WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/GC/W/491
27 February 2003
(03-1185)
General Council Original:  English
SINGAPORE ISSUES - THE QUESTION OF MODALITIES
Communication from the European Communities
The following communication, dated 24 February, has been received by the Chairman of the
General Council from the Permanent Delegation of the European Communities with the request that it
be circulated to Members.
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1. Introduction
The Singapore issues, which until the WTO Fifth Ministerial are in the stage of
"clarification", but for which negotiations will commence after Cancún, are a key element of the DDA
and part and parcel of the Single Undertaking. The purpose of this paper is to put forwardconsiderations on the term "modalities" in relation to the Singapore issues, with the aim of ensuring
that a positive decision will be taken at Cancún.
2. The Doha Ministerial Declaration
The Doha Ministerial declaration decided that negotiations on the Singapore issues (trade and
competition, trade facilitation, trade and investment and transparency in Government procurement)would commence after the 5th Ministerial Conference, in the following terms:
"We agree that negotiations will take place after the Fifth Ministerial Conference on the basis
of a decision to be taken, by explicit consensus, at that session on modalities of negotiations".
In addition to this, the Chair in Doha made a final statement, with the aim of clarifying the
language in the Ministerial Declaration on the Singapore issues, which states that this wording would,
in the view of the Chair of the conference:
"give each Member the right to take a position on modalities that would prevent negotiations
from proceeding after the Fifth Ministerial conference, until that Member is prepared to join
in an explicit consensus".
WTO Members also agreed that, until the 5th Ministerial, WTO Members would engage in
preparatory work to further clarify various substantive aspects of the Singapore issues.
3. Preparation of Cancún
The clarification phase of the work on the Singapore issues has progressed in a reasonably
smooth manner until now and can be expected to make further progress by the time WTO Members
gather in Cancún. It is now timely to develop a common set of options for modalities, so as to
facilitate the decisions to be taken in Cancún. These options for modalities should be sufficientlyWT/GC/W/491
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broad and flexible to take into account the obvious  differences between the four issues, while ensuring
that a positive decision is taken for the four issues, which all constitute a priority for the EC and its
member States.
4. Elements of Modalities
The elements of "modalities" could be as follows:
• Procedural issues pertaining to the negotiating phase:  number of meetings, timing, internal
deadlines for tabling proposals, legal texts, etc.
• The scope and coverage of the negotiating agenda:  through setting the agenda for the
negotiating phase, WTO members have an opportunity to identify key elements that should be
addressed in the course of those negotiations, and the possible parameters of the work.Examples of issues that could be  taken up in the negotiations could be:
- The choice of which concrete issues should be the object of negotiations.  With
regard to trade facilitation, for example, this could include developing commitments
to simplify trade procedures based inter alia on Articles V, VIII and X of the GATT,similar to the mandate agreed at Doha (paragraph 27 of the Declaration).  On trade
and investment, for instance, it could reproduce the list of issues included in the Doha
Declaration (paragraph 22) on the basis of the clarification exercise carried out in the
Working Group.  Or with regard to trade and competition, for example, the
negotiating agenda could identify the objective of establishing obligations only onhard core cartels (excluding, therefore, other issues such as monopolies, dominance
or mergers). In the area of government procurement, negotiations on a multilateral
transparency agreement should comprise as a starting point the key issues elaborated
in a comprehensive manner during the seven year-long study phase of the Working
Group and compiled in the chair’s checklist of issues.
- Questions relating to how to structure the obligations resulting from an eventual
agreement.  With regard to trade and inve stment, for instance, this could cover the
possible exclusions or exemptions to horizontal obligations, such as the MFN
principle. With regard to trade and competition, this could concern sectoralexclusions or exemptions from some of the "process related" obligations of a
competition agreement (the "core" principle of non-discrimination, for instance), and
the conditions for such exclusions or exemptions, and identifying possible
commitments that would not be enforceable e.g. provisions for voluntary co-
operation. In government procurement, the issue of thresholds, for example, could be
examined with a view to allowing for a pragmatic and little burdensome approach
towards the application of transparency disciplines.
• Special and differential treatment:  Modalities of the negotiations could include a number of
issues related to special and differential treatment.  Examples of such elements, to be explored
in the negotiations, could be:
- Differentiation in commitments between WTO Members, expressed for example in
terms of different levels of commitment for different categories of Members, or
possible exemptions from certain commitments, particularly for LDCs.
- Differentiation in implementation periods between WTO Members, including
country-specific provisions.WT/GC/W/491
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- Provision of trade related assistance to WTO Members better tailored to their
individual needs, in particular to put TRA on a more stable footing, more targeted to
the WTO provisions agreed and better co-ordinated among donors and recipients.
- How and in what timeframe (or even whether) WTO Members or certain categories
of WTO Members would assume some or all of the obligations resulting from these
agreements.
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