. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/44 
23 April 2007 
 (07-1660) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary Measures  
  
 
SPECIAL AND DIFFERENTIAL TREATMENT 
 
Report by the Chairman to the General Council
 
  
1. As was reported to the General Council last year (G/SPS/41), since the adoption by the SPS 
Committee of its substantive report on special and differential treatment in June 2005 (G/SPS/35), the 
Committee has followed a two-pronged approach to address the issue of special and differential treatment.  That is, at each and every one of its regular meetings, the Committee has considered the proposals referred to it by the General Council, as well as the possible actions identified by the 
Committee to address some of the concerns underlying these proposals. 
2. There has been little substantive discussion of th e proposals as they are currently drafted, as 
Members maintain that their views on the proposed texts are known (as summarized in G/SPS/35) and have not changed.  More substantive discussion h as occurred when possible re visions to the existing 
proposed texts have been presented, as reported to th e General Council last year (G/SPS/41, G/L/794).   
3. At an informal meeting on special and differential treatment on 27 February and 
1 March 2007, Egypt circulated a report on its an alysis of the interpretation by WTO dispute 
settlement panels of provisions relating to special and differential treatment in the Agreement on the 
Implementation of Article VI of  GATT 1994 (the Anti-Dumping Agreement), which use apparently 
mandatory language ("shall"), as in Article 10.1 of  the SPS Agreement (JOB(07)/25).  Egypt observed 
that the interpretations given in legal cases is that this language imposes no specific obligation on 
Members to undertake any particular action.  Simila r interpretation could be given to the provisions 
relating to technical assistance in the SPS Agreemen t.  Egypt stated that it was undertaking an 
analysis of the procedure adopted by the SPS Comm ittee by which Members could identify their need 
for special and differential treatment with respect to specific measures taken by trading partners (G/SPS/33).  The analysis would examine why developing country Members are not making use of this procedure, and Egypt  would propose a decision in this regard.  Egypt stressed, however, that 
developing country Members were not seeking excep tions to the substantive provisions of the SPS 
Agreement that might result in health risks for Members, but were seeking assistance to enable 
developing country Members to meet the health requirements of their trading partners.  Egypt 
indicated its intention to organize informal consulta tions on this matter prior to the June 2007 meeting 
of the SPS Committee. 
4. At the same time, the Committee has continued to progress with its consideration of possible 
actions to address some of the concerns underlying the proposals.  For example, a special meeting on transparency is being organized to coincide with the October 2007 meeting of the SPS Committee, 
and has been included in the WTO's 2007 Technical Assistance Plan so that funding might be available to facilitate the participation of offici als from some developing country Members.  Members 
were invited to respond to a questionnaire regard ing the operation of their SPS Enquiry Points and 
National Notification Authorities, and to iden tify problems they faced in this regard 
(G/SPS/W/103/Rev.2).  An analysis of the rep lies received (G/SPS/GEN/751) was discussed at an 
informal meeting of the Committee in February 2007, and the Committee agreed to hold another 
informal meeting in the margins of its June 2007 meeting to develop the agenda for the special G/SPS/44 
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  meeting and consider how to best address the probl ems that have been identified, especially by 
developing country Members. 
5. Other possible actions identified by the Committ ee focussed on technical assistance.  In this 
regard, the Committee was informed that the medi um-term strategy of the Standards and Trade 
Development Facility (STDF) included a greater focus on the provision of information regarding 
flows of technical assistance and evaluations of the effectiveness of SPS-related technical assistance 
and how it responded to the needs of the bene ficiaries.  The STDF was organizing regional 
consultations in 2007 to  examine the provision and receipt of SPS-related technical assistance, and to 
identify good practice on the basis of concrete expe rience.  The Committee also received information 
from both the Secretariat and from participants rega rding the first WTO specialized course on the SPS 
Agreement, as well as with regard to the second speci alized course held in October 2006, in English.  
In light of the highly positive evaluations from the pa rticipants, a third specialized course, to be held 
in French, has been programmed to follow immedi ately after the October 2007 meeting of the SPS 
Committee. 
6. At this point in time, it would appear that little progress is possible in the SPS Committee on 
the proposals as currently drafted, as the views of Members on these texts have not changed.  Some 
progress may be possible on revised versions of the proposals, but this has been hampered by proposed revisions not being circulated for the cons ideration of Members in advance of meetings of 
the SPS Committee.   
7. This is not to say, however, that the SPS Committee is failing to consider special and 
differential treatment and other ways to address th e problems of developing country Members.  On 
the contrary, special and differential treatment is a standing agenda item for every meeting of the SPS 
Committee, and usually the subject of informal mee tings in the margins of the regular meetings.  
More importantly, the Committee continues its consid eration of pragmatic and concrete actions to 
address the problems identified in the proposals, su ch as those relating to the identification of 
potential trade barriers, the effectiveness and appr opriateness of technical assistance, and the actual 
provision of special and differential treatment in specific situations. 
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