DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE SETS TIMETABLE FOR TALKS ON SPECIAL & DIFFERENTIAL TREATMENT

The WTO Committee on Trade and Development (CTD) special session decided in an informal meeting on 15 January on how to continue work on special and differential treatment (S&D) for developing countries. The group had been unable to reach a conclusion by the end of the year 2002, and Special Session Chair Ransford Smith (Jamaica) had been forced to report this fact to the WTO General Council final session, requesting more time (see BRIDGES Weekly, 20 December 2002). According to the new timetable, the CTD special session will report to the General Council at its meeting on 10-11 February 2003. The group will hold informal meetings on 17, 14, 27, 29 and 30 January, and a formal session on 3 February. Discussions will continue to focus on the two themes considered in December: agreement-specific proposals, based on 22 proposals laid out by the Chair with the addition of a few additional proposals by the Africa Group and India; and the overall structure of future work. Responding to this plan, the Africa Group and the least- developed countries said they would like to discuss additional agreement-specific proposals. Some developing countries commented that they would prefer written responses from developed countries on all proposals made by developing countries. Developed countries countered that they already had responded orally, and that these responses were included in the minutes of the December meetings.

ICTSD reporting.