from the site to your PC, if you so wish.

For general search, go to:

Agriculture/SPS:

  • Committee on Agriculture - WTO List of Net Food-Importing Developing Countries for the Purposes of the Marrakesh Ministerial Decision on Measures Concerning[...]"The Decision") - Revision
  • Committee on Agriculture - Special Session - Sixth Special Session of the Committee on Agriculture - Report by the Chairman, Ambassador Jorge Voto-Bernales, to the General Council
  • Committee on Agriculture - Special Session - WTO African Group: Joint Proposal on the Negotiations on Agriculture
  • Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures - Biosecurity in Food and Agriculture - Submission by the FAO : 14/03/2001

TRIPS:

  • Council for Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights - Review under Article 24.2 of the Application of the Provisions of the Section of the TRI[...]d.1) - Note by the Secretariat: 04/04/2001

Ministerial Conference:

  • Ministerial Conference - Fourth Session - Doha - WTO Ministerial Conference - Information Meeting : 27/03/2001

Services:

  • Decision on the Guidelines for the Scheduling of Specific Commitments under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) - Adopted [...]e in Services on 23 March 2001: 29/03/2001
  • Council for Trade in Services - Guidelines and Procedures for the Negotiations on Trade in Services - Adopted by the Special Session of the Council for Trad[...]e in Services on 28 March 2001: 29/03/2001

Environment:

  • Committee on Trade and Environment - UNEP Fisheries Subsidies Workshop - Chairman's Summary - Communication from UNEP: 15/03/2001

DIRECTOR-GENERAL's WEEKLY BULLETIN

The weekly bulletin provides highlights of the Director-General's activities over the past weeks (due to website re-vamp, some delay may occur). The bulletin is an initiative of the Director-General and can be found on the WTO website (

MAIN WTO NEWS IN BRIEF

  • 10.04.01 WTO's technical assistance gets a boost from Hong Kong, China
    Director-General Mike Moore, in a press release issued on 10 April 2001, welcomed a recent contribution of 1 million Swiss francs by Hong Kong, China to WTO's technical assistance activities. He said that “as members continue to prepare for the 4th Ministerial Conference, technical assistance for developing countries is vitally important.”
  • 02.04.01 Services negotiations enter new bargaining phase
    WTO members agreed, 28-30 March 2001, on guidelines for negotiations on trade in services, taking the talks into bargaining sessions on access to each others’ markets, based on their negotiating proposals. The rule-making negotiations that started a year ago will also continue.
    > Press release
  • 30.03.01 Moore and Putin upbeat on Russia’s membership bid
    Joining the WTO is Russia’s top priority, President Vladimir Putin told WTO Director-General Mike Moore when the two met in Moscow on 30 March 2001. Mr Moore said Moscow’s membership bid has been re-energized by new legislation, but important issues remain.
    > Press release > Mr Moore’s speech
  • 27.03.01 WTO agriculture negotiations move swiftly to ‘phase 2’
    Director-General Mike Moore, on 27 March 2001, applauded the completion of the first phase of agriculture negotiations and the approval of the work programme for the next phase. The fact that 125 of the 140 WTO members have tabled negotiating proposals, he said, is “a powerful vote of confidence in the multilateral trading system”.
    > Go to the press release
  • 27.03.01 Trade programme for poorest countries gets $4.5-million boost
    Director-General Mike Moore and Amb. Henrik Iverson (Denmark), in a press release issued on 23 March 2001, welcomed initial pledges totaling US$4.5 million to a six-agency pilot programme to build trade capacity in least-developed countries.
  • 22.03.01 Macau, China: liberal trade regime commended
    WTO members, at the conclusion of their trade policy review of Macau, China on 21 March 2001, commended the Territory for the fact that neither the Asian financial crisis, nor its reversion to China has affected its liberal trade policies. However, they called on the Territory to increase its tariff bindings and services commitments.
    > Press release
    > Chairperson's concluding remarks (Download in Word format 2 pages;31 KB)
  • 22.03.01 WTO economic seminar papers now available
    Papers presented at in-house economic seminars organized for WTO delegations and staff members will now be made available on this site's research and analysis section, starting with “The Relationship Between International Trade Policy and Competition Policy” given on 14 March 2001.
    > Go to the story
  • 20.03.01 SPS body looks at current epidemics, ‘equivalence’ and standard-setting
    Measures for dealing with BSE (mad cow disease) and foot and mouth disease, “equivalence” — an “implementation” issue in the General Council — and developing countries’ participation in international standards-setting organizations were among the issues discussed when the Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures Committee met, 14-15 March 2001. Unofficial summary .
  • 19.03.01 Goods Council agrees on chairpersons for subsidiary bodies
    The Council for Trade in Goods, on 14 March 2001, agreed on a slate of chairpersons of its subsidiary bodies for 2001.
    > Go to summary of the meeting
  • 19.03.01 WTO, WHO convene workshop on affordable drugs
    The WTO and WHO Secretariats, on 18 March 2001, announced they are convening a workshop on how to improve poor countries' access to essential drugs. The workshop — to be hosted by the Norwegian Foreign Ministry at Høsbjør on 8-11 April 2001 — will bring together about 50 experts from industrialized and developing countries.
    > Go to the press release
  • 15.03.01 WTO holds 19th dispute settlement course
    Forty trade officials, on 6-9 March 2001, participated in the 19th Special Course on Dispute Settlement Rules and Procedures organized by the WTO Secretariat as part of its technical assistance programme.
    > Go to the story

