WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/COMTD/SE/4 
17 November 2005 
 (05-5409) 
Committee on Trade and Development 
Dedicated Session  
 
 
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON TRADE AND DEVELOPMENT  
IN DEDICATED SESSION TO THE GENERAL COUNCIL 
 
 
I. INTRODUCTION 
1. Paragraph 35 of the Doha Ministerial Declara tion was agreed to by Ministers at the Doha 
Ministerial Conference.  It states: 
"We agree to a work programme, under the auspices of the General Council, to 
examine issues relating to the trade of small economies.  The objective of this work is 
to frame responses to the trade-related issu es identified for the fuller integration of 
small, vulnerable economies into the multilateral trading system, and not to create a 
sub-category of WTO Members.  The Ge neral Council shall review the work 
programme and make recommendations for action to the Fifth Session of the Ministerial Conference." 
2. At its meeting on 1 March 2002, the General Council took note of a framework and 
procedures for the conduct of the Work Programme on Small Economies.
1  Paragraph 2(d) of that 
document states that the "General Council shall inst ruct the CTD to have a programme of work on 
small economies which will be conducte d in dedicated sessions of the CTD". 
3. The General Council Decision of 1 August 2004 r eaffirmed the mandate given at Doha by 
stating that:  
"The trade-related issues identified for th e fuller integration of small, vulnerable 
economies into the multilateral trading system, should also be addressed, without 
creating a sub-category of Members, as part of a work programme, as mandated in paragraph 35 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration."
2 
4. Since the July 2003 Report of the Committ ee on Trade and Development in Dedicated 
Session to the General Council,3 eight dedicated sessions of the CTD have been held on 
17 October 2003, 12 May 2004, 3 November 2004, 21 February 2005, 6 April 2005, 25 May 2005, 
17 October 2005 and [16 November 2005].  These mee tings have, upon the re quest by the proponents 
of the Work Programme, been sched uled to coincide as often as possible with the Geneva Week 
events for non-resident WTO Members and Observers.  The reports of the meetings in Dedicated Session are contained in documents WT/COMTD /SE/M/6-11 and WT/COMTD/SE/M/12-13 (to be 
issued).  Since July 2003, informal meetings we re held on 9 December 2004, 25 January, 11 March, 
12 April and on 19, 20 and 28 October 2005. 
5. In the framework and procedures for the conduct of the Work Programme on Small 
Economies, the General Council agreed that the Wo rk Programme would be "a standing item on its 
                                                     
 
1 WT/L/447 
2 Paragraph 1(d) in the 1 August 2004 General Council Decision in document WT/L/579 
3 WT/COMTD/SE/1 WT/COMTD/SE/4 
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 agenda" and that the CTD would "report regularly to the General Council on the progress of work in 
the dedicated sessions".  Oral progress reports by the CTD Chairman were made at the meetings of the General Council held on 21 October 2003, 15 an d 16 December 2003, 11 February 2004, 17 and 
18 May 2004, 27 July and 1 August 2004, 20 October 2004, 13 December 2004, 15 February 2005, 26 May 2005, 27 and 29 July 2005, 19 October 2005 and [1 December 2005].  These progress reports 
are reflected in the minutes of those meeti ngs, contained in documents WT/GC/M/83-88, 
WT/GC/M/90, WT/GC/M/92, WT/GC/M/95, WT/GC/M/97 and WT/GC/M/98-99 (to be issued). 
II. SUBMISSIONS AND PROCEEDINGS 
6. The work of the Dedicated Sessions focused on submissions by delegations. 
7. At the Sixth Dedicated Session, Members continued their discussions on the Work 
Programme.  The proponents of document WT/COMTD /SE/W/3 were asked to further revise their 
proposals so that work could continue at the ne xt Dedicated Session.  Paraguay, supported by 
Mongolia and Bolivia, asked that specific concer ns faced by landlocked developing countries be 
included on the agenda of the next Dedicated Sessi on.  It was suggested that Paraguay and others 
concerned about such issues indicate specific propo sals for consideration at the next Dedicated 
Session. 
8. For the Seventh Dedicated Session, the dele gations of Bolivia, Mongolia and Paraguay 
submitted a document titled "Proposals Submitted by the Landlocked Developing Countries - Work 
Programme on Small Economies".  The documen t WT/COMTD/SE/W/10 contained proposals on 
how to address some of the concerns and problems affecting the trade of small, landlocked economies 
and was meant to complement the proposals set out in document WT/COMTD/SE/W/3.  The 
proposals covered the following subjects:  ma rket access issues, tariff quotas and export 
diversification, sanitary and phytosanitary measures,  technical barriers to trade, some supply-side 
concerns and aspects of technical assistance.  Also for the Seventh Dedicated Session, the delegations 
of Barbados, Fiji, Mauritius, Papua New Guin ea, Solomon Islands and Trinidad and Tobago 
submitted document WT/COMTD/SE/W/11 which proposed  the grandfathering into WTO of existing 
trade preferences and requested that arrangement s be made to counter potential losses of trade 
preferences.  The proposal suggested chang es to the Subsidies and Countervailing Measures 
Agreement to provide greater flexibility to sma ll economies to use subsidies to increase export 
performance.  Some Members believed it would be more  appropriate if some aspects raised in the two 
proposals were discussed in the negotiating groups  on NAMA and Rules and not in the Dedicated 
Session. 
9. During the Eighth Dedicated Session, discussion focussed on the momentum generated by the 
General Council Decision of 1 August 2004 and th e future of the Work Programme on Small 
Economies, including the report of the Dedicated  Session to the General Council which would be 
forwarded to the Sixth Ministerial Conference.  Members reiterated their commitment to engage in 
substantive, results-oriented discussions in orde r to move forward with the mandate given in 
paragraph 35 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration. 
10. At the Ninth Dedicated Session, Chairman Ambassador C. Trevor Clarke (Barbados) 
presented a proposal which tried to find solutions to  the trade-related problems of small economies.  
He proposed considering the use of characteristics to identify what could be accepted as small, 
vulnerable economies, without naming any group of countries.  He then proposed considering the 
trade-related problems which could reasonably be attributed to tho se characteristics, without naming 
any group of countries.  A third step was to frame  responses to those trade-related problems, without 
naming any group of countries.  Discussion also focussed on a new proposal (WT/COMTD/SE/W/12)  WT/COMTD/SE/4 
 Page 3 
 
