. /.  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  RESTRICTED 
TN/CTD/M/46 
26 June 2012  
 
(12-3411) 
Committee on Trade and Development 
Forty-Sixth Special Session  
 
 
 
NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 20 MARCH 2012 
 
Chairman:  Ambassador Shahid Bashir (Pakistan) 
  
A. 
ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA  ......................................................................................................... 1  
B.  REPORTING ON WORK UNDERTAKE N OVER THE PAST FEW MONTHS  ........................................... 1  
C.  ELECTION OF THE CHAIRPERSON  ................................................................................................. 2  
D.  OTHER BUSINESS  ......................................................................................................................... 2  
 
 A. 
ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA  
1. The agenda as contained in Airgram WT O/AIR/3903 of 9 March 2012 was adopted. 
B. REPORTING ON WORK UNDERTAKE N OVER THE PAST FEW MONTHS  
2. Under this agenda item, the Chairman reporte d to Members on developments which had taken 
place since the last formal meeting of the Special Session of the Committee on Trade and 
Development (Special Session) convened on 20 Ju ly 2011.  He informed Members that since 
February 2012, he had held tw o small-group informal consultati ons on 10 and 22 February.  He 
recalled that at the Eighth WTO Ministerial C onference (MC8), Ministers had reaffirmed the 
integrality of special and differential treatment (S&D) provisions to WTO Agreements, as well as 
their determination to fulfil the Doha mandate to re view them with a view to strengthening them and 
making them more precise, effective and operational.   Ministers had also agreed to expedite work 
towards finalizing the Monitoring Mechanism (M M) on S&D, as well as to take stock of the 
28 Agreement-specific proposals in Annex C of the draft Cancún Ministerial Declaration, with a view to the formal adoption of those agreed.  He recal led that in 2011, Members had made some progress 
by developing some convergence on the elements of the MM based on an addendum to a fourth 
revision of the Chair's non-paper (Rev. 4/Add.1), and that he had circulated an unofficial non-paper 
capturing the progress that had been made thus far, as an annex to his report to the TNC in April 2011 
(TN/CTD/26).   
3. He went on to state that at the meeting of 10 February, Members had agreed to continue work 
on the MM on the basis of Rev.4/Add.1 and had also  expressed commitment to fulfil the mandate 
given by Ministers on the 28 Agreement-specific propo sals.  As such, at the small-group consultations 
held on 22 February, Members had resumed consider ation of the elements of the MM based on the 
Chair's non-paper - Rev.4/Add.1.  For that meeting, he had attempted to reflect, in the text, Members' 
views/positions on each of the elements of the MM, as footnotes.  The intention was to clean up the text by focusing efforts on developing convergen ce on the footnotes and ultimately removing them.  
Encouragingly, Members had engaged in the discu ssion with a constructive and positive mind set and 
were able to remove a few footnotes while preserving the progress already made.  This was reflected TN/CTD/M/46 
Page 2  
 
  in the revised text which would be made availabl e to Members for their small-group consultations 
which the incoming Chairman would soon schedule.   
4. On the 28 Agreement-specific proposals, he info rmed Members that at the two meetings held 
in February 2012, Members had expressed willingn ess to fulfil the Ministerial guidance from MC8 by 
taking stock of these proposals with a view to adopting those that would be agreed.  Some Members 
had proposed that the stocktaking process start with those proposals related to LDCs as a priority.  As 
such, he had asked the proponents of these proposals,  i.e. the African Group and the LDCs, to indicate 
which of the proposals remained a priority for th em.  The African Group had informed Members that 
it was in the process of undertaking technical work on these proposals and would soon revert to the Chair on the matter. 
C. 
ELECTION OF THE CHAIRPERSON  
5. The Chairman proposed that the Special Session confirm the appointment of 
H.E. Mr. Kwok Fook Seng of Singapore, as the ne w Chairperson of the Special Session.  Before 
formally requesting the new Chairman to the podium , he informed Members that ever since he had 
taken over the Chairmanship of the Special Session in 2010, he had tried to bring new ideas to the 
work of the Special Session.  Hi s close association with the small group of Ambassadors' process had 
also helped him to steer the work  of the Committee in the right dir ection.  Members' collective hard 
work over the year had resulted in good progress, a nd as a result thereof of the MM.  Members had 
been able to bridge the gaps and make progress on some of its elements.  On the Agreement-specific 
proposals that were being considered in the Special  Session, Members had been able to understand the 
underlying issues.  He thanked Members for their support, expressing his confidence that under the 
able stewardship of Ambassador Kwok Fook Seng, th e work in the Special Session would progress in 
the right direction.   
6. The new Chairman, Ambassador Kwok Fook Seng , thanked Ambassador Bashir for providing 
leadership, and for his dedicated hard work in steer ing the work of the Special Session with his wise, 
low-key and non-controversial approach.  He thanke d Members for the confidence and trust that they 
had bestowed in him and assured them of his best e fforts to advance the work  of the Special Session, 
especially since key emphasis has been lent to deve lopment issues at MC8.  He hoped that Members 
could work towards consensus on all the issues on the ta ble.  His preference was to pursue the work in 
the same low-key and pragmatic manner as his predecessor, bearing in mind the most recent 
instructions of Ministers at MC8.  Upholding th e principles of transparency and inclusiveness, he 
intended to begin substantive work on both the MM  and the Agreement-specific proposals through the 
informal consultative formats that had been used by Ambassador Bash ir in recent times.  He stated 
that he planned to begin with informal consulta tions both in one-on-one, and then in plurilateral 
formats, with the aim of ascertaining Members' views on how best to structure future work, in order to 
capitalize on the progress that had been made thus far.   While such engagement in variable geometry 
was intended to help advance the work pragmatically, he wished to stress that his door remained open 
to any delegation that wished either to get an upda te on the progress of the work, or that wished to 
contribute an input to advance the work.  Member s were always welcome to contact him either 
through his Mission or the Secretariat.  He remain ed at their service and would count on their support 
and contributions to he lp fulfil the mandate of the Special Session. 
D. OTHER BUSINESS  
7. No matter was raised under other busines s.  The meeting was adjourned.  
 
 
__________