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WT/REG/M/76  
 
9 April 2015  
(15-1931)  Page: 1/5  
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements 
Seventy-sixth Session   
 
 NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 30 MARCH 2015 
Chairman: Ambassador Francisco Pirez Gordillo (Uruguay)  
1  ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA 
1.1.  The 76th Session of the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements (hereinafter 'CRTA' or the 
'Committee') was convened in Airgram WTO/AIR/RTA/1 dated 16 February 2015. 
1.2.  The Chairman welcomed Members to the 76th Session of the CRTA and said he would inform 
them of the proposed schedule for CRTA meetings for the rest of the year. 
1.3.  The following Agenda was adopted: 
A. Adoption of the Agenda 
B. Consideration of Regional Trade Agreements 
I. Status Report on the Committee's Work - Non-notified RTAs  
 Implementation of the RTA Transparency Mechanism 
II. Trade Agreement between the European Union and Colombia and Peru, 
Goods and Services 
III. Agreement between Singapore and the Separate Customs Territory of 
Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu on Economic Cooperation, goods and services 
IV. Free Trade Agreement between the United States and the Kingdom of 
Bahrain, goods and services  
C. Election of Officers D. Other Business 
 
1.4.  The Chairman recalled that the Latin Amer ican Integration Association (LAIA) had been 
granted observer status to the CRTA on an ad hoc basis and sought confirmation to extend an 
invitation to LAIA to attend the Committee's next session.  
1.5.  The representative of the United States welcomed LAIA as an observer and noted that the US 
had repeatedly raised in the Committee the issue of  non-notified LAIA agreements. Having been in 
contact with LAIA's liaison about this issue, the U.S. appreciated the constructive spirit they had 
s h o w n  i n  a d d r e s s i n g  U . S .  c o n c e r n s  a n d  l o o k e d  f o r w a r d  t o  w o r k i n g  w i t h  t h e m  o n  a  s p e e d y  
resolution.  
1.6.  The Committee agreed to extend an invitation to LAIA to attend the Committee's next 
session. 2  CONSIDERATION OF REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS ITEM B.I. STATUS REPORT ON THE COMMITTEE' S WORK - NON NOTIFIED RTAS (WT/REG/W/91) 
AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RTA TRANSPAREN CY MECHANISM (WT/REG/W/90 and Corr.1 and 
WT/REG/W/92).  2.1.  The Chairman provided Members with an update on the Committee's work and the 
implementation of the Transparency Mechanism (TM). A total of 38 early announcements were 
currently on the WTO website  (not counting those which had been subsequently notified). He WT/REG/M/76 
 
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 thanked Members who had submitted information in line with the requirements of the 
Transparency Mechanism and encouraged others to  do so. He also reminded Members to inform 
the Secretariat of any changes in the status of early announcements.  
2.2.  As regards the preparation of factual presentations under the remit of the CRTA, in the case 
of RTAs involving WTO members only, there were currently 43 RTAs for which a factual 
presentation had to be prepared, counting goods and services separately. Members would recall that at the Committee's 52
nd Session on 4 March 2009, they had agreed to begin considering RTAs 
involving non-Members under the TM's procedures. Thus, factual presentations on a further 
34 RTAs involving non-Members were to be prepared. Members had agreed that RTAs notified since 14 December 2006, including future notifications, should be taken up before the others.
 Data 
requests for RTAs notified since the adoption of the Transparency Mechanism had been sent to the 
relevant Parties.  
2.3.  Regarding the issue of non-notified RTAs, an updated list had been recently circulated as 
WT/REG/W/91 and contained 61 RTAs issued in factual presentations up to 15 March 2015.  
2.4.  The representative of the United States, on  the issue of non-notified RTAs, reiterated the 
importance of the notification requirements of the Transparency Mechanism which were detailed in 
paragraph 3 and which stated: "The required notification of an RTA by Members that are party to it 
shall take place as early as possible. As a rule it will occur no later than directly following the 
parties' ratification of the RTA or any party's decision on application of the relevant parts of an agreement, and before the application of pref erential treatment between the parties." The 
notification itself not only provided a great deal of information on any one RTA but its receipt 
initiated consideration of the RTA under the TM  starting with the submission of Member 
information and data, followed by the preparation by the Secretariat of an invaluable factual presentation. The Secretariat had provided a list of agreements that had not been notified but that 
list was still only a partial one. For example, as the U.S. had previously noted there was a set of 
interim agreements between the EU and a number of  African Members that had not been notified 
even though past EU and African country TPR documentation acknowledged that application of 
preferential tariff treatment was already occurring between the parties to those agreements. 
Application of preferential tariff treatment was also  publicized on the EU's website, however none 
of the information that would otherwise be included in a notification, including the full text of the agreement and the related schedules and accessing protocols was readily available to the 
Membership. The U.S requested that these agreements  be added to the Secretariat's list and that 
they, as well as the ones listed by the Secretariat, be notified promptly as required under the Transparency Mechanism. 
2.5.  The representative of the European Union invited the Members on the list to fulfil their 
obligation to notify the agreements as soon as possible so the Transparency Mechanism could 
work as it should and allow Members to review fully these agreements. Thirty out of the fifty RTAs 
that appeared on the list were the instruments concluded under the 1980 Treaty of Montevideo. 
The EU recalled that Members that were signator ies to those agreements needed to comply with 
the notification obligation in accordance with point B of the Transparency Decision for Regional Trade Agreements. As already stated by the EU in the Committee on Trade and Development, the 
submission of the annual report on the instruments concluded under the 1980 Treaty did not 
exempt the Members concerned to comply  with the notification obligation.  
2.6.  On the intervention by the United States, th e EU reiterated its position underlined at the last 
Committee meeting, that it had notified all the ACP EPAs that had been signed or ratified including 
those with Cameroon, CARIFORUM, Cote d'Ivoire, and Papua New Guinea. These were available in 
the WTO database. In addition, the Secretariat had also started working on the factual 
presentations. The EU would continue to notify th e remaining EPAs as soon as they were signed. 
2.7.  The representative of Ecuador reiterated that it was a member of the Latin American 
Integration Association (LAIA), and it was a party to the 1980 Treaty of Montevideo. This treaty 
established an economic preference area among its members which included regional scope and 
partial scope agreements. As a party to the 1980  Treaty of Montevideo, which established the 
LAIA, Ecuador was also a party to regional scope agreements, i.e., those to which all of the LAIA 
members were parties. The Secretariat document mentioned several regional scope agreements. 
Likewise, as a party to the 1980 Treaty of Montevideo, Ecuador could be, and in fact was, a party 
to a number of partial scope agreements, i.e. agreements to which not all LAIA members were WT/REG/M/76 
 
