RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/C/M/24 
23 May 2006 
 (06-2501) 
Trade Negotiations Committee 
28 March 2006  
 
 
 
MINUTES OF MEETING 
 
Held in the Centre William Rappard  
on 28 March 2006  
 
Chairman: Mr. Pascal Lamy (Director-General)  
 
 Subjects discussed
: Page  
 
1. Statement by th e Chairman.....................................................................................................1  
2. Reports by the Chairpersons of th e Bodies Established by the TNC...................................6  
3. Statements by participants..................................................................................................... 14 
 
 
1. Statement by the Chairman 
1. The Chairman  said that since the last meeting of the TNC on 7 February, intensive activity 
had been taking place at various levels across the whole spectrum of the Doha Development Agenda 
(DDA).  The work in Geneva had been comp lemented by a number of initiatives among some 
Members aimed at trying to take the work forward.  He believed all participants understood that these 
initiatives were both useful and necessary.  However,  it was also clear that progress made in those 
informal contacts had to be brought back to  the multilateral forum for all to consider. 
2. One such initiative had been the ex ercise in simulations of the effect of different formulae and 
coefficients in agriculture and NAMA which had been  undertaken by a number of Members.  It was 
his understanding that those simulations had now b een shared with the wi der membership.  He 
believed they were an important contribution to clarifying the impact of the choices that Members 
faced.  As he had said in the past, the Secretar iat stood ready to help an y country conduct similar 
kinds of simulations provided it was given the numbers.  
3. Just over two weeks before he had been invite d to attend an informal gathering in London, 
where Ministers from six Members had been meeting to look at some key issues – the harder nuts to 
crack – to try to help progress in the work in Geneva .  As he always did in those cases, he had made it 
clear that he was accepting the invitation only on th e basis that that meeting was in no way a decision-
making forum, that only the entire membership in Gene va could take decisions,  and that he had a duty 
to report back to the wider membership following the meeting in the interests of transparency. 
4. The focus of the meeting had mostly been on narrowing gaps in numbers and some elements 
of disciplines in three key elements of the moda lities – agricultural domes tic support, agricultural 
market access and non-agricultural market access (NAMA).  His feeling was that it had been useful in 
terms of discussing numbers and seeing how to narr ow them, as well as testing zones of possible TN/C/M/24 
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  convergence.  Members would all be aware that no major move had been made on any side, but he 
believed the picture of what a final deal could look like on these issues was starting to appear.   
5. The key question in that triangle was how to reach the right level of ambition which would 
serve as a benchmark for the remainder of the issu es on the agenda.  This level of ambition was the 
result of both the cuts and flexibilities in the three elements.  On the cuts, the question was how much 
should it affect applied rates over and above cuts at bound level, both on domestic support as well as 
on market access and how would this affect developed as well as developing countries.  On flexibilities, it was a question of precision on parameters such as the new Blue Box, de-minimis , 
sensitive products, Special Products (SPs), the Sp ecial Safeguard Mechanism (SSM), paragraph 8 
flexibilities as well as possibly other specific cases , and how this should affect developed and 
developing countries.  In sum, he believed that  the basic question Members had to decide for 
modalities was how to make sure that the cuts, both in  subsidies and in tariffs, were a multiple of the 
Uruguay Round results, it being given that legitima te flexibilities should not water down these 
multiples.   
6. The intense activity which had taken place si nce the February meeting of the TNC had 
allowed Members to move from generalities to talk ing numbers and texts, which was exactly what 
they needed now.  For the texts, Members were ge tting closer to real textual negotiations.  Some good 
examples of that were the new paper on food aid submitted to the Agriculture Special Session by the 
African and LDC Groups, the recent G33 paper on the SSM and the G20 paper on the Green Box.  On 
the key numbers, Members were nearing a more clearly delineated range of possibilities and their 
implications.  But some very big decisions remained  to be taken, and that was the challenge facing 
Members now.   
7. As Members were aware, meetings had take n place the previous week in the negotiating 
groups on agriculture and NAMA.  However, he belie ved it would be useful to take a broader look at 
progress across the DDA beyond the triangle he had described.   
8. In the services negotiations, since the last TNC meeting, plurilateral requests had been tabled 
following the calendar adopted in Hong Kong.  These requests had provided a good basis for the 
preparation of offers to be presented by 31 July .  In the meantime, he understood some Members 
believed it would be useful to hold a cluster of mee tings mid-May to ensure a rhythm between tabling 
of plurilateral requests and preparation of offers.   
9. On rules, in the regional trade agreements (R TA) area of these negotiations, the Chairman's 
papers on both RTA transparency and systemic issu es had provided some good impetus to the work.  
In the anti-dumping and subsidies areas, Members were  to have proposals with draft legal text on all 
issues on the table in the near future.  A number of proposals had also been recently tabled on fishery 
subsidies which had given an impetus to that part of the rules negotiations.  
10. Similarly, Members had to quickly develop a more complete picture of the issues that could 
be the basis of a final agreement in the negotia tions on trade facilitation, trade and environment, 
TRIPS and dispute settlement, althou gh they knew that dispute settlement was not part of the Single 
Undertaking.  In some of those areas, this would i nvolve the rapid tabling of proposals, or revisions of 
earlier submissions. 
11. On cotton, the establishment of modalities for th e agriculture negotiations was key.  He did 
not need to remind Members that Ministers had instructed that cotton be treated ambitiously, expeditiously and specifically, within the agricu lture negotiations and through the Sub-Committee on 
Cotton.  On the development assistance aspects of cotton, he had convened a meeting of his Informal 
Consultative Framework on 16 Februa ry and reported on the progress made then to Members at the  TN/C/M/24 
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Sub-Committee on Cotton on 2 March.  A further report on progress had been made at the Sub-Committee meeting which had taken place the previous day. 
12. In the area of special and differential treatment (S&D), Members had to start to move towards 
points of convergence very soon, including on the implementation of the Hong Kong decisions for least developed countries (LDCs), where there was a fi rst paper on the table on rules of origin to be 
applied in the context of duty free quota free.   
13. On preference erosion and in light of the discu ssions that had taken place at the previous TNC 
meeting, where he had heard different views on the timing of these discussions, the Secretariat was organizing a seminar on the erosion of preferen ces in the areas of agriculture and NAMA which 
would be held on 3 April.   
14. He wished to also review progress in some of the other areas of work under the DDA, even if 
they were not strictly speaking under the TNC, so that Members could develop a good overall picture of where they should be in the following weeks and months. 
15. On issues related to small economies, it was im portant that Members continued to monitor 
progress in the other areas of the negotiations, in particular agriculture and NAMA, with the aim of 
providing responses to those issues. 
16. On Aid for Trade, the work was progressing well.  In his consultations on securing additional 
financial resources for Aid for Trade, there we re some good ideas on the table and he believed 
Members were working towards convergence on co mmon positions.  The Task Force had now met 
twice, and discussed definitional issues, the scope of Aid for Trade, current flows and future trends.  
The Task Force would move on to discuss needs an d available mechanisms for operationalizing Aid 
for Trade. 
17. On the Integrated Framework (IF), the work wa s very much on track.  The Task Force would 
shortly finalize its report containing the recommendations for an enhanced IF.  Once those recommendations had been considered by the IF managing body, they would be submitted to the 
membership in the IF Steering Committee in early May. 
18. On all of those fronts – the issues within the Single Undertaking and those outside – he was 
continuing his consultations with delegations in Geneva, including with the various groupings, and 
with officials in capitals.  He was also continui ng to work in close cooperation with the General 
Council Chairman and the Chairs of the negotiating groups to ensure coordination across the work.  
He underlined the need to offer the Chairs all the su pport over the following weeks.  He repeated what 
he had said at the last TNC – this remain ed a negotiation among the participants.   
19. He encouraged Members to step up contacts among themselves, at every level.  They all knew 
they would have to move, and now was the time to explore with their partners the margins for 
manoeuvre which they had all kept in their pockets.  There were 33 days left to establish modalities.  
The moment of truth was therefore fast approach ing.  His basic message for the present meeting was 
that Members did not have any time to waste. 
20. Before Hong Kong, he had recommended and Memb ers had all agreed that it would be wise 
to recalibrate their ambition for the Ministeria l Conference, without compromising the overall 
ambition of the Round.  He believed that Members would be making a huge collective mistake if they 
thought they could postpone the establishment of m odalities by the end of April.  Back-loading the 
three key areas of agriculture domestic support a nd market access in agriculture and industrial 
products was in his view a recipe for failure.  These three areas held the key to opening the door to the 
many other issues which also needed to fall into pl ace to conclude the Round by the end of the year.  
He reminded Members that there were 278 days to the end of 2006.   TN/C/M/24 
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  21. He asked Members not forget that the decisions  to be taken were multilateral ones in which 
all the membership had to share, and that the pro cess of consideration at that level took time.  He 
believed that the necessity of multi-faceted and multi-st akeholder consultations had to be factored by 
all participants into their planning.  Significan t progress was needed among key players on key issues, 
but it would not be enough for a small number of Memb ers to suddenly arrive with a piece of paper in 
their hands on 30 April.  The no surprises principle remained in his view as valid as it had been before 
Hong Kong. 
22. Turning to implementation, he said that, as requested by Ministers in Hong Kong, he had 
intensified his consultative process on all outstanding  implementation issues under paragraph 12(b) of 
the Doha Ministerial Declaration, without prejudice to  the positions of Members.  In this process, he 
had been assisted by a number of the Chairpersons of concerned WTO bodies acting as his Friends 
and two of his Deputy Directors-General, Valen tine Rugwabiza for TRIMs issues and Rufus Yerxa 
for the issues of geographical indications (G Is) and the TRIPS Agreement and Convention on 
Biological Diversity (CBD) relationship.   
23. Overall, he believed that the process had been reinvigorated with a good level of engagement 
by delegations.  In some areas there seemed to be  growing clarity on the interests of Members and 
better identification of key issues for progress.  He  wished to provide an update on where Members 
were in each area.   
24. As Members were aware, on the issues of GI extension and TRIPS-CBD, Rufus Yerxa had 
been holding intensive informal consultations on hi s behalf.  He had held open-ended meetings on 17 
February and on 15, 16, 21 and 23 March, as well as m eetings with delegations in other formats.  In 
each area, a list of points and questions had been  drawn up, on Mr. Yerxa's own responsibility but on 
the basis of inputs from delegations.  They had served to facilitate what had pr oved to be an organized 
and intensive exchange of views.  Notwithsta nding differing positions on the mandate, delegations 
had actively engaged on the substance of the issues and of the proposals and approaches put forward. 
25. On the issue of GI extension, the consultati ons had only covered half of the questions and 
issues identified by delegations as requiring attention,  and further time would be required to complete 
this process.  Although he believed the discussion ha d enabled a deeper understanding of the concerns 
of delegations, the positions of the more active pa rticipants in the discussion remained essentially 
unchanged and polarized, between those who supporte d GI extension and those opposed.  There were 
also a fair number of less active delegations following  the work closely with a view to assessing their 
own national interests in the matter.  Among th e key issues on which positions remained divided 
were:  whether the current level of protection for GIs for products other than wines and spirits under 
Article 22 of the TRIPS Agreement was sufficient fo r protecting such GIs;  the implications of 
extension for other producers that had been using th e terms in question in their own market and in 
third country markets;  and the extent to which extension of the exceptions provisions of Article 24 
would meet concerns on this count.  One of the aspects mentioned as making it difficult to make 
progress was the interrelationship perceived by some  delegations between the GI extension initiative 
and other initiatives on the table on GIs elsewhere in the WTO. 
26. On the issue of TRIPS-CBD, all the points in the list drawn up had been covered in the 
consultations.  While, once again, positions had remained essentially unchanged, the consultations 
had, he believed, facilitated a more clear cut identification of the points of divergence and 
convergence and of the key policy questions that remain ed to be decided.  On this issue, there was 
perhaps a somewhat more discernible spectrum of vi ews than on that of GI extension – with, on the 
one hand, the patent disclosure proposal put forwar d by a group of developing countries, with wide 
support from other developing c ountries, aimed at avoiding e rroneous patents and facilitating 
compliance with national access and benefit sharing re gimes and, on the other, the view that the case 
had not been made that a proposal of that sort wa s either necessary or appropriate and that those  TN/C/M/24 
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shared objectives could be most effectively realiz ed in other ways without involving the patent 
system.  In between those two positions, support had been expressed for a more limited patent 
disclosure requirement at the international level, rest ricted to the origin or source of genetic material 
and related traditional knowledge a nd without substantive implications for patentability.  His sense 
was that, notwithstanding those different positions, there was a general willingness to continue to 
engage in fact-based discussions on how those shared objectives in this area could be most effectively 
realized.  
27. The intensified consultations that had take n place had provided a good basis for making 
progress towards a narrowing of differences;  but that progress remained to be made.  It would take further work in good faith on the part of all delegati ons to do this.  To this end, he would be asking 
Rufus Yerxa to continue his cons ultations using various formats w ith a view to exploring how to 
move forward on the key policy issues, and he woul d report again on the progress that had been made. 
28. On the other TRIPS proposals, he had previous ly reported that no Member had taken up the 
opportunity provided by the TRIPS Chair to pursue any of these matters.  It was now his understanding that the African Group had indicated that it intended to reactivate its proposals on the 
table and it was working on this and he suggested that Members wait for that. 
29. In the Balance of Payments area, a further cons ultation had been held but there had been no 
change on this issue since befo re Hong Kong.  There still remained a sizeable gap between the 
positions of the proponents and opponents.  The consultations seem ed to indicate that the gap could 
not be closed through further technical level ne gotiations on possible compromise language, at least 
not without political input that would allow both sides to be much more flexible. 
30. In the Market Access area, a paper aimed at pr oviding precision to the original proposal made 
by Saint Lucia on a redistribution of negotiating rights was still awaited and he suggested that 
Members also wait for that. 
31. In the area of TRIMs, Valentine Rugwabiza ha d informed him that significant differences of 
view remained both on the substance of the issu es and on the way to address them.  However, both 
proponents and opponents agreed now that a procedural solution to this issue would not suffice.  It 
therefore appeared that rather than continue consu ltations at a technical level, what was needed now 
was political input to explore the possibilities for allowing greater flexibility in Members' positions.  This would include more clarity from the proponent s on concrete examples of issues at stake and he 
asked for that.  
32. On all five proposals dealing with the Custom s Valuation Agreement, the situation was still 
unchanged.  There was no visible prospect for moving forward on these issues.  
33. On the single proposal in the Safeguards area , the situation remained unchanged.  The 
Committee had reported more than three years back th at it had not able to suggest a course of action 
on the issue due to a lack of convergence.  Since the proponent was not actively pursuing its proposal, 
it was difficult for the Committee to revert to it unless specifically requested by the proponent.  
Therefore he was waiting for a signal from either side on this. 
34. On Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), in the context of the Fourth Triennial Review, both 
technical assistance and conformity assessment, which were relevant to the issues contained in the two tirets in the TBT area, were on the table as  agreed elements which would figure in the 
Committee's report in November this year.  However, no further substantive discussion of the implementation issues per se  had taken place.  In light of the consultations he had undertaken, the 
former Chair had also not been able to suggest a course of action to be followed on these tirets. TN/C/M/24 
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  35. In sum, despite best efforts, Members were yet to make concrete progress towards finding 
appropriate solutions to these issues.  However, in  most areas, there did seem to be a willingness to 
continue a discussion on them.  All Members knew th at this exercise had gone on for a very long 
time, and they now needed to work to bring it to cl osure which was his intention.  In order for this to 
happen, they would have to be result-oriented in the very short timeframe which they had for this 
process.  He suggested that the work should be focu sed on any deliverables for July at the latest, or 
earlier if possible.  In this spirit, he once again ur ged everyone to make every effort to allow progress 
to be made in order to respect the mandate in pa ragraph 39 of the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration. 
36. To conclude his statement, he wished to turn  to process on which he had been questioned by 
many delegations.  He believed that the establis hment of modalities as foreseen by the Hong Kong 
Declaration would require some sort of Ministerial involvement during the last week of April, with a 
safety net for the first week of May.  For this to happen Members would need to intensify their work 
between the present meeting and the start of the ag riculture and NAMA weeks starting 18 April.  This 
was the key period during which Members would have to work to respect the end of April deadline.   
37. To sum up the present mood:  a strong sense of  urgency as Members got closer to the 
deadline and, in his view, a need to change gear  on all areas of the negotiation, starting with the 
triangle of domestic support and market access in agriculture and in industrial products.  
38. The Trade Negotiations Committee took note
 of the Chairman's statement. 
2. Reports by the Chairpersons of the Bodies Established by the TNC 
39. The Chairman  noted that written reports had been circulated in the following official 
documents: 
 
