WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/CTD/13 
29 July 2005 
 (05-3397) 
Committee on Trade and Development 
Special Session  
 
 
SPECIAL SESSION OF THE COMMITTEE ON  
TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT 
 
Report by the Chairman, Mr. Faizel Ismail (South Africa),  
to the General Council  
 
 
I. INTRODUCTION 
 
 The July 2004 Decision reaffirmed that provisions for special and differential (S&D) 
treatment are an integral part of the WTO Ag reements and directed the Special Session to 
expeditiously complete the review of all the out standing Agreement-specific proposals and report to 
the General Council with clear recommendations for a decision, by July 2005.  The Special Session 
was also instructed to address all other outstandi ng work, including on the cross-cutting issues, the 
monitoring mechanism and the incorporation of S&D treatment into the architecture of WTO rules, 
and report, as appropriate, to the General Council.  In addition, th e General Council instructed the 
WTO bodies to which Category II proposals had been  referred, to expeditiously address them and 
report to the General Council with clear recommenda tions for a decision no later than July 2005. 
 
II. STATUS OF WORK 
  Since the adoption of the Ju ly Decision, the Special Sessi on of the Committee on Trade and 
Development (Special Session) held 5 formal mee tings on 28 October, 7 December 2004, 8 February, 
6 April & 10 May and 19 July 2005.  A large num ber of informal meetings were also held. 
  The initial consultations mainly focussed on possible approaches that would take the S&D 
Work Programme forward, as well as to elicit Members'  views on what they wished to do with the 
28 Agreement-specific proposals that they had earlie r agreed to in principle.  During these 
discussions, most Members felt that addressing the remaining Agreement-specific proposals in the 
same way as had been done in the past was unlikely to result in any progress.  They felt that it would 
be more productive if the underlying issues that th e proposals were seeking to address were identified 
and the proposals then discussed on the basis of thei r categorisation into thematic clusters.  With 
respect to the package of 28 Ag reement-specific proposals, a number of Members expressed the need 
to strengthen the package before considering its  adoption.  There were, however, differences in 
perception about what would constitute a stre ngthened package.  Some Members felt that 
strengthening the package required reopening it and revisiting some of the proposals in order to make them more precise, effective and operational;  others, however, felt that the package already 
represented recommendations that Members had agreed  to and that the package should instead be 
strengthened by adding more proposals to it.     Members, in these consultations, also expressed concern about the lack of progress on the Agreement-specific proposals that had been referred to other WTO bodies and agreed that the Special 
Session should maintain a supervisory role on the work being carried out on those proposals, 
including by calling for periodic reports from these bodies.   
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  In December 2004, I put forward a conceptual approach to Members for consideration based 
on consultations held with Members in several informal groups.  This approach was based on a 
number of elements that had emerged during the discu ssions namely that:  (i) flexibility in WTO rules 
should facilitate development;  (ii) these flexibilities should be made available on a situational basis, 
whilst ensuring that there is no a priori exclusion of any developing country from such a situational 
flexibility;  (iii) there should be a multilateral monitoring of the use of these flexibilities; 
(iv) enhanced capacity-building programmes should be developed to assist countries to implement 
WTO rules and address supply-side constraints;  a nd (v) these flexibilities must be consistent with a 
multilateral rules-based system.  The approach also envisaged a possible redrafting or merger of the 
remaining Agreement-specific proposals based on an  identification of the underlying development 
issues raised therein. 
  While Members appreciated the effort in attempting to find a way forward and were 
cautiously positive, they raised a number of concerns on certain elements of the suggested approach.  
Some Members felt that the conceptual approach fo cussed more on a review of the basic concepts of 
S&D, rather than towards making the existing S&D provisions more precise, effective and 
operational.  In that context, they felt that any a pproach on future work should be in line with the 
mandate contained in paragraph 44 of the Doha Ministerial Declar ation and paragraph 12 of the 
Decision on Implementation-Related Issues and Con cerns.  They stressed that the Special Session 
should begin examining the remaining Agreemen t-specific proposals, especially if "clear 
recommendations for a decision" were to be made by  the July 2005 deadline.  Some of these Members 
also raised concerns that the approach would lead to discussions on the cross-cutting issues which 
they felt should only be taken up once work on the Ag reement-specific proposals had been completed.  
At the same time,  other Members felt that ha ving a discussion on the cross-cutting issues was 
important as this would help Members in ma king progress on the Agreement-specific proposals.  
These Members also felt that the approach seemed to give undue emphasis on development being the 
end purpose of S&D, instead of integrating develo ping countries into the multilateral trading system, 
which they felt should be the main objective of S&D.   Although further consultations were held to 
allay these concerns, differences among Members on th e best way to proceed could not be bridged.  
However, Members did agree to begin work on th e remaining Agreement-specific proposals, giving 
priority to the proposals made by the LDCs.  
 Accordingly, Members took up the five remaining LDC Agreement-specific proposals 
identified by the LDC group, which included prop osals on the Understanding in Respect of Waivers 
of Obligations under the GATT 1994, the Enab ling Clause, the Agreement on Trade-Related 
Investment Measures and the Decision on Measur es in Favour of Least-Developed Countries.   
 
