WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/CTD/14 
29 November 2005 
 (05-5664) 
Committee on Trade and Development 
Special Session  
 
 
SPECIAL SESSION OF THE COMMITTEE ON  
TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT 
 
Report by the Chairman, Mr. Faizel Ismail (South Africa),  
to the Trade Negotiations Committee  
 
 
I. INTRODUCTION  
The section on S&D in the August 2004 Deci sion of the General Council mandated the 
Special Session of the Committee on Trade and Deve lopment (Special Session) to expeditiously 
complete the review of all the outstanding Agreement-specific proposals and report to the General Council, with clear recommendations for a decision by July 2005.  The Special Session was also 
instructed to address all other outstanding work, in cluding on the cross-cutting issues.  The proposals 
that had been referred to other WTO bodies were al so to be addressed with clear recommendations for 
a decision no later than July 2005.   
 In its report to the General Council in July 2005,
1 the Special Session reported that although 
progress had been made on the LDC Agreement-spec ific proposals, the Special Session was not in a 
position to make specific recommendations on any of the Agreement-specific proposals.  Similarly, 
the WTO bodies to which the Category II proposals ha d been referred were also not in a position to 
make any recommendations.  It was therefore proposed  that the Special Session continue its work on 
the LDC and other remaining Agreement-specific proposals and report on them with "clear recommendations for a decision" to the General Coun cil by the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference.  
It was also proposed that the Special Session continue  to monitor and coordinate its efforts with that 
of the negotiating groups and other WTO bodies to wh ich the Category II proposals had been referred.  
Furthermore, it was proposed that the Special Sessi on continue to address a ll other outstanding work, 
including on the cross-cutting i ssues, the monitoring mechanism and the incorporation of S&D 
treatment into the architecture of  WTO rules, and report, as appropriate, to the General Council. 
 
II. AGREEMENT-SPECIFIC PROPOSALS 
 As agreed by Members, work in the Special Session over the past few months, has focused on 
the five remaining LDC Agreement-specific propo sals which include proposals on the Understanding 
in Respect of Waivers of Obligations under th e GATT 1994, the Decision on Measures in Favour of 
Least-Developed Countries and the Agreemen t on Trade-Related Investment Measures. 
   Initial discussions were based on the Chairman 's 25 July text.  Based on the various 
discussions and in an attempt to address concerns raised, some Members, including the proponents, 
tabled alternate texts to take the work forward.  However while some progress was made, there were 
some areas on which Members were unable to bridge their differences.  
                                                     
 
1 TN/CTD/13 TN/CTD/14 
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  At the formal meeting reconvened on 27 Oc tober, Members were informed that while 
discussions had helped move the work on the LDC proposals forward, it had not been possible to 
reach an agreement on any of the proposals.  While consultations continued, it soon became clear that 
differences on at least some key aspects, would be di fficult to bridge by drafting alone.  As a result, I 
tried to explore language with Members which ha d certain words and phrases in brackets, reflecting 
the areas where differences existed.  However, it was difficult for me to include all the suggestions 
made by Members, especially those suggestions whic h I felt had very little chance of being accepted.  
At this meeting, a number of Members also said that  in their view as much work as possible had been 
accomplished at the technical level and the remaining decisions could only be made at the Ministerial 
level.  They also felt that it would be important that any language  being forwarded to Ministers be 
simple in order to facilitate the Ministers’ consider ation of the issues and reflect where the differences 
existed.    
  Subsequently, the proponents suggested that the language to be forwarded to Ministers, 
should reflect their preferred language on all the five proposals as a separate option, followed by 
another option or options, reflecting the views of  other Members.  While a number of Members 
opposed this approach because they felt it would only make the consideration of these issues by the 
Ministers more complicated, other Members felt th at the proponents had the right to have their 
language reflected as a separate option if they so wish ed. At the formal meeting of the Special Session 
held on 18 November and 21 November, Members agreed  that the text that is transmitted for inclusion 
as an Annex to the draft Ministerial Declara tion, should contain the different options.   
 
 As far as the Category II proposals, which had been referred to other WTO bodies and 
negotiating groups are concerned, a number of de veloping country Members had continued to raise 
concern about the lack of progress on them.  A ccordingly I had convened a meeting on 24 October 
with the Chairpersons of the bodies to which these proposals have been referred.  The purpose of the 
meeting was to obtain feedback from the various Chai rpersons on the current status of the work on the 
proposals; how that work could be expedited and whether it would be possible to make any 
recommendations on those proposals by the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference.  At that meeting, the Chairpersons were informed of the importance that Members attach to these proposals and the need to 
take the discussion on the proposals forward.  Howeve r, many of the Chairpersons expressed the need 
for the proponents to become more active in these bodi es.  The proponents felt that this justified their 
earlier concerns that their capacity constraint s prevented them from following discussions on the 
proposals in these other bodies.  At the formal mee ting held on 27 October, Members were informed 
of the reports received from the various Chairpersons.
2   
 
III. FUTURE WORK 
During discussions on the possible language for th e draft Ministerial text, many Members felt 
that while some work had been done on the Agre ement-specific proposals, especially the remaining 
five LDC proposals, substantial work still remained to be done.  In this cont ext, a number of Members 
stressed the need for Ministers to  recommit themselves to the task they set themselves at Doha of, 
among others, making the existing S&D provisions mo re precise, effective and operational.  A 
number of developed country Members stressed the n eed to resume work on the outstanding issues.  
They also spoke of the need for 'periodic reports' of the progress made in this area to the General 
Council.  A number of developing country Members, while not opposed to the value of discussing some of the cross-cutting issues, st ated the need to maintain the pr iority on the Agreement-specific 
proposals.    
 
                                                     
 
2 The feedback was later circulated on 28 October as part of my opening remarks at that meeting.    TN/CTD/14 
 Page 3 
 
 
  During the consultations on the text, the A frican Group put forward draft language for the 
Ministerial text,3 which inter alia sought to revert the c onsideration of the Category II proposals, 
currently being addressed in other bodies, to the Special Session.  However, a number of Members 
expressed the view that the issues raised in these pr oposals were too technical to be addressed in the 
Special Session, and were related to the ongoing ne gotiations and that they could not be addressed in 
isolation of the work in these negotiating groups.   
 
Based on the comments made, the draft text for the Ministerial Declaration was revised and 
discussed at the reconvened formal meeting held  on 21 November 2005.  Members did not express 
any fundamental concern with the language that had been tabled.  As a result, and based on the 
additional comments made at that meeting, the dr aft paragraph was revised and forwarded to the 
General Council Chairman for inclusion in the draft Ministerial Declaration.   
 The general feeling that seems to exist amongst Me mbers is that Ministers will need to provide 
political direction to the future work, including on the importance of addressing the developmental 
concerns of developing countries, especially the LDCs .  A decision may also need to be taken on the 
possible adoption of the proposals that have been agreed  to in principle or which may be agreed to at 
Hong Kong, and on the deadlines for completing work on the remaining Agreement-specific 
proposals, including those that have been referred to other WTO bodies.  
  
 
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