 Negotiating Group on Market Access     TN/MA/17  Special Session of the Council fo r Trade in Services   TN/S/25 
 Negotiating Group on Rules      TN/RL/16  Special Session of the Council for TRIPS    TN/IP/15 
 Special Session of the Dispute Settlement Body    TN/DS/15 
 40. He also noted that the Ambassador Gafoor, Chairman of the Special Session of the 
Committee of Trade and Development was not at th e present meeting since he was out of Geneva.  
However, he had been informed that work on th e remaining Agreement-specific proposals had began 
and would continue, along with work on the outsta nding issues, in a meeting scheduled in the first 
week of April.  
41. Ambassador Falconer (New Zealand), Chairman of the Special Session of the Committee on 
Agriculture , said that with the end of April deadline that  Members had set for themselves, it was clear 
that they had a considerable task in front of them.  It was therefore worth emphasizing how significant this was.  Since Hong Kong, the multilateral botto m-up process that Members had been engaged in 
was moving in second gear.  Not only had Members been moving along in second gear, but they had 
been stopping at every auto-route coffee shop along the way.  Using an analogy, he said the only thing 
that kept them going sometimes were the kids in th e back who kept asking "are we there yet, are we 
there yet?"    TN/C/M/24 
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42. He agreed with the Chairman that it time for Members to get out of second gear and it was 
probably time to swap the Fiat Bambina for someth ing that had a little more power under the bonnet.  
Using the analogy of a baseball player, he said Members knew they were four-one down in the last innings and had got two batters out.  However, it wa s probably still just possible to pull it off, but the 
crowd was getting very restless and hotdog sales we re down.  He believed that for this reason, 
Members had to make a major shift of pace.   
43. He was not saying that things had not been m oving a little bit, as could be established if one 
reviewed the three pillars.  In export competiti on Members were making a degree of progress.  He 
would characterize the export competition pillar as a partner getting ready for a main event.  The 
evening dress was purchased – what was now needed were the gloves, shoes and handbag.  It could 
also be possible that the evening dress might need a small retouche in some places.  Essentially, it all 
was there, but the whole ensemble did not work unless one had the accessories and Members were still working on those accessories.  
44. With the paper from the African and LDC groups in the previous week, Members had made a 
bit of progress on the food aid question, at least as far as the safe box for food aid was concerned.  
Members were starting to have a bit more e ngagement on export credits and on state trading 
enterprises (STEs).  They knew that there was still a relatively small handful of political decisions to 
be made and certain technical things to be done in this area.  However, there was no question that 
there was a political overtone to this, which repr esented the fact that because the overall bigger 
elements had not moved, some of those more technical elements had not been moved at the pace they needed to be moved.  People were making an effo rt and he had felt that in the previous week 
Members had made more concrete progress than they  had for some time.  But there was still quite a 
way to go.  However, he believed that one could have reasonable confidence that other things being 
equal, the event itself – the evening – would be a success because everything could come together 
then. 
45. On domestic support, he believed,  and Members ought to remind themselves, that a great deal 
of progress had been made.  There were still numbe rs which Members had not resolved.  These were 
fundamentally important, both as far as the overall cut and the aggregate measure of support (AMS) were concerned.  More recently Members had made a degree of progress on the Blue Box, particularly in relation to the new Blue Box and th e appropriate disciplines.  People were beginning to 
think more constructively about possibilities such as  lowering the overall number for the Blue Box.  
He believed there was almost what he would call a consensus that, as far as the new Blue Box was 
concerned, there was no intention that there should be any undue concentration on specific products.  
This had not gone far enough for some Members and ther e were still significant gaps to be closed as 
to how the disciplines, if they were to exist, woul d apply.  But it was still a degree of progress.  It was 
not where Members were in Hong Kong and not wher e they were two months back which was why he 
had said Members were moving along in second gear .  The degree of movement was not enough to 
get Members there.   
46. His overall characterization of the domestic support pillar, using another analogy, was that it 
was like a telecom network.  The backbone of the network was in place, the cabling was in the street 
and one only had to do the last nine yards to get that cable into the apar tment building.  Nothing 
worked if one could not actually pick up the phone in the living room and make contact with the other end.  Therefore, the last nine yards was absolutely  crucial.  But it was still worth remembering that it 
was the last nine yards not the whole nine yards.  This is where he believed Members stood on this 
pillar, and that was not to gainsay how much more needed to be done.  But one could see the sense of 
where Members could ultimately end up.  In the area of the Green Box, particularly in relation to how 
it related to developing countries, there was a degree of progress.  If the atmosphere was right on the bigger issues, he could see Members move forward in the Green Box, even  though there were still 
some important issues where they remained widely  apart.  There was nothing new in this, but he 
believed there had been more cons tructive engagement around this than he had seen for some time. TN/C/M/24 
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  47. On the market access pillar, which was fundament ally about numbers rather than texts, there 
had not yet been what he would call a material c onvergence that he was aware of in his multilateral 
process.  He believed there were efforts being made , particularly in the area of sensitive products.  
From the discussion in the group the previous week , there had been what he called a "topping and 
tailing" mentality, which was a recognition among propo nents of two rather different approaches to 
sensitive products.  At one end of the scale was one basis for calculation which did not lead to much 
market access at all and there might be a need to deal with that reality which was not credible.  At the 
other end of the spectrum, there had been a recognition,  not by all but by some, that another particular 
approach might lead to a degree of market access.  It was difficult to reconcile ideas on something that 
was genuinely sensitive.  Therefore, at either end of the tunnel, he could see a little bit of light.  
However, there was a great deal of darkness in th e centre of the tunnel which was where the action 
needed to be.  But at least for what it was worth, there was some recognition that there had to be a 
pragmatic adjustment of approaches.  This was cons tructive but it needed to lead to something.   
48. On the basic numbers of the cuts and the thr esholds, Members were still a considerable way 
apart.  Using another analogy to characterize wh ere Members were on market access, he said it was 
like a coastal highway being built.  The highway had been built down both sides of the coast but there 
was the little matter of this harbour mouth which w as in the middle and one needed a bridge to get 
across.  Members did not have the bridge yet.  Th e fundamental problem was that the architects could 
not quite decide whether they wished to go for an ar ch or pillar or suspension bridge.  If they could 
sort themselves out on which particular technique they wished to have, they might then be able to move onto the rather crucial question of whether it w as going to be a four lane highway or a six lane 
highway.  There was a profound difference and nobody was going to believe they could get from A to 
B unless they had that bridge built and Members needed to do that. 
49. The rationale upon which his group had been working in the past period was a recognition 
that there had to be a political movement on the numbers in domestic support and in particular on 
market access.  In the meantime, the group would tr y to move forward as best it could in areas that 
were textural in nature so that  if and when there was political movement on numbers, the group would 
have some kind of basis for the more conceptual and textural issues to move.  He had not heard 
anything in the multilateral process that had indica ted that Members were bridging those numbers;  
but this had to happen.  He believed that Memb ers had been making some progress on what he called 
the more textural questions.  However, even there inherent difficulties existed.  There was a political 
reality that people were not prepared to do what might be technically feasible as long as those big 
numbers remained unresolved.  That was the reality.  Members were therefore not as advanced on this 
as they should be, although they were a little more a dvanced than they were at the beginning of the 
year.   
50. He agreed with the Chairman that the period up to the next negotiating group meeting was 
central.  Nobody in the multilateral process w as going to accept tablets of stone handed down on 
either textual or numbers matters to be squeezed through the process in no time at all.  If it was going 
to happen, it would have to happen with sufficient time for the multilateral process to operate.  
Members knew that he was not operating a laundramat just to wash the dirty linen of a cabal.  This 
had to be done multilaterally it woul d not work any other way.   
51. There were other issues that had to be dealt w ith by the end of the month which were equally 
important to a large number of Members.  These were issues like preferences, small and vulnerable 
economies, commodities and tropical products.  He was not trying to limit things by saying this, but 
he did wish to illustrate that Members had a respons ibility also to deal with those issues.  Members 
also had a very big responsibility to deal with co tton.  These things could not advance in isolation 
from the bigger question of numbers at the more gene ral level because they were intimately connected 
to them.  One did not know what fullest liberaliza tion of tropical products wo uld be, independent of 
the baseline for liberalization; one did not know  what the preferences responsibilities were without  TN/C/M/24 
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knowing the benchmark for tariff cuts.  One could not assume that if one could miraculously start to 
figure out what the big numbers were, those other is sues would drop off the table.  They also had to 
be addressed and as the Chairman had emphasized ther e needed to be enough time for all of that to 
happen.   
52. There was one more meeting scheduled in the week  of the 18 April and he did not believe that 
in order to meet the end of April deadline Members had any other opportunity for a genuinely 
multilateral process in the agriculture area.  In eff ect, that was the deadline he would see practically 
for the group's work.  Delegations had to do what  their Ministers had instructed, but they had to 
realize just how much remained to be done.  It w as not something that could be done in the twinkling 
of an eye.  It needed to be foreshadowed, work ed through and negotiated in the multilateral forum.  
As Chair, he was willing to do whatever he could with the rest of his colleagues to advance the 
process.  He had already foreshadowed he would try to prepare technical papers.   
53. He felt that sometimes he was a bit like the coach of the emerging eleven of a sporting team.  
One had the feeling that the main team was o ff playing somewhere else and he was coaching the 
reserves.  This was important to be done because sometimes the main team got on the booze and the 
only players available were the reserve team and one could sometimes be surprised at how well the 
reserve team did.  Members had to move forward mu ch more rapidly than they were now and had to 
be inclusive in this process and honest with themse lves about what they were doing.  He said with 
this, Members might have the best kind of chance of doing what they were supposed to do by the end 
of April. 
54. Ambassador Stephenson (Canada), Chairman  of the Negotiating Group on Market Access , 
said that he had circulated a brief factual report of the activities of the Group since the last meeting of 
the TNC for Members information.  He wished to  provide a few comments to give Members a sense 
of the state of the negotiations in a way that statis tics on the number of meetings and inventories of 
the issues discussed could not.   
55. At one level, it could be said that the NAMA negotiations were proceeding well.  There was a 
higher level of engagement, a higher quality of interaction and exchange, a greater degree of 
flexibility and a deeper sense of purpose in the work of the Group since the Hong Kong meeting.  The 
Group had intensified work on all issues and had an informal work programme to focus its efforts and 
measure progress.  It had began to converge around interpretations of provisions of the framework 
that would be critical when it tried to operationa lize agreements on key modalities.  However, on the 
most critical issues – the basic building blocks of  the numbers in the formula, the mark-up for 
unbound tariffs and the central flexibilities to be  accorded to developing countries – the modalities 
that would help both define the ambition and on wh ich all of other provisions would be built, the 
Group had not progress whatsoever. 
56. With five weeks remaining to the deadline agreed  by Ministers, negotiators participating in 
the previous NAMA week had brought no new instructi ons to the exchange.  They had rehearsed their 
positions and taken refuge in a discussion of th e process.  He did not wish to understate the 
complexity of linkages within NAMA nor the challenge of establishing the level of ambition.  However, it had been made clear that the princi ple obstacles were outside NAMA.  They were the 
other corners of the triangle referred to by  the Chairman in his opening remarks.   
57. Before Hong Kong, Members had been at an im passe because some had insisted that some 
issues had to be resolved before others.  Now Members were at an impasse because they were 
insisting that all issues had to move together.  This was progress.  However, he would note that the 
outcome thus far was the same.  Nonetheless, he remained optimistic that Members could still get it 
done.  They could reach their targets for 30 April, 31 July and 31 December.  He believed this and it 
was also his belief that the vast majority of NAMA negotiators felt the same way.  Therefore, if it 
were just for NAMA he had every confidence that Members could conclude the negotiation this year. TN/C/M/24 
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  58. Ambassador Fernando de Mateo Venturini (Mexico), Chairman of the Special Session of the 
Council for Trade in Services , said that the latest cluster of services meetings had begun the previous 
day and would continue until Apr il 11.  The organization of the present cluster was different from 
usual.  More time had been made available for re quest-offer meetings, particularly those taking place 
on a plurilateral basis in accordance with paragraph 7 of Annex C of the Hong Kong Declaration.  He 
had been informed that plurilateral requests in some  20 services sectors had been made so far pursuant 
to paragraph 11(b) of Annex C, and that the grou ps of requesting and requested Members comprised 
both developed and developing countr ies.  Each of the plurilateral requests would be discussed at a 
separate meeting during the cluster.  With some 20 sectors to be considered, this represented a 
considerable challenge for delegations.  
59. There was no precedent in the services negotiati ons for this situation, but it had been 
approached by Members in a very  positive spirit.  The requests overall reflected a high degree of 
ambition.  After the plurilateral meetings had taken place, the Special Session would meet, on 7 April, 
to review the progress of the negotiations.  At th at meeting, Members having taken part in the 
plurilateral negotiations would be encouraged to re port, to ensure transparency, on developments 
within the plurilateral groups. 
60. From the end of this cluster until the beginning of the next, scheduled to start in the week of 
19 June, no meetings we re currently planned, which left some th ree months between clusters.  In view 
of the requirement set out in the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration for Members to produce revised offers by the end of July, it would perhaps be necess ary to hold an intermediate cluster in May and he 
would consult on this idea. 
61. The Special Session was in uncharted waters, but he was optimistic that it was possible to 
reach port.  This would depend on many factors outside the services negotiations, but the outcome would only become clear once the revised offers were on the table.   
62. Ambassador Valles Galmés (Uruguay), Chai rman of the Negotiating Group on Rules
, said 
that given that he had submitted a written report to the TNC, he would not make an extensive 
statement but only highlight key points from his written report. 
63. All Members were aware that the success of th e Round was going to be played out over the 
following months and the Chairman had reminded Me mbers of the days left.  Agriculture and NAMA 
were the focus of attention at present, and rightfull y so.  However, he was conscious and believed all 
the participants were too, that his Group had a si gnificant contribution to make to the overall outcome 
of the Round.  If Members were to conclude their wo rk by the end of the year, much remained to be 
done. 
64. Ministers in Hong Kong had requested the Gr oup to intensify and accelerate the negotiating 
process, and complete the analysis of proposals as soon as possible.  Ministers had further asked him 
to prepare consolidated texts that would be th e basis for the final stage of the negotiations. 
65. Taking into consideration the 2006 end date fo r the DDA, he had set the summer break as a 
target date for the circulation of his consolidated te xts.  For that date to be feasible, the Group would 
have to complete its analysis of proposals by June.  He had therefore asked pa rticipants to submit any 
remaining proposals by April at the latest. 
66. In the areas of anti-dumping and subsidies a nd countervailing measures, the Group had been 
working hard to achieve that target.  It was his sen se that participants had now submitted most of their 
proposals and that remaining proposals would be forthc oming in April.  However, he had noted that 
most of the proposals received had focused on anti-dumping, and there remained a number of 
anticipated proposals in the area of subsidies.  He  urged all participants to redouble their efforts to  TN/C/M/24 
 Page 11 
 
