WORLD TRADE WT/L/193
11November 1996
ORGANIZATION(96-4775)
Committee onTrade inCivil Aircraft
REPORT (1996) OFTHE COMMITTEE ON
TRADE INCIVIL AIRCRAFT
1. Thisreport issubmitted under Article 8.2oftheAgreement onTrade inCivil Aircraft
(hereinafter the"Agreement") andArticle IV.8oftheMarrakesh Agreement Establishing theWorld
Trade Organization (hereinafter the"WTO Agreement"). Itsetsouttheactivities oftheCommittee
since November 1995.
2. On8November 1996 there were 22Signatories totheAgreement: Canada, theEuropean
Communities, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the
Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, Egypt, Japan, Macau, Norway, Romania,
Switzerland andtheUnited States. Greece hassigned theAgreement subject toratification. Bulgaria
accepted theAgreement on1November 1996. TheAgreement shallenter intoforce forthatcountry
on1December 1996. Theother countries withobserver status intheCommittee are: Argentina,
Australia, Bangladesh, Brazil, Cameroon, Czech Republic, Finland, Gabon, Ghana, India, Indonesia,
Israel, Malta, Mauritius, Nigeria, Poland, Singapore, theSlovak Republic, SriLanka, Trinidad and
Tobago, Tunisia andTurkey. Inaddition, China, theRussian Federation andChinese Taipei have
observer status intheCommittee. TheIMFandUNCTAD arealsoobservers.
3. TheCommittee onTrade inCivil Aircraft (hereafter the"Committee") heldthree meetings
intheperiod under review: on7June, 19Julyand8November 1996.
4. Atthemeeting of7June1996 (TCA/M/2), theChairman reported ontheconsultations he
hadcarried outsince theprevious meeting oftheCommittee andsummarized hisviewofthesituation
oftheAgreement. Hecharacterized thissituation ascreating aclimate oflegal uncertainty, in
contradiction totheobject andpurpose oftheWTO Agreement. Heconcluded that,asitproved very
difficult toamend theAgreement, thealternative forSignatories waseither (i)toterminate orsuspend
theapplication oftheAgreement; or(ii)totryingood faithtomake itfunction asitstood. Inthat
context, theChairman tabled aninformal proposal consisting oftwodecisions. Thefirstonerelated
tothemeaning ofcertain institutional provisions oftheAgreement andconfirmed thelegaleffects of
theentry intoforce oftheWTO Agreement. Thesecond oneprovided thattheWTO Understanding
onRules andProcedures Governing theSettlement ofDisputes would apply todispute under the
Agreement. Signatories agreed toexamine theproposal andtomeetagain rapidly totakeadecision
onthese matters. Under "Other Business", theChairman informed theCommittee thatMr.Latrille
could nolonger serve asVice-Chairman oftheCommittee, andthathehimself would soonnolonger
beabletoserve asChairman. Consultations wereunder wayregarding theelection ofanewChairman
andVice-Chairman.
5. Atthemeeting of19July1996 (TCA/M/3), theChairman concluded thathisproposal was
notacceptable toallSignatories andthatthere were noalternatives thatwould bereadily acceptable
toall.Under "Other Business", oneSignatory referred tothenegotiations initiated under Article 8.3
in1992. Initsview, three options were available: (i)terminate thenegotiations; (ii)conclude the
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negotiations byincorporating intheAgreement theresults onwhich consensus hadbeenreached or
(iii)define anewmandate forthose negotiations. Thesame Signatory alsosuggested thatArticle 8.8
oftheAgreement beamended pursuant toArticle 9.5topreserve thecurrent relationship between the
Agreement andtheother agreements annexed totheWTO Agreement while allowing theAgreement
tobeformally revised totakeintoaccount theexistence oftheWTO.
6. Atthemeeting of8November 1996(TCA/M/4), Mr.Hidetaka Saeki waselected asChairman
oftheCommittee onTrade inCivil Aircraft. TheCommittee discussed theinformal proposal tabled
bytheChairman on7June1996aswellasthesuggestion made byoneSignatory toamend Article 8.8
oftheAgreement. While noagreement could bereached oneither oftheproposals, Signatories agreed
tocontinue discussions aimed atreaching asolution promptly. Signatories alsoreviewed theproposal
made under Article 8.3atthemeeting oftheCommittee of19July1996. Various views wereexpressed
bySignatories butnoagreement could bereached.
7. TheSub-Committee oftheCommittee onTrade inCivil Aircraft, established on16July1992
toconduct negotiations under Article 8.3andcomposed of32participants: Australia, Austria, Belgium,
Brazil, Canada, China, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, European Communities, Finland, France,
Germany,Greece,Ireland,Israel,Italy,Japan,Luxembourg,theNetherlands,Norway,Poland,Portugal,
Romania, Russian Federation, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Chinese Taipei,
United Kingdom andtheUnited States, didnotholdanymeeting during theperiod under review.
8. Signatories reiterated theircommitment tocontinue thework ontechnical revision withaview
toreaching asuccessful conclusion inthenegotiation toadapt theAircraft Agreement totheWTO
structure. They alsoreiterated theirintention towork toresolve outstanding issues under Article 8.3.