WTO Market Access Committee Discusses Reform Efforts
The World Trade Organization's Committee on Market Access during its Oct. 16-17 meeting discussed ways to revise the committee's functioning and agreed to carry out a thematic session on supply chain resilience in November, the WTO said.
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The committee adopted three elements to boost the functioning of the formal meetings: closing the agenda 15 days before formal meetings to allow delegates more time to prepare; ordering trade concerns on the agenda, adding new ones above those previously raised; and adding a new default option for statements in the eAgenda, making them automatically available to all other members following the meeting. The 12th Ministerial Conference requires WTO committees to look into reform efforts for MC13, scheduled for February.
Committee on Market Access members also supported holding an introductory session Nov. 21 on supply chain resilience to "better understand what is meant by supply chain resilience in order to provide members with a conceptual framework from which they can take up some topics and develop them" within the committee's framework. The committee also addressed 34 trade concerns and the status of WTO members' notification of quantitative restrictions.