 
submit any additional proposals on subsidies in time  for initial consideration by the Group at its May 
meeting. 
67. The Group had been working intensively to anal yze the proposals before it, with multi-week 
clusters in February and March and further clusters scheduled in May, June and July.  In this context, 
he had continued an intens ified process of plurilateral and variable  geometry consultations to probe in 
greater depth certain proposals.  He wished to underline the nature of these consultations.  These 
consultations were not negotiating sessions per se , but were to allow him to obtain clarifications 
regarding delegations' positions.  He  was taking all possible steps to en sure transparency with respect 
to these consultations. 
68. In the area of fisheries subsidies, both the number and specificity of the proposals by 
participants, and their engagement, had increased since his last report.  The Group was currently 
considering textual proposals covering the structure and specific content of possible new disciplines, 
and certain participants had indicated that they in tended to submit further textual proposals in the near 
future.  This increased specificity  was essential for the Group to progr ess in its work on this topic. 
69. The Group's work toward elaborating new di sciplines on fisheries subsidies, however 
remained relatively underdeveloped.  There were  profound differences of view among delegations, 
and the time to resolve the very complex outstandi ng issues was very short.  He therefore called on 
participants to renew their commitment to and en gagement on this issue, so that an acceptable 
compromise could be found which would contribut e positively to the final outcome for the Rules 
Group and the Round. 
70. In the area of rules and procedures applying to RTAs, Ministers in Hong Kong had mandated 
the Group to intensify its efforts with a view to a provisional decision on RTA transparency by 30 
April 2006 and appropriate outcomes on RTA sy stemic questions by the end of 2006. 
71. Text-based negotiations on the Elements for an RTAs' Transparency Mechanism had been 
resumed in early 2006 on the basis of his informal note, document JOB(06)/2.  Progress had been made.  However, a few refinement s were still needed with regard to the procedures for subsequent 
notification and reporting and how to deal with unf inished examination of work in the Committee on 
Regional Trade Agreements (CRTA). 
72. Discussions on the application of the transpar ency mechanism to RTAs notified under the 
Enabling Clause were ongoing.  His new informal no te, document JOB(06)/59, was aimed at finding 
some common ground by retaining a single tran sparency mechanism common to all RTAs under 
WTO provisions while addressing concerns expressed by some of the developing-country Members.  
The aim at this stage was to meet the 30 April deadline.   
73. Regarding RTA systemic questions, these had been further explored on the basis of his 
revised informal roadmap.  However, the lack of textual proposals by participants had prevented the 
Group from advancing the negotiations beyond the t echnical consideration of the various issues 
tabled.  These issues were the substantially all the trade concept, the length of transition periods, and 
the inclusion of S&D treatment provisions in Artic le XXIV of GATT 1994.  As a result, since late 
January 2006, no further meetings  of the Group had been held on these questions and none was 
planned pending guidance from participants as to the dir ection to be taken in this area of negotiations.   
74. In conclusion, he said he remained optimisti c and positive about the results in rules, but 
Members needed to focus their work, and there remained much work ahead. 
75. Ambassador Ahmad (Pakistan), Chairman of the Special Session of the Council for TRIPS , 
said that his report on the work of the Special Session since the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference TN/C/M/24 
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  was contained in document TN/IP/15.  He wished to add a few words, in particular in the light of the 
Chairman's remarks. 
76. First, he thanked delegations for their active e ngagement in what he believed had been a rich 
and useful discussion of the key issues at the Speci al Session's meeting earlier in the month, and for 
their constructive contribution to the consultations he had held earlier to prepare the meeting.  He 
wished in particular to welcome the active particip ation of a number of delegations of developing 
countries, including those without a significant st ake as producers of wines and spirits, despite the 
heavy calendar of meetings.  He had also been en couraged by some indications from both sides of a 
willingness to examine further their respective proposal s with a view to allaying the concerns of 
others. 
77. However, he had not detected any significant movement on the key issues dividing Members, 
especially those relating to participation and the lega l effects or consequences of a registration of a GI 
under the system and the procedures relating to such registrations.  It would be necessary for 
delegations to consider the scope for quite signi ficant movements in their positions if enough common 
ground was to be found to enable a useful working do cument to be on the table by July.  Further work 
was also required on a range of other issues, incl uding, but not limited to, those of fees, costs and 
administrative burdens. 
78. With the next formal meeting of the Special Se ssion scheduled in June, he would organize an 
intensive process of informal consulta tions in a variety of formats in the intervening period, starting in 
April, with a view to finding a way of making substa ntive progress in the negotiations in order to be 
in a position to produce a working document by July.  He would be looking to delegations to intensify 
their contacts with each other with this in mind. 
79. Ambassador Ali (Bangladesh), Chairman of the Special Session of the Committee on Trade 
and Environment,  said that the first meeting of the Committee on Trade and Environment in Special 
Session (CTESS) post Hong Kong had been held on 21- 22 February 2006.  It had focused mainly on 
the way forward under paragraph 31(iii) of the Doha Ministerial Declaration, which had set out the 
mandate for negotiations on environmental goods and services.   
80. At that meeting, Members ha d agreed to launch technical work in the CTESS, without 
prejudice to the issue of the approach to fulfil the mandate.  The first technical discussion was 
scheduled for 4-5 April, and would focus on tw o main areas – renewable energy and air pollution 
control.  As part of this exercise, Members woul d apply indicative parameters in the examination of 
products, systems or projects in the two above me ntioned areas.  Environmental end use of products, 
which was one of the indicative parameters mentione d by many delegations, would be the initial focus 
of the discussion.  Cross-cutting issues such as non-tariff barriers (NTBs), S&D treatment, and 
transfer of technology would also be discussed in this context.  
81. At this juncture, there was clearly a need to  intensify the Committee's work, in particular 
regarding the examination of goods that might be considered relevant under the Doha mandate.  Only 
two categories would be covered initially at the me eting in April.  Additional sessions of that kind 
would be necessary if delegations wished to addr ess other areas of interest, such as wastewater 
management, solid and hazardous waste management , cleaner technology and products and soil 
conservation.   
82. Finally, he wished to recall that the mandate  of negotiations in the CTESS also included the 
WTO/multilateral environmental agreements (MEAs) related issues set out in sub-paragraphs 31(i) 
and (ii) of the Doha Declaration.  The CTESS had de dicated considerable time over the past year on 
work under paragraph 31(iii), and ha d to continue doing so.  However, Members would also have to 
revert in the following months to other outstanding issues.    TN/C/M/24 
 Page 13 
 
 
83. Ambassador Saborio Soto (Costa Rica), Chairman of the Special Session of the Dispute 
Settlement Body , said he would be circulating a written repor t and proposed to highlight just a few 
points.  In respect of improvements and clarifica tions to the Dispute Settlement Understanding, the 
Special Session had been instructed  by Ministers to work toward s a "rapid conclusion of the 
negotiations".  Therefore, Members were entering the final stage of the negotiations.  In this light, he 
had proposed to Members that they should aim to  be fully engaged in text-based discussions by the 
summer, so that they could aim to finalize an agreed  text as rapidly as possible.  In that context, he 
had encouraged delegations that were currently work ing towards revised texts to present such texts as 
early as possible, preferably by th e group's next meeting in April. 
84. Since he had assumed chairmanship of the Special Session, a number of Members had 
stressed the importance they attached to the bo ttom-up approach.  He had been impressed by the 
efforts that Members, both individually and in groups, had been making towards working together 
informally towards building convergence.  He beli eved those efforts were critical to a successful 
conclusion of the negotiations, and hoped they woul d continue to play a constructive role in the 
following months.  The effort in particular by Mexico  to bring together interested delegations in an 
open-ended process for informal discussion of the various issues under consideration was playing a 
key role in the discussion and development of draft text. 
85. He had been encouraging any delegation th at was currently working towards revised 
contributions to actively engage informally with ot her Members in preparing such contributions.  He 
also wished to reiterate his encour agement to such delegations to pr esent such contributions as rapidly 
as possible, so that the group could successfully move towards a rapid conclusion of its work. 
86. Mr. Miller (Hong Kong, China), Chairman of  the Negotiating Group on Trade Facilitation , 
said that following his appointment as Chair earlier in the year, he had had a first opportunity to preside over a meeting of the Group on 15 and 16 Febr uary which had been the Group's first since the 
Sixth Ministerial.  The session had represented an initial possibility to proceed with implementing the 
results from Hong Kong.   
87. The overall impression he had gained had been that Members seemed to be on the right track.  
Progress had been made on several fronts, allowi ng the Group to prepare the ground for executing the 
agreed recommendations on future work.  Apart fro m continuing with national experience sharing and 
securing the assistance of relevant international organi zations in the trade facilitation field, Members 
had intensified their negotiations  on multilateral commitments on all elements of the mandate, with 
valuable additional contributions be ing made by several of them.   
88. In his view, many of those new proposals had suggested that a new dynamic was already in 
play in that they represented serious attempts at  consolidating discussion and merging ideas.  Pooling 
earlier submissions into single documents, the papers had also identified emerging areas of common ground.  This inspired confidence for the road ahead.  He had also  been encouraged to see in the 
discussion of the papers clear evidence of an on-goi ng, open dialogue amongst all parties, reflecting 
the Group’s preference for a Member-driven process.   
89. The discussions had also touched upon the recommendations in Annex E on technical 
assistance and S&D, with valuable new contributions  being made.  He emphasised that there was a 
need for reinforced attention to this area if Me mbers were to advance in a balanced manner.   
90. Work would also have to progress on the gap analysis and cost assessment side.  On this, he 
was pleased to see participants from international organizations playing a very useful role, with 
several concrete projects already under way.   
91. More input on all elements of the mandate w as expected at the Group's next meeting, from 5-
7 April.  Conscious that the road to July was ge tting shorter by the day, it was his hope that that TN/C/M/24 
Page 14  
 
