The Chairman recalled that this agenda item related to the mandate given by Ministers at Doha to examine two proposals concerning the Agreement on Textiles and Clothing, as set out in paragraphs 4.4 and 4.5 of the Ministerial Decision of 14 November 2001 on Implementation-Related Issues and Concerns. The Council was requested to make recommendations on these proposals to the General Council by 31 July 2002, for appropriate action. He noted that a number of documents containing statistics on trade developments and related information, as listed in the convening airgram, had been prepared by the Secretariat at the request of delegations, to assist the examination.

The Chairman also noted that, at the Council meeting held on 2 May, it had been accepted that he would arrange a series of informal consultations on this and some other ATC-related matters, to be held during May and June. Accordingly, two meetings had been held in May, at which there was an extensive exchange of views on the concepts involved in the two proposals. The developing Members had given their arguments in favour of the adoption of the proposals and had referred to the information in the document which they had provided (G/C/W/368). The restraining Members had given their reactions to some of these points as well as their views on the proposals in relation to their implementation of the Agreement.