SPECIAL ISSUES

  • WTO,WHO experts workshop on affordable drugs: "Affordable medicines for poor countries are feasible"
    Høsbjør, Norway — Making life-saving medicines more affordable for poor countries is vital for improving public health. More importantly it is realistic, experts said in a three-day WHO/WTO workshop that ended on 11 April 2001.
    > Press release> WTO, WHO workshop on affordable drugs
  • WTO Secretariat answers GATS critics - 19.03.01
    Since January 2000, 140 WTO member governments have been engaged in negotiations aimed at further liberalization of the global services market. A number of anti-WTO groups have been portraying these talks in a manner which is often distorted or patently untrue. The WTO Secretariat issued, on 19 March 2001, a booklet GATS — Fact and fiction that debunks some of the myths and falsehoods about the General Agreement on Trade in Services and the new services negotiations.
  • Agriculture, the current negotiations – for information/background on the negotiations, meetings and proposals, please go to:
  • Services, the current negotiations – for information/background on the negotiations, meetings and proposals, please go to:

SELECTED SPEECHES BY THE DG IN MARCH

  • 10.04.01 Greater involvement of parliamentarians in WTO work urged
    Director-General Mike Moore, in a speech at a European Parliament seminar in Brussels on 10 April 2001, called for greater involvement of parliamentarians in the work of the WTO. He also underlined the democratic nature of the organization, in which all agreements are reached by consensus of the 140 member governments and every country has a veto.
  • 19.03.01 Poor-country issues must be at heart of new Round
    Director-General Mike Moore, in a speech at the Ministerial Roundtable on Trade and Poverty in Least-Developed Countries in London on 19 March 2001, said that a “a new Round (of trade negotiations) is the surest way to prevent the further marginalization of LDCs from the world economy and to deal with problems that they may have with existing WTO agreements”. He said that the new Round “must have implementation issues at its heart” and encompass other issues that are important to developing countries
  • 12.03.01 Moore sees “positive signs” for Round launch in Doha
    Director-General Mike Moore, in a speech at the European Business School London on 12 March 2001, said there are already “many positive signs” from members, including leading traders the US and the EU, for launching a new Round at the Doha Ministerial in November. He said developing countries increasingly understand that “the greatest threat to their economies is not globalization, but marginalization”.

UPCOMING WTO MEETINGS

For the tentative programme of WTO meetings for 2001, click here:

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