report (2019) of the committee on trade and development

1  introduction

1.1.  This report covers the work of the Committee on Trade and Development (CTD) in 2019. An overview is provided of the work of the CTD's Regular Session, the Dedicated Session on the Monitoring Mechanism on Special and Differential Treatment, the Dedicated Sessions on Regional Trade Agreements and Small Economies, the CTD's work on Aid for Trade, and the work of the Sub‑Committee on Least Developed Countries.^[1]

2  regular session

2.1.  The CTD in Regular Session held three formal meetings on 5 April (108^th Session), 28 June (109^th Session) and 22 November 2019 (110^th Session). The minutes of these meetings are contained in documents WT/COMTD/M/108, WT/COMTD/M/109 and WT/COMTD/M/110^[2], respectively.

2.2.  Members agreed to continue to invite a number of intergovernmental organizations on an ad hoc meeting-by-meeting basis. A full list of intergovernmental organizations with observer status in the Committee is contained in document WT/COMTD/W/22/Rev.8. The CTD continues to have outstanding requests for observer status from the League of Arab States, the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the Gulf Organization for Industrial Consulting (GOIC), the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie, the Common Fund for Commodities (CFC), the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries (OAPEC) and the Groupe de la Banque Africaine de Développement.

2.3.  At the 108^th Session, a briefing was provided by the Chairperson of Sub-Committee on Least Developed Countries – Ambassador Monique T.G. Van Daalen (Netherlands) – on the work of the Sub-Committee. At the same meeting, the Committee re-elected Ambassador Van Daalen as the Chairperson of the Sub-Committee for 2019. Ambassador Chad Blackman (Barbados) was elected Chairman of the CTD.

2.4.  Also, at the 108^th Session, the Committee agreed to implement new document symbols for notifications and subsequent documentation relating to regional trade agreements (RTAs) and preferential trade arrangements (PTAs), so as to have a document structure similar to that used by the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements (CRTA).