G/L/1505  
G/SCM/167  
 
30 October 2023  
(23-7300) Page: 1/3 
Council for Trade in Goods  
Committee on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures    
 
REPORT TO THE COUNCIL FOR TRADE IN GOODS  
ON IMPROVEMENTS IN THE FUNCTIONING OF  
THE COMMITTEE  ON SUBSIDIES AND COUNTERVAILING MEASURES  
 
1  INTRODUCTION  
1.1.  This report is being prepared at the request1 of the Council for Trade in Goods (CTG). All CTG 
subsidiary bodies were asked to produce written reports summarizing their discussions and 
describing the improvements  they had agreed  on. On 30 June 2023, the CTG Chair held a meeting 
with the Chairs of the  subsidiary bodies  at which all Chairs were requested to submit their reports 
no later than in the first week of November  2023, and to ensure that all improvements made since 
the conclusion of MC12 were appropriately reflected in those reports . 
1.2.  Reference i s made to document G/L/1449 – G/SCM/162  containing the report submitted by 
the Chair of the Committee on 28 November 2022 - under the Chair's  own responsibility - to the 
CTG on the functioning of the Committee. T he report reflected the concrete actions adopted by the 
Committee over the past years to improve its work , provided an overview of the reforms that ha d 
already been introduced and where the Committee st ood at the time  with respect to past actions 
and discussions . Based on what was contained in this report and in all other subsidiary bodies ' Chairs 
reports, the CTG Secretariat circulated on 11  January  2023 a "Comparison Matrix" contained in 
document G/C/W/824  providing a general overview of the main elements that seem ed to be 
comparable across the report s. A revised version of the said Matrix was circulated in document 
G/C/W/824/Rev.1 . 
1.3.  The discussions on the reform of the functioning of the Committee started under other business 
in the regular autumn meeting of the Committee in October 20222. At that meeting, the Chair of the 
Committee remarked on the then-ongoing consultations at the level of the General Council and the 
CTG regarding WTO reform , indicated that all  subsidiary bod ies were tasked to see what has been 
done in their respective areas and explore ways to improve their daily functioning and better deliver 
on their respective mandates . The Chair of the Committee also referred to the consultations held by 
the Chair of the CTG with delegations and with the Chairs of the CTG's subsidiary bodie s and the 
request by the CTG Chair to all those Chairs to submit – under their own responsibility – reports on 
the current functioning of their different Committees.  
1.4.  It should be noted that this report covers all the improvements introduced in the Committe e 
since the conclusion of MC12 in June 2022 following the extensive discussions by Members and with 
a view to better respond to its mandate and its terms of reference.  
2  PROCESS AND PROPOSALS  
2.1.  The following summarizes the key procedural aspects and proposals considered:  
a. The discussions were conducted in an informal mode at the regular spring Committee 
meeting in May 20233, and at the joint informal meetings of the Committees on 
 
