WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/CTD/21 
13 December 2007 
 
 (07-5546) 
Committee on Trade and Development 
Special Session  
 
 
 
SPECIAL SESSION OF THE COMMITTEE ON 
TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT 
 
Report by the Chairman, Ambassador Thawatchai Sophastienphong (Thailand),  
to the General Council  
  
I. INTRODUCTION  
1. At the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference, Ministers adopted five decisions in favour of the 
least-developed countries (LDCs).
1  In addition, they mandated th e Special Session of the Committee 
on Trade and Development (Special Session) to: 
• expeditiously complete the review of all the outstanding Agreement-specific proposals and 
report to the General Council, with clear recomme ndations for a decision by December 2006;  
and 
• resume work on all other outstanding issu es, including on the cross-cutting issues, the 
Monitoring Mechanism and the incorporation of special and differential treatment (S&D) into 
the architecture of WTO rules and report on a regular basis to the General Council.   
2. The bodies to which the 38 Category II proposals ha d been referred, were also instructed to 
complete consideration of these proposals and repor t to the General Council, with the objective of 
ensuring that clear recommendations for a decision ar e made no later than December 2006.  In this 
regard, the Special Session was directed to continue to coordinate its efforts with these bodies, so as to 
ensure that this work was completed on time.   
II. STATUS OF WORK 
3. Since the last report to the General Council in July 20072, the Special Session has held two 
formal meetings (28 Se ptember and 7 December 2007)3 and a number of informal plurilateral 
consultations at which Members continued work on both the Agreement-specific proposals and the 
Monitoring Mechanism. 
4. On the Agreement-specific proposals, Member s have continued to focus their text-based 
discussions on seven of the 16 remaining Agreem ent-specific proposals.  Work on the proposal 
relating to Article XVIII of the GATT, the two proposals on Article 10.3 of the Agreement on 
Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS Agreemen t) and the three proposals on Article 3.5 of the 
Agreement on Import Licensing continued on the basis of  the revised text contained in Annex II of the 
Special Session's last report to the General Council.  Discussions on the proposal relating to 
                                                      
1 Annex F of WT/MIN(05)/DEC. 
2 TN/CTD/20. 
3 TN/CTD/M/31 and TN/CTD/M/32 (to be issued) . TN/CTD/21 
Page 2  
 
  Article 10.2 of the SPS Agreement have  taken place on the basis of the revised text tabled by India in 
July 2007.   
5. Based on these text-based discussions, Members have been exploring possible alternate 
language on the two proposals rela ting to Article 10.3 of the SPS Agreement.  While this is a 
welcome development, the alternate language repres ents work in progress and the text is yet to be 
agreed.  However, it is encouraging to see that  Members are nearing a common understanding on the 
proposal.  The challenge remains in coming up with la nguage that will be acceptable to all.  On the 
proposal relating to Article 10.2 of the SPS Agreem ent, Members' positions still remain apart and 
until Members can agree at the conceptual level, it remains to be seen whethe r textual changes will 
bring about the necessary convergence that will lead us to an agreement.   
6. With respect to the proposal relating to Artic le XVIII of the GATT, the proponents informed 
Members at the formal meeting held in Septembe r that they intended to table revised language on 
their proposal.  As a result, Members have not enga ged in substantive discussions on this proposal and 
will do so once the revised language has been tabl ed.  Similarly, Members have not engaged in 
discussions on the three proposals relating to Article 3.5 of the Agreement on Import Licensing 
Procedures as there appears to be a greater de gree of convergence with only one outstanding issue 
remaining in brackets.  However, at the formal m eeting held in December, there was a call to revisit 
these proposals in order to iron out the remaining differences.   
7. On the nine remaining Agreement-specific propo sals that have been set aside, Members have 
yet to put forward new ideas or alternate language th at would enable us to make progress.  These 
proposals will therefore, not be addressed until such a time that new ideas or new language is tabled.   
8. With regard to the Category II Agreement-sp ecific proposals, I had sent a letter on 
14 November 2007 to all the Chairpersons of the various bodies to which these proposals have been 
referred.  In my letter, I reiterated Members' c oncern on the lack of progress on these proposals and 
requested the Chairs to indicate whether they believe d that the issues that have been raised in the 
proposals would be addressed as part of the work cu rrently underway in their respective bodies.  The 
majority of the reports revealed that there has been very little development on these proposals since 
the Chairs last reported in July.  However, some of  the Chairs of the negotia ting bodies have indicated 
that a number of the issues raised in the proposal s form an integral part of the ongoing negotiations.  
In addition, there are a number of bodies in whic h discussions on the proposals are continuing on the 
basis of revised language tabled by the proponents.  The Chairpersons of the different bodies to which 
the Category II proposals have been referred will be making a more detailed report of the status of the 
proposals at the General Council meeting.  I in tend to continue working closely with these 
Chairpersons to see how we can expedite progress on the proposals.   
9. During discussions on the duty-free quota-free (DFQF) market access issue, the LDCs have 
continued to reiterate their concern over the lack of engagement on their earlier submissions tabled on 
rules of origin and market access.
4  The LDCs have stated that implementation of the DFQF market 
access decision agreed to at the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference must form a part of the final Doha 
Development Agenda (DDA) package.  While ef forts to facilitate a dialogue among the various 
stakeholders have been appreciated by the LDCs, they  have requested me to continue to facilitate such 
a dialogue, so as to take the issue forward and ensure  effective implementation of the decision.  At the 
formal meeting held in December, the LDCs info rmed Members that they are currently pursuing 
issues related to the decision in  the Committee on Agriculture a nd the Negotiating Group on Market 
Access.  In addition, they are meeting bilaterally w ith the other stakeholders on the issue of rules of 
origin, something which I continue to encourage.   The LDCs have stated that providing DFQF market 
access for 97 per cent of LDC exports at the tariff-line level is the minimum and it is important that 
                                                      
