WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/CTD/18 
26 July 2006 
 
 (06-3594) 
Committee on Trade and Development 
Special Session  
 
 
 
SPECIAL SESSION OF THE COMMITTEE ON 
TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT 
 
Report by the Chairman, Ambassador Burhan Gafoor (Singapore),  
to the General Council  
  
I. INTRODUCTION  
1. At the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference, Ministers reaffirmed that provisions for special 
and differential treatment (S&D) are an integral part of the WTO Agreem ents and renewed their 
determination to fulfil the mandate contained in paragraph 44 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration and 
in the Decision adopted by the General Council on 1 August 2004;  namely, that all S&D provisions 
be reviewed with a view to strengthening them  and making them more precise, effective and 
operational.  In this regard, the Special Session was instructed to: 
• expeditiously complete the review of all the outstanding Agreement-specific 
proposals and report to the General Council, with clear recommendations for a 
decision by December 2006;  and 
 
• resume work on all other outstanding issues,  including on the cross-cutting issues, the 
Monitoring Mechanism and the incorporati on of S&D into the architecture of WTO 
rules and report on a regular basis to the General Council.   
 
2. Additionally, the bodies in which the Category II proposals are being addressed were 
instructed to complete consideration of those pr oposals and report to the General Council, with the 
objective of ensuring that clear recommendati ons for a decision are made no later than 
December 2006.  In this regard, the Special Session w as directed to continue to coordinate its efforts 
with these bodies, so as to ensure that this work is completed on time.   
II. STATUS OF WORK 
3. Since the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference, the Special Session has held four formal 
meetings (6 March, 7 April, I June and 7 Ju ly 2006) and a number of informal plurilateral 
consultations .  In these meetings and consultations, I ha ve continued to focus the process on a 
text-based discussion of the 16 remaining Agreement-specific proposals (eight from Category I and eight from Category III), bearing in mind that th e Committee was mandated by the Ministers at 
Hong Kong to make clear recommendations for a decision on these proposals by December 2006 
4. Overall, Members have made some progress on six of the 16 remaining Agreement-specific 
proposals.  The formal and informal consultations ha ve led to revised texts on four of the proposals, 
three relating to Article 3.5 of the Agreemen t on Import Licensing and one proposal relating to 
Article XVIII of the GATT.  On two of the pr oposals relating to the SPS Agreement, informal 
discussions have continued on the basis of alternat ive texts proposed by some Members.  While the TN/CTD/18 
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  revised language on these six proposals provides a basis for further discussions, it is clear that work 
on these proposals is far from complete and further progress will require Members to show greater flexibility.   
5. As for the other ten proposals, the divergences are considerable and Members have not yet 
been able to prepare any revised or alternative texts.  If there is  to be convergence on these proposals, 
Members need to be flexible and the proponents have  to reach out to other stakeholders to convince 
them of the merit of their proposals. The issue of pr edictability of outcome versus automaticity in the 
granting of flexibility has been a contentious one, and unless Members can strike a balance between 
the two it will be difficult to make progress.  Some Members have also raised questions regarding the utilization of some of the provisions the proponents ar e seeking to strengthen.  In their view, they do 
not see the justification in seeking to amend provisions that have not caused practical problems. The 
proponents have however reiterated th at paragraph 44 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration calls for all 
S&D provisions to be strengthened, not just thos e that have proved to be problematic in their 
implementation and utilization. Members have b een encouraged to continue meeting among 
themselves to narrow their differences.   
6. In the discussions on the Agreement-specific pr oposals, the LDCs have continued to stress the 
importance they attach to a quick and effectiv e implementation of the duty-free quota-free (DFQF) 
market access decision adopted in Annex F at Hong  Kong.  The LDCs have formally tabled two 
submissions in the Committee, one on rules of origin and the other on market access.
1  The paper on 
the rules of origin points to th e need for the DFQF decision to be  accompanied by a single set of 
simple rules of origin and makes reference to the LDCs' preferred criteria for conferring origin.  The 
paper on market access points to how the LDCs w ould like to see the DFQF market access decision 
implemented.  It urges Members, including devel oping country Members declaring themselves to be 
in a position to do so, to make their positions known as early as possible, on how they intend to implement the decision.  
7. In the preliminary discussions that have ta ken place, Members, while reiterating their 
commitment towards implementing the decision, have sought certain clarifications on the two papers.  
Some Members have expressed the view that further work on the DFQF decision should be undertaken in the Regular Session of the CTD, and not in the Special Session.  However, the LDCs 
have maintained their position that further work  to set out the means by which Members will 
implement this decision should be carried out in the Special Session of the CTD.  It has been suggested that questions and clarifications on the two submissions, as well as any responses to them, 
be put in writing.  Discussions on this issue will con tinue at the next meeting of the Special Session. 
At the same time, I have urged Members, particularly  the key stakeholders, to continue their bilateral 
consultations with each other.   
8. As for the proposals referred to other bodi es (Category II proposals), Members were updated 
on their status at the formal meeting held on 7 April. They were informed that progress on the 
proposals has not been forthcoming, also in so me cases due to a lack of engagement amongst 
Members.  The proponents remain concerned about  the lack of progress on these proposals and have 
supported the suggestion made by some other Members that these proposals should be addressed in 
dedicated meetings of the different bodies.   
9. The cross-cutting issues were considered in th e formal meeting held on 7 July 2006.  In the 
discussions that have been held, Members have ge nerally emphasised the importance of a Monitoring 
Mechanism.  While a number of elements have b een mentioned in the context of the cross-cutting 
issues, it is clear that the Monito ring Mechanism is viewed by many as an important step in the 
continuing review of the effectiveness and operati onalization of the S&D provisions.  Members have 
                                                     
 
1 TN/CTD/W/30 and W/31 respectively.  TN/CTD/18 
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  stressed the need to reach an understanding on the scope of the Mechanism and have agreed that 
further discussions on the Monitoring Mechanism take  place in informal meetings.  To facilitate these 
discussions, and at the request of Members, the Secretariat has circulated a compilation of all the earlier proposals made on the Monitoring Mechanism.
2   If we are to make progress on this issue, 
Members themselves need to clarify their though ts and ideas as to what they expect from a 
Monitoring Mechanism.  
III. FUTURE WORK   
10. When the negotiating process starts again, my intention would be to continue the text-based 
discussion with a view to making clear recommendations on all the remaining Agreement-specific proposals.  The aim would be to build convergen ce on as many proposals as possible, and construct a 
package of proposals that will bring this long-standing issue to a closure. I would also continue to 
coordinate with the Chairpersons of the WTO bodi es to which the Category II proposals have been 
referred.  
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2 JOB(06)/229 dated 25 July 2006.