  session would witness an even more focussed disc ussion on what delegations wished the trade 
facilitation negotiations to deliver.  With that in mind, he proposed to allow time for exchanges in 
both formal and informal mode to facilitate a flexible, substance-oriented approach.   
92. Overall, he had the impression that Members were comfortable with the essentially 
democratic process they had developed, and they knew  what they were doing.  He agreed with them 
that they were heading in the right direction, even  if the time was fast approaching when all Members 
would need to pick up the pace.   
93. The Trade Negotiations Committee took note
 of the reports by the Chairpersons of the bodies 
established by it. 
3. Statements by participants 
94. The representative of India , on behalf of the G20 , said that the Group fully shared the 
assessments on agriculture by the Chairman and by th e Agriculture Chair.  As  the 30 April deadline 
approached, the G20 viewed with concern the lack of progress in the negotiations.  Members were far 
from achieving modalities in agriculture, a sector whic h had been explicitly recognized in the mandate 
as crucial to the development impe ratives of developing countries. 
95. The G20 wished to reaffirm its commitment to an outcome for the Round compatible with its 
main objective – development.  The Round would be successful only if it resulted in benefits for all 
Members in a fair and equitable manner.   
96. As many developing countries enjoyed more, and in many cases their only, comparative 
advantage in agriculture, substantial reductions in distortions in agriculture trade and substantial 
improvement in market access for products of expor t interest of developing countries were essential 
elements to fulfil the development mandate of the Round and to achieve an ambitious and balanced 
outcome.  It was for this reason that agriculture ha d been termed the engine of the Doha Round.   
97. Only through an ambitious outcome could Members deliver on the development objectives of 
the Round.  It was essential that the main subsid izers improved their proposals in domestic support.  
Their current offers in market access also did not  provide the basis for achieving results that all 
Members were striving for.  The G20 called upon th e developed countries to make such a decision 
promptly, as the negotiations had already taken too long to conclude. 
98. In domestic support, reductions had to lead to effective and substa ntial cuts in all forms and in 
the overall levels of trade-distorting domestic support .  This had to be complemented by disciplines 
on the Blue Box to ensure that such payments were  less trade distorting than AMS, and on the Green 
Box to ensure that the fundamental criteria of minimal trade distortion were met.  
99. In the market access pillar, the tariff reduction formula remained the main element to achieve 
substantial improvements in market access.  The number and treatment of sensitive products had to 
allow for substantial improvement in market access for all products.  Discussions had indicated 
delegations' disposition to look for more creative ways to tackle the several variables involved.   
100. The G20 wished to recall that S&D treatment remain ed an integral part of all the three pillars 
of the agriculture negotiations.  In the market  access pillar, it recalled its proposal which was 
premised upon developing-country commitments bei ng less than two-thirds of the cuts to be 
undertaken by developed countries.  It also welc omed the G33 contribution on SPs and the SSM. 
  TN/C/M/24 
 Page 15 
 
 
101. In export competition, as Members had agreed that all forms of export subsidies would be 
eliminated by 2013 with a substantial part by the end of the first part of the implementation period, the 
next step was to work on their elimination as scheduled and on disciplines which could meet the 
requirements of parallelism. 
102. The G20 remained committed to an ambitious  pro-development outcome from the Round that 
included substantial resources for Aid for Trade, fr ee market access for LDCs in accordance with the 
Hong Kong Declaration and effec tive action on commodities and tropi cal products of particular 
importance for developing countries, such as cotton, and specific flexibility provisions for recently-acceded Members.  Concerns of small, vulnerable ec onomies also needed to be  effectively addressed.  
The G20 would continue working to attain the objectives of the Round and within the deadlines 
established by Ministers. 
103. Speaking on behalf of India
, on agriculture, he associated his delegation with the positions of 
the G20 and the G33.  Regarding agricultural market  access, he emphasized that at least two-thirds 
proportionality in the overall tariff reduction commitm ent by developing countries, coupled with an 
operationally efficient SSM and an  appropriate number of self-designated SPs was the minimum 
requirement of an acceptable outcome. 
104. His delegation was particularly concerned about  the direction of the NAMA negotiations.  He 
said there was a concerted attempt on the part of some Members to redefine the mandate.  His delegation had noted with concern the attempts of so me Members to redefine the parameters of less 
than full reciprocity in reduction commitments and S&D treatment through creative interpretations.  
An additional criterion of judging ambition by the exte nt of current reduction in  current applied tariffs 
was sought to be introduced even though it had no basi s in the mandate.  Such an attempt consciously 
sought to ignore the autonomous liberalization undert aken by his country and the enhanced market 
access provided every year.  In short, this was an attempt to shift the goal posts at the end stage of the negotiations.  A satisfactory outcome, consistent w ith the development objectives of the Round, could 
only be achieved if Members adhered strictly to th e mandate given by Ministers and respected past 
practices of tariff reduction in the GATT and WTO. 
105. On services, his delegation welcomed the inte nsification of the negotiations through the 
plurilateral exchange of offers and hoped that these would pave the way to further progress through 
the new revised offers by July. 
106. Finally, he thanked the Chairman for intensif ying the dedicated consultations on the TRIPS-
CBD relationship and on GI extensi on.  The consultations on the TR IPS-CBD relationship had helped 
to narrow the differences on how to introduce a disclos ure requirement and the intensity of developing 
Members concerns on this issue was even more a pparent.  His delegation was encouraged by the 
constructive approach of a number of developed countries on this issue.  This should strengthen 
Members' resolve to deliver on the mandate of para graph 39 of the Hong Kong Declaration within the 
July time limit.  He said that with this objec tive, and as had been suggested by the Chairman, 
delegations should now change gears and move towards a text-based negotiation on this issue. 
107. The representative of Mexico
 said that the moment of truth was approaching, and in this 
respect he wished to refer to hi s country's trade.  Mexico had fr ee trade and integration agreements 
with 43 countries, both develope d and developing.  Although Mexico's preferences, for which it had 
paid in full, would be eroded at the end of the Round, it fully supported a successful conclusion of the 
negotiations.  The reasons for this were multiple.  First, the only sure path to development for a 
country such as his, where 60 per cent of GDP wa s from trade, was a solid international trading 
system which gave certainty to economic agents a nd, in particular, helped prevent protectionist 
tendencies, which were on the rise.  Second, there were items which could not  be negotiated in free 
trade agreements, but which distorted trade and produ ction, such as agricultural subsidies and changes 
in the rules area, including anti-dumping.  Third, the Round should lead to market opening for TN/C/M/24 
Page 16  
 
  Mexican products in countries with which it did not have free trade agreements .  Fourth, the success 
of these negotiations would also improve the ava ilability of goods and services to Mexican producers 
and consumers at international pr ices and quality.  Finally, Mexico's wide network of free trade 
agreements did not protect it from the dangers of a multilateral trading system which was weak, and 
potentially getting weaker. 
108. Although everyone talked about moving in concer t, his delegation believed that everyone was 
waiting for others to play their instruments first.   In a concert, there were times when some 
instruments were being played while others were si lent, except at the grand finale when all of them 
were played at full strength under the conductor's directions.  His delegation hoped that the grand 
finale would be at the end of the present year.  Howe ver, thus far only the piccolo had been heard with 
the other larger instruments remaining silent. 
109. As things stood, Members were again running the risk of not fulfilling the calendar agreed in 
Hong Kong.  The previous week's meetings on agriculture and NAMA, although intensive, had 
showed only limited progress.  As the Chairman ha d said, not meeting the April deadline would put 
the Round at risk.  Everyone knew what the others had to do, and how to untie the Gordian knot, but 
they lacked the courage to do so.  Unquestionabl y, the major developed countries should set the 
example.  It was not a matter of who had benefite d most from the multilateral trading system in the 
last 60 years, but rather of taking advantage of the system in order to extend its benefits to all Members.  It was equally clear that every Member s should make an appropriate contribution to the 
negotiations. 
110. Turning to agriculture, he said that being a memb er of the G20, Mexico had little to add to the 
statement by India on behalf of that Group.  In this area, all Members knew who had to give way on 
what.   
111. In NAMA, Mexico had submitted a series of propo sals that aimed to contribute to finding a 
solution to the formula-flexibilities-unbound tariffs tr iangle.  It was prepared to withdraw those 
proposals for others that were less elegant math ematically but simpler.  With regard to unbound 
tariffs, Mexico agreed to binding applied tariffs at a higher level by means of a fixed percentage 
increase. 
112. Regarding flexibilities, Mexico agreed with the vi ew that paragraph 8 of Annex B of the July 
2004 Decision had already been negotiated and that it was independent of any coefficients Members 
agreed on.  It also agreed to the removal of the s quare brackets in that paragraph.  However, Mexico 
was among those developing countries that did not want  any one of its domestic industries to benefit 
to the detriment of others.  It believed that Memb ers should be granted an advantage equivalent to 
what had been set out in paragraph 8 – in the form  of 5 additional points in the overall coefficient.  
This did not imply any differentiation between deve loping countries.  All that it did was extend 
flexibility equivalent to that of paragraph 8 to the en tire tariff of industrial pro ducts.  In short, Mexico 
stood ready to play its part and to go as far as might be necessary for negotiating modalities to be 
ready by the end of April.  It urged other countries,  particularly those that were the most committed to 
the negotiations, to do likewise. 
113. With regard to services, he said that Me xico was playing an active part, both as a demandeur 
and as a recipient of requests, in practically all plurilateral negotiations currently taking place.  The offers it had put on the table was among the most ambitious and it was ready to improve them, but 
only in line with what its counterparts offered. 
114. On rules, as the Negotiating Group Chair had said,  30 April was again a significant date in 
terms of having a decision on transparency on RT As.  Meeting this deadline was of utmost 
importance in terms of the political signal that would be sent out.  TN/C/M/24 
 Page 17 
 
 
115. Time was running out.  Without a grande finale at the end of the year, there would be 
cacophony.  In order to stage a grande finale, Members needed by the end of April to meet the commitments set by Ministers.  As the Chairman had said, it would be an enormous collective error 
on the part of Members to think that they coul d postpone establishing modalities until after the month 
of April. 
116. As the Chair of the Special Session of the Di spute Settlement Body had mentioned, Mexico 
was acting as host for informal discussions on the diffe rent elements of the negotiations in this area.  
All interested delegations were invited to participate in this.  Mexico's only interest in doing this was 
to assist the Chair's efforts. 
117. The representative of Benin
, on behalf of the African Group , said from the assessments by the 
Chairman and the Chairs of negotiating groups, Me mbers would have to speed up their work in order 
to fulfil the mandate set by the Ministers in Hong Kong. 
118. The Chairman had prepared a work programme after the Hong Kong Conference.  In order to 
keep to this timetable and to prepare full m odalities for the different issues under negotiation, 
Members had to redouble their efforts and show more determination.   
119. He wished to state the concerns  and expectations of the Afri can Group regarding some of the 
issues being negotiated.  On agriculture, he sai d the agriculture sector could only be promoted 
effectively in developing and least-developed count ries if export subsidies were eliminated and 
domestic support substantially reduced.  Tariff peak s, tariff escalation, and preference erosion would 
have to be given adequate treatment.   
120. The African Group hoped that the workshop on pref erence erosion in agriculture, which had 
been scheduled for 3 April 2006, would serve as a frame work in which the real concerns raised by the 
beneficiaries of long-standing preferences could be fully appreciated.  In the same way, NTBs that 
limited exports of agricultural products from devel oping countries would have to be eliminated.   
121. Developing countries should have easier access to the use of provisions to be agreed under the 
SSM and SPs, according to appropria te criteria to be determined. 
122. The Group recalled the need to define a frame work of disciplines that would ensure the 
supply of emergency food aid by providing a safe box for that purpose, and of non-emergency food 
aid, without causing displacements of food aid pro ducts for commercial purposes.  In this respect, the 
work carried out in the previous week in the Special Session of the Committee on Agriculture was 
encouraging, and the Group urged Members to continue  their efforts to that end.  The joint proposal 
by the African and LDC Groups had provided a basis for discussions and useful contributions in this 
area.   
123. On cotton, the Group asked Members to act urge ntly to fulfil the commitments made by 
Ministers in Hong Kong regarding both the trade and development aspects of the issue.  The Group 
recalled in particular the modalities to be develope d for domestic support and the instructions that had 
been given to the Chairman to hold consultations fo r the introduction of a mechanism to deal with the 
deficits linked to falling cotton prices on the intern ational market.  The African Group supported the 
recent proposals submitted by the co-sponsors of the S ectoral Initiative in Favour of Cotton (C4) in 
document TN/AG/SSC/GEN/4 dated 1 March 200 6 on modalities for the reduction of domestic 
support that distorted international trade in cotton and the introduction of a mechanism to deal with 
the deficits linked to the loss of revenue due to fluctuations in cotton prices on the international 
market.   
124. On NAMA, the Group stressed that the ongoing nego tiations should take into consideration 
the major objective of strengthening the industrial base and providing useful space for Africa's infant TN/C/M/24 
Page 18  
 
