WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  RESTRICTED 
TN/CTD/M/16 
4 May 2004 
 (04-1953) 
Committee on Trade and Development 
Sixteenth Special Session  
 
 
 
NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 1 APRIL 2004 
 
Chairperson:  H.E. Mr. Ransford Smith (Jamaica) for items A-B 
and. Mr. Faizel Ismail (South Africa) for items C-D 
  
Subjects discussed: 
 
A. ADOPTION OF THE DRAFT AGENDA  ............................................................................................ 1  
B. ELECTION OF THE CHAIRPERSON  ................................................................................................ 1  
C. WAY FORWARD AND STRUCTURE OF FUTURE WORK ................................................................ 2  
D. OTHER BUSINESS  ........................................................................................................................ 4  
 
 A. A
DOPTION OF THE DRAFT AGENDA  
1. The draft agenda for the meeting as contai ned in airgram WTO/AIR/2273 of 17 March 2004 
was adopted. 
 
B. ELECTION OF THE CHAIRPERSON  
2. The Chairman informed Members that the consu ltations held by the outgoing Chairman of the 
General Council on the slate of officers for the diffe rent WTO bodies had resulted in the proposal to 
nominate Mr. Faizel Ismail, Head of the South Afri can delegation to the WTO,  as chairperson of the 
Special Session of the Committee on Trade and Devel opment (Special Session) in 2004, and proposed 
his election. 
3. The Committee accordingly elected Mr. Faizel Ismail of South Africa as Chairman of the 
Special Session. 
4. Introducing Mr. Ismail, the outgoing Chairman said that he had been Head of the South 
African Delegation to the WTO since April 2002.  His background in law and development had led to 
his holding of a large number of prominent posi tions, including in the Department of Trade and 
Industry in South Africa.  He had been a consultant  to the Minister of Trade during the period 1994 to 
1995 and had been co-ordinator of a large number of projects including the ANC Policy Team on International Trade; the Department of Trad e and Industry team to the National Economic, 
Development and Labour Committee (NEDLAC);  the restructuring and building of the new South 
Africa international trade relations and export prom otion divisions; and the South African Substance 
Team responsible for hosting UNCTAD IX.  He said that, as many Me mbers were aware, Mr. Ismail TN/CTD/M/16 
Page 2  
 
 had also been the chief negotiator for South Africa for a number of important negotiations.  In 2003, 
he was the Chairman for the Annual General Meeti ng of the International Trade Centre.  He added 
that Mr. Ismail's experience would be invaluable in  his work as Chairman of the Committee and that 
he would provide strong leadership in taking the work on special and differential treatment (S&D) 
forward.   
5. The Chairmanship of the Committee was handed over by Ambassador Smith of Jamaica to 
Mr. Ismail of South Africa.  
6. In his opening remarks, the incoming Chairman  thanked Ambassador Smith for his tireless 
efforts and perseverance in steering the work of th e Special Session and said that it was a pleasure for 
him to take forward that challenge.  He recalled the effort put in by Ambassador Smith and Members 
in the Special Session before the i ssue was referred to the General C ouncil in February 2003.  In what 
had been a difficult process it was clear that Members would not have made the progress that they had, had it not been for Ambassador Smith's dedicat ion and perseverance.  He expressed the hope that 
the Special Session would continue to benefit from his knowledge and experience on S&D in the 
months ahead.  He said that for many Members, S&D was at the heart of the Doha Development 
Agenda (DDA) and the proposals that they had tabl ed conveyed their expectation and hope that the 
WTO would continue to build a positive relationshi p between trade and development.  In essence that 
would require all Members to continue to build th e multilateral trading system into an equitable, 
balanced rules based system that was supportive of the economic developm ent and integration of 
developing countries into the multilateral trading syst em.  He said that he was dedicated to working 
with Members to advance that objective and that Memb ers needed to continue to build and nurture the 
WTO and the multilateral trading system into a global public good that was valuable to all. 
 
