RESTRICTED
WORLD TRADE G/TRIMS/W/4
30August 1996
ORGANIZATION(96-3423)
Original: English Committee onTrade-Related Investment Measures
REPORT (1996) OFTHE COMMITTEE ON
TRADE-RELATED INVESTMENT MEASURES
Draft
Please findattached adraftfortheannual report oftheCommittee onTrade-Related Investment
MeasurestotheCouncilforTradeinGoodswhichiscirculatedpursuanttothedecisionoftheCommittee
taken atitsmeeting of18March 1996(G/TRIMS/M/4, paragraph 32).Thereport takes intoaccount
thesuggestions made bytheChairman oftheGeneral Council regarding reporting procedures forthe
Singapore Ministerial Conference (WT/L/145).G/TRIMS/W/4
Page2
REPORT (1996) OFTHE COMMITTEE ON
TRADE-RELATED INVESTMENT MEASURES
Draft
I General
1. ThisReport issubmitted pursuant toArticle 7.3oftheAgreement onTrade-Related Investment
Measures, which requires theCommittee onTrade-Related Investment Measures toreport annually
totheCouncil forTrade inGoods. TheReport covers theperiod November 1995 -September 1996
butinviewoftheSingapore Ministerial Conference italsocontains references toworkoftheCommittee
in1995.
2. Since theperiod covered byitsprevious annual report1,theCommittee heldformal meetings
on18March [and30September 1996] under theChairmanship ofMr.Vassili Notis (Greece). The
minutes ofthese meetings havebeencirculated indocuments G/TRIMS/M/4 [and5].Meetings of
theCommittee were open toallWTO Members. Inaddition, governments withobserver status in
theWTO havebeeninvited toattend themeetings oftheCommittee. Pursuant tointerim procedures
agreed upon bytheGeneral Council inApril 1995 regarding theparticipation ofinternational
intergovernmental organizations inmeetings ofWTO bodies, representatives ofIMF, OECD, UN,
UNCTAD andtheWorld Bank havealsoattended themeetings oftheCommittee asobservers.
II Implementation
(i) Notifications under Article 5.1
3. Thework oftheCommittee in1995 and1996 hascentred ontheimplementation ofthe
notification andtransition arrangements provided forinArticle 5oftheAgreement onTrade-Related
Investment Measures withregard toexisting trade-related investment measures ("TRIMs") thatare
inconsistent withtheAgreement. Article 5.1requires Members tonotify anyTRIM inconsistent with
theAgreement within 90daysaftertheentry intoforce oftheWTO Agreement. Article 5.2gives
thebenefit ofatransition period fortheelimination ofmeasures notified under Article 5.1.
4. InMarch 1995, theCommittee endorsed astandard format fornotifications under Article 5.12
andsubmitted totheGeneral Council through theCouncil forTrade inGoods arecommendation in
regard totheoperation ofthedeadline fornotifications under Article 5.1incaseofcountries eligible
tobecome original WTO Members thataccepted theWTO Agreement after1January 1995. This
recommendation, adopted bytheGeneral Council atitsmeeting on3April 1995, provides thatsuch
governments shallhaveaperiod of90daysafterthedateoftheiracceptance oftheWTO Agreement
tomake thenotifications foreseen inArticle 5.1butthattheperiod fortheelimination ofTRIMs notified
under Article 5.1continues tobegoverned byreference tothedateofentry intoforce oftheWTO
Agreement itself.3
5. TheCommittee hasreceived notifications ofmeasures under Article 5.1from Argentina,
Barbados, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, theDominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt,
Indonesia, India, Mexico, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Thailand,
1G/L/37
2G/TRIMS/1
3WT/L/64G/TRIMS/W/4
Page3
Uruguay, Venezuela andSouth Africa. Some Members informed theCommittee thattheydidnot
apply anyTRIM inconsistent withtheAgreement. Alistofdocuments containing notifications under
Article 5.1isannexed.
(ii) Other notification requirements
6. TheCommittee adopted astandard format fornotifications under Article 5.5,which dealswith
theconditions under which during thetransition periods stipulated inArticle 5.2Members mayapply
TRIMs notified under Article 5.1tonewinvestments.4TheCommittee alsoconsidered aproposal
forimplementation ofArticle 6.2,which provides fornotification totheSecretariat ofpublications
inwhich information onTRIMs canbefound. TheCommittee agreed that, subject tosome
modifications, theproposal wasacceptable toalldelegations, except India which needed further time
tostudy it,andthatitwould beconsidered adopted bytheCommittee assoonasIndia hadinformed
theSecretariat thatitagreed totheproposal.
