Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 9 • Number 22 • 22nd June 2005
S&D Proposals Need Redrafting, Clarification, Members Say
The WTO Committee on Trade and Development Special (negotiating) Session (CTD-SS) met in informal mode on 16 and 17 June and looked at revised versions of agreement-specific proposals from least-developed countries (LDCs) as well as all the remaining agreement-specific proposals from other Members. Although the LDC revisions were welcomed, many Members expressed concerns that the agreement-specific proposals on the table needed work to clarify and update the proposals and ensure that the text addresses the stated needs of developing countries.
Emphasis on LDC proposals continues
The CTD-SS has been proceeding in recent meetings by looking informally at the five agreement-specific proposals made by LDCs (see BRIDGES Weekly, 5 May 2005), but waiting for delayed revised language from the LDCs (see BRIDGES Weekly, 5 June 2005). The LDCs tabled new language on the proposals on 15 June. Several Members said, however, that they did not have enough time to consult with their capitals and examine the text in order to respond by the 16 June meeting. Initial responses at the 16 June meeting suggested that the changes to the text that had been considered at the May meeting were relatively minor and cosmetic.
Members raised questions regarding the automaticity of some of the LDC proposals, including redrafted text on proposals number 22 and 23 regarding " Understanding in Respect of Waivers of Obligations under the GATT 1994," where the redrafted text says that requests for waivers of obligations from LDCs, as well as from other Members acting "in favour of LDCs", should be given special consideration. Members feared this could open the door to claims for waivers from WTO disciplines for measures that are allegedly, but not in fact, in the interest of LDCs. In addition, Members continued to raise questions regarding proposal 84’s demand for the exemption of LDCs from the disciplines of the Agreement on Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMS). Sources suggested that the US, EU, Canada and Japan were unwilling to concede to such a comprehensive exemption owing to fears that this would create a precedent of exceptions to the rule and different treatment of different developing countries. Members suggested, however, that additional work was necessary to align the language of the proposal with the stated needs of LDCs and what other countries were willing to agreed to.
Nonetheless, there was a renewed impetus at the meeting to examine the LDC proposals in the hopes of agreeing on text on at least four of the five proposals by the end of July. An informal meeting of the CTD-SS was held on 21 June to further consider these proposals.
All agreement-specific proposals examined
The Chair suggested, and Members agreed on 17 June that — given the July 2005 deadline for a step forward in the negotiations in the lead-up to the December Hong Kong ministerial — the group move to address the other remaining agreement-specific proposals, beginning with those by the African Group and moving on to others. The proposals, which have not been examined since the Cancun ministerial meeting, went through a cursory reading, including a first reading of some of the more difficult proposals, collected in a "category III."
The tension between the so-called "horizontal" or "cross-cutting" issues and the agreement-specific proposals surfaced during discussions. Members commented that, similarly to the LDC proposals, much of the language in the other agreement-specific proposals did not match the stated needs of developing countries and more particularly the country or group that submitted the proposal. A number of developed country Members said that in many cases, the underlying objective behind the proposals was not clear and this made it difficult to ascertain the exact problems that the proposals were actually attempting to address. They suggested that the proposals needed to be more targeted and specific. In addition, Members suggested that several proposals were outdated and failed to take into account agreements reached in the July Package.
Next steps
CTD-SS Chair Faizel Ismail will be holding small group consultations in the coming weeks to continue discussions on the LDC agreement-specific proposals to explore language that could provide a basis for possible recommendations in July or thereafter. Once work on LDC proposals is completed, the CTD-SS will shift its attention to agreement-specific proposals from the African Group.
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