C. W
AY FORWARD AND STRUCTURE OF FUTURE WORK 
7. The Chairman said that, as indicated by the Airgram, he intended to largely devote the 
meeting to discussing the way forward and the structur e of the Special Session's future work.  He said 
that he would initially give an overview of wh ere the work programme stood; share some thoughts 
with Members; and then listen to their views on how  the Special Session should structure its work in 
the coming months so as to ensure progress in that  area.  It went without saying that the Work 
Programme on S&D was an important component of  the DDA and movement in that area would have 
a positive impact on the Doha negotiations as a whole.   He was certain that Members realised that 
aspect of their work.  He said that as Members were aware, paragraph 44 of the Doha Ministerial 
Declaration reaffirmed that "provisions for special a nd differential treatment are an integral part of the 
WTO Agreements" and directed that "all special and differential treatment provisions shall be reviewed with a view to strengthening them and making them more precise, effective and 
operational".  In addition, paragraph 12 of th e Decision on Implementation-Related Issues and 
Concerns had mandated Members "to report to the General Council with clear recommendations for a 
decision by July 2002".  However, Members could not bridge their differences on most of the 
proposals by that time and failure to meet that dead line had led to a further extension of the deadline 
to 31 December 2002.  However, by that tim e Members could agree to make recommendations on 
only 4 Agreement-specific proposals.  Lack of ag reement on most of the other Agreement-specific 
proposals and on the 'way forward' resulted in th e deadline being further extended to 10 February 
2003, by which time Members could agree to make  recommendations on a further eight Agreement-
specific proposals, bringing the total number of recommendations on which ther e was an in-principle 
agreement to 12.  However, differences remained on whether or not those should be harvested.  Thus, 
in the Committee's February 2003  report to the General Council, Members had agreed to recommend 
that the General Council take note of the reco mmendations on the Agreement-specific proposals on 
which Members had agreed in-principle and revert to  the question of their adoption to a later date.  
Members also recommended that the General C ouncil provide clarification, as it considered  TN/CTD/M/16 
 Page 3 
 
 
 appropriate, regarding pa ragraph 44 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration and pa ragraph 12 of the 
Decision on Implementation-Related Issues and Con cerns.  The General Council took note of the 
report and of the statements that were made, and ag reed that the Chairman of the General Council, in 
coordination with the Chairman of the CTD in Sp ecial Session, would undertake consultations on how 
to move the process forward.   
8. He continued by saying that in pursuance of that mandate and on the basis of consultations 
that he had held, the Chairman of the Genera l Council had proposed an approach based on two 
fundamental premises, namely that all the Agre ement-specific proposals remained on the table and 
would be addressed; and that an informal categoriz ation of the proposals was essential in order to 
address them in an efficient manner.  He said that after lengthy and protracted consultations Members 
had been able to agree on a number of Agreement- specific proposals.  Accordingly, Annex C to the 
Draft Ministerial Text sent to the Cancún Minist erial Conference contained 24 recommendations by 
Members for specific action on 25 Agreement-specific proposals.  That progress was reflected in paragraph 11 of the revised Draft Ministerial Text, which provided for the adoption of the decisions in 
Annex C of that text.  It also provided for work on the proposals referred to negotiating or other WTO 
bodies to be continued therein, under the close m onitoring of the General Council, and for work on 
the remaining Agreement-specific proposals, as well as on all other outstanding issues, to be carried 
out in the Special Session.  As a result of the c oncerns expressed by some Members about the number 
of recommendations contained in Annex C of the Draft Ministerial Text, a further three 
recommendations were included in Annex C at Canc ún.  However, like the draft Ministerial text, 
Annex C too was not adopted at the Cancún Mini sterial Conference and the 28 recommendations on 
which there was an in-principle agre ement, were yet to be adopted.   
9. He went on to say that after having been desi gnated as Chairman of the Special Session, he 
had gone through all the Agreement-specific proposal s and had held a number of informal bilateral 
consultations.  Based on his analysis of the propo sals and the views expressed informally by some 
Members, he had attempted to make a brief assessment of the Work Programme on S&D with the 
objective of seeing how best to make progress and overcome the existing impasse.  In his view, the 
debate held to date on S&D had not been produc tive, in the sense that it had not yielded any 
significant results.  He said that the discussions ha d been polarised and had given rise to divergent 
perspectives not only in relation to the proposals themsel ves, but also with respect to the process.  He 
felt that it was therefore important to unlock that impasse by identifying possible areas of 
convergence, something which would depend on Memb ers' political will, flexibility and creativity.  
He said that while he had some ideas on how to pr oceed, ideally he wished to hear Members' views on 
how they wished to take the Work Programme on S&D forward.  In that context, he posed three 
questions to Members.  First , he asked what Members wished to  do with the proposals on which there 
had been an in-principle agreement; second, he asked how Members believed the current discussions 
on S&D could be made more productive;  and third,  he asked Members their suggestions as to the 
way forward so as to fulfil the Doha mandate of ma king S&D more precise, effective and operational.  
10. He continued by saying that he was more than willing to hear any preliminary comments that 
Members might have, even though he intended to expl ore the issues related to those questions in 
detail in further informal consultations both plur ilateral and open-ended that  he would hold with 
Members.  That would enable Members to explore how they could continue their work and address 
those areas of convergence that they could adva nce on.  With a view to having a frank and open 
exchange of views on the way forward and the stru cture of the Special Session's future work, he 
proposed that the meeting move into informal mode.   
11. The meeting continued in an informal mode.   
12. During the informal consultations Members expressed broad support for the Chairman's 
approach.  However, there was some divergence  of views on what to do with the package of TN/CTD/M/16 
Page 4  
 
