The mandate of the Working Party is set out in paragraph 5 of the Understanding on the Interpretation of Article XVII. It has three prongs:

1. to review STE notifications and counter-notifications;
2. to review the adequacy of the STE notification questionnaire (this review has led to the adoption of the revised questionnaire and guidelines contained in document G/STR/3/Rev.1); and
3. to develop an illustrative list of “the kinds of relationships between governments and enterprises, and the kinds of activities, engaged in by” STEs (this has led to the adoption of the illustrative list contained in document G/STR/4).