 
 by 16 Members4 that attempted to follow the Chairman 's proposal by identifying 17 "specific 
characteristics and problems".  Some Members qu estioned the Chair's approach and thought it 
preferable to identify trade-related problems fa ced by small economies rather than to use 
characteristics to identify them.  The Chair emphasized that the Dedi cated Session also consider the 
impact of a combination of some of the identifie d characteristics, especially since it was probably not 
the presence of just one characteristic that caused a pr oblem, but their cumulation.  As for some of the 
remarks made concerning the appropriateness of di scussing certain issues in the negotiating groups, 
the Chair said he thought it useful to keep the i ssues of concern to sma ll economies under review in 
the Dedicated Session, especially since the aim of the Work Programme was to address issues facing 
small economies in a horizontal, across the board manner.  
11. For the Tenth Dedicated Session, Members discuss ed in formal and informal mode document 
WT/COMTD/SE/W/12 and its indicative list of 17 specific characteristics and problems of small economies, including such elements as physical isolation and distance from main markets, minimal 
share of world trade, low productivity and insuffici ent supply, inability to diversify production, high 
transport and transit costs, difficulties in attracti ng foreign investment and low competitiveness.  The 
new Chairman, Ambassador Gomi Senadhira (Sri La nka), proposed using a three-pronged approach 
to try to classify the characteristics into the following areas:  1) where a WTO solution could be 
found;  2) areas where WTO solutions may be ava ilable but would need to be combined with 
assistance from other agencies;  and 3) areas where a solution would be elsewhere (outside the WTO).  
Some of the proponents, however, said they were  not in a position to accept the clustering approach 
suggested by the Chairman because this would mini mize the interconnected nature of the list of 
characteristics and problems.  Some of the deve loping country Members agreed with the Chair's 
proposal but noted that many of the characteristics and problems identified by the proponents were not exclusive to small economies and were, in fact, shared by many other developing countries.  They suggested that the proponents focus on characteristics that were unique to them.  
12. A new submission was made for the Eleventh Dedicated Session by Antigua and Barbuda, 
Barbados, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Repub lic, El Salvador, Fiji, Grenada, Guatemala, 
Honduras, Jamaica, Mauritius, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Solomon Islands, 
St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago.  This 
document, WT/COMTD/SE/W/13/Rev.1, titled "A n Approach to Framing Responses to the 
Trade-Related Problems of Small Economies," was meant to lay the foundations upon which the 
Dedicated Session could start to frame responses to  the trade-related issues and problems faced by 
small economies.  It offers 12 "elements of respon ses" which include: addressing the key interests of 
small economies in the agriculture and NAMA negotiations, including special flexibilities and 
economic development broadly;  according special pr iority to small economies' services and exports;  
taking decisions which would allow small economies to provide subsidies and better respond  to the 
needs of their small businesses;  taking into acco unt the special problems and needs of small and 
vulnerable economies when deciding on new rul es for regional integration schemes and addressing 
the specific needs of small economies, and especially the vulnerable, landlocked countries, in the area 
of technical assistance and capacity building.  Th e proponents explained that concrete measures 
identifying possible solutions would be presented at a later stage and the Chairman said he would hold 
more meetings to advance the Work Programme  on Small Economies.  Some Members said that 
responses to the specific trade-rela ted issues presented by the proponents should not affect the trade 
interests of other developing countries.  They empha sized that any consideration of proposals on small 
economies submitted to the negotiating and other bodi es had to be done within the framework of the 
mandate of the respective body.  
                                                     
