. /.RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/REG32/M/4
7 May 1999
(99-1883)
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements
Twenty-Second Session
EXAMINATION OF THE INTERIM AGREEMENT BETWEEN SLOVENIA
AND THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
Note on the Meeting of 30 April 1999
Chairman: Mr. Chul-Ki Ju (Korea)
1. Under Agenda Item D.III of its Twenty-Second Session, as found in Airgram
WTO/AIR/1063, the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements (hereinafter CRTA or the
Committee) resumed the examination of the Interi m Agreement between Slovenia and the European
Communities.
2. The Chairman noted that the Committee had previously held three rounds of examinations for
this Agreement in February, July and November 1998.  Summary records of those meetings had been
distributed in the form of documents WT/REG32/M/1-3.  He recalled that at the last meeting there
remained some outstanding requests for statistics, particularly in relation to Slovenia.  The Parties to
the Agreement had in the interim provided additional statistics which were distributed as documentWT/REG32/6/Add.1.
3. The representative of the European Communitie s, speaking also on behalf of Slovenia, said
that, with the provision of the additional statistics requested, it was the view of the parties to the
Agreement that the full amount of information was on the table and that the Committee should be in a
position to conclude the fact-finding stage of the examination and move on to preparing a draft report.
4. The representative of Australia said that his delegation was still examining the available
information and might still submit written questions in the future.
5. The representative of the United States noted that the statistical information circulated by the
parties to the Agreement in 13 April 1999 did not appear to respond to the request made by the
Committee.  He said that the United States was still unclear about the treatment of certain type of
products under the Agreement.  While the parties claimed that all trade was covered by the
Agreement, it appeared that some products, primarily agricultural, were not subject to tariffelimination and, in fact, received only tariff preferences.  He recalled that Committee Members had
requested on various occasions statistical informa tion showing the trade subject to varying treatment
under the Agreement, but the parties had replied that such data were not available.  He then reiterated
its request, adding that his delegation believed that it would not be possible to complete the factual
examination of the Agreement until satisfactory data were obtained.
6. The representative of the European Communities recalled that statistical information had also
been circulated earlier, in document WT/REG32/6, and that, in the parties' view, all data submitted
showed conclusively that the Agreement covered s ubstantially all the trade.  He stressed that the
parties did not claim that the Agreement covered all the trade but rather that it covered substantially
all the trade and, consequently, met the test set out in Article XXIV.WT/REG32/M/4
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7. The representative of Hungary said that his delegation considered that the statistical data
provided by the parties was sufficient to judge whether the Agreement satisfied the requirement of
Article XXIV.  He added that, in his delegation's view, the Agreement did satisfy such requirement.
8. The Chairman noted that there were different views on the type of statistical data to be
submitted by the parties and urged the delegations concerned to discuss bilaterally on this issue.
Since a possible further submission of queries by Australia was also pending, he recommended that a
decision on whether or not to have another round of  factual examination of the Agreement be taken at
a later stage, after consultation with all concerned.
9. The Committee took note of the comments made.
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