. /.RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/REG91/M/3
18 September 2001
(01-4392)
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements
Thirtieth Session
EXAMINATION OF THE FREE TRADE AGREEMENT
BETWEEN EFTA AND MOROCCO
Note on the Meeting of 3 July 2001
Chairman:  Mr. A.J. Dumont (Argentina)
1. The meeting was convened in document WTO/AIR/1568.
2. Under Agenda Item C.XVI of its Twenty-Ninth Session, the Committee on Regional Trade
Agreements (CRTA) took up the examination of the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the
European Free Trade Association (EFTA) and Morocco.
3. The Chairman noted that this was the third round of examination of the Free Trade
Agreement between the EFTA States and Morocco.  The previous examinations had taken place in the
Committee's previous two Sessions in October 2000 and February 2001.  The corresponding minutesof those meetings had been circulated in documents WT/REG91/M/1-2.  Since that time, the Parties
had provided information on the trade coverage of the EFTA Morocco FTA, which had been
circulated in document WT/REG91/5, and the latest responses to written questions, which had been
circulated in document WT/REG91/4/Add.1.  Given the advanced stage of the factual examination
process, the Chairman did not propose to open the floor to delegations by different sections of the
Standard Format (document WT/REG91/3), but he invited any delegation wishing to make comments
or ask questions on specific matters to identify the relevant section of the Standard Format for easierreference.
4. The representative of Norway, on behalf of the  EFTA States
, agreed that the examination
was in an advanced stage and remarked that in the last meeting in February, there had been a few
questions to which the EFTA States had replied in written form.  At that meeting, the representative of
Norway and the EFTA States had indicated the intention of providing more statistics relating toHS Codes and data from 1999.  Unfortunately this had not been possible before the day’s meeting due
to some data and coordination problems among the EFTA States.  He was now able to present the
statistics and hoped they would satisfy the Members of the Committee.
5. The representative of the United States inquired if Morocco intended to accede to the
Government Procurement Agreement or if it had any procurement provisions with respect to bilateral
trade.
6. The representative of Morocco supported the comments made by the representative of
Norway and expressed his readiness to respond to any other questions to facilitate the examination.
As regards the questions just raised by the representative of the United States, he stated that Morocco
was not party to the Government Procurement Agreement and had no details on the position thatmight be adopted by Morocco with respect to this Agreement.WT/REG91/M/3
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7. The representative of Norway reminded the Committee that there was an article in the
Agreement on public procurement which stated that the Parties would elaborate rules within the
framework of the Joint Committee with a view to en suring such liberalization.  Due account would be
given to developments under the auspices of the WTO.  Given that the Agreement was only a year
old, many developments had not happened since its inception.
8. The Chairman observed that the Committee seemed to have exhausted the factual inquiry and
proposed that the Secretariat begin drafting the report for this examination.
9. The Committee took note of the comments made.
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