The Trade Commission agreed to convene three expert meetings in 2006. The themes of these three expert meetings are:

1. Universal Access to Services,
   
   
2. Participation of Developing Countries in New and Dynamic Sectors of World Trade: Review of the Energy Sector, and
   
   
3. Enabling Small Commodity Producers and Processors of Developing Countries to Reach Global Markets.

The Trade Commission also decided to hold an ad hoc Expert Meeting on Logistics Services in 2006.

The Trade Commission was well attended by delegates, participants from capitals and civil society. Its deliberations were rich and substantive in content and covered, among others, the following topics:

• UNCTAD´s new report Developing Countries in International Trade 2005 and the Trade and Development Index (TDI) were presented to the Commission. UNCTAD was requested to further refine the TDI framework and to transmit a report on progress in the implementation of the LDCs´ Programme of Action using the TDI.
  
  
• Commodity sector policies can contribute to poverty reduction, including through international cooperation under the aegis of the International Task Force on Commodities.
  
  
• High tariffs, tariff peaks and tariff escalation are important concerns of developing countries. UNCTAD was requested to strengthen its analytical work on these and other non-tariff barriers (NTBs). The UNCTAD Secretary-General´s panel on NTBs will play an important role in this respect.
  
  
• The sectoral review of dynamic and new sectors of world trade is significant and should be continued, especially as LDCs and African countries have yet to benefit from these new sectors of world trade.
  
  
• The Commission examined the potential gains and concerns arising from services trade liberalization. Discussions also took place on the services negotiations under the GATS and the concerns of developing countries following the sixth WTO Ministerial Conference in Hong Kong, China. Participants requested UNCTAD to strengthen its work on services assessment, as well as provide ongoing support to developing countries in the GATS negotiations.
  
  
• Key trade, investment and sustainable development opportunities arise from effectively dealing with environmental requirements in key export markets, environmental goods and services including in the WTO negotiations, organic agriculture, and from UNCTAD´s BioTrade and BioFuels Initiatives.
  
  
• The importance of Aid for Trade being made available to developing countries to deal with different aspects of their trade capacity, along with UNCTAD´s important supporting role.