WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  RESTRICTED 
TN/CTD/M/47 
5 November 2012  
 
(12-6097) 
Committee on Trade and Development 
Forty-Seventh Special Session  
 
 
 
NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 13 JULY 2012 
 
Chairman:  Ambassador Kwok Fook Seng (Singapore) 
 
 
A.  ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA  ......................................................................................................... 1  
B.  REPORTING ON WORK UNDERTAKE N OVER THE PAST FEW MONTHS  ........................................... 1  
C.  OTHER BUSINESS  ......................................................................................................................... 4  
 
 
A. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA  
1. The agenda as contained in Airgram WTO/AIR/3975 of 2 July 2012 was adopted. 
B. REPORTING ON WORK UNDERTAKE N OVER THE PAST FEW MONTHS  
2. Under this agenda item, in accordance with th e principle of inclusiveness and transparency, 
the Chairman reported to Members on developments which had taken place since his assumption of 
the Committee's Chairmanship in March 2012.  He e xplained that he had decided to continue for one 
cycle of meetings in the format inherited from hi s predecessors, so as to gain some insight to the 
dynamics of the Special Session of the Committee on Trade and Development (Special Session), as 
well as to the status and viability of the various cl usters of work.  The current transparency meeting 
had come at the end of his first cycle of meetings and from that point onwards, all of the Chairman's 
informal consultations would be on an open-ended basis, for which he would always circulate a 
schedule in advance.   
3. He went on to update Members about the five small-group private informal consultations he 
had held on 25 May, 15 June, 29 June, 2 July and 6 July 2012.  Recalling the Ministerial instructions 
at the Eighth WTO Ministerial Conference (MC8), he informed Members that at the meeting on 
25 May, he had consulted with Members on how to structure work in the Special Session.  Members 
had agreed to work in parallel on three cl usters:  the Monitoring Mechanism (MM); the 
28 Agreement-specific proposals in Annex C of the dr aft Cancún Ministerial Declaration;  and the six 
Agreement-specific proposals relating to the Sanita ry and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) Agreement 
and the Agreement on Import Licensing Procedures.  Since June 2012, Members had been meeting on 
a weekly basis on Friday mornings, focussing thei r work interchangeably on the above-mentioned 
three clusters.  So far as the Category II proposal s which had been referred to other WTO bodies and 
negotiating groups were concerned, Members had ag reed that the Chairman would hold informal 
consultations with the Chairs/Secr etaries of the respective bodies, to  determine if some form of 
housekeeping was necessary and how progress coul d be achieved in that area.  On the 
28 Agreement-specific proposals, he informed Memb ers that discussion had proceeded on the basis of 
a neutral Matrix that the WTO Secretariat had prepar ed at the request of Members.  The Matrix was 
aimed at initiating the stocktaking exercise by helpin g Members consider whethe r those proposals that 
had been agreed to, in principle, in 2003, had been  impacted by the passage of time and developments TN/CTD/M/47 
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  elsewhere in the WTO, and if so, what bearing that could have on their adoption.  He stated that the 
small group had completed a first reading of the 28 Agreement-specific proposals and discussions had 
witnessed a positive and constructive engagement by Members.  He emphasized that the first reading 
of these proposals had been a frank exchange of vi ews and national positions.  While there had been 
divergences in Members' positions on how they vi ewed these proposals, it had nonetheless enabled 
them to identify the proposals where some upda ting might be necessary before their possible 
adoption.  Having said that, the Chairman further noted that the African Group had asked for some 
time to coordinate their response.   
4. On the MM, he informed Members that based on the views he had heard in his bilateral and 
informal consultations, he had decided to seek wr itten inputs from the Members so as to adequately 
reflect the textual suggestions, expressed previ ously, in the small-group consultations.  Having 
received these inputs, he had incorporated these textual proposals in a new compilation produced 
under his own responsibility, and cons ultations proceeded on that basis.  Thus far, Members had only 
been able to discuss the preambular part of the MM and the first section on the Scope of the 
Mechanism.  On the Preamble, a spectrum of vi ews had been expressed by Members on the mandate 
of the Mechanism.  The Chairman believed that once Members had developed a shared view on what 
