NEWS RELEASES

October 13, 2000 (12:20 p.m. EDT) No.261

PETTIGREW OUTLINES PROPOSALS

FOR A MORE TRANSPARENT WTO

International Trade Minister Pierre Pettigrew today released Canada's detailed proposals on how the World Trade Organization (WTO) can become more transparent and open to the public.

The proposals, to be presented to WTO members this week, describe a series of both short-term and long-term actions that WTO members can take to ensure that global citizens better understand the WTO's mandate and are more engaged in its agenda.

"We believe that a greater window onto the WTO will promote public understanding of the benefits of trade, and the importance of clear and equitable rules governing how countries trade with each other," said Minister Pettigrew. "At the same time, WTO members and the WTO system of agreements will benefit from the views of the global public."

Canada's paper makes specific recommendations to WTO members, including:

• webcasting Canada's upcoming trade policy review in December;
• the "de-restriction" and public release of working papers and agendas;
• the public release of submissions in dispute settlement cases (as Canada already does);
• the creation of links on the WTO Web site to non-governmental organizations (NGOs);
• expanded outreach, focussing on meetings involving NGOs;
• regular meetings of WTO member parliamentarians; and
• the creation of ad-hoc advisory boards to provide non-binding expert advice.

Canada's proposals build on its March 2000 paper that outlined how the WTO could be more open by improving communication among WTO members and between the WTO and the public. Both papers reflect Canada's ongoing consultations with the provinces and the public.

Both papers are available on the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Web site at http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/tna-nac/wto-e.asp#canada. The paper presented today is attached.

- 30 -

For further information, media representatives may contact:

Sylvie Bussières

Office of the Minister for International Trade

(613) 992-7332

Media Relations Office

Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade

(613) 995-1874

WTO EXTERNAL TRANSPARENCY

Informal Paper by Canada

Canada believes that a greater window onto the World Trade Organization (WTO) will better enable the public to appreciate the benefits of liberalized trade and the clear and equitable rules that serve as the foundation of the international trading system. At the same time, we believe WTO members and the WTO system of agreements would benefit from the views of the global public.

In that light, we support efforts to explore how members could enhance the transparency of the WTO, share and improve the WTO's analytical work, hear new ideas, and build the WTO's vision on the basis of a broad range of inputs. We propose that members consider what we can do to improve external transparency in all WTO bodies, including the General Council, Councils/Committees, Working Groups, and dispute settlement proceedings.

Shorter Term

Dialogue with the Public: Enhancing Transparency of Trade Policy Reviews

Building on our March 2000 proposal that members consider opening trade policy reviews to accredited observers from the public (e.g. non-governmental organizations - NGOs and journalists), Canada has since proposed that members agree to webcast Canada's interim trade policy review in December 2000 (see: WT/TPR/W/26 dated July 13, 2000).

The trade policy review process involves the participation of WTO member governments only, although observers at the General Council are allowed to attend the meetings of the Trade Policy Review Body. While participation at the meeting itself is limited, the review is well publicized and the reports are published. There are press conferences held by the Chair, and occasionally, by the member reviewed. There are also press releases, and the Chair's Concluding Remarks, the Secretariat's Summary Observations, a summary of the Government Report, and minutes of the meeting are all posted on the Web site.

Canada's proposal to webcast its trade policy review would not change this process. The contents of a trade policy review are all made public eventually, but instead of waiting to review the proceedings in the printed report, the public would be electronic witnesses to the actual discussions. Webcasting would provide the public with a greater understanding and appreciation of the WTO peer review process, the purpose of which is to make members' trade policy regimes more transparent and understandable.

Webcasting is similar to a television broadcast. Cameras would record Canada's trade policy review and broadcast it via the Internet for viewers to observe on their computers. Webcasting Canada's trade policy review would help promote transparency in the WTO and promote a positive image of the organization. Canada believes that it would enhance the quality of discussions between members and provide a progressive example of the WTO's openness to sharing the nature and benefits of its work with the public.

At the same time, webcasting would preserve the intergovernmental nature of the peer review mechanism. Interested stakeholders, the media and members of the public would be able to view the proceedings on a computer screen in their home or office, wherever they may be around the globe, but would not make interventions or ask questions.

The Canadian proposal is aimed solely at Canada's own trade policy review in December. It does not set any precedent or create obligations for other members to webcast their trade policy reviews, or any other meeting of the WTO for that matter. Canada is prepared to bear the costs of the webcast of its review, given that this expense was not foreseen in the current WTO budget.

Dialogue with the Public: Access to Documents

Canada recognizes the importance of confidentiality in negotiations and intergovernmental discussions. At the same time, we believe adopting a liberal document de-restriction policy would help to inform domestic constituencies in a more open and timely manner and provide for constructive debate.

Canada therefore reiterates its proposal that Secretariat working papers, formal contributions from members and draft meeting agendas be circulated, with very limited exceptions, as unrestricted documents. Documents that need to be restricted should, in principle, be automatically derestricted after no longer than 6 months. In addition, Secretariat-produced minutes of meetings and notes of discussions should be considered for de-restricting three months after the date of their circulation, provided they are available in all three WTO languages. Many of these documents currently remain restricted for six months. This is unnecessarily long.

