RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/REG/M/37 
20 October 2004 
 
 (04-4432) 
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements 
Thirty-Seventh Session  
 
 
 
NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 7-8 OCTOBER 2004 
 
Chairman: Mr. R. Saborío Soto (Costa Rica)  
 
 
A. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA  
1. The Thirty-Seventh Session of the Committe e on Regional Trade Agreements (CRTA or 
Committee) was convened in Airgram WTO/AIR/2393,  dated 27 September 2004.  As requested by 
the Committee, an annotated draft agenda ha d been distributed by fax on 19 July.  
2. The Chairman  announced that he would raise three qu estions under "Other Business", related 
to the Officers of the Committee, the interface be tween the Committee's work and the work of the 
Negotiating Group on Rules, and the add itional CRTA meeting of 11 November.   
3. The following Agenda was adopted: 
 A. Adoption of the Agenda 
 B. Examination of Regional Trade Agreements 
  I. Status Report on the Examination Work 
  II. Agreement between New Zealand and Singapore on a Closer Economic 
  Partnership, Goods and Services  
III. Agreement between Japan and Singapore for a New-Age Economic 
Partnership, Goods and Services 
IV. European Economic Area, Services 
  V.  European Free Trade Association (EFTA), Services 
VI. Caribbean Community and Common Market, Services VII. Free Trade Agreement between Turkey and Croatia VIII. Free Trade Agreement between the EFTA States and Croatia IX. Free Trade Agreement between the EFTA States and Jordan  
X. Free Trade Agreement between Chile and Costa Rica, Goods and Services 
XI. Free Trade Agreement between Canada and Costa Rica XII. Free Trade Agreement between the EFTA States and Singapore, Goods and 
Services 
XIII. Singapore - Australia Free Trade Agreement, Goods and Services 
 C. Reporting on the Operation of Agreements  
 D. Other Business  4. The Chairman
 recalled that the Latin American Integration Association (LAIA) had been 
granted observer status to the CRTA on an ad hoc  basis and sought confirmation to extend an 
invitation to LAIA to attend the Committee's next meeting.  It was so agreed . 
 
