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G/SG/286  
 
26 October 2023  
(23-7240) Page: 1/3 
Council for Trade in Goods  
Committee on Safeguards    
 
  
REPORT TO THE COUNCIL FOR TRADE IN GOODS  
ON IMPROVEMENTS IN THE FUNCTIONING OF  
THE COMMITTEE  ON SAFEGUARDS  
 
1  INTRODUCTION  
1.1.  This report is being prepared at the request1 of the Council for Trade in Goods (CTG). All CTG 
subsidiary bodies were asked to produce written reports summarizing their discussions and 
describing the improvements  they had agreed  on. On 30 June 2023, the CTG Chair held a meeting 
with the Chairs of the  subsidiary bodies  at which all Chairs were requested to submit their reports 
no later than in the first week of November  2023, and to ensure that all improvements made since 
the conclusion of MC12 were appropriately reflected in those reports .  
1.2.  Reference is made to document G/L/1452  - G/SG/277  containing the report submitted by the 
Chair of the Committee on Safeguards ("Committee") on 28 November  2022 - under the Chair's  own 
responsibility - to the CTG on the functioning of the Committee. A revision of this document was 
circulated in document G/L/1452/Rev.1  - G/SG/277/Rev.1  on 23 January 2023. T he report reflected 
the concrete actions adopted by the Committee o ver the past years to improve its work , provided 
an overview of the reforms that ha d already been introduced and where the Committee st ood at the 
time with respect to past actions and discussions . Based on what was contained in this report and 
in all other  subsidiary bodies ' Chairs reports, the CTG Secretariat circulated on 11  January  2023 a 
"Comparison Matrix" contained in document G/C/W/824  providing a general overview of the main 
elements that seem ed to be comparable across the reports . A revised version of the said Matrix was 
circulated in document G/C/W/824/Rev.1 . 
1.3.  The discussions on the reform of the functioning of the Committee started under Other Business 
in the regular autumn meeting of the Committee in October 2022.2 At that meeting, the Chair of the 
Committee remarked on the then-ongoing consultations at the level of the General Council and the 
CTG regarding WTO reform , indicated that all  subsidiary bod ies were tasked to see what has been 
done in their respective are as and explore ways to improve their daily functioning and better deliver 
on their respective mandates . The Chair of the Committee also referred to the consultations held by 
the Chair of the CTG with delegations and with the Chairs of the CTG's subsidiary bodies and the 
request by the CTG Chair to all those Chairs to submit – under their own responsibility – reports on 
the current functioning of their different Committees.  
1.4.  It should be noted that this report covers all the improvements introduced in the Com mittee 
since the conclusion of MC12 in June 2022 following the extensive discussions by Members and with 
a view to better respond to its mandate and its terms of reference.  
2  PROCESS AND PROPOSALS  
2.1.  The following summarizes the key procedural aspects and propo sals considered:  
a. The discussions were conducted as follows: (a) in an informal mode at the regular spring 
Committee meeting in May 20233, (b) at the joint informal meetings of the Committees 
 