1 JOB/CTG/29  and JOB/CTG/33 . 
2 G/SCM/M/121 . 
3 G/SCM/M/123 . G/L/1505 • G/SCM/167  
 
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  Anti-Dumping Practices, Safeguards and Subsidies and Countervailing Measures ("the 
three Committees") held on 20 June and 2 October 2023.  
b. The Secretariat was instructed by the Committee to explore four specific issues and report 
back to the Committee, while three additional issues remained under Members' 
consideration. A l ist of all seven issues was circulated in document RD/SCM/62  following 
the regular spring Committee meeting in May 2023 and was the basis for the discussion 
conducted in the joint informal meeting of the three Committees held on 20 June 2023.  
c. The discussions at the joint informal meeting of the thr ee Committees held on 
20 June 2023 have resulted in the approval, through a written procedure, of four reform 
steps. A document describing these agreed reforms was circulated in 
G/ADP/32  - G/SCM/165  - G/SG/284 .  
d. One additional issue remained under the consideration of the three Committees and was 
circulated in document RD/ADP/37  - RD/SG/67  - RD/SCM/64 . This remaining issue was 
further discussed at the joint informal meeting of the three Committees  held on 
2 October  2023 (RD/ADP/39  - RD/SG/69  - G/SCM/67 ). The discussions at that meeting 
have resulted in the approval, through a written procedure, of this remaining issue. A 
document reflecting this agreed step was circulated in G/ADP/33 – G/SCM/166 – 
G/SG/285 . 
e. Furthermore, a proposal  circulated in document RD/SCM/634, which pertains to the 
formation of an informal technical discussion group on items under the SCM Agreement, 
was presented for consideration. This proposal was discussed at the informal meeting of 
the SCM Committee held on 2 October 2023 in conjunction with the joint informal meeting 
of the three Committees, referred abov e. As agreed at that informal meeting, the proposal 
was placed on the agenda of the regular meeting of the Committee held on 
27 October  2023 for further discussion.   
  
 
4 The latest version of the d ocument can be found in RD/SCM/63/Rev.2 . (Revisions 1 and 2 are 
additions of co -sponsors.)  G/L/1505 • G/SCM/167  
 
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  3  IMPROVEMENTS ON THE FUN CTIONING OF THE COMMITTEE  
3.1.  As a result of these discussions, the Committee agreed to implement five changes with a view 
to improving its functioning, including where the Secretariat was requested to introduce  changes to 
the way in which it supports the work  of the Committee.  
3.2.  The improvements approved by the Committee are as follows:  
General area  Improvements in the functioning of the Committee on 
Subsidies and Countervailing Measures  
[A. Assistance to delegates]  • Training sessions on the functioning of the Committees will be 
held twice a year, the first of which to be held in September  2023 
[moved to October for logistical reasons]. The presentations 
made and the audio recording of those sessions will be made 
available on the relevant WTO webpages for Members to consult.  
[B. Planning and organization of 
meetings]  • The meeting weeks of the regular and special formal spring and 
autumn meetings of the Committees for the following year shall 
be proposed in the annotated draft agendas of the Oct ober 
meetings.  
• The use of the following features of the e -Agenda:  
- (i) uploading Members' statements and  
- (ii) facilitating access to relevant documents for meetings  
The use of such features is to be made available on a trial -basis 
starting in the Spring Rules Committees of 2024 until Spring 
Rules Committees of 2025. This will be reviewed at the Rules 
Committees' meetings of Spring 2025 to decide whether to 
extend the trial period or to continue using, on a permanent 
basis, these features or any oth er features of the e -Agenda 
agreed upon.  
[C. Reporting of formal meetings]  • Minutes should be provided, in the current reported style, as 
soon as feasible after the meetings without compromising on the 
quality of the minutes produced. The Minutes, once fin alized, will 
be circulated to the membership even before the deadlines for 
written answers to written questions have passed. If these 
answers to questions are submitted within the deadlines, after 
the circulation of the Minutes, an addendum to the Minutes will 
be issued. In order to facilitate this process, Members are 
encouraged to provide their written statements to the Secretariat 
after the meetings without delay. The Secretariat may continue 
to explore artificial intelligence tools to produce minutes as  better 
ones become available.  
• The current summary of the formal meetings, produced in the 
form of a News item as approved by the Chairs of the 
Committees, would continue to be produced by the Secretariat . 
 
4  PENDING ISSUES AND NEXT STEPS  
4.1.  At the informal me eting of the Committee held on 2 October 2023, it was agreed to place the 
proposal circulated in document RD/SCM/63 , on the agenda of the regular meeting of the Committee 
as of 27 October 2023 for further discussion. More discussion took place on this proposal at the 
regular meeting of 27 October 2023. While t here were several Members expressing  support for the 
proposal , there were also others who have raised some questions and concerns . Following the 
discussions , the Chair noted th at Members  would need more time to discuss this proposal . 
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