 28 proposals.  Some Members felt that even thoug h a lot of work had been done on the Agreement-
specific proposals, there were still a large number of proposals that had not been addressed.  These 
Members also believed that the proposals should be further strengthened, something that would help 
the proponents regain confidence in the process.  However, other Members were of the view that 
future work should build upon the progress that ha d already been made and that the package of 
28 proposals represented an area of convergence that  should be adopted as soon as possible, and in 
any case definitely as part of any package that Member s may agree to adopt in July 2004.  They also 
felt that reopening the proposals would not be productive. 
13. With respect to how the debate on S&D could proceed more productively, a large number of 
Members expressed the need to examine the link betw een trade and development and for the work on 
S&D to follow a more horizontal approach.  It was al so stated that there w as a need to move away 
from the mechanical process that Me mbers had been involved in and to find a new approach to the 
work on S&D.  The importance of any package th at may evolve by July to include a strong 
development component was stressed and it was stated that even t hough the framework on 
Agriculture and NAMA would contain an S&D component it would be important for the work that 
had been done in the Special Session to be harvest ed and included in that package.  Some Members 
mentioned the importance of addressing some of  the underlying horizontal issues such as the 
incorporation of S&D into the architecture of WTO rules; the monitoring mechanism;  the objectives 
and principles of S&D treatment; the special needs of particular groups of countries, etc.  These 
Members believed that a discussion on some of  these cross-cutting issues would help provide 
solutions to the remaining Agreement-specific proposals.  However, other Members expressed 
concern about discussing cross-cutting issues, since that could lessen the focus of the work on the 
Agreement-specific proposals.  These Members also said that they had always had reservations about the cross-cutting issues and had been willing to di scuss them only after progress had been made on the 
mandate to make the S&D provisions more  precise, effective and operational.   
14. The Chairman thanked Members for a useful discussion which he believed had provided him 
with a better understanding of the issues involved.  He reiterated his intention to hold informal 
consultations over the coming months based on the questions he had raised and through the 
discussions on which he hoped substantive progress c ould be made.  He proposed that the meeting 
revert to formal mode to deal with the last agenda item. 
15. The meeting then reverted to formal mode.   
 
D. O
THER BUSINESS  
16. Since no issue had been proposed for discussion under that agenda item the Chairman 
thanked Members and adjourned the meeting. 
 
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