./.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/GC/W/522 
12 December 2003 
 (03-6602) 
General Council 
15, 16 and 18 December 2003 Original:   English 
 
 
 
SINGAPORE ISSUES:  THE WAY FORWARD 
 
Joint Communication from Bangladesh (on behalf of the LDC Group), Botswana, China,  
Cuba, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Philippines, Tanzania,  
Uganda, Venezuela, Zambia and Zimbabwe  
  
 The following joint communication, dated 12 December 2003, is being circulated at the 
request of the Delegations of Bangladesh (on be half of the LDC Group), Botswana, China, Cuba, 
Egypt, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Nige ria, Philippines, Tanzania, Uganda, Venezuela, 
Zambia and Zimbabwe.  
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1. In the Doha Ministerial Declaration (paragraphs  20, 23, 26 and 27), relating to the Singapore 
issues, Ministers stated that negotiations will take place after the Fifth Session of the Ministerial Conference on the basis of a decision to be taken, by explicit consensus, at that Session on the 
modalities of negotiations.  It is thus clear that a decision on modalities, by explicit consensus, is 
required before negotiations can commence.   Certain elements  were identified for clarification, 
besides which Members were free to raise other issues  of relevance.  A work programme on each of 
these issues was adopted, which was to be comp leted in the period until the Fifth Session. 
2. However, during this period, various elements  relating to each of the four issues remained 
unclear.  More importantly, there was significant divergence of views among Members on each of the 
Singapore issues.  A group of countries, in res ponse to the Chairman’s Draft Ministerial Text 
(Job(03)/150/Rev.1), indicated, in their Minister ial Conference document (WT/MIN(03)/W/4 dated 
4 September 2003), the various elements that need to be clarified in respect of each of these issues. 
3. At the Cancún Ministerial Conference, discussi ons on the Singapore issues were held under  a 
Facilitator.  A large number of devel oping country Members expressed concern, inter alia, about the 
impact that multilateral rules on the four Singa pore issues would have on their domestic polices and 
the fact that they have  neither  the negotiating resources nor the  capacity to implement obligations, 
which such multilateral rules will entail.  A revised  text was produced by the Chairman of the  Cancún 
Ministerial Conference (Job (03)/150/Rev.2 da ted 13 September 2003).  The revised text on 
Singapore issues, however, did not address the concerns of the majority of Members, who expressed their strong opposition to it.  As a consequence, no decision was taken at the Cancún Ministerial 
Conference by explicit consensus on the modalities of negotiations on any of the four Singapore 
issues.  The Ministers, in their Statement (WT/MIN(03)/20) adopted on 14 September 2003, 
instructed officials to continue work on outsta nding issues and asked the Chairman of the General 
Council, working in close co-operation with the Dir ector General, to co-ordinate this work.  The 
Ministers also stated, “We will bring with us into this new pha se all the valuable work that has been 
done at this Conference. In those areas where we ha ve reached a high level of convergence of texts, 
we undertake to maintain this  convergence while working for an acceptable overall outcome.”    WT/GC/W/522 
Page 2  
 
 4. Subsequent to the Cancún Ministerial Confer ence, the Chairman of the General Council has 
held informal discussions with Delegations on these issues.  However, the fact remains that on all 
these issues, there continues to be significant divergence of views among Members, and in the 
absence of explicit consensus, there is no basis for the commencement of negotiations. 
5. Article III:2 of the Marrakesh Agreement Esta blishing the WTO makes it clear that “the 
WTO shall provide the forum for negotiation among its Members concerning their multilateral trade
 
relations.....”.  The core competence of the WTO li es in trade in goods and services.  The co-sponsors 
of this paper believe that  binding disciplines on Singapore issues  would certainly not only curtail the 
policy space for developing countries but  would also entail high costs, which many developing 
countries cannot afford at their present level of deve lopment.  Moreover, due to continued division 
over such a long period among Members on the status  and substance of the Singapore issues and in 
the interest of early completion of this round of  negotiations, we should concentrate our efforts first 
and foremost on issues  of core competence of the WTO namely , agriculture, non-agricultural market 
access, services and development issues. 
6. It is also important to note  that in the Green Room process at Cancún, one major  proponent of 
the Singapore issues was willing to drop further work  on two issues, namely, Trade and Investment 
and Trade and Competition Policy.  During further di scussions in the Green Room  meeting, it became 
clear that there was no consensus on the need fo r any multilateral disciplines on Transparency in 
Government Procurement and hence, there was a sugg estion that further work on this issue may also 
be dropped.  The co-sponsors of this paper, therefor e, are of the view that all further work on Trade 
and Investment, Trade and Competition Policy and Tr ansparency in Government Procurement should 
be dropped. 
7. With regard to Trade Facilitation, work on clar ification of various aspects of this issue may 
continue in the light of the interest expressed by several Delegations.  However, this work should be 
carried out in parallel with the other segments of the Doha Work Programme and there should be no 
attempt to seek an early harvest on Trade Facilitati on in advance of progress on core issues in Doha 
Work Programme.  This work must  also address the points raised by a group of developing and least 
developed countries, which are contained in Ministerial Conference document (WT/MIN(03)/W/4 dated 4 September 2003) such as cost of compliance, justification of any binding rules subject to the 
DSU, commitment for provision of technical and fi nancial assistance to meet the cost of compliance 
and implementation of any possible multilateral frame work.  Furthermore, after completion of the 
clarification process , a decision would need to be taken on the modalities, by explicit consensus,  
before negotiations can commence. 
8. The co-sponsors would also like to make it clear  that they are against the efforts for the 
adoption of a plurilateral approach in resp ect of any multilateral issues because such an  approach is 
systemically unsuitable for a consensus-based multila teral organisation like the WTO.  A plurilateral 
approach could lead to a two-tier system of me mbership, which would be contrary to the basic 
character of the WTO. 
 
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