  industries by adopting a tariff reduction formula th at took account of the particular situation and 
specific conditions of African countries.  This should include provision of S&D treatment, and 
dealing with preference erosion and NTBs  effectively and appropriately.   
125. Regarding services, the African Group wished to ma ke it clear that in its participation in the 
negotiations on trade in services, the commitments th at its Members took had to be proportionate to 
their capabilities and their level of development.  Th is would give meaning to the principle of S&D 
treatment.   
126. On trade facilitation, the Group emphasised its co mmitment to continue participating in the 
work of the Negotiating Group on Trade Facilitation.   It emphasized the importance of providing 
technical and financial assistance to developing coun tries, and more specifically to LDCs, to enable 
them carry out the necessary reforms in the areas con cerned.  In this connection, the Group recalled 
that, as had been clearly stated in Annex D of the July 2004 Decision, S&D treatment had to be an integral part of the provisions that were negotiated.   
127. Regarding LDCs, the Group strongly recommended that the decisions adopted in Hong Kong 
concerning duty-free quota-free market access for e xport products from LDCs and other LDC-specific 
measures should be implemented so that LDCs could effectively reap the benefits of their 
participation in international trade.   
128. Finally, the African Group wished to stress the importance of the ongoing work of the Aid for 
Trade Task Force.  The Group wished to emphasi ze that it was necessary that the resources made 
available under this programme s hould be substantial, and should be provided in addition and as a 
complement to other existing initiatives, so that  beneficiary countries could be relieved of the 
constraints that they were facing in internationa l trade.  Similarly, Aid for Trade should not be 
contingent on exports of goods from the countries providing aid to the recipient countries.  The 
targeted areas of activity were:  productio n and supply capacity-building and improving 
competitiveness;  infrastructure development;  human and institutional capacity-building and 
adjustment costs in the implementation of the ru les and mechanisms governing international trade. 
129. The representative of Turkey
, on behalf of the G33 , said that like other delegations, the G33 
was concerned at the lack of progress in the ag riculture negotiations.  The Group was particularly 
concerned about the lack of movement in market access, including the flexibilities or S&D treatment 
for developing countries.  The development needs of developing countries were being continuously 
undermined and were at the risk of being marginaliz ed in the current agriculture negotiations.  This 
disregarded the DDA, which aimed at providing eff ective solutions to the imperatives of economic 
and social development of developing countries.   
130. In this regard, the Group wished to emphasize th at the Doha Declaration had set out both the 
level of ambition that had to be achieved, and the flexibilities that should be extended to developing 
countries.  Representing the legitimate concerns  of developing countries, the G33 was fully 
committed to operationalizing and making effective S&D treatment for developing countries across 
all aspects of the market access pilla r.  A core aspect of S&D treatment had to be substantially lower 
overall tariff reduction commitments  by developing countries as compared to those of developed 
countries.   
131. The Group strongly believed that the concepts  of SPs and the SSM were fundamental 
components of S&D treatment, and crucial for ad dressing food and livelihood security, as well as 
rural development in developing countries.  These two instruments served different situations but 
were essential to the pursuit of agricultural po licies that were supportive of development goals, 
poverty reduction strategies, food security and liveli hood concerns as had been agreed in the July 
2004 Decision.    TN/C/M/24 
 Page 19 
 
 
132. The Hong Kong Declaration had been explicit and instructive that developing-country 
Members would have the flexibility to self-designate  an appropriate number of tariff lines as SPs 
guided by indicators based on criteria of food secu rity, livelihood security and rural development 
needs.   
133. Developing countries would also have the ri ght to recourse to a SSM based on import 
quantity and price triggers, with precise arrangements to be further defined.  Special products and the 
SSM were to be an integral part of the modalities and the outcome of negotiations in agriculture.  A 
priority of the G33 in the negotiations was to help create a fairer and more sustainable world 
agricultural trade and to preven t the decimation of large poor and vulnerable rural communities in 
developing countries.  These flexibilities were in full compliance with the letter and spirit of the 
DDA. 
134. In this connection, the G33 had made concrete efforts to constructively move the negotiations 
forward on SPs and the SSM.  The Group had s ubmitted comprehensive and technically robust 
proposals on modalities on both SPs and the SSM, moving away from previously long held positions.   
135. The Group was ready to engage constructively w ith other groups and players to ensure that 
SPs and the SSM provisions could be operationally  and effectively implemented by developing 
countries.  But negotiations should be framed with in the mandate on SPs and the SSM established in 
the Doha Declaration, the July 2004 Framew ork Agreement and the Hong Kong Ministerial 
Declaration.  The Group could not accept a reopening of the mandate in a way that would undermine the effectiveness of the provisions to be establishe d, and thus the devel opment dimension of the 
Round. 
136. Finally, the G33 wished to convey its concerns with respect to the conduct of the negotiations 
and the disproportionate role that a very small gr oup of Members had in establishing the direction of 
the process.  The Group wished to stress the im portance of building consensus through a bottom-up 
process guaranteeing transparency, inclusiveness, and the effective participation of all Members.  
These concerns should be taken seriously as lack of ownership of the process would undermine the 
legitimacy of any outcome and risked a new failure for the organization. 
137. The representative of Jamaica
 said that the success of the Round would only be gauged by 
what it delivered in terms of development.  Ther efore, her delegation's expectation was for clear 
development outcomes that would allow small economi es such as Jamaica to continue to pursue their 
development objectives.   
138. She believed that all Members acknowledged that the negotiations were difficult and 
complex.  Nevertheless, it was important that the interests of all parties were taken into account to 
ensure that the negotiations resulted in a balance of  benefits for all parties.  In agriculture, her 
delegation viewed the market access package as a singl e one.  Agreement therefore had to be reached 
on the essential policy instruments of SPs and a su itable SSM, together w ith the modalities on other 
areas of this pillar.  The G33 had taken firm step s towards advancing the discussions in respect of the 
SSM and SPs.  Her delegation viewed these as two of  the mechanisms that we re critical to giving 
effect to the principle of S&D treatment for deve loping countries.  Her delegation wished to see 
momentum in the discussions on these two key instru ments leading to tangible progress.  In addition, 
the issue of preference erosion was in need of mo re attention and she urged Members to move to 
establish modalities to address in a meaningful and e ffective manner the concerns of some of their 
countries.  Jamaica did not accept that these issues should be treated as residual and believed that they 
should be an integral part of any April 30 modalities.   
139. On NAMA, her delegation continued to seek accommodation for countries like those in its 
region through appropriate flexibility and moderati on in commitments.  In this regard, Jamaica 
emphasized the finalization of the provisions on paragraph 8 flexibilities.  Paragraph 8 flexibilities TN/C/M/24 
Page 20  
 
  were an essential element of the flexibilities requi red by developing countries to manage the process 
of liberalization.  These flexibilities were a stand-alone provision in the NAMA Framework.  Further, it was Jamaica's view that the principle of less than full reciprocity was intended to achieve a 
substantial difference in outcomes in the reduc tion commitments of developed and developing 
countries.  In this context, it urged that the Hong Kong Declaration be respected, particularly 
paragraph 21 which called for th e establishment of appropriate fl exibilities for small and vulnerable 
economies.  It was essential that the modalities for the operationalization of paragraph 21 be finalized 
and included in the April 30 modalities. 
140. Her delegation wished to draw attention to the issues outlined above due to the amount of 
time that had been spent treating the elements and stru cture for tariff reductions a nd levels of cuts.  It 
wished to emphasize that for the modalities to be  acceptable to all Members, they should also 
incorporate these essential elements which were of  key interest to developing countries such as 
Jamaica, thus making them acceptable to the enti re membership.  Finally, she associated her 
delegation with the statement by Turkey for the G33. 
141. The representative of Nepal
, on behalf of the LDC Group , said that the Group had taken note 
of the Chairman's statement that the moment of  truth was approaching and that Members had to 
accelerate the speed of the negotiations.  Members w ould recall that at the Ministerial Conference in 
Hong Kong, Ministers had agreed, among other thin gs, to establish modalities no later than 30 April 
2006 and to submit comprehensive draft schedules based on these modalities no later than 31 July 
2006. 
142. In view of this mandate, and also the need not  to further delay the conclusion of the DDA, the 
LDC Group had been actively involved in discussions at  both the political and tec hnical levels.  It was 
the Group's firm conviction that it was the ambition of  every Member to conclude the negotiations by 
the end of 2006.  The most important objective fo r developing countries, particularly for LDCs, was 
to achieve an outcome that would contribute positi vely to their national development objective of 
wealth creation and ultimately, the reduction in pov erty levels through enha nced level of market 
access for their products, with supply-side capacities.   
143. The Group's main interests in this process were well known but were not confined to the issue 
of duty-free quota-free market access, even though this was a very important issue for it.  The overall 
outcome of the DDA negotiations would have an imp act on LDCs and as such it was in their interest 
to follow and participate in all areas of the negotiations.   
144. The Group wished to emphasize that in order to fulfill the mandate regarding the 
implementation of the Decisions in Annex F of the Hong Kong Declaration the negotiations would 
need to continue to take place in the Committee on Trade and Development in Special Session.   
145. The Group was hopeful that the membership would fulfill their commitment to addressing 
seriously the plight of LDCs with a view to he lping them create their production and export base.  
Preferential rules of origin should be supplemente d by other technical and capacity building support 
to effectively address supply capacity impediments. 
146. NTBs posed major barriers to exports of LDCs a nd as such needed to be identified and efforts 
made to remove them.  Efforts should also be ex pended in providing the desired assistance at an 
appropriate time to facilitate progress. 
147. On sectoral initiatives under the NAMA negotiatio ns, LDCs recognized that sectorals were 
voluntary in nature.  However, the selection of sector s where they had an export interest could have 
adverse effects on their competitiveness since this w ould entail erosion of margins of preferences.   TN/C/M/24 
 Page 21 
 
 
What was of importance was the identification of the products or categories of products where LDCs 
had concerns to ensure that their interests were not comprised.   
148. In agriculture, the Group welcomed the pos itive response given by the Chairman, the 
Agriculture Chair and other Members to its proposal  on Food Aid, that had been co-sponsored by the 
African Group.  It remained open to further cons ultations with Members to facilitate reaching a 
mutually acceptable outcome on this important issue. 
149. The July 2004 Decision had exempted LDCs from making any tariff reduction commitments 
and this had been reaffirmed by Ministers in Hong Kong.  It was on the basis of this understanding 
that the Group looked forward to a SSM that woul d be accessible to LDCs.  In this regard, the Group 
did not favour the proposal by some Members to link the use of the SSM to the level of liberalization. 
150. The Group wished to stress the need to continue , in an effective way, the work on cotton, as 
had been mandated in paragraphs 11 and 12 of the Hong Kong Ministerial Declar ation.  In this regard, 
the LDCs supported the proposals submitted on 1 Ma rch by the C4 countries concerning domestic 
support reduction and the mechanism to deal with lo sses of revenues due to the fluctuation of cotton 
prices in international markets.   
151. Securing a commitment by Members to fully implement the 2003 Modalities on the Special 
Treatment of LDCs in the area of services had been a step in the right direction.  The Group looked 
forward to advancing discussions on their proposal on granting this special priority. 
152. Finally, the LDC Group wished to stress the im portance of Aid for Trade and to assure the 
Task Force on Aid for Trade of its continued support in its task of defining the different elements under this initiative to make it a truly workable and effective instrument.  
153. The representative of Australia
, on behalf of the Cairns Group , said that with little over a 
month remaining before the end of April deadline agreed at the WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong 
Kong for the finalization of modalities, the Cairns Group was concerned at the lack of progress in the 
agriculture negotiations.  If the negotiations were to be successful, Members had to deliver more than 
paper reform.  Deep tariff cuts had to be agreed in order to provide real commercial opportunities and 
cuts to subsidies had to reduce current spending.   
154. A substantial and effective result on both the ma rket access and subsidies pillars was central 
to the success of the Doha Round.  The farmers of the member countries of the Cairns Group were 
expecting relief from protection and subsidies in th is Round and not ineffective half-measures.   
155. Members now needed to finalize provisions to en sure the phasing out of all forms of export 
subsidies on a volume and value basis and to cut substantially and discipline appropriately trade-
distorting domestic support, with substantia l front-loading of scheduled commitments.   
156. The Group was concerned that progress on market access continued to lag behind.  Members 
needed to urgently agree on approaches to tariffs and sensitive products that would break the barriers 
which had for so long hampered the full development of agricultural trade.  Th ey also needed urgently 
to progress work on issues of importance to devel oping countries within this  pillar, such as the SSM, 
SPs and tropical products.   
157. The Group called for the necessary political leader ship to unlock the current stalemate on 
commitments and disciplines on both domestic support and market access.  It would be dangerous to 
assume that the significant moves that were requi red by major Members could be left until the 
eleventh hour.  They could not.  The Group needed urgently to see movement, and it would not be 
pressured into accepting a modest outcome at the last minute.   TN/C/M/24 
Page 22  
 
