RESTRICTED
WORLD TRADE WT/REG/M/7
10March 1997
ORGANIZATION(97-0952)
Committee onRegional Trade Agreements
Seventh Session
NOTE ONTHE MEETINGS OF5,6AND 8NOVEMBER 19961
Chairman: Mr.JohnWeekes (Canada)
A. Adoption oftheAgenda
1. TheChairman indicated that,asannounced attheSixth Session, theCommittee would have
theopportunity toconsider andadopt theDraft Report oftheCommittee onRegional Trade Agreements
totheGeneral Council atthisSession. TheChairman alsosaidthat,under itemCoftheAgenda,
theintention wastodiscuss twonon-papers submitted byKorea andbytheUnited States.
2. Thefollowing agenda wasadopted:
A. Adoption oftheAgenda
B. Examination ofRegional Trade Agreements2:
I. Interim Agreement Between theEuropean Communities andBulgaria
II. Free-Trade Agreement Between theEuropean Communities andEstonia
III. Free-Trade Agreement Between theEuropean Communities andLatvia
IV. Free-Trade Agreement Between theEuropean Communities andLithuania
V. Interim Agreement Between theEuropean Communities andRomania
VI. EFTA-Bulgaria FreeTrade Agreement
VII. EFTA-Romania FreeTrade Agreement
VIII. EFTA-Slovenia FreeTrade Agreement
IX. European Communities-Turkey Customs Union
C. Discussion ofSubmission byKorea
D. Work Programme for1997
E. Other Business
3. TheCommittee agreed thatobserver status should begranted toUNCTAD, inconformity with
theguidelines adopted bytheGeneral Council on18July1996, andthatthose organizations invited
tothismeeting asobservers onanadhocbasis beinvited toattend theCommittee 'snextmeeting.
1Themeeting wasconvened inWTO/AIR/470.
2Reports onthese examinations willsubsequently becirculated asseparate documents.WT/REG/M/7
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Report oftheCommittee onRegional Trade Agreements totheGeneral Council
4. TheChairman reported onhisinformal consultations andintroduced theDraft Report (1996)
oftheCommittee onRegional Trade Agreements totheGeneral Council, document WT/REG/W/10
dated 5November, saying thatthistextreflected thesignificant effort thatdelegations hadmade in
contributing tothework oftheCommittee andthatitheldoutaconsiderable prospect forwhatthe
Committee might beabletoachieve intheperiod ahead. Henoted thatthelanguage ofsome paragraphs
hadalready beensubject toagood dealofdiscussion butmight require further clarification forthe
Committee. Hesuggested thatheprovide suchclarification bywayofaChairman 'sstatement.
5. MostdelegationsexpressedtheirsatisfactionwiththeDraftReportandcommendedtheChairman
forhisendeavours inreaching suchacarefully calibrated package. Afewdelegations expressed
reservations astowhether, given theCommittee 'sterms ofreference, itwasappropriate toreferto
"WTO rules" inthelastsentence oftheDraft Report. Inthesubsequent discussion, theirconcerns
were metbyaredrafting ofthatsentence.
6. TheCommitteeadoptedtheDraftReport(1996)oftheCommitteeonRegionalTradeAgreements
totheGeneral Council, ascontained indocument WT/REG/W/10, withthefollowing formulation of
thesecond sentence ofparagraph 23:"Aspartofthiswork, theCommittee should analyse inanon-
prejudicial manner, whether thesystem ofWTO rights andobligations, asitrelates toregional trade
agreements, needs tobefurther clarified withaviewtomaking appropriate recommendations tothe
General Council, inaccordance withthemandate oftheCommittee."
7. TheChairman thenmade thefollowing statement withrespect tothesubstance ofparagraph 23:
"Itisclear thattheCommittee would needtogomore deeply intodiscussion andcarry outfurther
analysis before deciding whether anyrecommendations totheGeneral Council would beappropriate,
and,ifso,deciding onthekindofrecommendation itmight make."
C. Discussion ofSubmission byKorea
8. Therepresentative ofKorea explained thathisdelegation hadsubmitted thenon-paper in
September withaviewtoproviding coherence between theelements tobeincluded inthetextofthe
draftMinisterial Declaration andtheCommittee 'swork programme. Hesaidhewaspleased thatsome
oftheelements contained intheKorean proposal hadbeenreflected intheCommittee 'sReport tothe
General Council. Hethensuggested thatsome elements which hadnotbeenincluded bediscussed
bytheCommittee atanappropriate time.
9. Therepresentative oftheUnited States noted that,byadopting itsReport totheGeneral Council,
theCommittee hadarrived atconsensus onhowtoproceed andwhat todiscuss infuture months.
Legitimate andsubstantive divergences remained onwhatemphasis theCommittee should givetothe
different components ofitswork programme. Hesawmerit inthelearning-by-doing process which
theCommittee wasengaged inandwhich would continue inthefuture; inhisopinion, theanalyses
oftheagreements under examination andtheconclusions drawn fromthose analyses would undoubtedly
leadtoadebate onsome oftheissues highlighted intheKorean non-paper.
10. Therepresentative oftheEuropean Communities saidthatthesubmissions byKorea andthe
United States hadhelped theCommittee infocusing onsome keyissues during thepreparation ofits
Report totheGeneral Council. Hestressed thatthecomponents ofbothproposals hadfound awide
measure ofsupport andhadbeenproperly reflected intheCommittee 'sReport. Thedelegations of
Canada, Hong Kong andRomania subscribed tothesecomments andnoted thatbothproposals conveyed
useful ideas forconsideration bytheCommittee inthefuture.WT/REG/M/7
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11. TheCommittee tooknoteofallthecomments made.
D. Work Programme for1997
12. TheChairman commented onthedraftwork programme andschedule ofmeetings proposed
for1997, which hadbeendistributed todelegations. Hestressed theneedforadvance planning regarding
thework oftheCommittee. Thesame formulation asinthepastcould beused, treating thedraftwork
programmeandscheduleofmeetingsasa"Chairman'sproposal",toallowtheCommitteesomeflexibility
tomake changes, ifnecessary.
E. Other Business
13. Noitems were raised.