. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/SPS/41 
13 July 2006 
 (06-3399) 
Committee on Sanitary a nd Phytosanitary Measures  
  
 
SPECIAL AND DIFFERENTIAL TREATMENT 
 
Report by the Chairman to the General Council 
 
  
1. Following the adoption by the SPS Committee of its report on special and differential 
treatment in June 2005 (G/SPS/35), the Committee has c ontinued to maintain the issue of special and 
differential treatment as a standing item on the agenda of its regular m eetings.  At each meeting, the 
Committee has considered the proposals referred to it by the General Council, as well as the possible 
actions identified by the Committee to address some of the concerns underlying these proposals. 
2. There has been some, albeit limited, progress made in consideration of one of the specific 
proposals, that is, the African Group's proposal regarding Article 9.2.  At an informal meeting on 28 March 2006, a revision of this proposal was info rmally circulated by the African Group.  The 
revised proposal sets out a procedure whereby a de veloping country Member that identifies specific 
problems in fulfilling the SPS requirements of an im porting Member can request consultations with 
the aim of resolving the problems.  The resolution can  take the form of modifications of the measure, 
technical assistance or special and differential treat ment, and the resolution should be reported to the 
SPS Committee.  The revised proposal indicates that any technical assistance provided to resolve the trade problems would be fully funded, so as to avoid financial obligations on the part of the recipient. 
3. Although Members had not had any opportunity to co nsider this revision prior to the meeting, 
it was widely welcomed.  However, many Member s sought clarification as to how this proposal 
differed from the procedure adopted by the SPS Committee in October 2001, and extended in 
February 2006, to ensure transparency of respon ses to requests for special and differential treatment 
(G/SPS/33).  In addition, several Members highlight ed problems in relation to providing technical 
assistance on a fully-funded basis, no ting the need to ensure commitment to projects on the part of 
beneficiaries.  The African Group indicated that it was still considering revisions of other proposals, 
and other Members urged the African Group to ma ke any further revisions available as soon as 
possible in a form that would permit their transl ation and timely consideration by the SPS Committee. 
4. At the informal meeting on 28 March, the Comm ittee also discussed some of the elements for 
addressing the underlying concerns of developing  countries, and particularly those aimed at 
improving the predictability, timeliness and results of technical assistance relative to specific trade-
related needs of developing country Members and in  particular least-deve loped country Members. 
The Committee had a rich discussion of the difficulti es in identifying with sufficient specificity the 
needs of developing countries and the use of various  diagnostic tools that ha ve been developed for 
this purpose. 
5. There was little further discussion on this issue at the regular meeting of the SPS Committee 
on 29-30 March.  However, a one-day workshop on  the implementation of the SPS Agreement held 
on 31 March provided the opportunity to identify the ma ny tools already available to help developing 
country Members make better use of the Agreemen t, and to suggest some  practical steps that 
Members can take at the national level to signifi cantly improve their ability to use the SPS Agreement 
to their benefit.  Useful information on the experiences of Members, and in particular of least-G/SPS/41 
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  developed country Members, was provided by partic ipants, along with concrete  suggestions on how to 
resolve a number of problems relating to the timely identification of potential trade problems arising from the SPS requirements of trading partners.  Specifi c suggestions were also made with respect to 
securing effective technical assistan ce to address difficulties.   
6. Another informal meeting to consider the pr oposals on special and differential treatment was 
held on 24 May.  At that meeting, the African Group informally circulated a further revision to their 
revised proposal on Article 9.2.  The focus of th e discussions was on the similarities and differences 
between the procedure being proposed by the Afri can Group and the procedure already adopted by the 
SPS Committee in G/SPS/33.  While a number of Members supported the revised African Group proposal, concerns were raised by others that it would require the provision of technical assistance 
until an identified problem had been resolved, wher eas resolution may not be possible in all cases, for 
example if a disease were present in the exporting count ry that could not be eradicated.  In addition, 
Members who are providers of technical assistance  did not consider that fully-funded technical 
assistance was effective, as beneficiary contributio ns enhanced ownership of a technical assistance 
activity.   
7. Members observed that the Procedure established in G/SPS/33 was not being used and 
suggested that the Committee should analyze why th at was the case.  One Me mber suggested that a 
mechanism was required to help developing coun try Members cope with the large number of 
notifications concerning changing requirements.   
8. At the regular meeting of the SPS Committee held  on 27-28 June, no Member took the floor 
to further discuss the outstanding proposals on speci al and differential treatment.  There was, 
however, favourable reactions to a proposal from th e United States, based on the submissions made 
by various developing country Members for the workshop on the implementation of the SPS Agreement, that the SPS Committee develop a guid e to ensure the provision and evaluation of 
effective technical assistance;  evaluate the u se of the procedure adopted by the Committee for 
transparency in special and differential treatment;  and consider how to enhanc e the usefulness of the 
questionnaire on technical assistance needs (G/SPS/W/198).   
9. The Secretariat reported that it was preparing an evaluation of SPS-related technical 
assistance for consideration by the Committee.  This evaluation would examine not only the 
assistance provided directly by the WTO Secretariat in response to requests from Members, but also 
assistance reported to the WTO/OECD database as maintained by the Standards and Trade 
Development Facility.  A number of developing c ountry Members stressed the usefulness of the 
WTO's specialized trade policy course on the SPS Ag reement in enabling them to address specific 
difficulties they faced with the implementation of the Agreement in an effective manner.  
10. The SPS Committee agreed to schedule another in formal meeting on the proposals on special 
and differential treatment, as well as on possible actions  to address some of the concerns underlying 
these proposals, during the week of 9 October 2006,  immediately in advance of its next regular 
meeting. 
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