G/L/1500  
G/ADP/34  
 
26 October 2023  
(23-7236) Page: 1/3 
Council for Trade in Goods  
Committee on Anti -Dumping Practices    
 
REPORT TO THE COUNCIL FOR TRADE IN GOODS  
ON IMPROVEMENTS IN THE FUNCTIONING OF  
THE COMMITTEE ON ANTI -DUMPING PRACTICES  
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/1447 - G/ADP/30  containing the report submitted by the 
Chair of the Committee on 28 November 202 2 - 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 "Comparis on Matrix" contained in 
document G/C/W/824  providing a general overview of the main elements that seem ed to be 
comparable across the reports . 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 
business2 in the regular autumn meeting of the Committee in October 2022. 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 consultat ions held by the Chair of the CTG with delegations and with the Chairs of 
the CTG's subsidiary bodies 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 Co mmittees.  
1.4.  It should be noted that this report covers all the improvements introduced in the Committee 
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 
Anti-Dumping Practices, Safeguards and Subsidies and Countervailing Measures ("the 
three Committees") held on 20 June and 2 October 2023.  
 
1 JOB/CTG/29  and JOB/CTG/33 . 
2 G/ADP/M/62 . 
3 G/ADP/M/63 . G/L/1500 • G/ADP/34  
 
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  b. The Secretariat was instructed by the Committee to explore four specific issues and report 
back to t he Committee, while three additional issues remained under Members' 
consideration. A list of all seven issues was circulated in document RD/ADP/36  following 
the regular spring Committee meeting in May 2023 and was the basis for the discussion 
conducted in the j oint informal meeting of the three Committees held on 20 June 2023.  
c. The discussions at the joint informal meeting of the three Committees held on 
20 June 2023 have resulted in the approval, through a written procedure, of four reform 
steps. A document desc ribing 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 .  
  G/L/1500 • G/ADP/34  
 
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  3  IMPROVEMENTS ON THE FUNCTIONING 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 i ntroduce changes to 
the way in which it supports the work of the Committee.  
3.2.  The improvements approved by the Committee are as foll ows: 
General area  Improvements in the functioning of the Committee on 
Anti-Dumping Practices  
[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 October 
meetings.  
• The use of the following features of the e -Agenda:  
- (i) uploa ding 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 other 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 finalized, will 
be circulated to the membership even before the deadl ines 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 m eetings, produced in the 
form of a News item as approved by the Chairs of the Committees, 
would continue to be produced by the Secretariat . 
 
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