. /.  RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/DS/M/33 
29 June 2006 
 (06-3142) 
Special Session of the Dispute Settlement Body 
22 May 2006  
 
 
 
MINUTES OF MEETING 
 
Held in the Centre William Rappard  
on 22 May 2006  
 
Chairman: Mr. Ronald Saborío Soto (Costa Rica) 
  
 The Chairman
 welcomed delegations to the thirty-s ixth meeting of the Special Session and 
said that the airgram for the meeting had been circ ulated in WTO/AIR/2821 and that the draft agenda 
(TN/DS/W/87) contained two items, namely:  (i) discussion of contributions by delegations;  and 
(ii) "Other Business".  With respect to the first ag enda item, he said that a new informal contribution 
had been received from Argentina, Brazil, Canada, India, New Zealand and Norway (G-6).  This 
document was currently available in the room and w ould be circulated later as a Job document.  He 
said that it was his intention to invite the proponent s to present their proposals and then open the floor 
for comments from Members.  He further said that it was not his intention to raise any item under 
"Other Business" and asked whether any delegation wished to do so.  As there was no request from 
the floor, he proposed the deletion of this item from the agenda.  The agenda of the meeting was then 
adopted as amended. 
1. Discussion of Contributions from Members 
1. Prior to giving the floor to Canada on behalf of the G-6, the Chairman  stated that it was his 
understanding that the proposal was a revision of an  earlier proposal (Job(04)/52) by the G-6 relating 
to a post-retaliation procedure.  He recalled that  the Special Session had at its previous meeting 
discussed a joint proposal by th e European Communities and Japan on the same issue.  He then 
invited Canada to present the revised proposal on behalf of the G-6. 
2. The representative of Canada  said that in drafting this proposal on a post-retaliation 
procedure, the G-6 had taken into account the very  valuable comments made by Members in recent 
discussions, particularly during meetings of the Me xican Group.  He said that the Mexican Group was 
an informal grouping open to all Members for the specific purpose of commenting on various proposals to enable the proponents to hone their pro posals and to make the changes that would make 
the proposal more acceptable to Members.  He sai d that a number of drafting changes had been made 
taking into account the basic principles expressed previ ously by the G-6.  This had captured the views 
of the proponents and had improved the proposal.  The G-6 looked forward to hearing Members’ 
reactions to the revised proposal.   
3. The Chairman
 thanked the G-6 for their contribution and invited Members to provide their 
comments informally on the proposal.  After the discussion, he thanked Members for their 
constructive engagement and said that it was clear a number of elements needed to be explored 
further.  He said that it was appropriate for the Special Session to take stock of where it stood now, in light of the objectives set earlier in the year.  A number of revised contributions on different issues had been received by the Special Session and this  had been made possible as a result of increased TN/DS/M/33 
Page 2  
 
  consultations among Members underscoring the importan ce attached to the "bottom-up" approach by 
delegations.  What had been encouraging was the submission of text-based inputs by delegations.  
This would facilitate the work of the Special Se ssion as it moved into text-based negotiations in the 
next phase of work around the summer.  He ur ged India and the African Group as well as other 
Members which were working on proposals relating to developing-country partic ipation in the dispute 
settlement system to intensify their efforts and subm it them soon to the Special Session.  It would be 
helpful if Members could discuss their proposals in formally with other Members before submitting 
them to the Special Session for its consideration.  Testing ideas and proposals in informal settings 
increased the chances of building convergence around propo sals.  He recalled that the next meeting of 
the Special Session was scheduled for 30 June and 3-4 July giving Members one further opportunity 
to meet before the summer break.  It would be useful if Members could reflect on the best way 
forward as the Special Session readied itself fo r text-based negotiations after the summer.   
__________