IMPLEMENTATION OF THE DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE ASPECTS OF THE

COTTON-RELATED DECISIONS IN THE 2004 JULY PACKAGE AND
PARAGRAPH 12 OF THE HONG KONG MINISTERIAL DECLARATION

Item 2C - Coherence between Trade and Development Aspects:
Update on the Development Aspects of Cotton

Report of the 28^th Round of the Director-General's

Consultative Framework Mechanism on Cotton^[1]

17 November 2017

1  INTRODUCTion

1.1  The 28^th Round of the Director-General's Consultative Framework Mechanism on Cotton (DGCFMC) was held on 17 November 2017, under the chairmanship of Deputy Director-General Ambassador Alan Wm. Wolff.

1.2  The Chairman acknowledged all participants and welcomed the opportunity of chairing meetings of the DGCFMC on behalf of the Director-General. He also noted that the development assistance aspects of cotton were a particularly positive example of WTO cooperation.

1.3  He brought to the attention of participants the revision of the provisional agenda for the DGCFMC. The agenda included a proposed new item 6 on "Cotton Development Assistance Projects", which had been added to the agenda following a request by the Cotton-4^[2] (C-4), and as discussed at a Quad Plus meeting on 2 November 2017.

1.4  He stated that the proposed new agenda item 6 was in line with the WTO mandate on cotton development assistance, as contained in paragraph 10 of the Bali Ministerial Decision on Cotton^[3] and paragraph 11 of the Nairobi Ministerial Decision on Cotton^[4], which call for effective assistance and for least-developed countries (LDCs) to continue identifying their needs linked to cotton or related sectors, including on a regional basis. He also recalled relevant suggestions made by the C‑4 and other Members, including on the need for enhanced private sector participation at DGCFMC meetings and the desirability of having well-substantiated discussions under agenda item 6.

1.5  The Chairman stressed that this new agenda item would add tangible value for beneficiaries, donors and partners of cotton development assistance projects and programmes. Indeed, beneficiaries could use the DGCFMC as a platform for presenting project proposals and testing their potential to be funded, while donors and partners could use it to discuss impacts and lessons learned from on-going and concluded cotton development assistance projects and activities.