 WT/REG/M/37 
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 B. E
XAMINATION OF REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS  
I. Status Report on the Examination Work 
5. The Chairman  reported on the informal consultations th at he had carried out on 7 June 2004 
concerning the agreements with non-Members and agre ements superseded or modified at the occasion 
of the recent enlargement of the European Union (EU).  On the question of agreements with non-
Members, consultations had been held on the basi s of the Secretariat's informal background note on 
the drafting history of paragraph 10 of Article XX IV, which had been requested by the Committee.  
The consultations showed that divergent views remained on whether the examination of RTAs 
involving non-Members should be deferred until the se countries became WTO Members.  One view 
had been that, given the large number of RTAs un der review and resource constraints, deferring 
examination would be the most efficient way to deal with the question;  the point had also been made 
that such RTAs required a waiver in any case.  Another view had been that examination of these 
RTAs should be pursued, since transparency requir ements also applied to them and deferral might 
send a negative message vis-à-vis  transparency, in particular regarding the notification of such type of 
RTAs.  The possibility of attributing a different le vel of priority to those agreements, instead of 
deferring their examination, had also been  proposed.  In the absence of an agreed way to proceed, the 
Chairman said that he would contin ue consultations on this issue. 
6. On the question of agreements superseded or  modified at the occasion of the recent EU 
enlargement, the Chairman  reported that the representative of the European Communities (EC) had 
clarified that the EC's common external tariff applie d to the EC(25), and that the trade-related aspects 
of these agreements would be absorbed  by the EC external trade policy;  in that context, and although 
some issues dealt with under these agreements (not  of relevance to the WTO) might still apply, it 
would not make sense to pursue, or initiate, the exam ination of RTAs that had been superseded.  In 
light of Members' request that the EC formally pr ovide an explanation of the legal status of the 
agreements and a complete list of agreements supe rseded, the EC representative had indicated that he 
would explore the possibility of providing such a communication.  Following Members' requests for 
information on the Enlargement, the EC representa tive had noted that it would be examined in the 
CRTA and that these questions would be then consid ered; he had also clarified that the EC(25) 
consolidated services schedule would be submitted to  the CTS.  The Chairman continued by noting 
that the EC had very recently circulated a notif ication, distributed as document WT/REG/GEN/N/3, 
which listed the 64 agreements that had been termin ated following the enlargement, of which 59 were 
at various stages of examination within the CRTA.  He then asked Members to state their views on the 
next step to be taken vis-à-vis  the ongoing examination of these RTAs.  The representative of the 
United States  indicated that his delegation would need to reflect further on the notification made by 
the EC before agreeing, at that stage, to terminat e the examination of the agreements concerned.  The 
Chairman  indicated that the Committee would revert to this issue at the Committee's next  meeting. 
B.II-XIII (The minutes of the examination of the Agreem ents listed under agenda items B.II-XIII are 
being distributed as separate documents.) 
C. REPORTING ON THE OPERATION OF AGREEMENTS  
7. The Chairman  noted that according to item 1(b) of the Committee's terms of reference, a 
schedule for the presentation in 2004 of 19 periodic reports on the operation of agreements had been 
distributed in November 2003, in document WT/REG/W /48.  Seven reports had been submitted since 
then:  EFTA (WT/REG85/R/B/3); EFTA-Turkey (WT/REG86/R/B/3); EC-Switzerland 
(WT/REG94/R/B/3); EC-Iceland, (WT/REG95/R/B/3); EC-Overseas Countries and Territories, 
(WT/REG106/R/B/3); EC-Norway (WT/REG137/R/B/2); and Central American Common Market – CACM - (WT/REG93/R/B/2).  He thanked Members which had fulfilled their obligations within the 
set deadlines, and noted that periodic reports were extremely useful for all Members.  He invited  WT/REG/M/37 
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 delegations wishing to make any gene ral or specific comment to either  take the floor or otherwise to 
submit these in writing to the Secretariat by 29 Oct ober, and the parties to the agreements concerned 
to submit their replies to the Secretariat no later than 3 December.  Regarding the twelve biennial 
reports that had not been submitted, the Chairman urged their parties to submit them as soon as possible.  At a time where both the Committee and the Negotiating Group on Rules were working on the 
improvement of procedures relating to RTAs, the fulfilment of all transparency requirements was of 
great importance. 
8. Noting that in addition to those twelve reports due on 2004, reports for the Australia-Papua New 
Guinea Agreement (PATCRA) and Un ited States-Israel were  missing since the 1999 schedule, and for 
CARICOM, CACM, EC-Cyprus and EC-Malta since the 2001 schedule, the Chairman suggested, and 
the Committee agreed
, that the Parties concerned submit a de tailed and updated single report covering 
all periods. 
9. The representative of El Salvador, speaking on behalf of members of the CACM , informed 
the Committee that the 2004 biennial report submit ted by the CACM included information for the 