the desired operational objectives could be for th e MM, progress on the mandate and other elements 
of the MM would follow automatically.  He also  noted that in order for Members to develop a 
common understanding on this issue, he had hoste d an informal off-the-record discussion among 
interested Members at his Mission on 2 July 2012 , that was attended by 15 delegations.  Those 
discussions, he believed, had been useful and he intended to con tinue with a parallel process of 
bilateral, plurilateral a nd broad-based informal consultations to supplement the negotiating work in 
the Special Session.   
5. On the six Agreement-specific proposals, the Ch airman stated that he had had one round of 
negotiations on 6 July 2012 at which the propo sal on Article 10.3 of the SPS Agreement was 
discussed.  He had detected a clear difference in view s on the level of acceptability of the existing text 
among Members.  As such, he had asked Members to  resubmit, in writing, their positions/views that 
had been previously voiced in earlier meetings, but  which, in their view, had not been adequately 
reflected in the text.  He had also expressed his preference to confine this exercise to only those 
proposals that had been made in the Chairman's pr ivate informal consultations.  Members were told 
not to introduce new proposals.  Based on the inputs received, the Chairman had produced a 
non-paper that captured those positions, and since then, that non-paper had formed the basis of further 
work.  The Chairman reported that a positive a nd constructive discussion had been witnessed on those 
proposals.  Members agreed that it was more impor tant to discuss and converg e conceptually on what 
the proposal on Article 10.3 sought to achieve in term s of special and different ial treatment (S&D).  
Members had a shared objective to work towards a precise decision that could be both effective and 
clearly implementable in the SPS Committee.  On his own responsibility, the Chairman had updated 
the text on the proposal, and distilled the key areas of convergence into a ch art to focus future 
consultations on the underlying issues contained in the proposal.  After the summer break, he intended 
to circulate the latest version of his non-paper to all Members, with th e hope that Members could 
engage to achieve convergence on issues contained th erein.  He also indicated the possibility of 
consulting the Secretary of the SPS Committee to have a better understanding on the operationality 
and effectiveness of the proposal. 
6. In the discussion that ensued, speaking on beha lf of the African Group, the representative of 
Egypt recalled that at the start of the Doha Round,  the African Group had requested a thorough review 
of the concept of S&D so as to facilitate creating a level playing field for all players in the multilateral 
trading system.  The Group had sought, as part of this review of the S&D regime in the WTO, the 
establishment of a MM on S&D so that S&D provisions in all WTO Agreements and those that would 
transpire out of the Doha Development Agenda (D DA), could be kept under regular review, with a 
view to strengthening them and making them mo re precise, effective and operational.  On the  TN/CTD/M/47 
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  Agreement-specific proposals, he noted that, to  date, most, if not all of the proposals under 
Category II that had been referred to other WTO bodies, had hardly been reviewed or strengthened 
and hence the concern, often voiced, that the in terests of the African Group had been adversely 
affected.  There was also a lack of consensus on th e future of those proposals.  He proposed that all 
outstanding Category II proposals be  brought back to the Special Session for review.  On the six 
Agreement-specific proposals that were currently be ing discussed in the Special Session, it was the 
African Group's view that its text was fairly st abilized.  He also expressed the Group's disappointment 
at some Members' attempts to b acktrack on the last language considered on those proposals.  On the 
28 Agreement-specific proposals contained in Annex C of the draft Cancún Ministerial Declaration, 
there had been a shared view among Members that th ose proposals were agreed, in principle, and that, 
therefore, the Group believed they could be harvested as soon as possible.  The African Group 
believed that the 28 Agreement-specific propo sals should be adopted without reopening, and 
renegotiation of the text.  He also thanked th e Secretariat for preparing the Matrix on the 
28 Agreement-specific proposals, as it indicated devel opments that might have affected six of the 
28 proposals.  The African Group was open to factual updating of those six proposals in light of the 
mandate given at the MC8.  However, he cautioned against any attempt to renegotiate them, as it was 
