Negotiating formats

Important negotiating breakthroughs are rarely made in formal meetings with all members and even less so in meetings attended by high level representatives, such as Ministerial Conferences. Multiple meetings/consultations are held to hammer out the outlines of accepted proposals before deals are submitted for adoption.

Delegations thereby use formal and informal meeting formats. Formal meetings take place in the negotiating bodies and include the entire membership of the WTO. The formal setting is used by delegations to put on record their positions and views. They are also used to bring to the knowledge of the entire membership the results of informal consultations and to eventually confirm decisions reached in these consultations. Informal meetings take place with varying configuration in terms of memberХs participation. It is common practice to hold informal open-ended consultations with all members. At the same time, consultations can also be held in small groups of selected members.

The advantage of small group consultations is that the number of members in the negotiations is reduced. The downside of these settings, however, is that members can feel excluded. Developing countries raised strong concerns about the practices of small group consultations during the Ministerial Conference in Seattle. Not being part of many of these consultations, they felt that their possibility to defend their interests and obtain information on the process was restricted. Small group meetings are still used, but with a more careful approach and concern for transparency.

The Director-General usually holds his informal consultations with heads of delegations in a small room adjacent to its office. These consultations are commonly known as "Green Room" consultations, the ТGreen RoomУ being an expression taken from the informal name of the Director-GeneralХs conference room. It is used to refer to meetings of 20Р40 delegations, usually at the level of heads of delegations. These meetings can take place elsewhere, such as at Ministerial Conferences, and can be called by the minister chairing the conference as well as the Director-General.

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