4 TN/CTD/30 and 31, respectively.  TN/CTD/21 
 Page 3 
 
 
  Members work towards phasing in the remaining 3 per cen t.  This is also something that the LDCs are 
pursuing with the various stakeholders.   
10. As part of the work on the other outstanding issues, Members have continued their 
consideration of the possible elements of a Mo nitoring Mechanism on the basis of the non-paper 
contained in Annex III of the Special Session's last  report to the General Council.  These discussions 
have been focusing on further fine-tuning some of the elements contained therein.  The discussions 
have enabled Members to slightly revise the non-pa per.  However, before Members can reach an 
agreement, further fine-tuning of the possible elements of the Monitoring Mechanism will be 
necessary.  During discussions, Members have conti nued to emphasize the need for the mechanism to 
be simple, practical and forward looking.  In this respect, a number of Members are not in favour of 
introducing a new bureaucratic structure through which the mechanism would function.  Others, 
however, believe that creating a new structure woul d give the mechanism th e visibility it deserves.   
Some concerns have been raised with respect to  the scope of the Mechanism, which some Members 
feel is too broad and should be guided by the mandate contained in paragraph 44 of the Doha 
Ministerial Declaration.  However, other Member s believe that for the Mechanism to be forward 
looking, its scope should be broader and include mo nitoring the implementation and effectiveness of 
those S&D provisions that may result from future rounds  of negotiations.  During past discussions, the 
need to ensure that the Mechanism does not dupli cate work already being carried out in other WTO 
bodies was highlighted.  In this context, Members re quested the Secretariat to compile information on 
all monitoring and review mechanisms on S&D that are currently in place or that have been proposed 
in other WTO bodies.  This compilation was made  available at the formal meeting held on 
7 December.5   
III. FUTURE WORK   
11. I intend to continue text-based discussions on both the Agreement-specific proposals and the 
Monitoring Mechanism in the ne w year.  On the Agreement-speci fic proposals, I will continue 
text-based consultations and will tr y and build on the progress already made with a view to making 
clear recommendations to the General Council in the shortest time possible.  On the Category II 
proposals, I will continue to work closely with  the Chairpersons of the bodies to which these 
proposals have been referred, and which have to co me up with recommendations.  I will also continue 
to fine-tune the possible elements of a Mon itoring Mechanism and will try to work towards 
convergence on the scope and structure or this Mechanism.   
 
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5 JOB(07)/215.