1 JOB/CTG/29  and JOB/CTG/33 . 
2 G/SG/M/61 . 
3 G/SG/M/62 . G/L/1502 • G/SG/286  
 
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  on Anti -Dumping Practices, Safeguards and Subsidies and Countervailing Measures ("the 
three Committees") held on 20 June and 2 October 2023.  
b. The Secretariat was instructed by the Committee to explore four specific issues and report 
back to the Committee, while three additional issues remained under Members' 
consideration. A list of all seven issues was circulated in document RD/SG/65 . This 
document was the result of the discussions conducted in an informal mode at the regular 
spring Committee meeting in May 2023  and was the basis for the discussion conducted in 
the joint informal meeting of the three Committees held on 20 June 2023.  
c. The discussions at the joint informal meeting of the three Committees held on 
20 June 2023 have resulted in the approval, through a written procedure, of four reform 
steps. A document describing these agreed reforms was circulated in  
G/ADP/32  - G/SCM/165  - G/SG/284 .  
d. One additional issue remained under the consideration of the three Committees and was 
circulated in document  RD/ADP/37  - RD/SG/67  - RD/SCM/64 . This remaining issue was 
further discussed at the joint inf ormal meeting of the three Committees  held on 
2 October  2023 (RD/ADP/39  - RD/SG/69  - G/SCM/67 ). The discussions at that meeting 
have resulted in the approval, through a written p rocedure, of this remaining issue. A 
document reflecting this agreed step was circulated in G/ADP/33 – G/SCM/166 – 
G/SG/285 . 
e. Furthermore, in document RD/SG/66  dated 19 June 2023, one proposal specifically related 
to this Committee was tabled for discussion. This proposal was discussed at the informal 
meeting of the Committee held on 2 October 2023, held in conjunction with the joi nt 
informal meeting of the Committees referred above. As agreed at that informal meeting, 
the proposal was placed on the agenda of the regular meeting of the Committee held on 
25 October 2023 for further discussion.  
 
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  3  IMPROVEMENTS ON THE FUNCTIONING OF T HE COMMITTEE  
3.1.  As a result of these discussions, the Committee agreed to implement five changes  with a view 
to improving its functioning, including where the Secretariat was requested to introduce changes to 
the way in which it supports the work of the Commi ttee. 
3.2.  The improvements approved by the Committee are as follows:  
General area  Improvements in the functioning of the Committee on 
Safeguards  
[A. Assistance to delegates]  • Training sessions on the functioning of the Committees will be 
held twice a year, the first of which to be held in 
September  2023 [moved to October for logistical reasons]. The 
presentations made and the audio recording of those sessions 
will be made available on the relevant WTO webpages for 
Members to consult.  
[B. Planning and organization of 
meetings]  • The meeting weeks of the regular and special formal spring and 
autumn meetings of the Committees for the following year shall 
be proposed in the annotated draft agendas of the October 
meetings.  
• The use of the following features of  the e-Agenda:  
- (i) uploading Members' statements and  
- (ii) facilitating access to relevant documents for meetings  
The use of such features is to be made available on a trial -
basis starting in the Spring Rules Committees of 2024 until 
Spring Rules Committees of 2025. This will be reviewed at the 
Rules Committees' meetings of Spring 2025 to decide whether 
to extend the trial period or to continue using, on a permanent 
basis, these features or any other features of the e -Agenda 
agreed upon.  
[C. Repor ting of formal meetings]  • Minutes should be provided, in the current reported style, as 
soon as feasible after the meetings without compromising on 
the quality of the minutes produced. The Minutes, once 
finalized, will be circulated to the membership even b efore the 
deadlines for written answers to written questions have passed. 
If these answers to questions are submitted within the 
deadlines, after the circulation of the Minutes, an addendum to 
the Minutes will be issued. In order to facilitate this process , 
Members are encouraged to provide their written statements to 
the Secretariat after the meetings without delay. The 
Secretariat may continue to explore artificial intelligence tools 
to produce minutes as better ones become available.  
• The current summary of the formal meetings, produced in the 
form of a News item as approved by the Chairs of the 
Committees, would continue to be produced by the Secretariat . 
4  NEXT STEPS  
4.1.  At the informal meeting of the Committee held on 2 October 2023, it was agreed to  place the 
proposal circulated in document RD/SG/66  on the agenda of the regular meeting of the Committee 
as of 25 October 2023 for further discussion. More discussion took place on this proposal at  the 
regular meeting of 25 October 2023 . There were several Memb ers who expressed support for the 
proposal. Based on the discussion, the Chair stated that he understood that the Members needed 
more time to discuss this proposal.4 
__________  
 
4 The symbol of the document is now RD/SG/66/Rev.2 . (Rev . 1 and Rev . 2 are additions of 
co-sponsors. ) 