 During the past few weeks, I have held ve ry intensive consultations on the LDC proposals.   
Members have generally been sympathetic towards the problems faced by the LDCs.  At the same 
time, many Members have expressed concern about  the automaticity, open-endedness and self granted 
exemptions being sought by the LDCs in some of th eir earlier proposals.  While Members agree that it 
is important to provide the LDCs with a certain degree of flexibility and assistance in implementing 
the WTO Agreements, it is clear that there is a diffe rence in perception about the nature and extent of 
this flexibility.  A number of Members feel that any flexibility should be transitional and should be 
provided on the basis of a need that is assessed co llectively by Members.  Other Members, including 
the LDCs themselves, believe that there must be a degree of automaticity in granting these 
flexibilities.  The LDCs have also proposed that  where they have difficulty in implementing 
obligations, it should be mandatory for the de veloped country Members to provide technical 
assistance.  While most developed country Members accept the importance of providing technical 
assistance to the LDCs, they do not agre e that this should be mandatory.  
  Despite these concerns, Members have been able  to make progress and there has been definite 
and discernible progress during the consultations towards greater convergence of positions, especially  TN/CTD/13 
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 from Members' initial positions.  Members have enga ged very constructively in the process, and the 
LDCs too have been very forthcoming in their w illingness to redraft their proposals on the basis of 
concerns expressed and suggestions made by Member s.  It is also noteworthy that Members which 
have concerns on the proposals remained constructiv ely engaged with the LDCs in assisting them in 
the revision of their proposals.  As a result,  Members have been able to bridge many of their 
differences on most of the LDC proposals.  Howeve r, in spite of Members' goodwill and flexibility, 
certain key issues remain unresolved .  As a result, the Special Session is not in a position to make 
specific recommendations on any of the remaining Agreement-specific proposals.  But I am hopeful 
that we should be able to bridge most of the differences in the coming months, especially since Members have time and again expressed a strong commitment towards finding solutions to the 
development challenges faced by LDCs.   
 
 In addition to the work done on the LDC proposals, Members have also had a first reading of 
the remaining African Group proposals.  These discussi ons have revealed a rather wide divergence of 
views on most of the proposals, especially with respect to the proposals in Category III.  The 
proponents have indicated their willingness to redraft their proposals in a manner that would take into 
account some of the views expressed on their proposals.    
III. FUTURE WORK 
 
 While significant progress has been made on the Agreement-specific proposals tabled by the 
LDCs, the Special Session will no doubt need to continue to work on the LDC proposals and other 
remaining Agreement-specific proposals and repor t on them with "clear recommendations for a 
decision" to the General Council by the Hong Kong Mini sterial Conference.  This work shall continue 
to be done within the parameters  of the mandate contained in para graph 44 of the Doha Ministerial 
Declaration, paragraph 12 of the Decision on Impl ementation-Related Issues and Concerns and the 
July 2004 Decision.   
  The Special Session will also need to continue to  monitor and coordinate its efforts with that 
of the negotiating groups and other WTO bodies to  which the Category II proposals have been 
referred by the General Council.  
 Furthermore, as mandated in the July Decisi on, the Special Session should also continue, 
within the parameters of the Doha mandate, to address all other outstanding work, including on the 
cross-cutting issues, the monitoring mechanism and the incorporation of S&D treatment into the 
architecture of WTO rules, as referred to in document TN/CTD/7 and report, as appropriate, to the General Council. 
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