(iii) Dispute settlement
7. InFebruary 1996, theCommittee wasinformed ofarequest made byEcuador, Guatemala,
Honduras, Mexico andtheUnited States forbilateral consultations withtheEuropean Communities
under theDSUinregard totheEuropean Community regime fortheimportation, saleanddistribution
ofbananas. Thisrequest wasbased interaliaonArticle 8oftheTRIMs Agreement.5InAugust 1996,
theCommittee wasinformed ofrequests made byJapan andtheUnited States forbilateral consultations
withBrazil under theDSU inregard tocertain automotive investment measures byBrazil. These
requests were based interaliaonArticle 8oftheTRIMs Agreement.6
III. In-Built Agenda
8. Article 9oftheTRIMs Agreement provides thatnotlaterthanfiveyears aftertheentry into
force oftheWTO Agreement, theCouncil forTrade inGoods shallreview theoperation oftheTRIMs
Agreement and,asappropriate, propose amendments toitstext.Inthecourse ofthisreview, theCouncil
shallconsider whether theAgreement needs tobesupplemented withprovisions oninvestment policy
andcompetition policy. TheCommittee hasnotyetaddressed thequestion oftheimplementation of
thismandate.
[IV. Issues, Problems andRecommendations, ifany,tobebrought tothe
Attention ofMembers]
4G/TRIMS/3
5G/TRIMS/4
6G/TRIMS/D/1 and2G/TRIMS/W/4
Page4
ANNEX
NOTIFICATIONS RECEIVED UNDER ARTICLE 5.1OFTHE AGREEMENT
ONTRADE-RELATED INVESTMENT MEASURES7
Member Document Symbol Date ofCommunication
Argentina G/TRIMS/N/1/ARG/1 30March 1995
Barbados G/TRIMS/N/1/BRB/1 31March 1995
Switzerland* G/TRIMS/N/1/CHE/1 8August 1995
Chile G/TRIMS/N/1/CHL/1 14December 1995
Colombia G/TRIMS/N/1/COL/1 31March 1995
Colombia G/TRIMS/N/1/COL/Add.1 4June1995
Colombia G/TRIMS/N/1/COL/2 31July1995
Costa Rica G/TRIMS/N/1/CRI/1 30March 1995
Cuba G/TRIMS/N/1/CUB/1 18July1995
Cyprus G/TRIMS/N/1/CYP/1 29June1995
Cyprus G/TRIMS/N/1/CYP/2 30October 1995
Dominican Republic G/TRIMS/N/1/DOM/1 26April 1995
Egypt G/TRIMS/N/1/EGY/1 29September 1995
Ecuador G/TRIMS/N/1/ECU/1 20March 1996
Honduras* G/TRIMS/N/1/HND/1 7July1995
Indonesia G/TRIMS/N/1/IDN/1 23May1995
India G/TRIMS/N/1/IND/1 31March 1995
India G/TRIMS/N/1/IND/1/Add.1 22December 1995
India G/TRIMS/N/1/IND/1/Add.1/Corr.1 ...
India G/TRIMS/N/1/IND/1/Add.2 11April 1996
Saint Lucia* G/TRIMS/N/1/LCA/1 14February 1996
7InthecaseofMembers marked withanasterisk, thenotification states thatnomeasures inconsistent with
theTRIMs Agreement aremaintained.G/TRIMS/W/4
Page5
Member Document Symbol Date ofCommunication
Mexico G/TRIMS/N/1/MEX/1 31March 1996
Mexico G/TRIMS/N/1/MEX/1/Rev.1831March 1995
Mauritius* G/TRIMS/N/1/MUS/1 27March 1995
Malaysia G/TRIMS/N/1/MYS/1 31March 1995
Malaysia G/TRIMS/N/1/MYS/1/Rev.1 14March 1996
Nigeria G/TRIMS/N/1/NGA/1 17July1996
Nicaragua* G/TRIMS/N/1/NIC/1 18July1996
Pakistan G/TRIMS/N/1/PAK/1 30March 1995
Peru G/TRIMS/N/1/PER/1 30March 1995
Philippines G/TRIMS/N/1/PHL/1 31March 1995
Poland G/TRIMS/N/1/POL/1 28September 1995
Romania G/TRIMS/N/1/ROM/1 31March 1995
Slovenia* G/TRIMS/N/1/SVN/1 27March 1995
Thailand G/TRIMS/N/1/THA/1 30March 1995
Trinidad &Tobago* G/TRIMS/N/1/TTO/1 1April 1996
Uruguay G/TRIMS/N/1/URY/1 31March 1995
Uruguay G/TRIMS/N/1/URY/1/Add.1 30August 1995
Venezuela G/TRIMS/N/1/VEN/1 31March 1995
South Africa G/TRIMS/N/1/ZAF/1 19April 1995
Zambia* G/TRIMS/N/1/ZMB/1 13April 1995
8English only