With regard to trade policy review documentation, we propose that members ask the WTO Secretariat to explore the feasibility of making the entire text of both the Secretariat and Government reports available for sale on-line on the WTO's public website on the day of the review. This would allow the WTO to continue to generate revenues from its reports, while providing the public with immediate access to the information instead of making them wait for hard-copy publication.

Dialogue with the Public: Web Site

The WTO Web site is an excellent resource for members and the public, and improving it should be an ongoing priority. Among other things, an enhanced Web site should make it easier to access unrestricted documents.

To improve understanding of the perspectives of NGOs, including the private sector, not-for-profit groups, environmental organizations, community organizations, etc., and building on existing NGO information in the "community/forums" section of the WTO Web site, Canada proposes the WTO consider establishing a Web page that "hotlinks" directly to trade-related NGO Web sites. The WTO Secretariat could form an ad-hoc committee open to all members to decide which NGO Web sites should be hotlinked, and to update those hotlinks as required.

NGOs with Web sites hotlinked to the WTO site should be encouraged to translate their papers into all three WTO languages. The WTO site should post a disclaimer clarifying that hotlinks are provided for the purposes of openness and transparency only, and that the WTO and its members do not endorse the information or opinions on NGO sites.

Transparency in Dispute Settlement

Canada posts on its Web site background information regarding its position on the WTO disputes in which Canada is a complaining or defending party. We also make our Panel and Appellate Body submissions available to the public upon request. We encourage other members also to make their submissions public, and to seek further ways to improve transparency in WTO dispute settlement proceedings.

Dialogue with the Public: WTO Outreach

We reiterate our proposal that a portion of the WTO Secretariat budget be allocated to fund regular outreach initiatives, such as symposia, workshops and improvements to the WTO Web site. Funding for this program should be "regularized" to facilitate long-term planning. Monies spent would improve public understanding of the WTO and its mandate -- something of benefit to all members.

We also propose that the outreach budget be used for more frequent and more structured meetings and contact between the Secretariat, members, journalists and NGOs. This ongoing dialogue should be used to share and improve the analytical work being undertaken by WTO Committees, Working Groups and the Secretariat. The Secretariat should also encourage academics, trade policy analysts and NGOs to share with the public their views on the benefits of trade liberalization and rule making, for example at conferences, through print and electronic media, and via the WTO Web site.

Dialogue with the Public: Experimenting with New Ideas

Canada notes that the Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade, the Council for Trade in Goods, and the Information Technology Agreement Committee have all held symposia with NGOs. The Committee on Trade and Environment (CTE) pioneered NGO symposia, and is the only Committee to issue detailed reports on its meetings in the form of a press release shortly after each meeting. We encourage other WTO bodies also to experiment with ways to open up to the public on the full range of issues addressed by the WTO.

Specific ideas for WTO bodies to test could be:

• convening annual meetings to which NGO observers are invited, and/or to which they may make written submissions that contribute to or respond to the analytical work of the WTO body in question; and
• convening a series of relatively small "dialogues" with members, academics, media and NGOs to tackle focussed issues. Such meetings could produce non-binding reports that are then fed back to inform debate and analytical work. This was done on a larger scale last year by the CTE and the Committee on Trade and Development. Some dialogues could be held outside Geneva to facilitate NGO attendance.

Longer Term

Involving Member Governments: Parliamentarians

Canada strongly supports creating a mechanism for parliamentary input into international trade policy debates. As trade policy increasingly intersects with areas of social or economic policy dear to our citizens, Canada wants to ensure that elected representatives' views inform intergovernmental debates on the best means of accommodating multiple ends.

In this context, we believe members should explore proposals for regular informal meetings of WTO member parliamentarians, perhaps once every year. Such meetings would be a valuable complement to members' discussions, but would not prejudice in any way members' prerogatives. We would want to consider what the structure or mandate of such meetings would be. The Geneva-based Inter-Parliamentary Union could be asked to organize them.

Advisory Boards

Only WTO members have the authority to make decisions at the WTO on the rights and obligations of members. Canada strongly supports this principle. At the same time, Canada believes that outside voices, particularly from experts in specialized areas, can provide valuable advice to members.

To manage this advice in a transparent and efficient way, members could authorize the WTO Secretariat to create ad-hoc advisory boards to provide non-binding advice on a variety of issues, e.g. trade and sustainable development, e-commerce, etc. These boards could be composed of individuals and/or NGOs (including the private sector, not-for-profit groups, environmental organizations, community organizations, etc.). Depending on the issue at hand, advisory board meetings could be held at the level of the Director General, Secretariat officials, General Council (Ambassadors), or subsidiary bodies. Membership in any ad-hoc advisory board would have to reflect a broad range of views and considerations. One- or two-day meetings could be held once or twice a year. Different organizations or individuals could be invited to attend different meetings, depending on the issues to be discussed. To ensure internal transparency, WTO members and chairs of the different Committees and Councils would be invited to participate in all meetings, and all discussions and recommendations would be reported to all members immediately.

We note that the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation process, the World Intellectual Property Organization and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development have all had some success in establishing advisory boards. We suggest the Secretariat research the experiences that these and other international organizations have had in establishing advisory boards. Following on this research, members would want to consider, inter alia, what issues should be studied, how advisors should be selected, what the cost implications would be, and whether advisors should be appointed on a temporary or permanent basis.