2.1. The Chairman said that he had closely followed the work of his predecessors as Chairs of this negotiating group. The Secretariat had also briefed him on the different negotiating approaches and challenges that the group had witnessed in the past. That said, he recalled that the Ministers at the Eighth Ministerial Conference (MC8) had committed themselves to, inter alia, the advancement of negotiations, where progress could be achieved, which included a focus on those elements of the Doha Work Programme that allowed Members to reach provisional or definitive agreements based on consensus earlier than the full conclusion of the single undertaking. Therefore, he intended to hold, over the subsequent weeks, a process of informal consultations with delegations, both individually and in groups, in order to determine how best to operationalize the elements of the outcome of MC8 that related to the work of the Special Session. It was his expectation that he would be able to share the views he would have heard during the consultations with the Special Session in the next meeting.