 
4 Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Bolivia, Cuba, Do minican Republic, El Salv ador, Fiji, Guatemala, 
Honduras, Jamaica, Mauritius, Mongolia, Nicaragua , Paraguay, Sri Lanka and Trinidad and Tobago WT/COMTD/SE/4 
Page 4  
 
 13. The Twelfth Dedicated Session was held on 17 October and Members discussed a new 
proposal contained in document WT/COMTD/ SE/W/14 submitted by Antigua and Barbuda, 
Barbados, Bolivia, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Repub lic, El Salvador, Fiji, Grenada, Guatemala, 
Honduras, Jamaica, Mauritius, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Solomon Islands,  
St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago titled "Small 
Economies' Report to the Committee on Trade a nd Development in Dedicated Session".  It 
recommends the continuation of the "two-track" approach in which the progress of Agreement-
specific proposals tabled in the relevant negotiating and other bodies be monitored by the CTD.  The 
proposal contained two annexes or papers which the proponents had submitted to the negotiating 
groups on agriculture and NAMA.  Some Members said they agreed in principle with the two-track 
approach, but that the Dedicated Session might have to come back to the issue of the characteristics 
and problems of small economies because discussions  on this issue had not been concluded.  
Members also heard brief introductory presentations  on four new proposals submitted by Antigua and 
Barbuda, Barbados, Cuba, Dominica, Fiji, Grenada, Jamaica, Mauritius, Papua New Guinea, Solomon 
Islands, St. Kitts and Nevis and St. Vincent and the Grenadines in documents 
WT/COMTD/SE/W/15-18.  Three of these proposals concerned the creation of regional bodies which 
small economies could use to report and notify obligations under the Agreement on Technical 
Barriers to Trade, the Agreement on Sanitary an d Phytosanitary Measures and the Agreement on 
TRIPS.  A fourth proposal concerned agreeing to new rules for accession procedures and that small, acceding economies should only have to take on ob ligations commensurate with their level of 
development.  Members heard from the Chairman about the Dedicated Session's report to the General 
Council and a possible draft text for inclusion in the Declaration for the Sixth Ministerial Conference.  
14. The Thirteenth Dedicated Session was held on 16 November and Members adopted the draft 
Dedicated Session's report to the General Counc il in document WT/COMTD/SE/W/19/Rev.1, later 
circulated as WT/COMTD/SE/4.  Members also discussed in more detail the recently circulated 
submissions contained in docum ents WT/COMTD/SE/W/15-18.  
III. FUTURE WORK 
15. Pursuant to the mandate contained in the D oha Ministerial Declaration, the General Council 
Decision of 1 August 2004 and the Framework a nd Procedures for the Work Programme on Small 
Economies, issues relating to the trade of small economies have been exam ined in the Dedicated 
Sessions of the CTD and proposals for responses have  been made.  However, there is a need for 
further work in order to achieve the mandate of the Doha Ministerial Declaration. 
16. The Dedicated Session of the CTD therefore proposes that the General Council recommend to 
the Sixth Ministerial Conference that Ministers inst ruct the CTD to continue its work in Dedicated 
Sessions under the overall responsibility of the General Council in accordance with the mandate 
contained in the Doha Ministerial Declaration, the 1 August 2004 General Council Decision and the 
Framework and Procedures of the Work Progra mme on Small Economies.  The Dedicated Sessions 
shall consider in further detail the proposals contai ned in the various submissions that have been 
received to this date, examine any additional prop osals that Members might wish to submit and, 
where possible, and within its mandate, make r ecommendations to the General Council, on any of 
these proposals.  The General Council may refer any proposal, as appropriate, to relevant negotiating 
and other WTO bodies to frame responses for urgent action and reporting back through the Dedicated 
Session.  The Dedicated Session will monitor this work  with a view to helping ensure that solutions 
are found to frame responses to the trade-related issu es identified for the fuller integration of small, 
vulnerable economies in an appropriate manne r in the negotiating and other bodies.   
 
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