WTO TA PLAN: INFORMAL CONSULTATIONS

Brussels, 4 February 2004

Background

During the discussions on the approval of the WTO TA plan for 2004, the EC and its
Member States expressed concerns about a number of important issues regarding
planning and implementation of TRA by the WTO Secretariat. As it was recognised that
many of the issues raised by the EC and its Member States could not be remedied at
once, the Committee on Trade and Development at its meeting of 27 November 2003
approved the TA plan for 2004 but decided simultaneously that in the first half of 2004
informal consultations between Members and the WTO Secretariat would be held with
the aim to address the issues raised. The WTO Secretariat identified the following
issues for further consultations:

• Consideration of a process of conducting country by country needs assessments.

• How can LDC’s be better and more fully associated with the technical assistance
activities?

• Monitoring and evaluation, including considering the possibility of conducting an

external evaluation and establishing terms of reference of such a process.

• How to undertake periodic assessments and how to report to the Members, including
through the quarterly reports.

• How best to exploit partnerships with other organisations, which could be addressed
in relation to outsourcing.

• Academic partnerships and the potential for long term capacity building.

• Issues relating to funding (including the issue of access to the Trust Fund)

The first informal consultations took place on 23 January 2004. This meeting was
devoted to the planning of future work. It was decided to first take up the issues of needs
assessment and monitoring and evaluation. These issues will be discussed in an
informal meeting that will be scheduled four to six weeks after the first meeting. Other
issues will be discussed at a later stage. The EC and its Member States have made it
clear that they want to address all the issues before the work on the TA plan for 2005
will start. Conclusions on all the issues should be presented at the mid term review of
the 2004 TA plan, which should take place in May and June 2004.

The delivery of TA by the WTO Secretariat is an important element of the DDA process.
Moreover, satisfactory implementation of WTO Technical Assistance is important for the
EC and its Member States as they committed by far the largest amount of funding to the
Doha Development Agenda Global Trust Fund (about 60%). Since the EC and its
Members States have taken the initiative for this consultative process, substantive input
from our side will be expected. We will therefore need to participate in the discussions
on the basis of a well prepared position. Since most of the issues at hand are complex, it
may be helpful to table informal papers before the meetings. As has been practice in the
recent past, the EU position on this issue will be co-ordinated in Geneva. At those co-
ordinations, possible papers prepared by the Commission will also be discussed.
Below, a general line is set out on each of the issues of needs assessment and
monitoring and evaluation. A line on other issues identified for future consultations will
be suggested as the need arises.

Needs assessment

A needs assessment is the identification of the main constraints for trade policy and
trade in general of a country and a prioritization of the issues that need to be addressed.
A needs assessment is a necessary condition for making TRA more effective and
sustainable. Therefore, every trade related assistance programme should be based on a
proper assessment of the needs of the beneficiary country. Ideally the trade strategy
resulting from the needs assessment will be integrated into the overall development
policy of a country (mainstreaming). In doing so, trade related activities will contribute
more effectively to poverty alleviation. Presently, the Integrated Framework approach is
reflecting the best practice on needs assessment and mainstreaming.

WTO TA activities are relatively small. No more than three activities at the national level
take place each year per WTO Member. In order to make the WTO activities more
effective, they should be embedded in a wider approach to ensure coherence with other
activities and with past and future WTO assistance (cumulative approach). If the
country involved is an IF country, the IF action matrix would provide the right framework
for the WTO activities. For the time being, the IF is limited to LDC’s. However, in other
developing countries other tools which contain a stock take of trade (policy) needs may
be available. The Commission is currently funding diagnostic trade integration studies
for Kenya and the Caribbean region. Recent WTO Trade Policy Reviews also contain
good analysis of trade policy needs. Unfortunately the TPR process is prioritising the
review of countries with a large share in world trade.

The needs assessment for WTO TA activities should be undertaken in two steps. As a
first step the WTO Secretariat could assist the country concerned in establishing to what
extent an adequate needs assessment has already been carried out, e.g. by conducting
a desk study of the material already available. If no adequate needs assessment is
available, the WTO Secretariat and the country could identify ways to get a needs
assessment done. The solution and format of the needs assessment can differ from
country to country. Donors and agencies could be involved to support the process. The
WTO Secretariat has recently launched “trade clinics” which will be used to assist a
number of countries to assess their TRA needs. This initiative merits our support.

The next step would be to formulate requests for WTO TA which are derived from the
assessment. In formulating these requests, it would be useful to take previous requests
into account in order to ensure a cumulative approach towards capacity building.

Evaluation and Monitoring

The WTO Secretariat is preparing quarterly and yearly implementation reports. In

addition a report of the internal technical co-operation audit is issued on a yearly basis.
The DG also reports on an ad hoc basis, for instance to Ministerial Conferences. The
quarterly reports are mostly of a quantitative nature. The best qualitative assessment is
contained in the report of the internal technical co-operation audit. This report also
shows the limitations the WTO is facing in monitoring and evaluation of the TRA
implementation, mainly as a result of inadequate financial and personnel resources.
More in-depth knowledge of the quality of the implementation of TRA by the WTO
Secretariat and the value of the activities for the beneficiary country can only be
provided through an external evaluation. Several EU member states have indicated an
interest in funding such an evaluation. Apart from the standard elements of an
evaluation such as relevance, quality and cost effectiveness of the activities, the
external evaluation could also advise on how to improve internal monitoring and
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reporting as well as on other issues relating to the management of the programme. The
external evaluation could start in the end of 2004 and could review the WTO Technical
Assistance in the first three years of the existence of the Doha Development Agenda
Global Trust Fund (2002-2004).

In the mean time internal monitoring can already be improved. An important element
that needs to be examined is the way existing information on the implementation of TA
is being used to provide feed back for improving the activities. In other words, how can
the WTO make best use of lessons learned in its subsequent programme
implementation? It is suggested that the WTO Secretariat reports to Members on this.