On 23 September 2020 the WTO’s Committee on Trade and Development is holding a special meeting to discuss the possible enhancement of the measures for special and differential (S&D) treatment for developing countries contained in the various WTO agreements. The S&D provisions give increased flexibility to developing countries and least developed countries (LDCs) to enable them to increase their opportunities to trade, to protect their interests by allowing longer periods to implement WTO agreements, and to request technical assistance in the implementation of measures.
The group of developing and least developed countries within the WTO known as the G90 has tabled a revised version of ten proposals on S&D. the proposals cover S&D provisions contained in a number of WTO agreements and relate to issues such as technology transfer, trade related investment measures, technical barriers to trade, sanitary and phytosanitary measures, customs valuation, subsidies and countervailing measures and the WTO accession of least developed countries.
The provisions considered in the meeting on 23 September have already been the subject of written comments from WTO members and these comments have been circulated to WTO members. The discussions will include consideration of these written views.
Following the discussions the next steps will be established and the work will be taken forward by the Committee on Trade and Development in consultation with the WTO members. There may be further informal meetings to consider the issues.
