RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/DS/M/26 
27 July 2005 
 (05-3378) 
Special Session of the Dispute Settlement Body 
21 June 2005  
 
 
 
MINUTES OF MEETING 
 
Held in the Centre William Rappard  
on 21 June 2005  
 
Chairman:  Mr. David Spencer (Australia) 
 
  The Chairman
 welcomed delegations to the twenty-n inth meeting of the Special Session and 
said that the airgram for the meeting had been circ ulated in WTO/AIR/2591 and that the draft agenda 
(TN/DS/W/77) contained three items, namely:  (i) discussion of contributions by participants and (ii) report of the Trade Negotiations Committee (TNC ) and (iii) "Other Business".  He said that no 
new contributions had been received from Members since the last meeting of the Special Session.  However, Japan had indicated its preparedness to respond to questions posed by participants on its 
proposal at that meeting.  He proposed giving the floor to Japan and thereafter to any delegation 
which wished also to return to its proposal.  U nder the second item, he said that he would provide a 
outline of the report he intended to submit to the TNC in July and would appreciate the support of 
delegations in that regard.  With respect to "Oth er Business", he said that he would be making an 
announcement about the dates of future meetings.  He asked whether any delegation would like to 
raise anything under this agenda item.  There was no response from the floor and the agenda of the 
meeting was adopted.  
 
1. Discussion of proposals from participants 
1. The Chairman
 recalled that one of the proposals which was discussed at the last meeting was 
a joint contribution by the European Communities and Japan on "sequencing", which was circulated 
as Job(05)/71.  He said that he would like to give the floor to the proponents, so that they could 
respond to questions which were posed  by participants at the previous meeting of the Special Session.  
He asked the representative of Japan whether he w ould like the discussion to take place ion the formal 
or informal mode. 
2. The representative of Japan  welcomed the opportunity to re-visit their proposal and said that 
in order to have a detailed and fra nk exchange of views, they would like the discussion to take place 
in an informal mode.   
2. Report to the Trade Negotiations Committee 
3. The Chairman  said that the next meeting of the TNC was scheduled to take place on 
21-22 July, while that of the General Council on 27 a nd 29 July.  He recalled that a mini-Ministerial 
would take place in early July in Dalian, China an d said that in preparation for these meetings, the 
Director-General had requested the Chairs of the respective negotiating groups to provide him with 
inputs into a document he would be preparing in early July on the state of the play in the negotiations.  
It was not certain what the outcome would be at the end of July.  It was reasonable to assume that Ministers would be expecting cons tructive progress by July, and a very positive contribution to the TN/DS/M/26 
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 Hong Kong Ministerial Conference.  He recalled that a preliminary discussion of the contribution of 
the Special Session to the July outcome had taken place at the previous meeting of the Special Session.  He had indicated at that meeting that he  would be undertaking fu rther consultations with 
Members on the possible contents of the report to the TNC.  After having carried out these 
consultations, it was his sense that delegations were of the view that some modest progress had been 
made in the last few months and that there was the need to intensify th e pace of work after the 
summer break, if substantive results were to be obt ained at the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference.  It 
was evident that  delegations were  determined to work constructivel y and at a much more quickened 
pace to deliver positive results at Hong Kong. He sugg ested that the report to the TNC to be prepared 
under his own responsibility could contain the follow ing elements:  (i) that the Special Session had 
had constructive discussions on a number of issues, b ased on contributions by Members, and this had 
allowed good progress to be made in the negotiations;  (ii) there was th e need to intensify the process 
in the second half of the year with a view to pres enting positive results to Ministers in Hong Kong.  
He asked whether any delegation would lik e to comment on the suggested approach. 
4. The representative of th e European Communities 
 expressed support for the approach outlined 
by the Chairman. 
5. The Chairman  thanked the European Communities fo r its support and said that he would 
therefore be submitting a report along the lines suggested to the TNC at its meeting in July.  He also 
said that he would also be reporting to the Direct or-General on his assessment of progress in the DSU 
negotiations, in order to assist him in his preparations  for the meetings that would take place in July.  
Regarding organization of work until the end of the year, he said that it was obvious that delegations 
would have to work harder in the months of Se ptember, October, November and December.  He 
reiterated that it would be a mistak e for delegations to think that he would produce a draft text on his 
own.  It was the responsibility of delegations to narrow their differences and agree on a text which 
could eventually be the agreement to emerge from the negotiations.  He said that he was committed to 
a bottom-up approach and it was up to delegations to  provide the ideas and texts and the convergences 
that were necessary for substantive progress in the ne gotiations.   For progress to be made, it would be 
necessary to meet as frequently as possible and also in  different formats and configurations.  It would 
also be necessary to focus on draft legal te xts rather than on conceptual discussions. 
6. The Chairman  recalled that in May 2003, the Chairm an of the General Council referred a 
number of special and differential treatment (S&D ) proposals relating to the DSU, the so-called 
Category II proposals, for the consideration of the Special Session.  He said that the July 2004 
General Council  Decision requested all WTO bodi es to which proposals in Category II had been 
referred to "expeditiously complete the consider ation of these proposals and report to the General 
Council, with clear recommendations for a decision, as  soon as possible and no later than July 2005".   
He said that it was his understanding that this issu e would be taken up at th e General Council meeting 
on 27 and 29 July, under an item on the S&D Work Pr ogramme.  In this context, chairpersons of the 
various negotiating bodies to which proposals have been referred would be expected to make a 
statement on the progress made.  As far as the Sp ecial Session was concerned, these S&D proposals 
have not been specifically discussed in the past few months.  It would be more helpful to allow the 
process to unfold on the basis of inputs from dele gations, until we had had a clearer sense of our 
overall direction.  He proposed in that context to report to the General Council that the Special 
Session was not in a position to recommend a decision at this stage, but that it would do so in the 
future when work was relatively more advanced.  However, if there was an interest among all 
delegations, it would be possible to discuss these Ca tegory II issues at the next meeting scheduled for 
15 July.  He asked for comments from dele gations on his suggested approach.   
7. The representative of Nigeria  said that the African Group was reviewing the S&D issues and 
might table a proposal in the near future.  TN/DS/M/26 
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 3. "Other Business"  
 
8. The Chairman  recalled that it had been agreed to hol d the last meeting of the Special Session 
before the summer break on 28-29 July, and said that  since the General Council would be meeting on 
29 July, it might be advisable for the Special Session to move forward the date for its next meeting.  
He suggested that the meeting be held on 15 July  and asked whether the pr oposed date was acceptable 
to delegations.  His proposal was accepted by delegations, as there was no comment from the floor.  
Regarding future meetings after the summer break, he said that it would be necessary to schedule several days of meetings per month, and also to m eet in a variety of formats and configurations in 
order to advance the negotiations.  He reminded delegations that they would need to work harder and 
speed up the pace of the negotiations.  Regarding fu ture dates for meetings of the Special Session 
after the summer break , he said that he should be able to give some dates for the first couple of meetings likely to be held in the second-half of September at the next meeting of the Special Session, now scheduled to take place on 15 July. 
 
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