RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/CTD/M/37 
21 October 2009 
 
 (09-5274) 
Committee on Trade and Development 
Thirty-Seventh Special Session  
 
 
 
NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 15 OCTOBER 2009 
 
Chairman:  Ambassador Thawat chai Sophastienphong (Thailand) 
  
A.
 ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA .........................................................................................................1  
B. REPORTING ON WORK UNDERTAKE N OVER THE PAST FEW MONTHS ...........................................1  
C. SPECIAL AND DIFFERENTIAL TREATMENT PR OVISIONS IN THE WTO AGREEMENTS AND 
DECISIONS JOB (09)/94 ..................................................................................................................2  
D. OTHER BUSINESS .........................................................................................................................3  
 
 A. 
ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA  
1. The draft agenda for the meeting as containe d in Airgram WTO/AIR/3442 of 5 October 2009 
was adopted.   
B. REPORTING ON WORK UNDERTAKE N OVER THE PAST FEW MONTHS  
2. The Chairman  said that, as he had reported to Members before the summer break, work in the 
last few months had focused on the Monitoring M echanism.  This work, had mainly continued in 
small groups and on the basis of his non-paper, ta bled earlier in May 2009.  He was pleased to say 
that Members had made progress and had been able to further finetune some of the elements of the 
Monitoring Mechanism.  As a result, he was in  the process of revising the non-paper taking into 
account the different comments made.  
3. The Chairman  went on to indicate where discussions on the different elements of the 
Monitoring Mechanism stood.  On the Preamble,  he recalled that there had been a number of 
differences and at one stage it had been suggested that Members consider other elements of the 
Mechanism and revert to the preamble once these el ements had fallen into place.  However, during 
discussions on the other elements, the issue of the objective of the Mechanism had again come up and 
it was felt that perhaps Members needed to reve rt back to the discussion on the mandate of the 
Mechanism and its objective before continuing wo rk on the other elements.  Subsequently, at 
Members' request, a small group meeting was specifically held to discuss the mandate and the objective of the Mechanism.  However, the prelimin ary issues did not get clarified at that meeting, 
and it was felt that the question of the mandate and objective of the Mechanism should not prevent 
Members from building on the progress already made.  It  was therefore decided that this be addressed 
once other elements of the Mechanism had been ag reed.  He was pleased that Members wanted to 
move forward and, in this regard, thanked them for their positive engagement  and flexible approach 
which, if maintained, would enable them to reach a successful conclusion on the Monitoring 
Mechanism.   TN/CTD/M/37 
Page 2  
 
  4. On the Structure
 of the Mechanism, he said that discussions had been progressing well. 
Members had been able to further finetune some of  the elements contained therein, but differences 
still existed on the sequencing of th e monitoring process.  Some Memb ers wished to ensure that the 
issues first went to the technical bodies before bei ng forwarded on to the Mechanism.  On the other 
hand, others did not wish the sending of issues to the technical bodies to be a prerequisite for the 
issues to be considered in the Monitoring Mechanism.  These Memb ers believed that the Mechanism 
should be free to take a decision, at any appropria te stage of the discussions, as to whether an issue 
needed to be referred to the technical bodies or not.   
5. With respect to the Scope  of the Mechanism, Members were still somewhat apart.  They were 
of different minds as to whether the Mechanism should monitor only those special and differential 
treatment (S&D) provisions contained in the WTO Agreement or whether they should also monitor 
decisions contained in the General Council and Ministerial Decisions.   
6. Finally, on the Functions  of the Mechanism, he said that there were not too many difficulties.  
Members needed to decide whether th ey wished to spell out the elements that would form part of the 
Secretariat Report, which would be used as part of the monitoring exercise, or whether they would 
keep the elements of the Report broad enough to a llow the inclusion of any relevant information. 
7. He said that overall he believed that Members were proceeding along the right track and once 
they agreed on the structure, scope and functions of the Mechanism, they could then revert back to the 
preamble.  He informed Members that he had held  an informal meeting on 19 September 2009 to brief 
Senior Officials.  At that meeting, he had inform ed Senior Officials of his work plan over the coming 
months and of the fact that he intended to focus primarily on the Monitoring Mechanism.  However, 
he would be willing to revert to the Agreement- specific proposals as and when Members tabled new 
language or ideas that would help in making progress.   At that meeting, a number of delegations had 
said that they would like to try and close the rema ining gaps on the Agreement-specific proposals.  As 
a result, the work plan that had been communicated to Senior Officials with specific dates for future 
meetings, provided an opportunity to revert to the Agreement-specific proposals.  However, he would 
like to encourage Members to put forward new id eas and language, because merely reverting back to 
the proposals without some new ideas might risk un ravelling the progress already made.  He said that 
he would hold similar meetings to brief Senior  Officials when they were next in Geneva.  
C. SPECIAL AND DIFFERENTIAL TREATMENT PROVISIONS IN THE WTO AGREEMENTS AND 
DECISIONS JOB (09)/94  
8. The Chairman  said that the document on "Special and Differential Treatment Provisions in 
the WTO Agreements and Decisions " which was an updated and streamlined ve rsion of the previous 
Secretariat document prepared in 2001 on "Impleme ntation of Special and Differential Treatment 
Provisions in WTO Agreements and Decisions", wa s a compilation of all S&D provisions contained 
in the WTO Agreements and Decisions.  As explaine d in the Introduction, the paper was divided into 
seven sections.  Section I of the compilation contained a table providing a numerical breakdown of 
S&D provisions by type and agreement;  Sections II to VI reflected the S&D provisions contained in 
the different WTO Agreements and Section VII re flected those S&D provisions contained in the 
Ministerial and General Council Decisions.  The pr ovisions contained in the relevant sections had 
been reproduced in tables, with th e left hand column containing the text of the provision and the right 
hand column containing information on their impl ementation.  The provisions had been classified 
according to the typology adopted by the Secretariat in  2001.  He said that the idea was to incorporate 
the comments made at that meeting into the paper which would be revised and then distributed as an 
official WTO document.   
  TN/CTD/M/37 
 Page 3 
 
