RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/REG/M/34
20 June 2003
(03-3323)
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements
Thirty-Fourth Session
NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 3-4 APRIL 2003
Chairmen:  Mr. Clemens Boonekamp (Secretariat) and Mr. J. Meetoo (Mauritius)
1. The Chairman informed the Committee that Dr. V. Notis, who at that juncture was the only
acting officer of the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements (CRTA or Committee), had asked the
Secretariat to open that Session of the Committee in his absence, since he was retained in another
meeting.
A. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA
2. The Thirty-Fourth Session of the CRTA wa s convened in Airgram WTO/AIR/2056/Rev.1,
dated 27 March.  An annotated draft agenda had been distributed in January 2003.
3. The representative of the United States indicated that, under "Other Business", her delegation
would raise issues concerning the timeliness of documentation and the number of agreements to be
examined in Committee meetings.  The Chairman indicated that the incoming Chairman would
inform delegations of the dates foreseen for the next Session and update the Committee on several
new facilities provided by the Secretariat in the WTO's website.
4. The following Agenda was adopted:
A. Adoption of the Agenda
B. Election of officers
C. Examination of Regional Trade Agreements
I. Free Trade Agreement between the European Communities and Mexico,
Services
II. Free Trade Agreement between the EFTA States and Mexico, Goods and
Services
III. Free Trade Agreement between Chile and Mexico, Goods and Services
IV. Customs Union between the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation,
Belarus, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan
V. Free Trade Agreement between the Kyrgyz Republic and the Russian
Federation
VI. Free Trade Agreement between the Kyrgyz Republic and Ukraine
VII. Free Trade Agreement between the Kyrgyz Republic and UzbekistanVIII. Free Trade Agreement between the Kyrgyz Republic and Kazakhstan
IX. Free Trade Agreement between the Kyrgyz Republic and Armenia
X. Free Trade Agreement between Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Georgia,
Moldova, Kazakhstan, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Uzbekistan,
Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic
XI. Free Trade Agreement between Georgia and the Russian Federation
XII. Free Trade Agreement between Georgia and ArmeniaWT/REG/M/34
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XIII. Free Trade Agreement between Georgia and Azerbaijan
XIV. Free Trade Agreement between Georgia and Ukraine
XV. Free Trade Agreement between Georgia and Turkmenistan
XVI. Free Trade Agreement between Georgia and Kazakhstan
XVII. Free Trade Agreement between Israel and MexicoXVIII. Free Trade Agreement between Turkey and Slovenia
XIX. Free Trade Agreement between Hungary and Estonia
XX. European Communities – Latvia Europe Agreement, Services
XXI. European Communities – Estonia Europe Agreement, Services
XXII. European Communities – Lithuania Europe Agreement, Services
XXIII. European Commun ities – Slovenia Europe Agreement, Services
D. Other Business
5. 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.
B. ELECTION OF OFFICERS
6. The Committee elected Ambassador Jaynarain Meetoo from Mauritius as the Chairman of the
CRTA by acclamation.
7. The newly elected Chairman thanked all for ha ving entrusted him with the responsibility to
chair the Committee and noted that he would try his best to live up to delegations' expectations.  He
thanked his predecessor, Ambassador Chiyausiku, for the tremendous amount of work undertaken inthe Committee during the past year, which included  the factual examination of some 23 RTAs during
the Committee's three sessions.  He then recalled that the CRTA had started 2003 with only one acting
Vice-Chair, Dr. Notis, and that regional coordinators had informally been urged to propose names for
filling up the positions left vacant by Ms. Margar et Liang and Mr. Alberto Dumont.  Reporting that
such informal consultations had been successful, he proposed that the Committee elect by acclamationAmbassador B. Weston from Trinidad and Tobago and Mr. S. Dalela from India as its new Vice-
Chairs.  It was so decided.
8. The Chairman thanked the three Vice-Chairs for having kindly agreed to assist him in his task
and the Secretariat for its continuous support.  He noted that he would like to share with the
Committee some of his thoughts with the hope that this would help the Committee to move the
process forward, because he had repeatedly been told that the CRTA was dysfunctional.  He was
convinced that with delegations' support, they woul d succeed in making things take a better shape.