neither part of the mandate, nor acceptable to them.  On the MM, he recalled that the African Group's proposal for establishing the MM had been the basis of the work in this area in the Special Session.  
The Group had been of the view that the Mechanism should be able to review all the S&D provisions 
that currently existed in the WTO Agreements, as well as those that would transpire as a result of the 
Doha Round.  Unfortunately, after ten years of  negotiations, nothing had been adopted from the 
original 88 Agreement-specific proposals under review , except for the five adopted at the Hong Kong 
Ministerial Conference in 2005.  He reminded Member s that during the informal meeting held at the 
Singapore Mission, which had been dedicated to discussion on the mandate of the MM, the African Group had reiterated that the mandate of th e MM emanated from Paragraph 44 of the Doha 
Ministerial Declaration as well as Paragraph 12 of the Doha Decision on Implementation-Related 
Issues and Concerns.  This was fundamental to any discussion on the mandate of the MM.  On the 
matter of process, he emphasized that the African Gr oup would need more time to consult internally 
and with capitals so as to meaningfully participat e in the consultations.  This would mean slowing 
down the process, taking into account the capacity-rel ated constraints faced by the African Group and 
the LDCs. 
7. In responding to some of the issues raised by the African Group, the Chairman noted that on 
the issue of back-tracking with regard to the six Agreement-specific proposals, he had taken a 
pragmatic approach, as it was clear that if the so -called stabilized text was not acceptable to all 
delegations, Members would get no agreement.  Stop ping short of judging or pronouncing on what his 
predecessors had done, he stated that sometimes differe nt Chairs held different levels of optimism or 
pessimism on the status of a text, and would present views as such to the TNC or the General Council.  
In his view, it was important to build bridges and take on board all concerns conclusively so that 
Members could work towards something that was acceptabl e to all.  It had been in that spirit that he 
had invited Members to submit their previously ex pressed textual suggestions that they felt had not 
been captured in the text.  Though not many Me mbers had taken advantage of this opportunity, 
nonetheless five Members, including the proponents th emselves, had tabled some textual suggestions.  
These contributions had been incorporated in th e revised texts, prepared by him on his own 
responsibility on both the MM and the six Agreement-sp ecific proposals.  Members, thereafter, had 
engaged on the basis of those revised texts in a positive and constructive spirit.  On the 28 proposals 
contained in Annex C of the draft Cancún Minist erial Declaration, he sensed a convergence among 
Members on not reopening and rene gotiating them.  This was also in line with his personal 
understanding of the Green Room discussions prior to MC8, where there ha d been agreement that 
Members would undertake a stocktake and not a renego tiation of the proposals.  This stocktake was in 
recognition of the fact that almost ten years had elapsed since Cancún and certain developments could have impacted on these proposals.  In addition, some of these 28 Agreement-specific proposals had 
been made before any substantive work had begun on  some of those issues in other WTO bodies.  In TN/CTD/M/47 
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  this regard, the Matrix prepared by the Secretaria t on those proposals was quite helpful.  While the 
Secretariat's Matrix had identified six proposals that had been so affected by developments over time, 
during the first reading of the Matrix, some Memb ers had felt that there could be some other 
proposals that might have been affected by devel opments since Cancún.  Nonetheless, as a result of 
this work, Members currently had a clearer picture of each other's positions but were yet to decide on 
what they wanted to do in terms of the formal stoc ktake.  He had planned to have one more round of 
discussions and listen to Members' views before proposing the way forward in terms of a formal 
stocktaking exercise.  On the MM, he noted th e proponent's position on the mandate and emphasized 
that Members would continue to have  a parallel discussion on this issue.  He also stated that he took 
serious note of the African Group's request for slow ing down the pace of work, allowing more time 
for them to work on these issues.  He had realized th e need to slow down in both formal and informal 
meetings and in conversations that he had with many African Ambassadors.  He informed Members 
that he had scheduled another meeting with the e xperts of the African and LDC Groups the following 
week and that this issue, among others, would f eature in those discussions.  Based on his discussions 
with both these Groups, he would plan post-summer wo rk for the Special Session.  It was likely that 
