. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/DS/15 
29 March 2006 
 
 (06-1445) 
Dispute Settlement Body 
Special Session  
 
 
 
SPECIAL SESSION OF THE DISPUTE SETTLEMENT BODY 
 
Report by the Chairman, Ambassador Ronald Saborío Soto,  
to the Trade Negotiations Committee  
 
  At the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference, Minist ers agreed on the following in respect of the 
DSU negotiations:  
"We take note of the progress made in the Dispute Settlement Understanding 
negotiations as reflected in the report by th e Chairman of the Special Session of the 
Dispute Settlement Body to the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC) and direct the Special Session to continue to work towa rds a rapid conclusion of the negotiations."
1 
 Since then, the Special Session of the DSB has held two meetings, on 22 February and 
21 March 2006, and Members have also  continued to be actively engage d in informal consultations in 
various formats, to advance the work on clar ifications and improvements to the DSU.   
  At the meeting of 22 February, the Special  Session first confirmed my appointment as 
Chairman, following the consensus in the General Co uncil at its meeting on 8 February on the slate of 
names for the appointment of Chairpersons to  the bodies established by the Trade Negotiations 
Committee.   
  At that meeting, I proposed that we con tinue to build on the progress accomplished recently 
through the "bottom-up" approach, including the informal processes initiated among Members.  In 
light of the direction given by Ministers to work towards "a rapid conclusion of the negotiations", I 
also encouraged those delegations that are curre ntly engaged in informal work towards revised 
contributions to come forward with these, preferably by March or by our April meeting, so that we 
could be fully engage d in text-based discussion by the summer, wi th a view to finalizing on that basis 
an agreed text as rapidly as possible.   A numbe r of Members expressed their continued support for a 
bottom-up approach that would in particular allow par ticipants to meet informally to discuss draft text 
submitted, or intended for submission, to the Special Session. 
 
 The work of the Special Session of the DS B thus continues to be based on a bottom-up 
approach, and the onus remains on participants to  continue to build up the outcome of this 
negotiation.     
 At the meeting of 21 March, the Special Sessi on considered three new contributions received 
since the previous meeting.  These were an info rmal contribution by Canada on the protection of 
strictly confidential information during dispute settlement procedures (JOB (06)/56), an informal 
contribution by Argentina, Brazil, Canada, India,  Mexico, New Zealand and Norway on third-party 
rights (JOB/(05)/19/Rev.1), and a contribution by the United States in relation to "measures under 
                                                     
 
1 WT/MIN(05)/DEC, para. 34. TN/DS/15 
Page 2  
 
  review", as part of the item on "additional guidance to WTO adjudicative bodies" of its proposal on 
flexibility and Member-control (TN/ DS/W/82/Add.2).  The Special Session had a useful first informal 
discussion of these contributions.  Some delegations have also indicated that they are still working 
towards the presentation of revised contributions on other issues.  
 
 Further meetings of the DSB in Special Sessi on have been scheduled for the following dates 
until the summer:   – 24-25 April;  – 23 May; 
 – 30 June; 
 – 3-4 July.  
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