The Chair stated that the anti-dumping and subsidies texts are based on a new, bottom-up approach, that is, draft legal language is provided only in those areas where some degree of convergence appears to exist; while in other areas, the issues are identified and a brief summary of the range of views expressed is set forth, in brackets.

On fisheries subsidies, instead of a new draft text, the Chair issued a conceptual roadmap for further discussions. The Chair’s view is that all participants recognize the global crisis of overcapacity and overfishing, with its consequent negative economic and environmental effects, and are committed to ensuring that the disciplines ultimately developed, whatever their form, must be effective in fulfilling the negotiating mandate from Ministers. The Chair explained that to that end the roadmap identifies the key questions that the Negotiating Group will need to address to reconcile participants’ different approaches to disciplining subsidies that contribute to over-capacity and overfishing while formulating appropriate and effective special and differential treatment that addresses the interests and concerns of developing Members.

The Chair stated that these new documents are intended to provide a platform for further discussions, to which end he will convene an intensive series of meetings in 2009, the first of which is scheduled for the week of 2 February.