the schedule after summer would be less intensive than  the weekly meetings that had been scheduled 
in the past months, in recognition of the need for more time for the proponents to respond and 
coordinate their positions. 
8. The representative of the United States thanked the Chairman for his report.  He stated that on 
the MM, Members had made progress over the past coupl e of years and his delegation agreed with the 
Chairman's view that although Members held differe nt views with regard to the Preamble and the 
mandate, if Members continued to focus on what th ey wanted the MM to do, that might ultimately 
help to bridge the gaps on this issue.  On th e Agreement-specific proposals, his delegation thought 
that Members had had a very constructive discu ssion.  Focussing on the six Agreement-specific 
proposals, while leaving the Category II proposals where they currently were, was a good approach to follow.  On the 28 proposals agreed, in principle at  Cancún, the Matrix prepared by the Secretariat 
was a good starting point.  On the African Group's proposal to slow down the pace of work, his 
delegation was flexible and in the hands of the Chairman. 
9. The representative of the European Union supporte d the Chairman's summary of the status of 
work and recognized the concerns expressed by Egyp t pertaining to the pace of the work in the 
Special Session.  She agreed that giving more time  to the African Group could be instrumental in 
ensuring the Group's meaningful engagement in the discussions.   
10. The Chairman clarified that the current pace of  work had been set for certain reasons.  Many 
Members had expressed the views, over time, portfo lios had changed hands, not just at missions in 
Geneva but also in capitals, and the issues concerne d had not been discussed for some time.  He had 
thought it important that Members acquaint themselv es with the issues before the summer break.  This 
objective had been achieved to a certain extent.  As Members prepared to move into the substance, it 
was his intention to move at a pace convenien t to all and that would allow meaningful and 
constructive engagement.  Accelerating the pace of  work for its own sake could ultimately be 
counter-productive.  The pace of wo rk needed to be set in a way in which all Members could come 
prepared with their various positions.  For group coor dinators to do that, they needed adequate time.  
He indicated that he would circulate an indicativ e schedule of work for September onwards prior to 
the summer break. 
11. The Chairman proposed that the Special Session take note of the statements made. 
C. OTHER BUSINESS  
12. Under this Agenda item, the Chairman clarif ied that the various texts under consultation 
currently held the status of "Chair's non-pape r", and that they were produced under his own  TN/CTD/M/47 
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  responsibility and did not yet have any formal status .  He intended to circulate them as negotiating 
texts and as formal documents of the Special Session when they achieved sufficient level of maturity 
and convergence.  He noted that the Secretariat has thus far received one request for the texts to be 
translated into Spanish.  He sought Members' understanding and cooperation th at that would not be 
possible for texts that were still not formal and onl y held the status of "Chair's non-paper".  For 
pragmatic reasons, he thought leaving them as they  were would be the most meaningful way for 
Members to continue work at the current stage.   With regard to efficient communication with 
Members, he stated that it was important that Members communicate an accurate and updated list of 
fax numbers and email addresses to the Secretariat as well as to other Members.  During the past five 
meetings involving 43 Members in the small-gr oup format, the Secretariat had, at his request, 
increased the use of emails.  All communications fro m the Chair had been sent to email addresses 
provided by Members during the meetings, with the Chair himself included in the email address list.  This had facilitated a greater level of transpar ency, and a speedy channel for any Member to 
communicate with the Chair and other Members in the group at the same time.  This had also helped 
in promoting a positive and constructive spirit in the negotiations.  Therefore, while the official 
convening faxes for formal meetings  would continue to be faxed out to Members, the additional email 
option provided a very efficient wa y for Members to work with each ot her.  Therefore, he requested 
that all Members at the current meeting provide their preferred email addr esses and fax numbers so 
that the Secretariat could compile a master list of contact details which could be used for speedy and 
efficient communication to all. 
13. As no Member had raised any issue under other business, the meeting was adjourned.  
 
  
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