  158. Rules and disciplines or the non-numerical part s of the negotiations, would be a crucial 
component of any final package in agriculture.  This was why the Group called for an urgent 
intensification of the work in Geneva and it reaffirm ed its willingness to make every effort it could to 
assist this process. 
159. The Group was ready to work with Members to  deliver an outcome which allowed farmers 
around the world the freedom to build markets for their products, just as Members for decades had 
done with trade in non-agricultural products.   
160. The representative of Argentina
 associated his delegation with the statements by Australia for 
the Cairns Group and India for the G20, and said that  in addition he wished to add some remarks.  
Concerning domestic support, he said that some progress had been made in the discussions, but a 
definition had still not been agreed either for the current Blue Box, or for the one Members might 
decide to create.  It was insufficient to have onl y limits by product in the Blue Box because this would 
make it no different from the Amber Box, which w ould also have limits by product.  Additional 
criteria were therefore needed to comply with the mandate that it should be "less distorting" than the 
Amber Box.  Regarding the Amber Box, his delega tion had noted that one position – an extreme one 
in its view – aimed to use as a base period precisely the years with the highest levels of support.  On 
the Green Box, Members needed to clarify and revi ew the disciplines to ensure that green direct 
payments complied with what had been agreed in the Uruguay Round – that they caused minimal 
distortion at most. 
161. Regarding export subsidies, his de legation hoped to be able to continue discussing food aid in 
greater detail.  It believed that the African Gr oup's recent proposal was a positive contribution to the 
negotiating process.  In addition to the long list of highly technical questions regarding export credits, 
guarantees and insurance, Members needed to tackle the question of how export subsidies were to be 
eliminated.  His delegation understood that the co mmitments on elimination would have to be 
product-specific based on physical quantities and budgeta ry outlays, in order to maintain consistency 
with paragraph 18 of the 2004 Framework Agreement. 
162. In the previous week both the agriculture and the NAMA negotiations had been going on, 
which had been useful for clarifying concepts a nd exchanging ideas on technical issues.  However, 
with 30 April approaching, his delegation noted with some concern that there had not been the substantive progress Members needed  in order to comply with the agriculture and NAMA modalities 
by that date.  This would have a direct impact on the other issues under the negotiations. 
163. He recalled that in the agriculture and NAMA meetings his delegation had presented a paper 
on the implementation of paragraph 24 of the H ong Kong Ministerial Decl aration.  From the 
discussions on that paragraph during informal c onsultations in the Negotiating Group on Market 
Access and in the Committee on Agri culture in Special Session, his delegation concluded that:  
paragraph 24 was a reaffirmation by the Ministers of the need to reinstate development as a core objective of the Round and to make the negotia tions a coherent process;  paragraph 24 was 
unquestionably an integral part of the agriculture  and NAMA mandates;  some proposals by certain 
Members on NAMA and agriculture were  inconsistent with the mandate  and should be reviewed;  and 
to keep the negotiating process going, it would be necessary to carry out regular checks on how the 
balance between agriculture and NAMA was fairing. 
164. The negotiations needed not on ly to speed up and produce decisions allowing Members to 
make significant progress towards their objective of concluding the Round in 2007 at the latest, but 
also a higher level of participation.  He was referring to participation and not transparency.  
Transparency was necessary but by no means suffi cient.  The need for wider participation was 
nothing new in this forum and many delegations  were demanding it.  However, as Members 
approached the final phase of the Round, partic ipation was fundamental and would facilitate  TN/C/M/24 
 Page 23 
 
 
commitment by Members since, otherwise, there c ould be a "boomerang" effect for any agreements 
reached in small meeting rooms. 
165. At this stage, therefore, process was as importa nt as substance.  It might be a good idea to 
think again about maintaining the room F format .  During the Uruguay Round various systems were 
used, including an enlarged and more open room F.   His delegation appreciated the efforts of the 
Chairman and the Chairs of the Negotiating Groups in  favour of transparency.  It believed, however, 
that a lack of "inclusivity" in the consultations mi ght lead to a misappraisal of the situation by the 
Chairs, delaying decision-making at best, and affect ing the trust and relevancy that should be the 
watch words of this stage of the negotiations.  His delegation stressed that the negotiating process 
should take place in Geneva and should be transpar ent and all-encompassing, as the vast majority of 
the Members of this Organization and civil society demanded. 
166. The representative of Brazil  welcomed the Chairman's effort in instilling a sense of urgency 
in the membership in the run up to the end of Ap ril.  As the Chairman had pointed out, by the 
modalities deadline, Members would need to have th e blueprint for the negotiations in agricultural 
market access, domestic support and NAMA.  On the s ubstance of the agricultura l side of the triangle, 
he associated his delegation with the statements by India for the G20 and by Australia for the Cairns 
Group.   
167. On NAMA, he said there was not much to say in addition to the Chair's report.  NAMA was 
not the problem.  As the Chairman had said, Members had to ensure multiples of Uruguay Round 
results in all areas.  Developing countries had alre ady committed to do much more than they had done 
in the Uruguay Round and dependi ng on the outcome in other areas, developing countries might do 
more than what even developed countries had done  in the Uruguay Round.  If Members did not finish 
the modalities by April, if they did not conclude the Round by the end of the year, it would not have 
been because of the NAMA negotiations.  He wished  to emphasize the importance Brazil attached to 
the principle of proportionality in contributions by participants in the negotiations in line with the 
mandate.   
168. Turning to the other areas of the negotiations , on services, Brazil had a sizeable delegation 
from the capital for the current round of plurilate ral meetings.  His delegation would continue to 
engage in earnest and would consider seriously a ll requests that had been addressed to Brazil and it 
expected that its requests would also receive the same treatment. 
169. On rules, his delegation was satisfied with  the work and the pace of progress in the 
negotiating group.  It was essential that Members con tinued to advance and that meaningful results 
were achieved in all subjects. 
170. Finally, on implementation, his delegation was still waiting for a more constructive approach 
on the part of some Members regarding its proposals on TRIPS-CBD and TRIMs.  In the case of TRIPS-CBD his delegation was convinced that a positive outcome was essential to re-inforce the 
legitimacy of the TRIPS Agreement in the eyes of public opinion. 
171. The representative of the Philippines
 said that his delegation appreciated the Chairman's 
recognition of the importance of transparency and the primacy of the role of the membership in 
arriving at decisions that would attract consensus to  conclude the Round.  His delegation also wished 
to acknowledge the leadership role of the Chairman  in shepherding the negotiations to a successful 
conclusion and his reminder to Members that they only had 33 days to the modalities.   
172. While agreeing with the warning that allowing the April deadline to slip could be a recipe for 
failure, his delegation noted that the Chairm an was faced with a stiff-necked and stubborn 
membership that might be looking towards the summe r break deadline rather than the end of April.  
His delegation therefore joined in the Chairman's call for the key players to redouble their efforts to TN/C/M/24 
Page 24  
 
  maintain the end of April deadline, given that it was essential for any progress in the negotiations to 
be digested by the membership in Geneva and in cap itals.  This process of digesting the results of any 
agreements reached by smaller groups of  Members required enough time.   
173. On NAMA, regarding the updates on the London meeting and certain approaches that were 
being taken in the negotiations, hi s delegation believed that the fo cus and arguments on cuts on the 
applied rates did not hold water.  The history of GATT-WTO rounds bore the fact that end-results and 
reciprocity were measured by percentage cuts  from the bound rates.  Theorizing approaches and 
opposing philosophical differences should give way to  pragmatism and to parallel high ambition in 
both NAMA and agriculture to achieve enhanced market access for developing countries as required 
by the Hong Kong Declaration.   
174. The Philippines supported the paper submitted by  South Africa on behalf of a NAMA group 
of developing countries (NAMA 11).  During the previous week's NAMA meeting, the Philippines and some ASEAN countries had raised the need to  find a pragmatic solution for countries with low 
applied and unbound duties, as these countries had b een providing real, effective and actual market 
access through actual trade flows in the billions of do llars.  While his delegation agreed that the Hong 
Kong Declaration called for a linear markup, and acknowledged with appreciation the sympathy that 
had been expressed for their concerns, it wished to  flag that a single markup would not necessarily 
provide a pragmatic solution to the problem and inequity that could result for countries with low unbound duties.   
175. On flexibilities, his delegation had also register ed its concern regarding the creation of any 
new subcategory of developing countries.  In line with the views expressed by many other developing 
countries, paragraph 8, as enshrined in the July 2004 Decision and reaffirmed in Hong Kong, was a 
stand-alone provision that could not and ought not r esult in any enhanced or separate coefficient for 
certain developing countries as a result of their use or non-use of paragraph 8 flexibilities.  To allow, 
at this late stage of the negotiations, a special coe fficient for a certain group of countries would lead to 
other groups of countries also seeking special coefficients, including those countries with low 
unbound and applied duties. 
176. On the Swiss formula coefficients, along with the NAMA 11, the Philippines was grateful for 
the simulations undertaken by a group of Members out side the WTO.  His delegation had received the 
presentation of those calculations in the spirit of constructive engagement with the understanding that 
they did not attempt to prejudge the outcome.  In th is context, his delegation wished to recall that 
paragraph 24 of the Hong Kong D eclaration called for enhanced market access for developing 
countries in particular, and this meant that devel oped countries had to lead the way through increased 
ambition in both NAMA and agriculture to deliver  the market access opportunities to developing 
countries.  Developed countries shoul d consider a Swiss coefficient below 10 if Members were to be 
faithful to greater ambition, and a better than Uruguay Round result which would then secure delivery 
of the development dimension of the Round. 
177. On services, a delicate horizontal balance had b een struck by Members in Hong Kong.  While 
neither the Declaration nor Annex C embodied any new commitments or obligations aside from those 
already provided for in the GATS and the Nego tiating Guidelines, Members had committed in good 
faith to increasing efforts in the services negotiations  and engaging in further work in Geneva.  The 
Philippines had been on the receiving end of some 17 or 18 out of the 20 plurilateral requests that had been made, and it had brought capital officials fro m different government agencies for meetings, 
underlining its commitment to the process.   
178. However, Members should be mindful of the capac ity constraints on the part of many small, 
developing-country delegations.  This was an im portant fact that was recognized both in the  TN/C/M/24 
 Page 25 
 
 
Guidelines and in Annex C, and which should also be  reflected in how the plurilateral process evolved 
in the following weeks and months.   
179. His delegation wished to re-emphasize that the final wording of paragraph 7 of Annex C of 
the Hong Kong Declaration had reaffirmed the prim acy of the request-offer method of negotiations, 
and that the desire for an increased level of commitment under paragraph 4 of GATS Article XIX 
should yield to due respect needed for national policy objectives mandated by paragraph 2 of GATS 
Article XIX.   
180. On agriculture, the Philippines supported the statem ents by Turkey for the G33, India for the 
G20 and Australia for the Cairns Group.  At the Ministerial meeting in Hong Kong, the membership 
had upheld the aspirations of devel oping countries on two issues of v ital interest to the Philippines – 
SPs and the SSM.  Members had agreed that devel oping countries would have the flexibility to self-
designate an appropriate number of tariff lines as SPs guided by indicators based on criteria of food 
security, livelihood security and rural development needs.  Further, Members had agreed that 
developing countries would have recourse to a SSM based on import quantity and price triggers.   
181. In this connection, the G33 had been activ ely engaging with other Members in addressing 
technical problems and his delegation had dem onstrated openness in discussing the two proposals 
with a view to fine-tuning them, so they could yield results that delivered on the developmental objectives of the Doha Round.   
182. However, the Philippines, together with the G 33, was greatly concerned by the tendency of 
the post Hong Kong negotiations to focus on obtaining greater access to developing country markets, 
while paying lesser attention to establishing genuine and effective provisions for S&D treatment.  Of 
more concern was the discernable attempt, particularly in recent discussions on SPs and the SSM by 
some Members to constrain these flexibilities in defi ance of the clear instructions from the Ministers 
in Hong Kong.   
183. The G33 represented a diverse group of 45 deve loping countries, LDCs, net food-importing 
countries and countries with both import and export in terests in agriculture.  This group of countries 
were committed to reforms in the agriculture sector in the hope that such reforms would lead to their 
agriculture sector contributing to economic growth and development.  However, in carrying out their 
share in the reform process, it should not be at the expense of rural development, livelihood and food 
security concerns of their own farmers.  His delega tion did not believe that these concerns could be 
negotiated in exchange for market access.   
184. The Philippines and other G33 countries were pe rsuaded that trade liberalization could serve 
as a panacea for poverty alleviation or that market  access was synonymous with development.  The 
pursuit by some of narrow commercial interests at the expense of developmental and human 
livelihood concerns could not be justified in the midst of the great task of human development and 
poverty alleviation that WTO as an institution were engaged in and had committed to.  He wished to 
draw attention to a study by the Carnegie Endowme nt for International Peace on the impact of the 
Doha Round on developing countries, which had c oncluded that SPs and the SSM flexibilities were 
essential to lessening the adverse impact of the Do ha Round cuts on developing countries and their 
farmers.  The study had also concluded that very  little losses would result, in any event, to Members 
with offensive interests, even if full flexibilities for SPs and the SSM were granted to developing 
countries. 
185. On trade facilitation, the Philippines remained constructively engaged as coordinator of the 
Core Group of developing countries, in cooperatio n with other developing-country groupings, to 
make further progress in the negotiations and mo ving towards text-based drafting for delivering a 
Trade Facilitation Agreement by the end of the year.   TN/C/M/24 
Page 26  
 
  186. On the Aid for Trade initiative, the Philippin es believed that it could become a meaningful 
contribution to enabling all developing countries to benefit from the multilateral trading system.  The 
scope of the Aid For Trade initiative was key, and his delegation noted the recently released report of 
the World Bank on Aid for Trade issues that anal yzed which initiatives in this area had failed to 
deliver good results in the past.  His delegation belie ved that defining what Aid for Trade was not, or 
should not be, was important to arriving at a defin ition of what Aid for Trade could and should be as 
an important coherence tool that be nefited all developing countries.   
187. His delegation welcomed the progress in the discu ssions of other issues, such as TRIPS-CBD, 
GIs, TRIMs, erosion of preferences, the Integr ated Framework, rules including RTAs and S&D 
treatment.  The importance of progress towards c onsensus in these other elements could not be 
underestimated, as, in the end, th ese less prioritized or smaller elements would go a long way in 
making the overall package reflect the developmenta l dimension promised in Doha and ensure a 
round that Members could be proud of.   
188. The representative of Colombia
, also on behalf of , Costa Rica  and Chile , supported the 
statement by Mexico.  While Mexico had concl uded 43 free trade agreements, Chile had 51, Costa 
Rica 10 free trade agreements and CARICOM, and Co lombia had 5 and had ju st concluded the most 
important one with the United States.  All of their c ountries had paid to have preferences, and yet they 
firmly supported the conclusion of the Round fo r reasons similar to those expressed by Mexico.  
Costa Rica, Chile and Colombia al so supported the statement by Australia on behalf of the Cairns 
Group. 
189. Speaking on behalf of Colombia,  she said that she had read  the speech the Chairman had 
made in Brussels on 23 March.  Not only had it been  a good speech, but it contained a few details that 
did not appear in his statement at the present meetin g.  When he had mentioned the triangle that had 
emerged in these negotiations, he had spelt out the countries responsible for each of the vertices of the triangle. 
190. Without wishing to launch a discussion on geomet ry, her delegation believed that the triangle 
lacked an additional vertex, perhaps to form a di amond.  This additional ve rtex was formed by yet 
another group:  namely all WTO Members, all those th at had come to negotiate this round.  She said 
that from the Chairman's statement, it would appear that almost all of them had an excuse for not 
making any commitments.  As the Chairman had often heard, all of them had excuses not to 
contribute, and this made it difficult to negotiate. 
191. There were two ways of contemplating the 33  days that remained for the adoption of 
modalities:  firstly, as a target or a challenge whic h hopefully Members would be able to meet;  and 
secondly, as a source of concern, b ecause it was very difficult to see how at least two vertices of the 
diamond could achieve anything if the participan ts making up the NAMA vertex did not budge. 
192. This was where she particularly appreciated the Chairman's speech in Brussels – he had 
reflected on the fact that the industrial negotiations had a history of 50 years, and consequently, what 
a number of developing countries were doing was giving an excuse to the developed countries not to 
move forward in the agricultural negotiations. 
193. For the historical reasons mentioned above , paragraph 24 of the Hong Kong Ministerial 
Declaration should be read and in terpreted in the light of the negotiating history, and NAMA and 
agriculture should unquestionably progress at the same time. 
194. Finally, and conscious of the fact that her de legation should not lay the blame for any failure 
of the Round on others, she wished to stress that  Colombia was ready to support the modalities for 30 
April, and this meant the European Communities should bind their tariff on bananas, since clearly,  TN/C/M/24 
 Page 27 
 
