RESTRICTED  
  
WT/REG/M/93  
 
25 June 2019 
(19-4278) Page: 1/3 
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements  
Ninety -Third Session    
 
NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 20 JUNE 2019 
Chairm an: Ambassador Carlos Mario Foradori (Argentina)  
A.  ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA  
1.1.  The 93rd Session of the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements (hereinafter 'CRTA' or the 
'Committee') was convened in Airgram s WTO/AIR/RTA/1 8 and WTO/AIR/RTA/18/Corr.1 dated 
7 June and 11 June respectively.   
1.2.  The Chairman  welcomed Members to the 93rd Session of the CRTA.  
1.3.  The Committee adopted  the following Agenda:  
 Adoption of the Agenda  
 Election of Officers  
 
B.  ELECTION OF OFFICERS  
1.4.  The Chairman  said that as he had mentioned at the last meeting of the Committee and on the 
basis of consultations which  he had held with several Members he wished to propose two colleagues 
as Friends of the Chair to help him in his duties. These were Ambassador Frances Lisson of Australia 
and Ambassador Cancela Gómes of Uruguay. He explained  that the reason why he was making this 
proposal was because Members were  firmly determined to resolve pending issues which had been 
on the Agenda , as Members were aware , for far too long. He had held meetings with some Members 
about  the structural issues on the Agenda and he was of the opinion that if Members were determined 
there was the prospect to resolve these issues. However,  the time factor ran counter to this. The 
Committee did not have much time to solve problems  that had been on the Agenda for many years. 
The possibi lity of having two colleagues  who were ready to help would allow the Committee to carry 
out many more rounds of consultations and make it possible to step up the work of the CRTA  Chair 
which meant that there was a greater chance to meet the objective which  was shared by all 
Members.  
1.5.  The representative of the United States  thanked the Chair man for the suggestion of Friends of 
the Chair and for identifying the Ambassadors of Australia and Uruguay. She asked for  more details 
on how the Chair man saw the process working and the responsibilities of the respective Friends of 
the Chairs.  
1.6.  The Chairman  replied that of the  two structural issues on the Agenda  one related to the issue 
of notification, LAIA for instance, and the other was linked to notific ation as well, which was the 
GCC. Of course, the Committee had to look into all issues which is what he had been doing, but 
these two issues went back a long time and he thought the Committee needed to give them greater 
momentum with of course the cooperat ion of the countries involved, but also with the whole of the 
Membership. All Members had to take part in the exercise and be abreast of everything. Therefore,  
he believed that this was the best way given time constraints and a lot of time out, for instanc e the 
WTO was closed in the month of August although he would be working. There were very few months 
remaining and he had already started consultations  and had had an exchange of views but time was 
very short. He was happy to see that colleagues were ready  to step in and help. These were the two 
central issues amongst others that Members had to work on and those  that the Committee needed WT/REG/M/93  
 
- 2 - 
 
  to give new momentum to as there were only a few months left before he handed over the 
Chairmanship and he wanted to do h is utmost to solve these structural issues.  
1.7.  The representative of the European Union  thanked the Chair man for his commitment and 
interest shown in making progress on some of the structural issues. The EU could accept the idea of 
Friends of the Chair as had  been outlined. However,  it needed clarification on the designation and 
responsibilities of the appointees. From the EU's point of view, in the case of LAIA, it would like to 
see both Uruguay and Australia involved to ensure geographical balance on the iss ue. She  looked 
forward to continu ing the discussion of  the responsibilities and roles of the Friends of the Chair  as 
envisaged by the Chairman . 
1.8.  The representative of the United States  said that  conceptually the United States  had no 
difficulty with Friends of the Chairs.  However, there was a lack of clarity in terms of which issues the 
Friends would cover. Her understanding and the guidance she had from capital had each Friend 
covering a specific issue. Her guidance was for th e Ambassador of Uruguay to look at the LAIA issue 
and the Ambassador of Australia to look at the GCC. That was the extent of her guidance. Similar to 
her EU colleague she was happy to continue the discussion.  
1.9.  The representative of Brazil  welcomed any initi ative to improve the functioning of the 
Committee which Brazil could consider. As regards discussions about LAIA, he asked for some 
clarification about the relationship with the CTD.  
1.10.   The representative of Canada  welcomed the Chair man's initiative in buildi ng momentum 
towards resolving some of the Committee's structural issues and expressed interest in hearing more 
about the roles and responsibilities that the Chair man foresaw for the Friends of the Chair.  
1.11.   The representative of Mexico  thanked the Chair man for the initiative but shared the doubts 
raised by other delegations on the roles and responsibilities of the Friends of the Chair. Mexico was 
concerned by the fact that these issues had been unresolved for many years . Given that  Uruguay 
was a member of LAIA, he wondered how it would work in its function as Friend of the Chair.  
1.12.   The Chairman  replied that as regards the involvement of countries impacted, Argentina was 
also a member of LAIA, and the will to solve problems by members of LAIA , who were also WTO 
Members , showed the intense desire to resolve the problem. There was a need  to look into the  
problems , to face up to them and then try and solve them. That was the objective. Regarding the 
links with other committees, all these issues were issues of substanc e and the idea therefore was to 
appoint the Friends of the Chair precisely because these issues required a lot of consultations and 
time and therefore more colleagues needed to be involved in seeking answers. It was important to 
bear in mind that Members o ften had clear and shared objectives but sometimes strategies were not 
shared which was why objectives were not reached. The reality was that Members were committed 
to achieving these objectives and the re were strategies which Members could discuss but it could 
not take too long as time was one of the Committee's problems. It should be  a step -by-step strategy, 
nothing should be  seen as done and nothing should be presented as a n imposed  solution one way 
or another. Th e process needed to take place step -by-step with the broadest participation possible 
of all Members. It should take place gradually and be a transparent and highly participative process. 
He thought that this strategy was defined basically by the possibility of ensuring broad participation 
by the Membership which was the objective. That was precisely why with two more Members 
involved in the process the Committee  could , in the short time before it , meet its objectives.  
1.13.   The representative of the United States  welcomed the Chair man's insights with respect to 
how he saw the process working. She looked forward to having further discussions in that regard.  
1.14.   The representative of the European Union  thanked the Chair man for his explanations,  but as 
other Members had po inted out she thought that Members needed further discussions on the issue 
and she looked forward to participating in them.  
1.15.   The representative of Canada  echoed the sentiments of his colleagues from  the United States 
and the European Union and looked forwar d to further discussions on the topic.  
1.16.   The Chairman  said that having heard the various opinions he thought it would be important 
to continue with consultations with a view to working and deciding upon the tasks , establishing a WT/REG/M/93  
 
- 3 - 
 
  more precise strategy and wor king on the various concerns expressed in a further meeting. His 
intention was to solve these structural issues  and the main goal was to achieve the objective. A new 
round of consultations and another formal Session would be organi zed in order to consolida te his 
proposal.  
1.17.   The Committee took note  of the comments made.  
__________