REPORT ON THE WTO RESPONSE TO THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC
AND PREPAREDNESS FOR FUTURE PANDEMICS[1]

REPORT BY THE COUNCIL FOR TRADE IN GOODS AND ITS SUBSIDIARY BODIES

1   INTRODUCTION.. 1

2   STOCKTAKING IN THE GOODS AREA. 2

2.1   Transparency / Notifications / Voluntary Communications. 2

2.2   Trade Concerns. 5

2.3   Dedicated/Experience‑Sharing Sessions. 5

2.4   Input from External Stakeholders. 8

2.5   Secretariat Information Notes. 9

2.6   Relevant Outcomes. 9

3   LESSONS LEARNED AND CHALLENGES EXPERIENCED IN THE GOODS AREA. 10

3.1   Improving coordination and cooperation at different levels. 10

3.2   Understanding trade-related measures during crises. 10

3.3   Enhancing transparency and experience-sharing at the WTO. 10

3.4   Improving data collection and sharing information. 11

3.5   The role of digitalization. 11

3.6   Identify "essential" goods and their tariff classification. 11

1  INTRODUCTION

1.1.  This report has been prepared by the Council for Trade in Goods (Council or CTG) pursuant to paragraph 24 of the "Ministerial Declaration on the WTO Response to the COVID‑19 Pandemic and Preparedness for Future Pandemics" (_WT/MIN(22)/31), which was adopted as part of the MC12 package. This paragraph provides as follows:

24. Relevant WTO bodies^[2] will, within their fields of competence, and on the basis of proposals by Members, continue or initiate work as soon as possible, to analyze lessons that have been learned and challenges experienced during the COVID‑19 pandemic. A stocktaking exercise will be taken of the work by WTO bodies under this declaration yearly at the General Council until the end of 2024, based on the reports of those relevant bodies.

1.2.  On 22 June 2022, the Secretariat issued a report on the "WTO Secretariat's Work in the Context of the COVID‑19 Pandemic" (_WT/MIN(22)/34).

1.3.  In September and early October 2022, following MC12, the Chairperson of the CTG consulted bilaterally with Members on how they wished to implement the different outcomes of MC12, including on the WTO response to the Pandemic. At an informal meeting of the Council that took place on 14 October 2022, the Chairperson reported on his consultations (_JOB/CTG/16) and, on this issue, noted that, while some Members had considered that it would be useful to engage in technical discussions of a horizontal nature, in particular because the CTG oversaw the work of the five Committees mentioned in the footnote to paragraph 24, other Members had found it premature to engage in such discussions.

1.4.  Since Members had expressed an interest at that meeting to better understand the work that had been undertaken in the aforementioned bodies[3], on 25 October 2022, the Chairperson of the CTG requested the 14 Chairpersons of the CTG's subsidiary bodies to prepare reports, under their own responsibility and with the assistance of the Secretariat, on the WTO response to the Pandemic and the current functioning of their Committees.[4] In addition, the Chairperson of the CTG also prepared his own reports on this issue. The reports listed in Annex 1 were discussed by Members at the informal meeting of the Council that took place on 31 January 2023.

1.5.  This report compiles information on the work undertaken by the CTG and its 14 subsidiary bodies[5] between the years 2020 and 2023 concerning their response to the COVID‑19 pandemic and preparedness for future pandemics. It is largely based on the reports that were prepared by the Chairpersons of the CTG's subsidiary bodies, but also includes new developments in those bodies up until July 2023.