 
without a tariff, her delegation did not know how to apply the formula, nor could it make any 
simulations of reductions to improve access for what  was an important export product for her country. 
195. The representative of Korea  said that he wished to make two points.  First, his delegation 
fully agreed with the Chairman that Members shoul d stick to the April deadline.  Therefore, they 
should work hard not to let the April deadline slip away.  To achieve this, Members needed to utilize 
all possible processes and avenues whereby they enga ged in both political and technical work – in 
other words negotiations on numbers and texts.  So me major players had been engaged in negotiations 
outside of Geneva.  His delegati on believed that such discussions would be useful for establishing a 
starting point to build on a consensus among all Me mbers in Geneva.  However, the Geneva process 
with the bottom-up approach should proceed as quickly as possible.  As had been shown in the past, a 
breakthrough could only be made when solid  groundwork had been laid down in Geneva. 
196.  Second, it was extremely difficult to predict at this point what Members would achieve at the 
end of April.  But given the critical importance of the April deadline, it would be advisable for Ministers to come to Geneva in the last week of  April.  Certainly, depe nding upon the developments, 
Members would face a crisis situation and they had to  think at one point a kind of crisis management 
plan to save the Round as well as the credibility of the WTO. 
197. The representative of Chinese Taipei
 said that although there had been some constructive 
developments in the negotiations, such as the simulation exercise on agriculture and NAMA, he 
believed that Members had to admit that the gaps between them on the main issues remained wide.  
As there was so much still to negotiate, and only 33 days left before the 30 April deadline set in Hong 
Kong, he called on the major players to demonstrat e their political will now, and take the lead to 
move the negotiations forward. 
198. Members should be making the best use of the time that remained by moving on the 
outstanding issues through bilateral, plurilateral and multilateral approaches, in a parallel manner.  In 
this context it should be borne in mind that tran sparency and an appropriate amount of inclusiveness 
were key elements that could actually add momentum to the negotiations and ensure that they were a 
success.   
199. He wished to share some observations on transp arency and inclusiveness.  On the subject of 
transparency, he thanked the NAMA Chairman for hi s efforts in ensuring full transparency in the 
NAMA negotiations.  The detailed reports prepared and circulated immediately after each small group 
consultation allowed all Members to fully understand the status of each  negotiation issue.  This gave 
great comfort to those Members not directly involved in the process and enabled them to keep abreast 
of the progress of the negotiations.  Having had the be nefit of this experience, he was convinced that a 
special effort on transparency would add moment um to the negotiations and facilitate the whole 
process. 
200. Turning to inclusiveness, he reiterated his dele gation's strong view that whenever a gathering 
was convened on a specific topic, those Members for which that topic was of special interest should 
be included.  This would better ensure that what was agreed at those meetings was acceptable to the 
whole membership. 
201. On the interpretation of paragraph 24 of the H ong Kong Declaration, his delegation wished to 
reaffirm its commitment to the view that the moda lities in agriculture and NAMA should both deliver 
real, meaningful market access opportunities for all Members.  His delegation could agree with the 
view that there was a relationship between the outcome of agriculture and NAMA.  It would even go 
further to state that under the Single-Undertaking, th e relationship existed across all areas.  However, 
it believed that any attempts to establish a mech anical or numerical link between agriculture and 
NAMA would be counterproductive to moving the negotiations forward. TN/C/M/24 
Page 28  
 
  202. He based this observation on three points:  first, by nature, i ndustrial and agricultural products 
were different in their production and in their va lue-added processes.  Agriculture also had its unique 
multifunctional role.  Secondly, NAMA and agricu lture had different and separate negotiating 
mandates.  Unlike NAMA, where market access woul d result mainly from tariff cuts, market access 
for agricultural products would come from all thr ee pillars – export compe tition, domestic support and 
tariff cuts.  Thirdly, Members' interests and tari ff structures were generally different between NAMA 
and agriculture.  Therefore, the overall balanced outcome of the Round could only be judged by each 
individual Member. 
203. As a recently-acceded Member, Chinese Taip ei had already made very extensive 
commitments in both agriculture and NAMA during its accession process.  Its bound tariff structure in 
both areas, which had been bound at the applied rat es, was more liberalized  than many developed 
countries.  In addition, it was a net agricultural im porter and had little to gain on agriculture from the 
DDA.  Nevertheless, Chinese Taipei was ready to  commit to further substantial market access 
improvements in both areas in this Round, provided ot hers would also provide meaningful real market 
access. 
204. He wished to briefly turn to the subjects of agriculture and services.  On agriculture, Members 
should focus on the structural elements of the treat ment of sensitive products and SPs, the disciplines 
on the new Blue Box, and the disciplines on export competition, so as to achieve full parallelism in 
eliminating all forms of export subsidies.  In this respect, his delegation urged the Agriculture Chair to 
prepare relevant working documents in ti me for the next agriculture week.   
205. On services, pursuant to the Hong Kong Mini sterial Declaration, Members had recently 
started off with plurilateral request negotiations.  Bearing in mind that services was one of the three 
key pillars of the market access negotiations in  the DDA, his delegation called upon Members, 
especially those involved in making and receiving request s, to engage in this exercise in an active and 
serious manner, so as to make a real advance in this area of the negotiations. 
206. Finally, he wished to highlight the fact that time was running very short if Members were to 
meet the end of April deadline fo r establishing full modalities as agreed  by Ministers in Hong Kong.  
His delegation therefore urged Members to get down to  work in a concerted effort to move forward 
across all the negotiating fronts in the remaining days.  In order to pave the way for Ministers to make 
political decisions on some tangible reduction number s in April, Members should concentrate their 
discussions on those outstanding structural issues based on a text-based approach.   
207. The representative of China
 associated his delegation with the statements by India for the 
G20, Turkey for the G33 and Australia for the Cairns Group.  He said that despite the difficulties they 
were facing, Members should stick to the mandate, including the level of ambition and the deadlines, 
so as to pave the way for the successful conc lusion of the Round by the end of the year.  
208. Limited resources should be focused on the triangle that had been described by the Chairman 
before the end of April on domestic support and market access for agriculture and NAMA. 
Negotiations on other key elements, particularly those on services, anti-dumping in rules and S&D 
Agreement-specific proposals should also be carried forward at the same time. This did not mean, 
however, that negotiations in other areas could be ignored.  
209. Members had to always bear in mind the deve lopmental nature of the Round and make their 
best endeavour to translate their political will in to actions throughout the negotiating process to the 
desired objectives.  To achieve the expected progr ess, the major developed Members should continue 
to play a leadership role in the negotiations.  TN/C/M/24 
 Page 29 
 
 
210. In order to achieve the goal in agriculture,  Members needed movement on domestic support 
in terms of a real overall cut.  Disciplines on th e Blue Box should be strengthened to avoid box-
shifting of trade-distorting measures.  There shoul d be movement in the areas of market access on 
threshold of bands and rates of cut, on sensitive pr oducts and on tariff peaks.  Special products and the 
SSM for developing-country Members should be est ablished in accordance w ith the criteria and 
principles already set out in the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration.   
211. On NAMA, the gap between coefficients in the reduction formula for the developed and 
developing Members should be big enough to accomm odate the existing tariff structures and reflect 
the principle of proportionality and S&D treatment for developing countries.  The figures as contained 
in paragraph 8 of the July 2004 Decision were a sta nd-alone element for the modalities.  He said that 
the recent proposal by some Members for a WTO-minu s arrangement for textiles and clothing was not 
helpful for the negotiations.  The essence of the sector al approach was to have further liberalization 
based upon the formula.   A priori exclusion of a whole sector from the reduction formula would be a 
recipe for failure of the Round and was therefore unacceptable. 
212. On services, while negotiations were being pur sued on a plurilateral basis, the bilateral 
request-offer negotiations should remain the main method of negotiation as pr ovided for in paragraph 
6 of Annex C to the Hong Kong Ministerial Declar ation.  The principle of progressive liberalization 
of trade in services, with flexibilities for developing  Members as provided for in Article XIX of the 
GATS, should be strictly respected in the negotia tions.  Commitments should be improved in sectors 
and modes of supply of export interest to developing Members.  
213. The special situation of recently-acceded Me mbers who had undertaken extensive market 
access commitments at the time of accession should be  taken into account so that specific measures 
would be provided in the modalities for agriculture  and NAMA, as well as in services to effectively 
address this special situation as provided by Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration and the July 2004 
Decision. 
214. As this round was a development round, it was of  crucial importance that the issues related to 
development be treated properly. These were S&D tr eatment for all developing countries, treatment of 
cotton, small economies, LDC concerns, and the implementation issues including TRIPS-CDB.  
215. As the Chairman had rightly pointed out, it was highly necessary to change gear and enter 
into text-based negotiation as soon as possible.  He sh ared the view of the Agriculture Chairman that 
it had to happen with sufficient time for genui ne multilateral negotiations. The principle of 
transparency and inclusiveness was very important for getting all Members on board. 
216. The representative of Switzerland  said that the assessment by th e Chairman of the current 
situation was similar to that of his delegation.  Considerable ground remained to be covered before 
Members could achieve the objectives set in Hong Kong. 
217. Although many hurdles might lie ahead, they were not necessarily insurmountable.  His 
delegation realized that there was no miracle recipe .  However, his delegation also knew that success 
depended as much on the proper orga nization of the negotiating process as it did on the progress made 
on substance. 
218. Regarding the negotiating process, his delegation wi shed to stress the fundamental role of the 
Chairs.  Their mediation was particularly impor tant, since the WTO today had a great number of 
Members with widely differing interests.  In th is context, consultations in small groups, however 
useful they might be, would never be the alpha and omega of consensus.   The Chairs were key to 
consensus building.  His delegation therefore hope d that Members would take the required initiatives 
in a timely fashion. TN/C/M/24 
Page 30  
 
  219. Turning to the substantive issues, he said it was true that while there had been a step forward 
since the previous TNC meeting, there had not been nearly enough progress at this stage to bode well 
for the near future.  With the Apr il deadline drawing close, Members n eeded to step up their efforts in 
agriculture and NAMA. 
220. In agriculture, considerable pr ogress needed to be made in order to move closer on certain 
fundamental concepts.  For example, there was the st ructure of the treatment to be given to sensitive 
products, Blue Box disciplines, the parallelism betw een dismantling of all forms of export subsidies 
and SPs.  These, in his delegation's view, were th e immediate priorities of the negotiating group.  
Unless there was clear progress on these structural a nd sometimes highly technical issues, the political 
authorities would not be in a position to determine the level of ambition, that is, to put figures to the 
commitments during the final transaction.  For Swit zerland, a mandate to negotiate the extension of 
the protection of GIs was part and parcel of the modalities on agriculture. 
221. In NAMA, Members had recently discussed coeffi cients, the coverage of flexibilities, and 
unbound tariffs.  On the previous point, Members appeared to be heading towards agreement in 
favour of an adjustment method.  On the other hand, there was still fundamental disagreement on the 
two other issues, which were essential to defining the level of ambition.  Members had even moved 
backwards in certain cases:  for example, some ha d been questioning the simp le Swiss formula.  His 
delegation was surprised at a new interpretation of the notion of sectoral initiative which appeared to 
be aimed at limiting the level of ambition.  The success of these negotiations depended on Members defining the relationship between the formula, co efficients and the paragraph 8 flexibilities.  
Moreover, paragraph 24 of the H ong Kong Declaration reminded Member s that the levels of ambition 
in agriculture and NAMA were closely linked, just as they were linked to results in other areas.  Thus, 
tangible results in any area could not be expected  without a real improvement in market access for 
industrial products. 
222. In the present week, the services negotiations we re entering the plurilateral request phase.  
His delegation had high hopes for this approach, whic h could only be evaluated after this first series 
of requests.  However, it already seemed clear that the plurilateral approach could not fully replace the 
bilateral approach. 
223. Since Hong Kong, the negotiations on trade facilita tion had been based on the structure of an 
agreement.  There were now two aspects of the issu e that needed to be fleshed out:  the regulatory 
component and the technical assistance component.  His delegation nevertheless remained convinced 
that there were considerable benefits to be draw n from simple measures that were not too costly.  
These measures should be given preference. 
224. The negotiations on rules had progressed in the area of RTA transparency.  Members should 
hold onto that result.  On the other hand, the work on anti-dumping measures and subsidies was 
stagnating.  His delegation hoped that the initia tive of the Chair of the Negotiating Group would 
enable Members break the deadlock. 
225. Regarding environment, Members should urgently  define the scope of the negotiations under 
paragraph 31(iii) of the Doha Declaration.  Furtherm ore, Members needed to ha ve a draft text before 
the summer break so that they could progress on the review of the rules governing the settlement of 
disputes. 
226. Finally, development issues extended well bey ond the framework of the Special Session of 
the Development Committee.  Above all they called for tangible responses in the different negotiating 
areas.  TN/C/M/24 
 Page 31 
 
