4. The Chairman recalled he had indicated in his written report to the TNC meeting of July, contained in TN/IP/13, that he would hold informal consultations prior to this Special Session on the steps that should be taken to assist progress in the negotiations. Accordingly, he had been in contact with many Members since the summer break. As he had reported to the TNC at its last meeting of 14 September, these consultations had focused on overcoming the problem that had been impeding work prior to the summer break. At its June meeting, the Special Session had been unable to discuss productively all the proposals on the table because of concerns expressed by some delegations about the relationship between one of the three proposals and the mandate of the Special Session. In his consultations, the main question then had been how to find a way of enabling the substance of each of the proposals as it related to the mandate of the Special Session to be discussed in a productive way. He was confident that, thanks to the goodwill and cooperation of delegations, Members had found a way forward. To this end, the Secretariat had issued, in document TN/IP/W/12, a note setting out the three proposals side-by-side. This should facilitate comparison of the proposals as they related to those elements that, in the view of the proponents of each proposals, were relevant to the mandate.
5. With regard to the organization of the Special Session's work under agenda item B, he suggested that delegations that so wished be given the opportunity to make any general statements and that the discussion of the proposals on the table, namely the Hong Kong, China proposal contained in TN/IP/W/8, the joint proposal contained in TN/IP/W/10 and the EC proposal contained in TN/IP/W/11, be organized in a systematic way, using the main headings of the side-by-side document TN/IP/W/12.
