WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/GC/W/556 
30 November 2005 
 (05-5681) 
  
  
 
SIXTH DEDICATED DISCUSSION ON ELECTRONIC COMMERCE 
UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE 
GENERAL COUNCIL ON 7 AND 21 NOVEMBER 2005 
 
Summary by the Secretariat of the Issues Raised1 
 
 
 At the Fourth Session of the Ministerial Confer ence in Doha, Ministers agreed to continue the 
Work Programme on Electronic Commerce, and instru cted the General Council to consider the most 
appropriate institutional arrangements for handling the Work Programme and to report on further 
progress to the Fifth Session of the Ministerial Conference. 
 
 At its meeting on 15 October 2002 the General Council agreed to maintain, for the duration of 
the work until the Fifth Ministerial Conference, th e current institutional arrangements for handling the 
Work Programme on Electronic Commerce, namely, that  the Councils for Trade in Services, Trade in 
Goods and TRIPS, and the Committee on Trade an d Development would examine and report on 
aspects of electronic commerce relevant to their r espective areas of competence, and that the General 
Council would play a central role in the entir e process, would keep the Work Programme under 
continuous review and would consider any tr ade-related issue of a cross-cutting nature. 
  The sixth dedicated discussion on cross-cutting issues took place on 7 and 21 November 2005 under the auspices of the General Council and was chaired by Deputy Director-General 
Mr. Harsha V. Singh, on the request and behalf of the General Council Chair, with the aim of building 
on the examination of the issues undertaken at the fifth dedicated discussion in May and July 2003 (WT/GC/W/509).   Participants considered two items at this meeti ng:  (i) cross-cutting issues, and (ii) report to be 
submitted to the 1-2 December 2005 meeting of the General Council.  In c onnection with the first 
agenda item, Members had before them a formal written submission from the United States
2 and two 
informal papers circulated by that delegation on 7 November, and in connection with the second, a 
draft report to the General Council prepared by the Secretariat.   It was agreed that the Secretariat would continue its practice of preparing a factual report on 
the discussion under its own responsibility, and that  Deputy Director-General Mr. Singh would make 
an oral report on the discussion to the General C ouncil at its meeting on 1-2 December 2005.  The 
main views expressed by delegations in the cour se of the discussion are summarized below.   
 
                                                     
 
1 This document has been prepared under the Secret ariat's own responsibility and is without prejudice 
to the positions of Members or to their rights or obligations under the WTO. 
2 WT/GC/W/551. WT/GC/W/556 
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 1. Cross-cutting issues 
• Under this agenda item, participants had be fore them a written submission circulated in 
document WT/GC/W/551 as well as two suppl ementary informal submissions from the 
same delegation which were made available in the meeting room. 
 
• The delegation which had made  the submission in WT/GC/W/551, entitled "Preparations 
for the 2005 Ministerial Conference – Work Programme on Electronic Commerce", said that as there had been no dedicated disc ussion on e-commerce cross-cutting issues for 
some time, it had wanted to have the present meeting to address some of the issues that had been raised over the past few years.  Regarding the moratorium on the imposition of 
customs duties on electronic transmissions, the submission put forward two ideas – one on clarifying the scope of the practice, and the other on extending the moratorium and 
making it permanent and binding during the Doha Development Round.  One of the 
points made in the submission was that Me mbers should not start creating barriers in 
electronic trade – which had expanded greatly without them – and then spend many years trying to remove them.  Also, the language of the moratorium had led to confusion as to its coverage, and it suggested that the term "electronic transmissions", which it felt was 
vague, could be replaced with the term "pro ducts transmitted electronically", which it felt 
was clearer. 
 
• The other part of the submission dealt with th e trade treatment of electronically delivered 
software.  In this delegation's view, th e dedicated discussion's examination of the 
classification question, on which this group had spent considerable time over the past five 
years, had reached an impasse.  The aim was to jump over that impasse and to focus on 
concrete issues that participants could grapple with in a more systematic fashion, and thus 
make progress on addressing something that was clearly relevant in today's trading world.  Software was a $600 billion industry that was productivity-enhancing for all economies.  
Thus, all had an interest in its liberalized  treatment.  Software involved collaboration – 
often many countries shared in its developmen t – and its trade should be facilitated for the 
benefit of countries as both producers and cons umers.  This delegation's goal was not to 
prejudice any Member's view on whether softwa re was a good or a service, but rather to 
focus on the value of having a liberalized tr eatment for products that had traditionally 
crossed borders on a physical medium but were now increasingly being traded electronically.  This was a discrete area where the WTO could, in a limited fashion, make 
concrete progress in setting a goal for a liberalized trade regime. 
 
• There was general support for discussing the proposals.  One delegation said that 
participants should not lose sight of the basi c premise of the whole Work Programme – to 
create a liberal environment that would foster the growth of e-commerce in general.  It 
was noted that the moratorium had played an im portant role in creating this environment.  
A number of delegations said that in 2006 the moratorium should be clarified and 
eventually made permanent and binding.  Othe rs said there were many implications of 
making the moratorium permanent and binding,  and this issue should be considered 
carefully.  Most delegations said they could agree to extend the moratorium until the Ministerial Session following the one in Hong  Kong, China, and would be willing to 
discuss in 2006 the possibility of making it pe rmanent and binding.  However, two said 
they could not agree to extend the moratorium at the present time;  one said this issue 
should be subject to continuing debate and scrutiny after the Hong Kong Ministerial, and 
that Members already had a very heavy agen da involving efforts to seek greater trade 
liberalization in important sectors for all;  anot her said there were systemic implications 
regarding the extension of the moratorium.  WT/GC/W/556 
 Page 3 
 
