./.RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONG/SCM/W/469
15 October 2001
(01-5015)
Committee on Subsidies
and Countervailing MeasuresOriginal:  English
EXTENSION OF THE TRANSITION PERIOD FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
WITH A SMALL SHARE OF WORLD TRADE FOR THE ELIMINATION OF
EXPORTS SUBSIDIES OF THE AGREEMENT ON SUBSIDIES AND
COUNTERVAILING MEASURES
Cuba, Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, Ecuador, El Salvador,
Panama, Sri Lanka
The following communication has been received on 11 October 2001 from the
delegations of Cuba, Dominican Republic, Gu atemala, Honduras, Ecuador, El Salvador,
Panama and Sri Lanka.
_______________
Draft Decision
Decision of [OCTOBER 2001]
The General Council,
Having regard to paragraph 4 of Article 27 of the Agreement on Subsidies and
Countervailing Measures of World Trade Organization;
Taking into account  the paragraph 9(a)(i) of the Geneva Ministerial Declaration, the General
Council Decision on 3 May 2000, and the General Council Decision on 15 December  2000.
Considering  the imbalance between the rights and obligations of the Members existing in the
Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures,
Considering  that this imbalance affects the capacity of the developing countries to apply
effective development policies necessaries to reach an appropriate level of development,
Considering that  Developing countries would be deemed to have a small share of trade if:
- Their share of world merchandise export trade was not greater than 0.125 per
cent.G/SCM/W/469
Page 2
Decides as follows:
1. The transition period under article 27.4 of the Agreement on Subsidies and
Countervailing Measures shall be extended to developing country Members, with a
small share of trade for at least 20 years.1
2. The list of countries in the Annex of this Decision shall notify the programmes
meeting  the outlined criteria of Paragra ph 4 of this Decision, following Article 25 of
the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures, not later than
30 June 2002.
3. An annual review by the SCM Committee will be established on the basis of
full/updated notifications from beneficiary Members as to benefits provided under the
notified programmes and other operational information about the programmes,
following Article 25 of the SCM Agreement.
4. This extension shall be limited to measures on import duty and internal tax exceptions
that have been in existence at least by 1 September 2001.
5. This decision will also be applicable to those Members who are presently in Annex
VII, but who during or after this extended transition period come out of Annex VII, as
long as they fulfill the conditions mentioned  in the preamble of this Decision.
6. The extension would be applicable for all products, as long as the concerned Member
has not reached export competitiveness in that product, as established in article 27.5
and 27.6 of the Agreement.
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1 The list of such countries would be drawn up on the basis of statistics maintained by WTO Secretariat
on world merchandise export trade.  This list is annexe d to this decision and is an integral part thereof,
and will not be subject to subsequent modification.  Global trade shares shall be calculated as anaverage, over three years, to avoid any single year aberrations.