CTD-SS: MEMBERS ASK "HAS PROGRESS BEEN MADE?"

At a 21 November informal meeting of the WTO Committee on Trade and Development Special Session (CTD-SS), Members agreed on draft Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration text concerning special and differential treatment (S&D) to send to the General Council. However, Members did differ in their opinions on how to reflect the progress, or lack thereof, on five proposed amendments to specific WTO agreements.

During recent meetings of the CTD-SS, developing countries argued that since Members had not reached complete agreement on the wording of the proposed amendments, the draft text should not say that there had been "progress" on the 'agreement-specific S&D proposals.' However, developed countries were wary of deleting any reference to "progress" from the text, contending that positions on the proposals are significantly closer now than they once were. To resolve the matter, Members agreed that the four paragraph-long text would say that "some progress" had been made and that Chair Faizel Ismail of South Africa would make verbal reference to the disagreement on "progress" while presenting the text to the General Council.

No convergence on agreement-specific proposals

The divergence on the reference to "progress" reflects disagreement on many sections of the agreement-specific proposals, which the CTD-SS has focused on since May in the hope of reaching agreement on them before Hong Kong (see BRIDGES Weekly, 16 November 2005). Most of the disagreements centre upon how obligatory the language in the new texts should be.

Members were unable to make any breakthroughs on the proposals during intensive negotiations in an informal session on 17 November and a formal meeting on 18 November, and instead decided to include different versions of each of the proposed texts in an annex to the draft ministerial text on S&D. This text is expected to contain two versions of each of the five proposals -- one drafted by the LDCs based upon discussions and the other by, say, the US or the Latin American countries. The draft text allows for ministers in Hong Kong to make a political decision to approve the five proposals.

Swiss call for "reinvigorating" outstanding issues

Drawing on the perceived lack of progress on agreement-specific proposals, Switzerland and a number of developed countries asked for a reference to the "reinvigoration of all outstanding issues" to be inserted into the draft ministerial text. This refers to the cross-cutting or systemic concerns that were placed on the sidelines of the negotiations in May 2005 when Members decided to focus on the agreement-specific proposals.

Developed countries have generally expressed the view that addressing these issues at the same time or even before agreement-specific proposals is an integral part of the mandate given to the CTD-SS. Indeed, one delegate implied that progress on agreement-specific proposals was contingent on movement on cross-cutting issues.

African Group countries, on the other hand, feel that the sequencing set out by the July Package (WT/L/579) calls for agreement-specific issues to be dealt with before cross-cutting issues. Several developing countries are concerned that a reference of the sort that Switzerland is seeking could lead to agreement-specific proposals being put on the back-burner in favour of cross-cutting issues in the post-Hong Kong period.

Nonetheless, the reference to reinvigorating "outstanding issues" was included at the end of the text forwarded to the General Council, but the sequencing of the two types of concerns was not explicitly mentioned.

Call to bring S&D proposals back rejected

The African Group on 16 November called for WTO negotiating groups to send the so-called "category 2" agreement-specific S&D proposals that had been referred to them in 2002 back to the CTD-SS. The proposals had originally been sent to the relevant negotiating groups so that experts in the issue-areas, such as sanitary and phytosanitary measures (SPS), would be able to examine and improve them.

Arguing that there had been little movement on these proposals in the various negotiating groups, the African Group suggested that it was time to bring them back to the CTD-SS. Other Members disagreed, suggesting that the experts on each issue area would be the best ones to examine the S&D proposals and that the CTD-SS already had a heavy work-load. The draft text sent to the General Council does not support the African Group idea, and instead urges the negotiating groups to "expeditiously complete" their work on the S&D proposals.

CTD considers paragraph on commodities

Cote d'Ivoire, Kenya, Rwanda, Uganda, Tanzania and Zimbabwe made a proposal at an informal 22 November meeting of the regular session of the Committee on Trade and Development for a paragraph on commodities to be included in the draft Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration text. The proposed paragraph refers to the impact of commodity price decline and volatility on the livelihoods of farmers in countries dependent on primary commodities. It calls on Members to launch negotiations on commodities that would aim to eliminating non-tariff barriers and tariff escalation (higher tariffs on processed goods than on raw commodities). The six countries also want negotiations to review and improve WTO rules that relate to the stabilisation of prices through supply management systems as well as the use of export taxes and restrictions.

Although most Members at the meeting agreed that the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration text should include a reference to commodities, they could not resolve differences on whether it should mention negotiations, stabilisation measures or export taxes and restrictions. CTD regular session Chair Ambassador Gomi Theraka Senadhira said that discussions on commodities would continue at informal meetings next week.

Aid for trade paragraph in the works?

A group of Members that have been meeting informally outside any particular negotiating body are investigating the possibility of submitting a paragraph on aid for trade to the General Council for inclusion in the draft Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration. They met on 22 and 23 November, and are currently in the process of identifying elements for a draft text.

ICTSD reporting.