WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/GC/103 
7 December 2005 
 (05-5825) 
General Council  
  
 
WORK PROGRAMME ON ELECTRONIC COMMERCE 
 
Statements by Chairpersons at the 1-2 December meeting of the 
 
General Council under Item 12(d)(iii) of the Agenda:  
 
" Work Programme on E-Commerce - State of Play and Reports by the Chairpersons  
of the Committee on Trade and Development and the Dedicated Discussions on  
Cross-Cutting Issues under the Auspices of the General Council " 
 
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 As announced by the Chairman of the General Council at the Council meeting on 1-
2 December, the statements by Chairpersons under Item 12(d)(iii) are being circulated for the information of Members.  
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1. Chairman of the General Council  
 "Members will recall that in paragraph 34 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration, Ministers 
agreed to continue the Work Programme on Electr onic Commerce, and instructed the General Council 
to consider the most appropriate institutional a rrangements for handling the Work Programme, and to 
report on further progress to the Fifth Session.  Mini sters also declared that Members would maintain 
their current practice of not imposing customs duties on electronic transmissions until the Fifth Session.     "At its meeting in October 2002, the General C ouncil agreed to maintain, for the duration of 
the work until the Fifth Session, the current in stitutional arrangements for handling the Work 
Programme, i.e. that the Councils for Trade in Services, Trade in Goods and TRIPS, and the 
Committee on Trade and Development would examine and report on aspects of electronic commerce relevant to their respective are as of competence, and that the Ge neral Council would play a central 
role in the entire process, would keep the Work  Programme under continuous review and would 
consider any trade-related issue of a cross-cutting na ture.  Subsequently, in its July 2004 Decision, the 
General Council agreed that it a nd other relevant bodies would repor t in line with their Doha 
mandates to the Sixth Session of the Ministerial Conference.   "I would like to note that pursuant to the institutional arrangements agreed in 2002, the 
General Council's examination of cross-cutting i ssues under the Work Programme has been carried 
out in dedicated discussions held under the auspices of the General Council for this purpose.     "Before I request the Chairs of the Co mmittee on Trade and Development and of the 
Dedicated Discussions on Cross-Cutting Issues Unde r the Auspices of the General Council, I would 
like to give a very brief overview of the state of  play of the e-commerce discussions in the three 
sectoral Councils, namely the Councils for Goods, Services and TRIPS. WT/GC/103 
Page 2  
 
  "The chairpersons of these bodies have indicat ed to me that since the Cancún Ministerial 
Conference, there have been no requests from any Members that the Work Programme on Electronic 
Commerce be included on the agenda of the meetings of these bodies.  I understand that these bodies stand ready to revert to discussion of issues relati ng to the Work Programme at the request of any 
Member.  It is also my understanding that, with regard  to the state of play of the discussions in these 
bodies, the progress reports submitted by them in documents G/L/635, S/L/74 and IP/C/29, 
respectively – remain an accurate reflection of the thinking of the Members in the areas of work 
concerned."  
2. Chairman of the Committee on Trade and Development 
 "I would like to present to the General C ouncil the work on electronic commerce that has 
taken place in the Committee on Trade and Developmen t since July 2003.  Members may note that a 
report of the work on electronic commerce in the CT D from the Doha Ministerial Conference until the  
45
th Session of the CTD is found in document WT/COM/TD/47 of 21 July 2003. 
 
 "Even though electronic commerce was a standing item on the CTD's agenda at the 46th and 
47th Sessions held in 2003 after the Cancun Minister ial Conference, Members made no interventions 
on the item.  At the 48th Session of the CTD in February 2004, Members discussed at some length 
how they wished to continue with the item.  At the 49th Session in May 2004, the representative of 
Pakistan made a lengthy statement and outlined some possible points for discussion by the Committee.  He raised a number of questions on various e-commerce related issues including those 
relating to global governance, control of the Inte rnet, access to technology, taxation, classification 
issues, issues relating to policy flexibility and capac ity building and the role of SMEs.  His delegation 
believed that those were issues on whic h Members needed to further reflect. 
  "Based on the suggestion of the representa tive of Tunisia, the Committee at its 50
th Session in 
September 2004 decided to invite the Secretaria t of the International Telecommunications Union 
(ITU) to brief the CTD on the latest developments in the preparation of the second phase of the World 
Summit of the Information Society that was to take  place in Tunisia in November 2005.  The expert 
from the ITU was unavailable for the 51st and 52nd Sessions of the CTD, but was able to make his 
presentation, which explored the role of info rmation and communications technologies (ICTs) in 
development, at the 53rd Session held in May 2005.  The Committee took note of the presentation.  
 
 "It was agreed to revert to the agenda item concerning electronic commerce in the future only 
if requested to do so by Members."  
3. Chairman of the Dedicated Discussions on  Cross-Cutting Issues Under the Auspices of 
the General Council 
 "The sixth Dedicated Discussion on Cross-Cu tting Issues Under the Auspices of the General 
Council under the Work Programme on Electronic Commerce was held on 7 and 21 November.  
Under the agenda for this meeting, participants discussed a written submission from the United States 
entitled "Preparations for the 2005 Ministerial Conference – Work Programme on Electronic 
Commerce" circulated in document WT/GC/W/551 and also two informal papers from that delegation 
supporting this submission.  Members also consid ered and approved the report of the Dedicated 
Discussion to the General Council in document WT/G C/W/555 and, on the basis of paragraph 14 of 
that report, agreed on a text to be forwarded to  the General Council Chair as the input on e-commerce 
to the draft Ministerial text for Hong Kong.   
 "I would like to draw attention to a number of points in the report to the General Council. 
  WT/GC/103 
 Page 3 
 
 
  "First, all agreed that work under the Work  Programme, including the development aspects, 
should be reinvigorated in 2006.  Generally the Members supported extending the moratorium on the 
imposition of customs duties on electronic transmis sions until the next Session and were willing to 
discuss further in 2006 the proposal to make th e moratorium permanent and binding, but one 
delegation was not in favour of this extension, an d another said that there were systemic concerns 
regarding the extension of the moratorium, and that it was not, at the time, in a position to agree to it. 
  "The other issue related to trade treatment  of software.  Participants recognized the 
importance of software trade for development a nd economic performance, and the positive impact of 
liberalized trade in software.  There was support for initial discussions, under the Work Programme in 
2006, on the issue raised by the United States, without linkage to negotiating areas and without 
prejudice to Members' positions in other areas.  It was also stated that  any approach to the 
liberalization of the treatment of software had to incorporate the development dimension, fully respect 
non-discrimination, and that any consideration of software should not prejudice any Member's position on whether electronic deliverables were a good or a service.  Further, some Members stated 
that the discussion should cover not only softwa re, but all IT goods and services facilitating e-
commerce.   "Lastly, on the issue of recommendations for consideration by the General Council, 
participants discussed this matter at some length but were unable to reach a consensus, mainly in view 
of the differences that I have mentioned.  As a result, the entirety of the text relating to 
recommendations in paragraph 14 of the report remains in square brackets." 
  
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