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 request[1] 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. The report reflected the concrete actions adopted by the Committee over the past years to improve its work, provided an overview of the reforms that had already been introduced and where the Committee stood 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 seemed 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 bodies were tasked to see what has been done in their respective areas 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 Committee 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.