Council for Trade in Goods - Follow-up note from the Chairperson of the Council for Trade in Goods - Meeting of 27 - 28 November 2025

MEETING OF 27-28 NOVEMBER 2025

1.1.  This document has been prepared under the responsibility of the Chairperson of the Council for Trade in Goods (hereinafter "CTG", or "the Council") with a view to implementing the Council's agreement[1] by providing a follow‑up note to this formal meeting, and in preparation for the next formal meeting of the Council, which has been tentatively scheduled for 5 May 2026.

1.2.  Please take note of the following information:

SUBJECT

DETAIL

1._   Remarks by the Chairperson:

The Chairperson's remarks under each item are available on eAgenda.

2._   Decisions taken at the meeting:

·_          Under Agenda Item 2, the Council agreed to forward the Collective Waiver Decisions to the General Council for appropriate action.

·_          Under Agenda Item 4, on future work, the Council agreed to hold an informal meeting in April 2026, after MC14, and to request the Secretariat to update the submission rates statistics in Table 1 of the Secretariat report in document _G/C/W/859.

·_          Under Agenda Item 11.2, "Adoption of the Annual Report of the Council for Trade in Goods to the General Council", the Council agreed to follow written procedures for the approval of an updated version of the annual report that was circulated in document _G/C/W/885. The Secretariat circulated a revised draft report in document _G/C/W/885/Rev.1, which was also sent to delegates by email, with a deadline for objections of close of business on Wednesday, 3 December 2025.

3._   Upcoming meetings:

The provisional dates of upcoming meetings of the Council are currently described in the tentative calendar of meetings (_JOB/CTG/73/Rev.2). A regularly updated list of such information is available via the WTO Calendar of meetings and the Council for Trade in Goods gateway.

 

4._   Key dates for the upcoming meeting:

Please take note of the following tentative dates concerning the CTG's next formal meeting:

 

Date of the meeting: Tuesday, 5 May 2026, continuing as necessary

Circulation of the meeting's initial convening notice: Thursday, 2 April 2026

Activation of the meeting's eAgenda: Thursday, 2 April 2026

Closure of the meeting's agenda: Monday, 20 April 2026

Circulation of the meeting's revised convening notice: Tuesday, 21 April 2026

Circulation of the meeting's annotated agenda: Thursday, 23 April 2026

 

5._   Guidance on how to add items to the agenda of the next meeting

_Members can add items to the agenda in two ways:

·_              Directly through the Collaborative Agenda section of the eAgenda[2]; or

·_              by sending an email to the CTG team (Roy.Santana@wto.orgArti.Daswani@wto.org and Craig.James@wto.org). For transparency, the Secretariat will also include any such request in the eAgenda.

6._   Agreed items reverted to by the Council, and standing items

At the upcoming meeting, the Council will consider the following standing agenda items:

·_             Notification of Regional Trade Agreements;

·_             A report by the Secretariat on the Status of Notifications Under the Provisions of the Agreements in Annex 1(a) of the WTO Agreement, as of 31 December 2025, which will be circulated as the next revision in the _G/L/223/- document series.

 

__________



[1] At its meeting of 30 November–1 December 2023, the Council for Trade in Goods agreed on a trial basis on "the creation of a new 'follow‑up' document, under the authority of the Chairperson, concisely collating agreed next steps, deadlines, and actions to be taken by delegations in preparation for the next formal meeting." (_G/L/1522).