RESTRICTED  
  
TCA/M/39  
18 October 2022  
(22-7822) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Trade in Civil Aircraft    
 
MINUTES OF THE SPECIAL MEETING  
HELD ON 10 OCTOBER 2022  
CHAIRPERSON: MR JEAN MARIE MERALDI (SWITZERLAND)  
1. At the outset of the meeting, the Chair  explained that the meeting was held both in -person 
as well as remotely.  
 
2. The Chair explained that a s was announced in the invitation note, the purpose of this special 
meeting was to discuss the process to be followed regarding Brazil's application for its  accession to 
the Agreement on Trade in Civil Aircraft.  Holding a special meeting was necessary so that the 
Committee would have a record that can be consulted in the future regarding how the process on 
Brazil's application for accession was handled.  
 
3. The Chair recalled that Brazil's application ha d been circulated in documents TCA/19 and 
TCA/19/Add.1. He welcomed and congratulated Bra zil's interest to join this Agreement. He 
understood that the Signatories had already started examining the proposed tariff  commitment. In 
addition, from his conversation with the delegation of Brazil, the Chair understood that Brazil was 
currently preparing a document that contained additional information regarding the other obligations 
in the Agreement. He envisaged the steps that the Committee follow to be as follows: Once Brazil 
submitted to the Committee the additional information, he would promptly call a dedicated informal 
meeting ("the First Dedicated Informal Meeting") for the purpose of discussing all the documents 
submitted from Brazil. He was planning to hold this First Dedicated Informal Meeting before the 
regular meeting, scheduled for 3 November  2022. As with documents TCA/19 and TCA/19/Add .1, 
which have been circulated to Signatories and Observers, the additional information to be received 
from Brazil would also be circulated to the Signatories and Observers unless Brazil requested 
otherwise. In line with what he heard from the Signatories at the informal meeting held on 
14 September  2022, this First Ded icated Informal Meeting would be open only to the Signatories 
and Brazil. At that Meeting, Brazil would be invited to explain all the documents it had submitted, 
and Signatories would be given an opportunity to pose questions. For the sake of efficient dis cussion, 
Signatories were encouraged to submit their questions in writing 10 days prior to the Meeting. But 
that did not preclude a Signatory from posing questions orally on the day of the Meeting. Also in line 
with what he heard from the Signatories at th e informal meeting held on 14  September  2022, he 
would ask the Secretariat to circulate the written questions only to Brazil and the Signatories, and 
not to Observers other than Brazil. This was without prejudice to the Committee subsequently 
deciding to c irculate certain documents to both Signatories and Observers, and/or to eventually 
derestrict those documents. All questions posed only orally at the First Dedicated Informal Meeting, 
for which a written response is requested, would need to be submitted in  writing within 5 working 
days after the First Dedicated Informal Meeting. Brazil would then be asked to respond to those 
questions in writing, and would be invited to communicate to the Chair and to the Secretariat its 
timing for doing so. The Chair would  convey that timing to the Signatories. As with the questions, 
he would ask the Secretariat to circulate Brazil's answers only to the Signatories. This was without 
prejudice to the Committee subsequently deciding to circulate certain documents to both Sign atories 
and Observers, and/or to eventually derestrict those documents.  
  
4. The Chair further clarified that the steps described above were designed to facilitate the 
discussion on Brazil's application, and it was not meant to be a rigid model for the futur e. He 
propose d that the Committee discuss at the upcoming regular meeting the issue of how to design 
the procedures for future accessions.  
 
5. The Committee took note  of the Chair's statement.  TCA/M/39  
 
- 2 - 
 
  6. Before closing the meeting, the Chair made two announcements for information.  
 
7. First, the Chair reminded the Committee that it had embarked on the transposition exercise 
of the Product Annex. The Secretariat had circulated a technical note outlining the extent to which 
the Product Coverage Annex of the Agreement may need to be update d or revised in the light of the 
changes introduced in HS2012, HS2017 and HS2022. This note was contained in document 
RD/TCA/14. At the upcoming regular meeting, the Secretariat would conduct a presentation of 
changes that were reflected in the technical n ote, including an explanation of the concordance 
process for affected codes.  
 
8. Second, the Chair reminded the Participants that the Committee had discussed the issue of 
transparency  the previous year . The Chair recapped the issue by referring Participants to the minutes 
of the regular meeting of 2021, which read as follows:   
 
The Chair recalled that she had been reporting at every recent regular meeting that 
there were very few Participants that have submitted an instrument of acceptance of 
the 2015 Protocol. The situation was basically the same for the 2001 Protocol. In order 
to have a better understanding of the situation, she organized two informal meetings. 
… At the two informal meetings, several i nteresting comments were made. For example, 
several Participants indicated that even though they did not undertake the domestic 
procedure to ratify the Protocols, they still used them as a basis to modify their 
schedules accordingly. Some Participants also  mentioned that the procedures used in 
other Committees such as the ITA Committee or the Committee on Market Access could 
offer some ideas on how to improve transparency and how to devise possible 
complementary means to the Protocol. The Chair understood t hat the Participants were 
interested in pursuing discussions on: (i) how to strengthen transparency and/or (ii) a 
possible complementary means to be devised through the Committee in light of the fact 
that few Participants have submitted letters of acceptan ce.1 
9. The Chair explained that a t that  2021 regular meeting , the then-Chair wrapped up this item 
by stating that the Chair would continue consultations on possible concrete ideas and on the way 
forward. The Chair would seek the Signatories' views on this i ssue in the upcoming regular meeting . 
 
10. The Committee took note  of the Chair's statement . 
 
__________  
 
1 TCA/M/38 at para. 12.