. /.RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONTN/CTD/W/11
9 July 2002
(02-3809)
Committee on Trade and Development
Special SessionOriginal:  English
ELEMENTS FOR REPORT TO THE GENERAL COUNCIL ON SPECIAL AND
DIFFERENTIAL TREATMENT
Communication from Japan
The following communication, dated 2 July 2002, has been received from the above
delegation.
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Elements for Report to the General Council on Special and Differential Treatment
I. GENERAL REMARKS
1. WTO Members have held discussions on special and differential (S&D) treatment under the
mandate of paragraph 44 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration, which has brought home to us the
necessity of examining the following issues.
2. WTO Members will continue making efforts to send recommendations to the General Council
towards the end of July.  However, it is quite unrealistic and difficult to agree on some concrete
measures on individual provisions concerning the proposals from Africa and other countries.
Therefore, we need to discuss which elements should be included in the July recommendation.  It may
include appropriate place and direction of further work towards additional recommendations by thetime to be agreed upon the remaining issues.
II. CONCRETE ELEMENTS
3. Principles and Objectives of S&D Treatment
(a) It is necessary to make special and differentiated consideration towards developing
Members.
(b) It is important to maintain the integrity of the WTO Agreements as trade rules.
(c) If exemption or reduction of obligations of the WTO Agreements will be admitted, it
should be provisional, not permanent.  Its ultimate objectives should be to integrate
effectively developing Members into the multilateral trading system.
(d) Flexible treatment will be necessary according to development stage, capability and
particular necessity of the developing Members.TN/CTD/W/11
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4. Progress report on the discussion of the Committee on Trade and Development (CTD)
Special Session
(a) Discussion on the major proposals submitted so far.
(b) Update of the utilization of each S&D provision.
5. Important notice for further study after July
(a) Clarify appropriate place for study on each S&D treatment provision.
(i) In case that there is a relevant negotiating body, it will be taken up, as
appropriate, at the negotiating body.  It is necessary to make an input from
the CTD into each negotiating body and vice versa.
(ii) In case that there is not a relevant negotiating body, it will be taken up, as
appropriate, at each Committee.
(b) How to set up the procedure or monitoring mechanism concerning utilization of the
S&D treatment provisions?
(i) It needs to discuss whether to set-up a new monitoring mechanism.  If so,
under which kind of Terms of Reference should be formulated for the
mechanism.
(ii) The core element of the monitoring mechanism may be to make input and
feedback efficiently between the CTD and each negotiating body or relevant
Committee.
(iii) It also needs to examine how to cooperate with the existing Sub-Committee
on Least-Developed Countries (LDCs) co ncerning the issues related to the
LDCs.
(c) Direction of future study
(i) To clarify S&D treatment provisions into some categories such as exemption
or reduction of obligations, capacity building according to their contents, then
to make further examination.
(ii) To study how to make S&D treatment provisions more operational after
examining the present state of play.
(iii) To identify which trade-related technical assistance/capacity-building
(TRTA/CB) will be further needed after monitoring the past achievement of
the various TRTA/CB and to reflect it on the future TRTA/CB activities of
the WTO without obligating developed Members financially and personally.
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