WT/GC/W/829  
 
18 October 2021  
(21-7879) Page: 1/3 
General Council  Original: English  
 
A SMOOTH TRANSITION PACKAGE IN FAVOUR OF MEMBERS GRADUATING  FROM  
THE LDC CATEGORY  
COMMUNICATION FROM  CHAD ON BEHALF OF THE LDC GROUP  
The following communication , dated 17 October 2021 , is being circulated at the request of the 
delegation of Chad on behalf of the LDC Group.  
 
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1. Since the creation of the Least Developed Country (LDC) category, in 1971, only six countries 
have managed to leave the category. In recent years, however, the trend towards graduation 
has a ccelerated. Today, 16 countries formally meet the LDC graduation criteria. Four of 
them - Angola, Bhutan, Sao Tome & Principe, and Solomon Islands – are already scheduled 
to leave the category by 2024. Another five including Bangladesh, Kiribati, Lao PDR, Nepal, 
and Tuvalu have been recommended for graduation by the Committee for Development Policy 
(CDP) and endorsed by the ECOSOC. Myanmar and Timor -Leste met the criteria for two or 
more consecutive times but the recommendation by the CDP has been deferred.  Finally, 
Cambodia, Comoros, Djibouti, Senegal, and Zambia have met the graduation criteria for the 
first time. Besides those 16 countries, another 10 have already met one graduation criteria at 
the 2021 triennial review, bringing the number of countries o n a firm path to graduation to 
26, including 19 WTO Members out of a total of 35 WTO LDC Members.  
2. While this represents a significant achievement, leaving the LDC category also implies that 
graduating countries lose access to the LDC -specific international  support measures (ISM), 
which have contributed to their socio -economic development. In recognition of this challenge, 
UN General Assembly Resolutions 59/209 of 2004 and 67/221 of 2012 on smooth transition 
invites all Members of the WTO to consider extendi ng to graduated countries the existing 
special and differential treatment measures and exemptions available to LDCs for a period 
appropriate to the development situation of the country. The resolutions also invite LDCs 
trading partners to establish procedu res for extending or phasing out preferential market 
access over a certain period. The COVID -19 outbreak significantly reinforces this need as the 
pandemic risks undoing many of LDCs ' development achievements so far.  
3. In December 2020, the LDC Group circula ted a draft Ministerial decision on "Trade -related 
Challenges of the LDCs and Way Forward " (WT/GC/W/807). As envisaged in the UN 
resolutions, the text proposed a formal smooth transition procedure in the WTO, by extending 
all support measures benefitting L DCs for a period of twelve years after their graduation.  The 
draft decision also called on Members granting unilateral trade preferences to LDCs to have 
procedures in place for extending and gradually phasing out their preferential market access 
scheme aft er LDC graduation. This submission has received support from a wide range of WTO 
Members and remains firmly on the table.  
4. In light of the limited amount of time available before the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference, it 
may however be difficult to achieve a final consensus on such a package. Given the critical 
importance of this topic and the need to achieve concrete deliverables at MC12, the LDC Group 
is proposing an interim arrangement for smooth LDC transition by calling on Members granting 
LDCs unilateral  trade preferences, to have procedures in place to extend and gradually phase 
out their preferential market access scheme for graduated countries over a period of six to 
nine years. The draft decision also proposes to instruct the Sub -Committee for Least -WT/GC/W/829  
 
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  Developed Countries to prepare a package of support measures in favour of the LDCs after 
their graduation and report to the General Council at its first meeting in 2023. Overall, this 
proposal tries to accommodate some of the concerns raised by Members in d iscussions so far. 
It clearly states as a principle, however, that any support package must apply automatically, 
equally, and unconditionally to all graduated LDCs for a uniform period of time after 
graduation.  
5. Agreement on this decision would be an impor tant contribution to remedy the difficult 
circumstances that graduating LDCs encounter. It would also represent a concrete contribution 
of the multilateral trading system to fostering the advancement of previous UN Resolutions 
ahead of the UN LDC V Confere nce scheduled in January 2022, in Doha, Qatar.  
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  WT/GC/W/829  
 
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  ANNEX  
Draft Ministerial Decision  
The Ministerial Conference,  
 
Having regard to paragraph 1 of Article IX of the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade 
Organization (WTO);  
 
Recalling the Programme of Action for the Least Developed Countries (LDCs) for the Decade 2011 –
2020, adopted at the Fourth United Nations Conference on the Least Developed Countries, held in 
Istanbul, Turkey in 2011, in which Member States committed to ass isting LDCs with an overarching 
goal of enabling half of them to meet the criteria for graduation by 2020;  
 
Recalling further UN General Assembly Resolutions 59/209 of 2004 and 67/221 of 2012 on smooth 
transition for countries graduating from the list of l east developed countries inviting all Members of 
the World Trade Organization to consider extending to graduated countries the existing special and 
differential treatment measures and exemptions available to least developed countries for a period 
appropria te to the development situation of the country;  
 
Taking note  of document WT/GC/W/807 circulated by the LDC Group at the General Council on the 
challenges faced by graduating LDCs;  
 
Recognizing  the need to establish an effective procedure supporting the smooth transition of 
graduated LDCs towards their new status, through extending the LDC -specific trade -related support 
measures over a reasonable period of time;  
 
Decides  as follows:  
 
Unilateral trade preferences in favour of LDCs  
1. Members granting unilateral trade preferences to least developed countries shall seek to have 
procedures in place to extend and gradually phase out their preferential market access scheme 
over a period of six to nine yea rs after the entry into force of a decision of the UN General 
Assembly to exclude a country from the least developed countries category.  
Package of support measures in favour of graduated LDCs  
2. We instruct the Sub -Committee for Least -Developed Countries to prepare a package of 
support measures to be applied to any LDC Member from the effective date of its graduation 
following a UN General Assembly decision excluding that Member from the LDC category, and 
to report to the General Council at its first meeting in 2023.  
3. The package of support measures referred to in paragraph 2 shall apply automatically, equally 
and unconditionally to all graduated LDCs for a uniform period of time after their exclusion 
from the LDC category.  
4. Support  measures covered under the package shall include:  
i. WTO provisions and decisions related to special and differential treatment or exemption 
in favour of LDC Members;  
ii. LDC specific technical assistance and capacity building facilities provided under the WTO 
system;  
iii. Any other relevant measure or exemption in favour of LDCs.  
 
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