He recalled that the WTO was at a critical juncture and the Cancun Ministerial Meeting was rapidly
approaching.  The task that lay ahead of the Committee was not an easy one and delegations would
need a tremendous amount of patience and diligence in their endeavour.  Noting his belief that
delegations would support him in the discharge of hi s duty as Chairman , he reiterated his "open door
policy" should anyone feel the need to consult with him on any matter pertaining to the work of theCommittee.  He recalled that  paragraph 29 of th e Doha Declaration mandated negotiations aiming at
clarifying and improving disciplines and procedures under the existing WTO provisions applying to
RTAs.  This issue was being addressed in the Negotiating Group on Rules (NGR);  its Chairman was
fully committed to the Group's work and was deploying all efforts to help advance the work there.  He
viewed the work of the CRTA and that of the NGR as complementary to each other and therefore hewould make it a point to interact regularly with the Chairman of the  NGR so that they could
exchange views on the work of the two bodies.  Recalling that no examination report had been
finalised by the CRTA since 1996 because of a lack of consensus, he wondered why this mechanism
for reviewing RTAs was not functioning and what was the source of this blockage;  in particular,
whether that was due to a lack of political will to move ahead or to too cumbersome procedures.  HeWT/REG/M/34
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viewed this situation with much concern, the more so as the debate between multilateralism and
regionalism was gaining in prominence.  He wondered whether Members were shouldering the
responsibilities bestowed upon them, and also whether the formation of RTAs would move out of
control.  While answers to these questions were not easy to find, it was his hope that the NGR would
succeed in delivering something positive for the CR TA's work.  He quoted the following statement
from the WTO 2002 Annual Report, which merited attention: "With virtually all WTO Members
being partners in at least one regional trade agreement and with several being part of two or more,
RTAs have become by far the most important except ion to the MFN principle which lies at the core of
the WTO."  Noting that he was a strong supporter of the school of thought that regionalism
complemented multilateralism in the pursuit of more open trade,  one could not deny the fact that
RTAs were proliferating at a rapid pace in all corners of the world and included trade policy
mechanisms in addition to tariff preferences.  It  was interesting to note the mushrooming of cross-
regional preferential agreements linking countries around the globe.  It was estimated that some 290
RTAs existed in the world today.  But notwithstanding the benefits of RTAs, the necessity to exercise
some degree of control on them and subject them to scrutiny should not be in any way diminished.
This was what he considered to be the primary purpose of the Committee:  to examine each RTA, so
to ensure transparency while at the same time allowing Members to evaluate its consistency withWTO rules.  If  RTAs were diverting trade and increasing trade barriers vis-à-vis  third countries, they
should not be considered as building blocks to the edifice of multilateralism, but rather as stumbling
blocks;  such agreements could endanger the global move towards freer trade. Finally, he stressed the
need for coherence in Members' approach to regionalism, and stated that the Committee had a very
important role in ensuring that the legitimacy of RTAs as a means to deepen trade liberalisation wasnot put into jeopardy.
C. E
XAMINATION OF REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS
9. (The minutes of the examination of the Agreements listed under agenda items B.I-VIII are
being distributed as separate documents.)
D. OTHER BUSINESS
10. The representative of the United States, referring to the large number of RTAs that had been
scheduled for examination during that Session of the CRTA and to the timing of the documentation,
expressed concerns over the organization of work, and of future meetings of the Committee.  She said
that the CRTA should not become some kind of rubber stamping Committee only concerned with
passing through agreements without subjecting them  to a proper examination.  In that respect, she
remarked that even for a government with vast resources as her own, it was impossible to carry out a
proper review with so many agreements on the Agenda.  Replying to a question by the Chairman on
possible ways to amend that situation, she acknow ledged that she had no clear answers and that
informal consultations might be necessary.  However, she drew Members' attention to some actions
which might help improve the current situation.  With regard to the relevant documentation for
examination, she suggested a number of actions, such as the postponement of examination of
agreements whose documentation had been submitted after the date indicated in the annotated agenda;an earlier deadline for the submission of documentation a month prior to the Committee meeting;  and
the issuing of reminders to the parties of agreements for which documentation was outstanding.  She
stressed, however, that late documentation was only part of the problem and that the real issue was the
vast number of agreements on the table.  She indicated that one action that would have immediate
effect on the workload of the Committee would be to give lowest priority to those RTAs betweenMembers and non-members.  Such agreements, she stressed, were not only numerous, as reflected by
that Session of the CRTA, but as discussed by the Committee in the past, were also difficult to review.
