WT/REG/W/180  
 
22 June 2023  
(23-4301) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements  
 Original: English   
 
FULFILLING THE MANDATE AND  STRENGTHENING THE FUNCTION OF THE CRTA  
Communication from China  
 The following communication, dated 2 1 June 2023, is being circulated at the request of the 
delegation of China . 
 
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1.1.  RTAs are preferential trade agreements between two or more partners . As MFN exceptions, 
RTAs are authorized under the WTO subject to a set of rules, including Arti cle XXIV of the General 
Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994,  Article V of the General Agreement on Trade in Services and 
Enabling Clause.   
1.2.  The Committee on Regional Trade Agreements (CRTA) is mandated to enhance the 
transparency of RTAs , consider their con sistency with WTO rules and discuss  the systemic 
implications of RTAs and regional initiatives for the multilateral trading system1, as was reaffirmed 
by WTO Members at the 10th Ministerial Conference in Nairobi in 2015.2  
1.3.  As RTAs have not only increased in number but also in depth and complexity in recent years,  
the function of  the CRTA needs to be strengthened to fulfill its mandate , with the view to ensuring 
these RTAs are in line with WTO rules, and do not undermine the rights and benefits of  other 
Members under the WTO agreements . 
1.4.  We welcome the current discussions in  the CRTA based on the communication from the US3 
and appreciate the compilation of Members' comments by the Secretariat.4 This document is 
submitted to contribute to the ongoi ng discussions and provide China's perceptions and suggestions 
on fulfilling the mandate and strengthening the  functions of the CRTA.  
1  WORKING PROCEDURE OF THE CRTA  
1.5.  In the context of WTO reform, there are a number of proposals submitted to the General 
Council and substantial work is ongoing in certain WTO bodies, such as CTG. We align our position 
in our proposal "Small Steps to Make a Difference"5 that discretion should be granted to the 
Secretariat to take steps on procedural improvements whi ch could be implemented at the CRTA 
within the Secretariat's mandate and capabilities. We suggest the Secretariat periodically updates 
Members on those improvements that have been implemented or will be implemented. We support 
Secretariat to take full adva ntage of digital tools to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of  the 
CRTA.  
1.6.  We also encourage Members to draw on best practices, past experience and lessons learned 
from other WTO bodies to further streamline the workflow and processes of the CRTA.  
 
1 WT/L/127 . 
2 Paragraph 28, WT/MIN(15)/DEC . 
3 WT/REG/W/174 . 
4 JOB/REG/6/Rev.1 . 
5 WT/GC/W/879 . WT/REG/W/180  
 
- 2 - 
 
  2  TRANSPARENCY AND NOTIFICATION  COMPLIANCE  
2.1.  WTO Members are obliged to notify the RTAs in which they participate. However, a large 
number of un -notified RTAs remains the main systematic challenge the CRTA is facing. Up to 
15 March 2023, there are 56 RTAs that the WTO has verified are in force but have not yet been 
notified to the WTO .6  
2.2.  We suggest the Secretariat and the CRTA explore the difficulties Members , especially 
developing Members,  are facing in notification and take necessary steps to address those difficulties, 
such as enhancing technical assistance and capacity building on notification, improving the Factual 
Presentations to make them more readable and user friendly, etc.  
3  THE MO NITORING FUNCTION OF THE CRTA  
3.1.  As more RTAs are notified and considered in the CRTA, current discussions at  the CRTA have 
not well served its mandate as mentioned in paragraph 1.2. We suggest the Secretariat and the 
CRTA identify ways to better serve this p urpose, which will motivate Members to engage more and 
have more meaningful discussions in the CRTA.  
3.2.  Factual Presentation s could be improved by highlighting innovative provisions and compiling 
relevant data that may be of interest to third parties. More t ools and approaches could be explored 
by the Secretariat, to help the Committee to better oversee RTAs' consistency with WTO rules as 
well as their systematic implication for the multilateral trading system, especially whether the RTAs 
cover substantially all the trade between the contracting parties.  
3.3.  New forms of regional economic and trade agreements which go beyond the traditional RTAs, 
for example, those without any traditional market access issues could be of great interest to 
Members. In accordance wi th the CRTA's mandate, Members could raise their questions and 
concerns over such agreement s at the CRTA. We also encourage participants of such agreements  to 
voluntarily introduce the agreements at the CRTA or in an informal mode.  
3.4.  Recent years have witne ssed increasing novel issues such as gender, environment, MSMEs, 
and digital trade,  in RTAs. The CRTA could also have discussions on those provisions of such novel 
issues to ensure their consistency with WTO and that they do not raise unnecessary trade bar riers.  
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6 WT/REG/W/175 .