 
  9. The representative of the United States  said that the paper would be useful in the discussions 
on the Monitoring Mechanism.  She went on to highlight a number of the textual suggestions which her delegation had provided to the Secretariat in  writing.  With respect to Article 12.2 of the 
Agreement on Agriculture on page 19, she said th at the document mentioned that no developing 
country Members had notified the introduction of expo rt restrictions.  However, in recent years when 
prices had been high, several countries had made use of export restrictions and her delegation felt that 
the text needed to reflect this.  With respect to the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary 
Measures, she noted that the Tr ansparency Mechanism on S&D had been referenced in numerous 
places, particularly in the tables at the end of that section.  Her delegation believed that it was 
sufficient to address the Transparen cy Mechanism in one place, namely only in the table, and had 
therefore deleted where it had appeared elsewhe re.  In the descriptive portion on page 23, her 
delegation had proposed language on how the Transp arency Mechanism was adopted, initially for one 
year.  With respect to the General Agreement on Trade in Services on page 63, her delegation had 
proposed adding "For the DDA negotiations..." at th e beginning of the "Comments" relating to 
Article XIX of the GATS to reflect that the requir ements of that Article were reflected in the 
negotiating guidelines of the DDA.  On page 92 relating to the General Council Decision on the 
Accession of Least-Developed Countries, the "Comment" Section noted that "None of the three least-developed countries had to accede to any of the Plurilateral Trade Agreements.  They have also 
either opted for no, or less than full participation in the sectoral market acc ess initiatives".  She noted 
that Cape Verde had participated in the Inform ation Technology Agreement and had acceded to the 
WTO as an LDC and therefore recommended that this  comment be updated to reflect that one LDC 
had participated in a sectoral market access initiative. 
10. The representative of the European Communities
 said that the document was clearly very 
useful, particularly the column on "Comments" whic h gave an accurate and neutral picture of how 
often S&D provisions had been invoked and of a ny problems encountered.  Reference to specific 
country cases was especially informative and welcom e.  His delegation believed that the document 
could play an important role in the monitoring of  S&D provisions contained in the WTO Agreements 
and as such, would provide a solid foundation to the ongoing discussions on the Monitoring Mechanism. 
11. The representative of Ecuador
 considered the document to be an excellent tool but said that 
his delegation reserved the right to make comments at a later stage, as the document was still being 
considered in capital. 
12. The representative of China  requested that the comments made  by the US be circulated to 
Members before being incorporated in any revised document that may be prepared by the Secretariat. 
13. The Chairman  said that the document would remain on the agenda of the next meeting. 
D. OTHER BUSINESS  
14. Since no matter was raised under "Other Busine ss", the Chairman informed Members of the 
tentative meeting dates for the coming months. 
 
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