WORLD TRADE G/L/133
1November 1996
ORGANIZATION(96-4621)
Committee onTrade-Related Investment Measures
REPORT (1996) OFTHE COMMITTEE ON
TRADE-RELATED INVESTMENT MEASURES
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-October 1996 but
inviewoftheSingapore Ministerial Conference italsocontains references towork oftheCommittee
in1995.
2. Since theperiod covered byitsprevious annual report1,theCommittee heldformal meetings
on18March, 30September and1November 1996 under theChairmanship ofMr.Vassili Notis
(Greece). Theminutes ofthese meetings havebeencirculated indocuments G/TRIMS/M/4 and5.
Meetings oftheCommittee wereopentoallWTO Members. Inaddition, governments withobserver
status intheWTO havebeeninvited toattend themeetings oftheCommittee. Pursuant tointerim
procedures agreed uponbytheGeneral Council inApril 1995regarding theparticipation ofinternational
intergovernmental organizations inmeetings ofWTO bodies, representatives ofIMF, OECD, UN,
UNCTAD andtheWorld Bank havealsoattended themeetings oftheCommittee asobservers.
II. Implementation
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
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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,
Uruguay, Venezuela andSouth Africa.4Inthecaseofsome Members, notifications weresubmitted
laterthanthe90-day period foreseen forthem. While there isnoobligation todoso,some Members
notified theCommittee thattheydidnotapply anyTRIM inconsistent withtheAgreement.5
6. With respect tocertain notifications, some delegations havesought clarification oradditional
information ofafactual nature, including withrespect toplans forthephase-out andelimination of
notified measures. Inaddition, anumber ofissues havebeenraised atmeetings oftheCommittee
inrespect ofnotified measures aswellascertain other measures; inmany cases divergent views were
expressed, including inrelation toconcerns about certain measures intheautomotive andagricultural
sectors. Theissues raised included:
(1) thetiming ofnotifications inrelation totheprovisions ofArticle 5.1;
(2) theadequacy ofinformation provided innotifications;
(3) therecent introduction ormodification ofcertain measures inrelation totheprovisions
ofArticles 2and5.4; and
(4) therelationship oftheprovisions oftheAgreement tothose ofotherWTO Agreements,
including theAgreement onSubsidies andCountervailing Measures andtheAgreement
onAgriculture.
Some delegations haveexpressed theviewthatthese issues reflect problems ofimplementation ofthe
Agreement, while others haveindicated thattheydidnotshare thisassessment. TheCommittee has
beeninformed thatproceedings havebeeninitiated under theDispute Settlement Understanding in1996
inrelation tomeasures ofthree Members referring, interalia,totheTRIMs Agreement asreflected
inG/TRIMS/4 andG/TRIMS/D/1-5. Details regarding these proceedings canbefound initems 27,
51,52,54,55and59ofSection IoftheAnnex tothereport oftheDispute Settlement Body
(WT/DSB/8).
7. Notifications under Article 5.1circulated in1995 havebeenderestricted asof28May1996.
Following thedecision taken bytheGeneral Council on18July1996onderestriction andcirculation
ofWTO documents, documents containing notifications submitted under Articles 5.1,5.5.and6.2
willbeissued unrestricted, provided thatpursuant toparagraph (g)oftheAppendix tothatdecision
Members mayatthetimeofthesubmission ofadocument indicate totheSecretariat thatthedocument
should beissued asrestricted.
8. TheCommittee adopted astandard format fornotifications under Article 5.5,which dealswith
theconditions under which during thetransition periods stipulated inArticle 5.2Members mayapply
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4SeeAnnex 1.
5SeeAnnex 2.G/L/133
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TRIMs notified under Article 5.1tonewinvestments.6TheCommittee alsoadopted aproposal for
implementation ofArticle 6.2,which provides fornotification totheSecretariat ofpublications inwhich
information onTRIMs canbefound.7
III. Built-In Agenda
9. 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 tobecomplemented withprovisions oninvestment policy
andcompetition policy. Some Members havedrawn attention totheimportance ofwork pursuant to
thismandate.
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ANNEX 1
NOTIFICATIONS RECEIVED UNDER ARTICLE 5.1OFTHE AGREEMENT
ONTRADE-RELATED INVESTMENT MEASURES
Member Document Symbol Date ofCommunication
Argentina G/TRIMS/N/1/ARG/1 30March 1995
Barbados G/TRIMS/N/1/BRB/1 31March 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
Indonesia G/TRIMS/N/1/IDN/1823May1995
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 18March 1996
India G/TRIMS/N/1/IND/1/Add.2 11April 1996
Mexico G/TRIMS/N/1/MEX/1 31March 1995
8Inacommunication dated 28October 1996 thePermanent Mission ofIndonesia advised theCommittee thatIndonesia
waswithdrawing theportion ofthenotification made on23May 1995 which concerned motor vehicles.G/L/133
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Member Document Symbol Date ofCommunication
Mexico G/TRIMS/N/1/MEX/1/Rev.1931March 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
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
Thailand G/TRIMS/N/1/THA/1 30March 1995
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
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ANNEX 2
NOTIFICATIONS INDICATING THAT NOTRIMS INCONSISTENT WITH THE
AGREEMENT ONTRADE-RELATED INVESTMENT MEASURES
ARE MAINTAINED
Member Document Symbol Date ofCommunication
Switzerland G/TRIMS/N/1/CHE/1 8August 1995
Israel G/TRIMS/N/1/ISR/1 24October 1996
Honduras G/TRIMS/N/1/HND/1 7July1995
Saint Lucia G/TRIMS/N/1/LCA/1 14February 1996
Mauritius G/TRIMS/N/1/MUS/1 27March 1995
Nicaragua G/TRIMS/N/1/NIC/1 18July1996
Singapore G/TRIMS/N/1/SGP/1 9October 1996
Slovenia G/TRIMS/N/1/SVN/1 27March 1995
Trinidad &Tobago G/TRIMS/N/1/TTO/1 1April 1996
Zambia G/TRIMS/N/1/ZMB/1 13April 1995