Furthermore, it was questionable whether they actually fell under the mandate of the CRTA.  She said
that another area where prioritising could be done was on the type of agreement under review.  In that
respect, she referred to the consultations that the Chairman of the Committee was going to hold onWT/REG/M/34
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whether or not to review what appeared to be a framework agreement on trade in services which had
been scheduled for examination during that session of the CRTA.  She suggested that another area
where there was scope for improvement was the timing for the convocation of CRTA meetings.  She
said that when the Committee had had a similar unmanageable situation a few years earlier it had been
decided to issue an annotated agenda prior to each meeting.  Without questioning its merits, she notedthat for the current Session the annotated agenda had been issued in January for a meeting taking
place in April, which she considered as being too early to preserve Members' attention.  Thus, she
wondered whether it would be possible for the CRTA  to issue the airgram tw enty days prior to the
meeting rather than ten as was currently the case.  In her view that might help getting more attention
from Members.  She added that unlike other WTO committees, governments usually had no single
office dealing specifically with CRTA matters, but rather an intersection of functional offices.  As a
result, input on RTAs often required twice as much coordination with capitals than normal requestsfrom Geneva.  The representative of Australia shared the concerns expressed by the US representative
and concurred that it was prohibitive to have so many agreements on the Agenda.  She also suggestedthat informal consultations among Members might be necessary to avoid a repetition of such a
situation.  Commenting on the issues raised by the United States representative, a representative of the
Secretariat signalled that the number of RTAs on the Agenda of the CRTA ensued from the need to
examine an ever-growing backlog of agreements.  She recalled that while the examination of one
RTA tended in the past to follow-on from one session of the Committee to the next, that was no
longer the case with gaps of one or more sessions between the review of agreements.  Thus, she
pointed to a clear trade-off between concentrating the examination of agreements and delaying the
entire process.
11. Turning to other items, the Chairman announ ced that the Thirty-fifth Session of the
Committee would be held on 9-10 October 2003 and that  the annotated agenda for that meeting would
be circulated in July.  He also informed Members that the WTO web site on regional trade agreements
had been recently updated.  He said that it contained files with information on RTAs notified to the
WTO and in force, which could be downloaded as Excel spreadsheets.  Those lists also provided linksto web sites with the text of the relevant agr eement together with the corresponding annexes and
protocols when available.  He gave the example of the EC-Mexico RTA whereby clicking the title of
the agreement would take the user to the web site of the European Communities to the location of the
text of the agreement including its annexes and protocols.  He added that while the Secretariat would
endeavour to keep that information current, it w ould be appreciated if the parties would indicate in
their Standard Formats the web site where the text of the agreement, together with the annexes and
protocols could be found.  The representative of Korea asked whether the Secretariat would provide
translations in case of links to web sites containing documents in a language other than the WTO
official ones.  A representative of the Secretariat ex plained that according to the current rules, an RTA
must be notified to the WTO in one of the official languages and the Secretariat would then take care
of the translation into the other two languages.  In the case of a web site in a country whose language
was not a WTO official one, the link to the relevant RTA and related documents could only beestablished if that web site could also be accessed in one of the WTO languages.  She added that the
updating of the WTO web site on RTAs constituted an attempt to place online all the information on
RTAs that had been supplied to the WTO.  She stressed that that was an ongoing exercise.
12. The representative of the United States welcomed the efforts by the Secretariat to make the
agreements more accessible and more transparent since that would benefit both Members and the
public.  She pointed out for instance that American business and academic communities were very
interested in the subject.  In that respect, she wondered whether the WTO web site made any reference
to the updating of the RTAs web site so that it could be accessed more easily by the public.  A
representative of the Secretariat acknowledged the need to make the RTA web page more transparent
on the WTO web site since, in its current design, users had to go to 'trade topics' followed by 'other
topics' before being able to access 'Regional Trade Agreements'.  At the same time she pointed out
that changes to the WTO main web site was a rather lengthy procedure, which was one of the reasonsWT/REG/M/34
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for announcing the developments to the RTA web site at that Session of the Committee.  She added
that efforts would continue to make the RTA web site more transparent and more accessible.  With
regards to that point, the Chairm an suggested that as with questions and replies on RTAs, Members
may wish to forward in writing to the Secretariat comments and suggestions on all aspect of the
Committee work, such as the RTA web site.  That, he stressed, would certainly help the Secretariat tobetter reflect the needs of the Members.
13. The Committee took note of the comments made.
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