 
  
• On the trade treatment of software, seve ral delegations supported working towards a 
consensus to ensure that soft ware delivered electronically enjoyed the same trade benefits 
as that delivered on carrier media.  A number of delegations said that all IT goods and 
services facilitating e-commerce should be subject to  as liberal a trade re gime as possible.  
One delegation said this would extend beyo nd software and include, in particular, 
telecommunications and all computer services,  as well as government procurement of IT 
goods and services facilitating e-commerce;  to this  end, there might be a need to clarify 
the definition of "software", but no need to develop a new architecture within WTO 
agreements, as one could use existing discip lines such as m.f.n. and national treatment 
commitments for CPC842.  One delegation appr eciated that the submission did not renew 
the discussion on classification, as its position was aligned with the principle of 
technology neutrality. 
 
• Participants agreed in general that th is issue could be discussed under the Work 
Programme in 2006.  Some participants sought  more detail as to what guidance Ministers 
might be asked to provide, and it was noted that the time was very short to get any 
guidance from Ministers on specific trade tr eatment of software at the Hong Kong 
Ministerial.  With respect to the discussion in 2006, it was also recalled that the Work 
Programme was composed of other parts, incl uding a development element, and that the 
whole would have to be revisited in 2006.   One delegation said that e-commerce was 
extremely important for the competitiveness of developing countries, and stressed that any future decision in this area would have to be focused on the principle of non-
discrimination.   
 
• A number of delegations said they were uncomfo rtable with some of the links to other 
areas that had been drawn in the present di scussion, and stressed that any discussion of 
the software issue would have to be wit hout linkage to negotiating areas and without 
prejudice to any Member's positions, including on whether electronic deliverables with a 
physical equivalent were goods or services. 
 
• In response to the questions and concerns  raised, the delegation which made the 
submission said there had been no intention to  examine this issue to the exclusion of 
others, particularly development issues.  It  agreed that linkage with other negotiating 
areas should be avoided.    As more countries developed broa dband networks, there 
would be more trade, and Members should look to the future and ensure that barriers did 
not emerge on future technology and produc ts.  Software had been introduced as a 
practical example of an area of electronic trade that Members might examine with a view to ensuring its continued liberalized treatment.  This was not the first time that software 
had been raised in the dedicated discussions – a useful submission on it had been made by 
another delegation in May 2002. 
 
2. Report of the dedicated discussion to the General Council 
• The Chairman recalled that the dedicated discussions under the auspices of the General 
Council were one element of the Work Programme on Electronic Commerce on which 
the General Council was to report to Minist ers in Hong Kong.  Reports on all of these 
elements would have to be made to the Ge neral Council at its last  meeting before the 
Hong Kong Ministerial, which was schedul ed for 1-2 December.  The dedicated 
discussion's report would reflect the matters that  were considered at the present meeting, 
and would be finalized only once delegations had approved a draft text of that report.  In 
connection with this report, he said that as all were aware, the General Council Chairman WT/GC/W/556 
Page 4  
 
 had started a process on those elements of the Doha Work Programme which did not 
involve negotiations, with the aim of devel oping inputs to the comprehensive texts for 
Hong Kong.  Regarding the input on e-commerce,  she had requested that he take up this 
question in the present dedicated discussion.  As some delegations did not yet have 
instructions on certain matters, he would conve ne informal consultations in the next few 
days so that Members could prepare this input. 
 
• Following informal consultations on 9 and 14 November, the dedicated discussion 
resumed on 21 November to consider a revised dr aft text of its report to the 1-2 December 
General Council as well as its input to th e draft Ministerial text for Hong Kong. 
 
• Delegations generally supported the revised dr aft report.  However, one delegation said it 
was not in a position to agree to any extens ion of the moratorium, as there had been no 
substantive work justifying such  a decision;  any such decision would have to include the 
right of Members to regulate and to impl ement development policies, as well as the 
elimination of all barriers to e-trade.  Anot her recalled its systemic concerns regarding 
this matter and said it was still not in a pos ition to agree to the extension of the 
moratorium. 
 
• After considerable discussion, delegations ag reed to leave the recommendations part of 
paragraph 14 of the report in square brackets,  and to insert a sentence at the start of the 
paragraph indicating that on the issue of recommendations for consideration by the 
General Council, delegations discussed this matter but there was no consensus on this 
paragraph.  There was some discussion on wh ether square brackets should be placed in 
paragraph 14 around only the text relating to th e moratorium.  One delegation said that if 
there were to be any square brackets, these should be around the entirety of the 
recommendations, as many Members had treated the electronic commerce agenda – i.e. the Work Programme and the moratorium – as a unified event, and it preferred to remain 
with the construct that both were pa rt and parcel of the same entity. 
 
• The agreed text of the report was subsequent ly circulated in document WT/GC//555.  On 
the basis of the contents of paragraph 14 of  this text, participants agreed that the 
Chairman would forward to the General Council Chair, as input on e-commerce to the draft Ministerial text for Hong Kong, the following: 
 
   "We take note of the reports from the General Council and subsidiary bodies 
on the Work Programme on Electronic Commerce, and that the examination of issues under the Work Programme is not yet complete.  [We agree to reinvigorate that work, including the development-related issues  under the Work Programme and discussions 
on the trade treatment, inter alia , of electronically delivered software.  We agree to 
maintain the current institutional arrangem ents for the Work Programme.  We declare 
that Members will maintain their current practice of not imposing customs duties on 
electronic transmissions until our next Session]." 
 
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