 
227. The representative of Morocco  said that the present meeting came at a critical juncture in the 
negotiating process and put to test Members' sense of compromise and their collective will to honour 
their commitments given the tight deadlines ahead. 
228. He wished to outline Morocco's position.  W ith regard to the agriculture negotiations, 
Morocco appreciated the extent of the efforts deploye d by Members to attain equilibrium in the three 
pillars by striking a balance between the needs of some and the constraints of others.  Morocco's 
ultimate goal was to strengthen its trade in agricultu re through  the improvement of all market access 
conditions;  withdrawal of all form s of export subsidies;  and  setti ng up of a domestic support system 
whereby trade-distorting effects were effectively and substantially reduced. 
229. Morocco called for an operational developmen t dimension through asymmetry in all aspects 
of the negotiations and particularly in tariff cuts  between developed and de veloping countries.  The 
other features of this dimension concerned the est ablishment of a simple SSM; the establishment of a 
list of SPs of strategic interest for rural devel opment, food security and contribution to income and 
also taking into account the effects of ta riff reduction on the erosion of preferences. 
230. Regarding NAMA, Morocco was in favour of a tariff cut approach based on a non-linear 
formula which allowed a distinction to be made  between developed and developing Members and 
consolidation of the predictability of the trading envi ronment.  It also preferred an approach based on 
two coefficients:  one for developed countries and a higher one for the developing countries; one and 
the same coefficient for developing countries and not coefficients based on variables such as bound 
duty averages; and consideration to be given to a credit system that would allow improvement of the 
Swiss formula coefficient for developing countries th at did not avail themselves of the flexibilities in 
the Decision of 1 August 2004.  This reduction form ula should not penalize developing countries that 
had made the effort to reach high levels of bindings. 
231. Morocco was concerned at the preference erosion effects that would be generated by these 
tariff cuts.  It was also of the view that partic ipation in sectoral initiatives to harmonize or eliminate 
customs duties should be on a voluntary basis. 
232. With regard to trade in services, Morocco calle d for observance of the spirit and the letter of 
the GATS.  There should be no change either in the Agreement's structure or in its objectives, namely, 
gradual liberalization of trade in services and respect for the development objectives of Members, particularly developing-country Members.  Plurilate ral negotiations had begun, and in this connection, 
Morocco had received 5 collective requests in various  areas and would be discussing matters with its 
trading partners with a view to obtaining results th at were satisfactory for all.  Morocco was a co-
author of a collective request concerning Mode 4.  It hoped that its partners were likewise pursuing 
negotiations on this sector, which was so important for it. 
233. On trade facilitation, Morocco welcomed the progress made by the Negotiating Group on 
Trade Facilitation and encouraged Members to cons olidate this positive advance in the negotiations 
while attaching the utmost importance to techni cal assistance and capacity building, as well as giving 
practical effect to S&D treatment in this area which was fundamental to international trade. 
234. In the negotiations on fisheries subsidies,  Morocco noted the proposals submitted so far 
which encouraged the establishment of disciplines to  prohibit overcapacity.  Morocco's statement at 
the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference had stressed clearly that support for responsible practices was 
required of Members in order to ensure sustaina ble exploitation of fish ing resources.  Equally 
important was the granting of flexibility to artisanal fishing in the context of S&D treatment, in view 
of its contribution to development, poverty reductio n and food security, and its social and economic 
impact on regions that depended on  fishing.  With this in mind , Morocco was in the process of 
drawing up a specific proposal on artisanal fishing which would define the sector on the basis of TN/C/M/24 
Page 32  
 
  developing countries' priorities.  It encouraged Memb ers to cooperate effectively in the formulation of 
proposals of this nature. 
235. His delegation could never sufficiently emphasize the need to take account of the human, 
financial and technical constraints faced by countr ies like Morocco.  As Members negotiated all these 
matters prior to drafting legal texts, they should not  lose sight of the ultimate objective to which they 
all aspired, namely, to improve and intensify trade on all fronts in order to create wealth, eradicate 
poverty and ensure the development of their peoples.  Development, was at the very core of the DDA. 
236. His delegation had noted that the development dimension, the basis for all Doha outcomes, 
appeared to have been called into question, in th at the developing countries' interests in respect of 
certain issues that were of importance to their economies had not yet been addressed.  His delegation 
therefore welcomed any approach likely to right th is matter.  Technical assistance and S&D treatment 
were two very important and highly useful tools fo r the purpose.  Aid for Trade was another.  His 
delegation accordingly encouraged the efforts of th e task force that the Chairman had established and 
was awaiting the results of its work which it hope  would meet the expectations of all Members. 
237. The representative of Uganda
 said that the reports of the Chairs though optimistic, had 
indicated that there remained a daunting task to meet the 30 April deadline.  He associated his 
delegation with the statements by Nepal for the LDCs and Benin for the African Group.  For his 
country, like for all other LDCs, the overall outco me of the DDA should have a positive impact on its 
poor economy.  He wished to emphasise that alt hough Uganda looked to increased liberalisation, its 
focus was on the developmental impact of the ne gotiations.  Despite the envisaged market access 
results from this Round, unless certain issues were borne in mind, LDCs could remain the same or 
worse off under the DDA.  The issues included: rules of origin, other NTBs, supply constraints faced 
by LDCs including trade-related infrastructure, la ck of private sector capacity and others.  His 
delegation wished to express interest in the Ai d for Trade initiative which it believed should help 
address some of the major gaps, in cluding those he had mentioned. 
238. The representative of Thailand  said that as the end of April was approaching, her delegation 
wished like to echo the grave concerns expressed by pr evious speakers, including Australia on behalf 
of the Cairns Group and India on behalf of the G20, about the lack of major progress in the negotiations in agriculture. 
239. Although this deadline could be viewed as an indicative reference to guide Members to the 
conclusion of the Round by the end of 2006, it was v ital that Members strictly adhered to the mandate 
set by Ministers in Hong Kong and exerted all their best efforts to advance the negotiations according 
to the agreed schedule.  Time was not on the side  of Members yet what they needed was not more 
time, but more political will from key Members to show their leadership by making necessary and 
courageous moves. 
240. Each Member should not argue for a discipline that would be suitable only to itself because 
the disciplines derived would be weak and probably not be supportive to free trade.  Members should 
work together to establish genuine ly free trade disciplines.  It wo uld be incumbent upon those who 
resisted any proposal for free trade disciplines to prove that such disciplines were not conducive to 
free trade.  Negotiations on disciplines had to come  first and the disciplines should be established with 
a view to promoting free trade.  For example, the SSM  in agriculture should be established as a tool to 
facilitate the liberalization process and not be construc ted in a way that could be used to unjustifiably 
obstruct trade. 
241. On process, her delegation fully supported the Chairman.  Negotiations should be carried out 
in the multilateral forum so that agreement could be established in the multilateral forum and not be 
imposed on Members from outside at a very late stage.  TN/C/M/24 
 Page 33 
 
 
242. The representative of Cuba  said his delegation supported the st atements by India, on behalf of 
the G20, and Turkey, on behalf of the G33.  Th e common denominator among the statements by the 
negotiating group Chairs and by many delegations w as the fact that the various deadlines on the 
calendar were approaching, but in practical terms there was no concrete progress or specific results.  This was truly a cause for concern. 
243. Agriculture, which had not been subject to the same tariff cuts and disciplines as other areas 
in the Uruguay Round and which was the principle s ource of income and survival for all or the 
majority of developing countries as well as the hope of hundreds of millions of people who lived in poverty, constituted a crucial imperative of the nego tiations, including seeking solutions to preference 
erosion and problems in the cotton sector.  Substant ial reductions in the shortest possible delay of 
trade-distorting domestic support and export subsidi es, together with reductions in tariffs which 
prevented effective market access were essential conditions to be able to begin to correct the 
imbalances inherited from the Uruguay Round.  E qually, the legitimate concerns of countries 
dependant on food aid as well as net food-impor ting developing countries should be taken into 
account. 
244. In this process, one should not lose sight of th e fact that the central objective of the Round 
was development, which continued to be an outstanding issue for the international community as well 
as for international economic and trade issues.  Th e development component should be an integral 
part of the modalities and one should not forget  that the proposals on S&D treatment had been 
pending for four years.  The modalities in ever y area should include adequate flexibilities for 
developing countries.  The Committee for Trad e and Development should receive periodic and 
systematic information on the status of the spec ific proposals on S&D treatment which were being 
analysed and negotiated in other committees.  An other essential component of the results of the 
Round should be to find solutions to restrictions on exports, discrimination in trade facilitation as well 
as NTBs which were unjustified and not ad justed to international standards. 
245. His delegation appreciated the Chairman's efforts and vision to improve transparency, and the 
information he had provided on the various meeti ngs being held in various fora.  His delegation 
encouraged the Chairman to go furt her in these practices.  However, th e current level of transparency 
and the way in which it was consider ed were insufficient.  There was much to do still in this area.  
Sharing information was not equal to real and ef fective participation, nor  to a proper multilateral 
negotiation.  His delegation appreciated the Chairm an's commitment to the multilateral nature of the 
negotiations, which could not be replaced and wh ich constituted the fundamental guarantee that the 
interests and concerns of all parties would be prope rly reflected in the results of the process.  This 
would ensure a satisfactory final agreement throu gh consensus.  Cuba hoped that efforts would 
continue with a view to making progress progressively on the basis of concrete texts, thus avoiding 
last minute surprises involving the tabling of docu ments which had hardly been seen or which had 
been made known to a very small number of countri es.  Cuba was not in favour of any agreement 
whose only aim was to get a result or to comply w ith a deadline.  The results of the negotiations 
should reflect the ambitious objectives set out in D oha and at the Ministerial Conference in Hong 
Kong. 
246. The representative of South Africa
 said that his delegation supported the Chairman's 
assessment of the grave situation the DDA was in a nd his call for action by all Members to fulfil the 
mandate of the DDA and the Hong Kong Declaration.   By now all Members should fully appreciate 
that what was at stake was the future of the Round and indeed of the multilateral trading system. 
247. He associated his delegation with the statement by Benin on behalf of the African Group.  He 
said that whilst Members focused on the triangle in April in an attempt to unlock the gateway towards 
an ambitious Round for all, they should not forget th at the concerns of the LDCs and the small weak 
and vulnerable countries should also be addressed if Members were to achieve a genuine development 
round. TN/C/M/24 
Page 34  
 
  248. South Africa was fully committed to working with other Members and the Chairs of the 
negotiating groups to strive to meet the deadlines of the Round beginning with 30 April.  In this 
regard, he announced that South Africa would be ma king a significant new initial offer in the services 
negotiations in the present week that would creat e significant market access for Members in its 
financial services, telecommunications, legal services,  transport and environmental services markets. 
249. Regarding the NAMA negotiations, South Africa had played an active role in the NAMA 11 
as it believed that an agreement in NAMA should be  fair, balanced and development friendly in 
accordance with the mandate of the DDA.  He referr ed Members to the recent paper of the NAMA 11 
that had been discussed the previous week dur ing the NAMA negotiations and which the group was 
submitting at the present meeting. 
250. The NAMA 11 was fully committed to the high ambition agreed in the mandate for the 
Round.  In that regard, it would be recalled that all Members had agreed to a Swiss formula.  The 
importance of this, which would, cut high tariffs more deeply and sharply, should not be understated.  
However, the NAMA 11 had called for a balanced ou tcome within the NAMA negotiations.  First, the 
legal basis for these tariff cuts should be bound rates.  Interested exporters could analyze the impact of 
these cuts on the applied rates but they should not discount the market access that they had already 
received by the unilateral liberalization efforts of many developing countries, including South Africa.  
Secondly, the Doha mandate had called for increas ed market access for developing countries in the 
NAMA negotiations and for tariff peaks and tariff escala tion to be eliminated.  The proposed offers of 
developed countries would have to go beyond their current levels for Members to achieve this in a 
meaningful manner.  Thirdly, the NAMA 11 was co mmitted to making a contribution to unlocking the 
so called Bermuda triangle.  He agreed with the Chair of the NAMA group that if it were for the 
NAMA negotiations alone, Members could achieve a su ccessful conclusion of the negotiations by the 
agreed deadlines.  However, as many others had already stated, the level of ambition in NAMA had 
strong linkages with agriculture and in this regard  South Africa fully supported the statement by India 
on behalf of the G20. 
251. The representative of Hong Kong, China
 said that he could not agree more that the moment of 
truth was upon Members, not just for the Round but fo r the organization.  The reasons were obvious.  
The storm clouds were gathering.  They were ther e for Members to see and he wished to list them 
briefly:  the swing of the pendulum against globalization;  the resurgence of protectionism dressed up as patriotism;  national government tugging in the opposite direction to international businessmen;  
the tensions associated with the emergence of larg e new players;  and the siren song of quick-fix 
plurilateral agreements and the lack of transparency that came with them.   
252. Two things were needed to stop the dam from breaking.  The first was the demonstration 
effect that an enlarged WTO wa s capable of reaching consensus.  The second was that the agreement 
reached should be at a level of ambition sufficien t to convince the international business community 
that Members were serious about creating real, ne w commercial opportunities in all sectors in which 
goods and services were traded.  He believed it was worth reminding Members as they stared the end 
of April in the face that there was an opportunity ther e for all to take, for a truly land-mark agreement.  
There was however one other element – and for H ong Kong China this was a critical element which 
he wished to emphasize.  It believed the modalitie s should be settled urgently.  This was because 
Members needed time for a careful and measured di scussion of all the outstanding systemic issues so 
that the WTO emerged from the present Round stre ngthened and more attuned to the needs of a 
globalized economy and not the reverse. 
253. The Trade Negotiations Committee took note
 of the statements. 
 
__________