WORLD TRADE G/TMB/N/211
4February 1997
ORGANIZATION(97-0408)
Original: English Textiles Monitoring Body
AGREEMENT ONTEXTILES AND CLOTHING
Communication from Colombia
TheTextiles Monitoring Body hasreceived acommunication from Colombia onbehalf of
Colombia andseveral other WTO Members thatarealsomembers oftheInternational Textiles and
Clothing Bureau.
TheTMB, having considered thiscommunication pursuant toparagraph 21ofArticle 2of
theAgreement onTextiles andClothing atitsmeeting on17to19December 1996, iscirculating it
toWTO Members fortheirinformation.
./.G/TMB/N/211
Page2
Permanent Mission ofColombia
Geneva
6November 1996
Dear Mr.Chairman,
Onbehalf ofColombia andseveral other WTO members thatarealsomembers oftheITCB,
Iwould liketobring certain matters pertaining generally totheimplementation oftheprogramme of
integration under theATC tothenotice oftheTextiles Monitoring Body foritsconsideration.
Article 2oftheATC prescribes theintegration oftextile products intoGATT onthebasis of
thetotalvolume ofthe1990imports. Forthispurpose, aMember hastoconvert itsimport datainto
acommon volume unitbyusing appropriate conversion factors. Forexample, Canada andthe
United States havechosen square metre equivalents asthecommon unitwhile ECandNorway have
selected metric tonne. Theverification ofintegrated volumes requires information ontheconversion
factors applied. Ourexperience inthisrespect shows thatforMembers liketheECortheUnited States
verification iscomparatively easier because bothmaintain awelldefined system oftextile categories
withappropriate conversion factors. Intheircase, there areveryfewproducts forwhich conversion
factors arenotknown. Inthecaseofothers, conversion factors areavailable onlyforafewproducts
which arerestrained. Itseems thattheverification ofintegrated volumes would befacilitated ifthe
Members arerequested tonotify theconversion factors alsointhenotification oftheirintegration
programmes submitted totheTMB under Article 2:8.
Article 2requires theintegration ofproducts fromthefourgroups oftopsandyarns, fabrics,
made-up textile products, andclothing. Generally itshould notbedifficult toclassify theHSlines
intheAnnex intooneortheother ofthefourgroups. There are,however, certain linesthatcould
beclassified indifferent manners. Itisnoticed thatinthefirststage ofintegration there weresome
differences intheclassification. Luggage hasbeenclassified byECandNorway asfabrics while the
United States hasdescribed it,inouropinion correctly, asmade-up article. Hat-forms havebeen
classified asmade-up textile products byECandNorway while Canada andtheUnited States have
classified asclothing. Dolls garments areclassified asmade-up textile products bytheUnited States
andasclothing, inouropinion correctly, byEC.Worn andusedclothing hasbeenclassified asmade-up
textile products byECandinouropinion itshould betreated asclothing. Hose pipes andbeltings
havebeenclassified bytheUnited States asfabrics while weviewthem asmade-up textile products.
Itseems thatuniformity intheclassification oftheHSlinesintheAnnex would bedesirable. We
would liketheTMB toconsider thismatter andprovide suitable guidance totheMembers.
Ishallbeobliged ifyoucould place thesematters before theTMB foritsconsideration. Please
accept, Mr.Chairman, theassurances ofmyhighest consideration.
Yours sincerely,
(Signed) Nestor Osorio
Ambassador ofColombia
H.E. Mr.András Szepesi
Chairman
Textiles Monitoring Body
World Trade Organization