190. The Chairman recalled that, in its Decision on the Doha Work Programme of 1 August 2004, the General Council had recalled Ministers' decision in Doha to review all special and differential treatment provisions with a view to strengthening them and making them more precise, effective and operational, and had recognized the progress that had been made so far. Regarding all those WTO bodies to which proposals in Category II had been referred, the General Council had instructed them to expeditiously complete the consideration of these proposals and report to the General Council, with clear recommendations for a decision, as soon as possible and no later than July 2005. Therefore, the Council needed to decide, at the present meeting, on the report that it had been called upon to make to the General Council, including on any recommendation for a decision.
191. This matter had been on the agenda of the Council meetings in December and March. At the December meeting, the Council had had before it an informal Secretariat note summarizing the Council's work so far on the Category II proposals on special and differential treatment referred to it (JOB(04)/164). He said that his understanding was that the situation, as reflected in that summary note, remained unchanged.
192. He further recalled that agreement had been reached in 2003 amongst participants on the second part of one of the proposals, concerning exclusive marketing rights. His predecessor had, therefore, forwarded the agreed text to the Chair of the General Council, by means of a letter dated 21 August 2003, for appropriate action. This text had subsequently been included in the Draft Cancún Ministerial Text, but had not formally been adopted as there had been no substantive outcome to that meeting. As regarded the other proposals, no delegation had taken them up since then, including in the Council's past two formal meetings.
193. In the light of the consultations he had held on this matter, the Chairman suggested that the Council authorize him to report to the General Council to the effect that the TRIPS Council recommends that the General Council take appropriate action concerning the text that had been forwarded to it by the TRIPS Chair by means of the letter dated 21 August 2003. In addition, he would provide a brief factual report on what had happened with regard to the other proposals.
