WORLD TRADE G/L/216
5December 1997
ORGANIZATION(97-5336)
REPORT (1997) OFTHE COMMITTEE OFPARTICIPANTS ONTHE EXPANSION
OFTRADE ININFORMATION TECHNOLOGY PRODUCTS
1. TheCommittee ofParticipants ontheExpansion ofTrade inInformation Technology Products,
hereinafter referred toastheCommittee, wasestablished pursuant totheprovisions oftheMinisterial
Declaration onTrade inInformation Technology Products (WT/MIN(96)/16), hereafter referred to
astheMinisterial Declaration, andtheImplementation oftheMinisterial Declaration onTrade in
Information Technology Products (G/L/160), inorder tocarry outtheprovisions ofparagraphs 3,
5,6and7oftheAnnex totheDeclaration.
2. TheCommittee hasheldthree formal meetings in1997: on29September, 30October, and
3December. Theminutes ofthese meetings arecontained indocuments G/IT/M/1 toG/IT/M/3.
Itwasagreed thatMr.A.Hoda (Deputy Director General) would serve asChairman oftheCommittee
untilsuchtimeastheCommittee tookaformal decision ontheissue ofthechairmanship.
3. Membership intheCommittee isopentorepresentatives ofallparticipants. Atitsmeeting
of30October 1997, theCommittee adopted rules ofprocedure which provide forobserver status in
theCommittee toWTO Members which arenotparticipants totheMinisterial Declaration and
Governments thatareobservers totheCouncil forTrade inGoods. Furthermore, requests forobserver
status byinternational intergovernmental organizations willbeconsidered onacase-by-case basis.
Atthismeeting, itwasalsodecided thattheWorld Customs Organization (WCO) would begranted
observer status tomeetings where theissues ofHSclassification andHSamendments wereincluded
intheagenda.
4. During itsfirsttwomeetings, theCommittee discussed andtookdecisions, where necessary,
onorganizational matters inparticular onchairmanship, rulesofprocedure, observership, document
distribution, anddocument derestriction.
5. TheCommittee hasalsoreviewed thestatus ofimplementation, asummary ofwhich isprovided
indocument G/IT/1 anditsrevisions. Itwasnoted thatmostparticipants hadsubmitted theformal
documentation forrectification andmodification oftheirWTO schedules inorder toincorporate the
commitmentsarisingfromtheMinisterialDeclaration,andthatotherswhohadnotdoneso,hadindicated
thedocumentation would beforthcoming. Itwasfurther noted thatparticipants which were inthe
process ofacceding totheWTO were implementing thecommitments onanautonomous basis.
6. Pursuant totheprovisions oftheMinisterial Declaration, theCommittee metprior to
30September 1997toconsider theissueofdivergences inclassifying information technology products.
TheCommittee tooknoteofdocument G/IT/2 anditscorrigendum andaddendum, which provide an
overview ofthedivergences inclassification ofAttachment Bitems, andagreed tocontinue work on
thisissue.
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Page2
7. TheCommittee tooknoteofthetimeframe of1October to31December 1997forparticipants
tosubmit listsofadditional information technology products forpossible additional tariffconcessions.
Many participants indicated thatwork wasongoing onthismatter, andnoted thattheirlistswould be
forthcoming.
8. Other work oftheCommittee during itsfirstthree meetings concerned thefuture work
programme. Participants stated theirinterest inexamining non-tariff measures, specifically mentioning
standards andimport licensing, andmatters related totheprocedures toaddress theconcerns ofsmall-
andmedium-sized exporting participants regarding theirrights under Article XXVIII. Inregard to
thecoverage ofproducts ascontained intheMinisterial Declaration, itwasfurther agreed thatasurvey
would beconducted among theparticipants ontheiruseofmandatory technical regulations, mandatory
conformity assessment procedures, andinaddition theirapplication withrespect tothetwospecific
standards, namely IEC950andCISPR 22.
9. TheCommittee tooknoteoftheinterest expressed byLatvia andPanama tobecome participants
totheMinisterial Declaration.