DOCUMENT, DATED 3 APRIL 2000, SUBMITTED
TO THE WORLD TRADE ORGANISATION BY THE PERMANENT MISSION OF MOROCCO,
ON BEHALF OF THE AFRICAN GROUP
The view of the African Group on enhancing
the internal transparency and the effective participation of all
members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO)
1. It has become widely acknowledged that
the WTO has outgrown decision-making and negotiating processes
that were appropriate for the General Agreement on Tariffs and
Trade (GATT) regime. A widely shared view is the need to establish
a process, which has a greater degree of internal transparency
and ensures effective participation of all Members.
2. This view also has to be seen from the
perspective of the far-reaching nature of WTO Agreements, their
wide-ranging policy effects, the increasing workload of the Organisation,
as well as the growing interest of relatively small nations in
the multilateral trading system in the context of the globalisation
of the world economy. Against this background, the efforts for
the WTO to become more inclusive with broad participation in its
decision-making processes by all its Members, many of which can
only afford small delegations in Geneva, is timely.
3. These are issues of great interest to
the African member states of the WTO. In response to the invitation
by the Chairman of the General Council and the Director-General
for written inputs, the African Group wishes to state its view.
Although transparency is vital to the functioning and processes
of the WTO, work in this area should in no way divert attention
from the need to address substantive issues.
4. From the standpoint of the African Group,
the issue is the internal transparency of WTO procedures and the
full participation of Members. This is a matter that is fundamental
to trust and confidence in the functioning of the Organisation
as a member-driven intergovernmental entity. Issues of transparency
and decision-making are the responsibility of all WTO Members
and should not be delegated to any external body.
5. The African Group would like to emphasise
the following issues at this point:
— Consensus and Participation;
— Informal Consultations;
— Management of Meetings;
— Ministerial Conferences.
CONSENSUS AND
PARTICIPATION
6. Notwithstanding the provision on voting
in Article IX.1 of the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World
Trade Organisation, the tradition that has been followed on consensus
at the point of taking decisions should be maintained, as far
as possible. This principle needs to be upheld given the contractual
relationship that provides the foundation of the WTO rules-based
system and the wide-ranging implications of this system for member
states.
7. It is absolutely essential that the process
leading to the point at which decisions are taken should be inclusive
with clear provisions for broad participation of all Members.
To this extent, any form of executive decision-making body, however
representative of the membership, is not feasible.
INFORMAL CONSULTATIONS
8. Green Room processes as a genre of informal
consultations inherited from the GATT, lack transparency and marginalise
the vast majority of Members.
9. The WTO being a member-driven Organisation,
informal consultations among Members are inevitably a part of
the decision-making process at various levels and in the different
WTO bodies. Clear guidelines are therefore required for the conduct
of such consultations:
— A clear and structured approach to
informal consultations;
— A clear identification of the need
and broad circumstances under which such consultations are to
be initiated and with whom;
— A clear identification of who is
to initiate such consultations;
— A clear obligation to report on a
regular basis to the specific body concerned the result of such
consultations both orally and in writing as circumstances may
require; and
— A clear obligation to take into account
the views expressed by Members in the course of the deliberation
of such reports as further rounds of consultations proceed.
MANAGEMENT OF
MEETINGS
10. The work of the WTO is carried out in
the context of meetings, which take place in formal and informal
modes and at several levels—the Ministerial Conference,
General Council and subsidiary bodies. The work carried out in
all of these fora is interrelated. Meetings are the essential
link in the chain between the various bodies and facilitate both
the process of decision-making and provide the point where decisions
are taken.
11. Formal and informal meetings have proliferated
and are held simultaneously by various bodies, thereby undermining
the capacity of small delegations to participate, as well as delegations
that are not represented in Geneva.
12. The scheduling of meetings should be
better co-ordinated. Meetings covering related themes such as
agriculture and sanitary and phytosanitary issues are currently
scheduled weeks apart and for just a few hours' duration each
time. This does not make it cost-effective for experts from capitals
and non-resident delegations to participate.
13. There is therefore need to rationalise
the scheduling, number, and duration of meetings taking place
in the Organisation with a view to having longer and less frequent
meetings. There is need for better thematic co-ordination in establishing
the calendar of meetings. In this regard, for instance, sessions
for the mandated negotiations in agriculture and services and
related meetings should be scheduled back-to-back. This would
make participation at WTO meetings more cost-effective for experts
from capitals and non-resident delegations.
14. In the same vein, the scheduling of
WTO meetings on themes that also feature in the work of other
Geneva-based organisations is not well co-ordinated with these
Organisations, with similar implications for the participation
of small delegations, non-resident delegations and experts from
the capitals. In this context, the co-ordination between the TRIPs
Council and WIPO in the scheduling of meetings is worthy of emulation.
15. A critical aspect of the management
of meetings is allowing for sufficient time for progress to be
made. This is one of the major lessons of the Seattle preparatory
process and the Seattle Ministerial Conference itself.
16. Additional issues that need to be addressed
are in particular:
— adequate interpretation and translation
facilities to be provided;
— the rooms selected for specific meetings
to be satisfactory for the purpose in terms of size, lay-out,
and seating arrangements for delegations; and
— the scheduling of meetings to take
religious festivals into account as is already the practice in
the United Nations system.
MINISTERIAL CONFERENCES
17. The Ministerial Conference as the highest
decision-making body of the WTO attracts considerable public attention
and media interest, a reflection of the global policy prominence
the WTO has assumed. To a large extent, the institutional "image"
of the WTO is a function of both the substantive work of the conference
and the way it conducts its business.
18. As the pivot of the WTO's activities,
guidelines are required for the conduct of future Ministerial
Conferences. Among these guidelines should be:
— The need for substantial preparatory
work to be completed before the Ministerial Conference, recognising
also that political intervention by ministers may be necessary
to make progress;
— The need for the role of the chairs
and vice-chairs of the Ministerial Conference to be clearly defined;
— The need for a Committee of the Whole
to be established at all Ministerial Conferences as the main forum
for decision-making and for provisions to be made on its method
of work including the selection of its chair; and
— Where it is necessary for any subsidiary
body of the Committee of the Whole to be established, the need
for a transparent decision on this matter, and for the chair of
such a subsidiary body to be selected through consultations with
Members.
19. The foregoing proposals are sensible
and practical. Wholescale changes are not required. The African
group believes that action on these proposals will go a long way
in meeting the concerns that have been expressed and that triggered
the current reflection on the internal processes of the WTO.
20. The foregoing represents the collective
view of the African Group, and the Group intends to elaborate
its position further in the course of discussions and consultations
in the General Council.
His Excellency Ambassador Mr Nacer Benjelloun-Touimi,
Ambassador, Permanent Mission of Morocco to the United Nations
Office at Geneva
April 2000
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