period 1999-2003, and that the CA CM had thus fulfilled all due reporting requirements.  The 
Committee took note of this information. 
10. The representative of the European Communities  requested clarification on the situation of 
the reports for the EC-Cyprus and EC-Malta agreements , which had been described as missing, given 
the fact that these agreements had been termin ated following the recent EU enlargement.  A 
representative of the Secretariat  explained that reference had been made to the EC-Cyprus and EC-
Malta agreements because reports  on these agreements were missing since the 2001 schedule.  The 
representative of the European Communities  replied that, in light of this  explanation, he would do his 
best to ensure that transparency gaps were fille d in and that these reports were submitted to the 
Secretariat as soon as possible. 
D. OTHER BUSINESS  
11. The Chairman  informed the Committee that Dr. V. Notis, who had for years been one of the 
Committee's Vice-Chairmen, had left Geneva at the e nd of September and that Mr. S. Dalela, who had 
also served the Committee for several years, was due to  leave in the coming months.  On behalf of the 
Committee, he thanked both Dr. Notis and Mr. Dalela, as well as the remaining Vice-Chairman, 
Ambassador B.A. Weston, for their excellent wo rk, and indicated that he would approach the 
coordinators of the relevant groups of countries so th at the posts left vacant could be filled in the near 
future. 
12. Regarding the interface between the Committee' s work and the work of the Negotiating 
Group on Rules (NGR), the Chairman  reported on his recent informal consultations regarding a 
suggestion developed in the NGR in the context of its discussions on "Transparency of RTAs" and 
transmitted by the NGR Chairman.  He recalled that an element thoroughly discussed in the Group had been to entrust the Secretariat with the pr eparation of a factual presentation of RTAs under 
review, in consultation with the parties.  At its last meeting of 21 September, the NGR had discussed 
the possibility that the CRTA test the usefulness and format of a Secretariat's factual presentation of 
RTAs under examination if the parties were ready to  volunteer for such an exercise.  The purpose of 
the informal consultations was thus to explore how the Committee could implement that suggestion, 
on an experimental basis and taking into acco unt the following parameters drawn by NGR 
participants:  (a) that all the elements in th e RTAs' Transparency "package" would remain under 
consideration within the NGR; (b) that in the cu rrent CRTA examination procedures, the only element 
to be replaced by a factual presentation by the Secretariat would be the submission of initial information from the parties in accordance with the Standard Format; (c) that the parties to an RTA 
under examination should indicate their agreement to  having the Secretariat elaborate the factual WT/REG/M/37 
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 presentation; and (d) that any such presentation by th e Secretariat would be limited, for the time 
being, to RTAs covering trade in goods. 
13. During the informal consultations, the Chairman  had recalled that: (i) under item 1(c) of the 
Committee's terms of reference, circulated as WT/L/ 127, one of its functions was "to  develop, as 
appropriate, procedures to facilitate and improve the examination process"; and (ii) at that date, the 
examination of notified RTAs was being ca rried out on the basis of the Chairman's Guidelines on 
Procedures to Facilitate and Im prove the Examination Process  (document WT/REG/W/15), taken note 
of by the Committee at its meeting on 2 May 1997.  He had indicated that the Guidelines  had been 
drawn on the Chairman's responsibili ty and did not provide for a form al commitment by Members, and 
that in particular the procedures in Section II were applied on a non-binding, voluntary basis. 
14. The Chairman then reported that during the informal discussions delegations had expressed 
their support for the suggestion, while reiterating th e following parameters within which it could be 
put in practice.  From these consultations, he had understood that the Committee wished to consider a 
revision of the Chaiman's Guidelines  incorporating the new element suggested by the NGR under the 
parameters defined.  He proposed to circulate the corresponding draft revision of the Guidelines  as 
soon as possible, so that consultations could be he ld if required, and the Committee could be in a 
position to take note of the revised Guidelines  at its upcoming meeting.  In the absence of any 
comments, the Chairman said that he would proceed accordingly. 
15. The Chairman also reported that, during the cons ultations, delegations had raised other issues,  
related to the level of Secretariat's resources de voted to such a new task; the availability of 
information on RTAs; and the process to be followed by the Secretariat when preparing factual 
presentations (in particular vis-à-vis  the parties to the relevant RTA).  However, most delegations 
were of the view that these were aspects to be re viewed later, in light of the experience gained. 
16. Finally, the Chairman
 recalled his fax of 24 September 2004, in which he had indicated that 
an additional formal meeting of the CRTA had b een scheduled for Thursday, 11 November 2004.  
That meeting would be devoted to two main issues, namely introducing any appropriate change in the 
CRTA examination procedures;  and adopting th e CRTA's annual report to the General Council. 
17. The Committee took note  of the comments made. 
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