./.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONTCA/8
3 December 2002
(02-6662)
Committee on Trade in Civil Aircraft
PROCEDURES FOR THE CIRCULATION AND DERESTRICTION
OF DOCUMENTS UNDER THE AGREEMENT ON TRADE IN CIVIL AIRCRAFT
Decision of 13 November 2002
The Committee on Trade in Civil Aircraft,
Having regard to  the Decision on Procedures for the Ci rculation and Derestriction of WTO
Documents of 14 May 2002 (WT/L/452) and Article II:3 of the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the
World Trade Organization,
Considering  that there is a need to align the proced ures for the circulation and derestriction of
documents of the Committee on Trade in Civil Aircra ft with those applicable to other WTO documents
as provided for in WT/L/452,
Emphasizing  the importance of greater transparency in the functioning of the Committee on
Trade in Civil Aircraft,
Decides as follows  :
1. All official documents of the Committee on Trade in Civil Aircraft and of any subsidiary
body established by it1 shall be unrestricted.
2. Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraph 1,
(a) any Signatory may submit a document as restricted, which shall be automatically
derestricted after its first consideration by the relevant body or 60 days after the dateof circulation, whichever is earlier, unless requested otherwise by that Signatory. In
the latter case, the document may remain restricted for further periods of 30 days,
subject to renewed requests by that Signatory within each 30-day period.  The
Secretariat shall remind Signatories of such deadlines, and derestrict the document
upon receipt of a written instruction.  Any document may be derestricted at any timeduring the restriction period at the request of the Signatory concerned.
(b) the Committee
2 when requesting a document to be prepared by the Secretariat shall
decide whether it shall be issued as restricted or unrestricted.  Such documents which
are issued as restricted shall automatically  be derestricted 60 days after the date of
circulation, unless requested otherwise by a Si gnatory.  In the latter case, the document
                                                     
1 For the purposes of this Decision, an official document shall be any document submitted by a
Signatory or prepared by the Secretariat to be issu ed in document series AIR and WTO document series TCA.
2 The term "Committee" refers to any Committee or Sub-Committee established under the Agreement
on Trade in Civil Aircraft.TCA/8
Page 2
shall remain restricted for one additional period of 30 days after which it shall be
derestricted.
(c) minutes of meetings (including records, reports and notes) shall be restricted and shall
be automatically derestricted 45 days after the date of circulation.
(d) Documents relating to any accession in the sense of Article 9 of the Agreement shall
be restricted and shall be automatically derestricted upon the accession of the
Signatory concerned.
3. Translation of official TCA documents in all three official WTO languages (English, French
and Spanish) shall be completed expeditiously.  Once translated in all three official WTO languages,
all official TCA documents that are not restricted shall be made available via the WTO web-site to
facilitate their dissemination to the public at large.
4. In the light of the experience gained from the operation of these procedures and changes in
any other relevant procedures under the WTO, the Committee on Trade in Civil Aircraft will, at an
appropriate time, review and if necessary modify the procedures.
__________