. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/RL/17 
1 May  2006 
 
 (06-2058) 
Negotiating Group on Rules  
  
 
NEGOTIATING GROUP ON RULES 
 
Report by the Chairman to the 
 
Trade Negotiations Committee  
 
 
I. INTRODUCTION 
1. This report updates my March 2006 report to the Trade Negotiations Committee and indicates 
the steps taken since then to implement the dire ctives of Ministers, to intensify the negotiating 
process, and to meet the scheduled conclusion of  the negotiations at the end of this year. 
II. ANTI-DUMPING & SUBSIDIES & COUNTERVAILING MEASURES, INCLUDING 
FISHERIES SUBSIDIES     
2. With respect to anti-dumping and subsidies & countervailing measures, the Group has further 
intensified and accelerated the negotiating process, and is working hard to complete the necessary 
analysis of the proposals on the AD and SCM Agreemen ts as soon as possible. To this end, and as I 
reported to the last meeting of this Committee, I have  informed Participants that, as a practical matter, 
that any remaining proposals should be submitted, in the form of draft legal texts, before our May 
meetings.  
3. I have received for discussion at the May clus ter of the Group no less than 22 new anti-
dumping proposals, 5 new papers on subsidies discip lines and 4 new papers on fisheries subsidies. In 
view of the heavy workload that these new submissions imply, I have decided that we need additional 
time to advance our work.  Thus, the Group will be  meeting in three separ ate dedicated sessions 
during the month of May .  This week the Group is taking up anti-dumping proposals.  Next week the 
Group will take up the fisheries s ubsidies-related proposals.  In the week of 29 May 2006 the Group 
will discuss proposals related to subsidies disciplines generally. 
4. Although the overwhelming share of the proposals received have focused on anti-dumping, a 
growing number of proposals relati ng to horizontal subsidies disciplines are now on the table. With 
respect to fisheries subsidies, I am encouraged that a number of Participants have now submitted 
textual proposals outlining in a concrete manner their competing views as to the structure and reach of 
possible disciplines.  This was a necessary albeit not  a sufficient step in our search for a way forward 
in these negotiations. 
5. Following the guidance of many Ministers em erging from Davos, and consistent with the 
Timelines for 2006 circulated to this Committee on 30 January 2006, my intention remains to 
complete the analysis of proposals by June so as to be in a position, should appropriate conditions 
exist, to meet the target date of July 2006 for me to submit consolidated texts to the Group.  
Accordingly, the Group must seek to make the best u se of the remaining time available to us to further 
advance our work.       TN/RL/17 
Page 2  
 
  III. REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS 
6. Since March, the Group's discussions have  focused on a draft provisional decision 
establishing a "Transparency Mechanism for Regional Trade Agreements", in an effort to deliver a 
consensual text by the 30 April 2006 deadline.  Partic ipants agree that the draft text currently being 
examined
1 meets most of their concerns and that its technical provisions are near completion.  
However, the Group was unable to resolve the sharply different positions that remain on two topics.  
Firstly, Participants are opposed on whether the transparency process for agreements falling under the 
Enabling Clause should take place at the Committee on Trade and Development, instead of the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements.  Secondly , the proposed extension of the Transparency 
Mechanism to other measures notified under pa ragraph 2 of the Enabling Clause (e.g., the 
Generalized System of Preferences) has given ri se to serious divergences among Participants, in 
particular with respect to the Group's negotiating mandate. 
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1 JOB(06)59/Rev.2