./.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/L/500
29 November 2002
(02-6613)
REPORT (2002) OF THE COMMITTEE ON
TRADE IN CIVIL AIRCRAFT
1. This report is submitted under Article 8.2 of the Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft
(hereinafter the "Agreement") and Article IV.8 of the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World
Trade Organization.  It sets out the activities of the Committee since November 2001.
2. There are 30 Signatories to the Agreement:  Bulgaria;  Canada;  the European Communities;
Austria;  Belgium;  Denmark;  France;  Germany;   Greece;  Ireland;  Italy;  Luxembourg;  the
Netherlands;  Portugal;  Spain;  Sweden;  the United Kingdom;  Egypt;  Estonia;  Georgia;  Japan;
Latvia;  Lithuania;  Macao, China;  Malta;  Norway;  Romania;  Switzerland;  Separate Customs
Territory of Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu;  and the United States.  Those WTO Members withobserver status in the Committee are: Argentina;  Australia;  Bangladesh;  Brazil;  Cameroon;  China;
Colombia;  the Czech Republic;  Finland;  Gabon;  Gh ana;  India;  Indonesia;  Israel;  the Republic of
Korea;  Mauritius;  Nigeria;  Oman;  Poland;  Singapore;  the Slovak Republic;  Sri Lanka;  Trinidad
and Tobago;  Tunisia and Turkey.  In addition, the Russian Federation and Saudi Arabia are also
observers.  The IMF and UNCTAD are also observers.
3. Since its last Annual Report to the General Council (WT/L/434), the Committee on Trade in
Civil Aircraft held two regular meetings, on 5 June 2002 and 13 November 2002.
4. The agenda and minutes of the 5 June 2002 meeting can be found in document TCA/M/14.
At that meeting, the Committee discussed two transp arency issues relating to the sharing of trade
statistics, and the broader question of derestriction of documents in this Committee.  Signatories agreed
that they would continue to share their trade statistic s in the area of trade in civil aircraft and asked the
Secretariat to work out a system to distribute such  data electronically.  With a view to enhancing
transparency with regard to the work of this Comm ittee, Signatories also instructed the Secretariat to
produce a draft decision on adopting procedures rega rding the derestriction of documents in this
Committee on the basis of the recent decision by the General Council in this respect.
5. Also at the 5 June 2002 meeting, the Committee considered the following matters on its
agenda: the status of the 1979 Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft under the WTO; "end-use"customs administration, including the proposal by one Signatory concerning the definition of "civil"
vs. "military" aircraft based on initial certification; interim duty-free treatment of aircraft ground
maintenance simulators; and other business:  Matter relating to Article 4: procurement of commercial
aircraft by the US armed forces.
6. At the 13 November 2002 meeting, the Committee adopted ad referendum a decision on
Procedures for the Circulation and Derestriction of Documents, aligning the procedures concerning
circulation and derestriction of Committee docu ments with those applicable to other WTO
documents.
1  With regard to the statistical reporting of trade data, the Committee agreed that trade
                                                     
1 The Committee agreed that the Decision on Procedures for the Circulation and Derestriction of
Documents would be considered as finally adopted in the absence of objections from Signatories before theagreed deadline of 30 November 2002.  No objections were made by that date and the adoption of the Decision
was thus confirmed.WT/L/500
Page 2
statistics be provided to the Secretariat electronically and that the Secretariat would circulate a written
notice of receipt of trade statistics which would inform Members of where such information could be
found on the WTO web-site.
7. Also at the 13 November 2002 meeting, the Committee considered the following matters on
its agenda: the status of the 1979 Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft under the WTO; "end-use"customs administration, including a revised proposal  by one Signatory concerning the definition of
"civil" vs. "military" aircraft based on initial certification; interim duty-free treatment of aircraft
ground maintenance simulators; the Convention on In ternational Interests in Mobile Equipment and
the Protocol on Matters Specific to Aircraft Equipment; the date of the next regular meeting; and the
adoption of this annual report.  The following items were raised under "other business": Matters
relating to Article 4.4;  Follow-up to the discussion at the last meeting on matters relating to Article 4:
procurement of commercial aircraft by the US armed forces; EU support for the A400M; Matters
relating to Articles 4 and 6: government support for Airbus; Inquiry by the Chairman of the
Committee on Trade and Development concerning the Committee's activities in respect of special and
differential treatment provisions; Inquiry by the Chairman of the Working Group on Trade and
Transfer of Technology concerning any discussion, submissions or other developments relating to
trade and technology transfer.  The agenda and minutes of this meeting will be found in documentTCA/M/15.
8. The Technical Sub-Committee of the Committee on Trade in Civil Aircraft did not meet
during the period under review and neither did the Sub-Committee of the Committee on Trade in
Civil Aircraft.
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