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 parties, but whose objective was to create the necessary conditions for achieving deeper 
integration in the framework of the LAIA. 
2.8.  The 1980 Treaty of Montevideo had been  notified in July 1982 under the Enabling Clause 
(WTO document L/5342). The Enabling Clause contained provisions relating to preferential 
treatment between, and in favour of, developing co untries. The relevant provisions of the Enabling 
Clause constituted lex specialis within WTO law with respect to regional trade agreements on goods between developing countries. Detailed information on Ecuador's participation in 
intraregional trade in the framework of the LAIA and on the implementation of the liberalization 
commitments set forth in the regional scope and partial scope agreements to which it was a party could be found in documents published by the WTO Secretariat, such as the most recent report, 
covering January December 2013 (WT/COMTD/85), and other documents mentioned on previous 
occasions. 
2.9.  The representative of the European Union re iterated that the submission of the annual report 
on the instruments concluded under the 1980 Treaty  of Montevideo, the last one being document 
WT/COMTD/85, circulated to Members on 10 November 2014, did not exempt Members concerned 
to comply with their notification obligations. Therefore the EU invited Members concerned to submit promptly the outstanding notifications. 
2.10.  The representative of the United States supported the statement by the EU. 
2.11.  The Chairman, referring to RTAs for which the factual consideration was delayed due to lack 
of comments from parties, said he had continued consultations with delegations to see what could 
be done to resolve this issue and reduce the number of RTAs on the list. An updated list had been 
recently circulated as WT/REG/W/92). He hoped that outstanding comments would soon be made 
available and the factual consideration of these agreements could be undertaken.  
2.12.  Regarding the backlog in the receipt of data necessary for the preparation and drafting of 
factual presentations for certain RTAs, the Chair had continued consultations with a number of 
delegations in this regard and was pleased to report that delegations had expressed a willingness to provide the missing information as soon as possible. 
2.13.  Lastly, concerning implementation reports,  an updated schedule for the submission of such 
reports had been distributed by the Secretariat (WT/REG/W/90 and Corr. 1). As of 7 January 2015, implementation reports had been due for 123 RTAs, and the end of implementation (EOI) 
for 13 RTAs was in 2015. The EOI for a total of 98 RTAs was from 2016 onwards, while for three 
RTAs the EOI year was not available. The Chairman encouraged all delegations to submit their 
implementation reports in accordance with this schedule. 
2.14.  The representative of the Secretariat provid ed delegations with the status of the preparation 
of factual presentations for RTAs. With regard to factual presentations of RTAs between WTO 
Members, for CAFTA-DR, goods and services, the factual presentation had been sent to the parties in 2009. Comments had been received from the United States, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Guatemala, 
Honduras and the Dominican Republic. Comments from El Salvador were outstanding. For 
ASEAN-China, services, the factual presentation had been sent to the Parties in 2010, comments had recently been received and the factual presenta tion would be issued shortly. For US-Colombia, 
goods and services, the factual presentation had been sent to the Parties in 2012. Comments had 
been received from Colombia only. For EU-Moldova and EU-Georgia goods and services, comments 
had been received and the factual presentations would be issued shortly. For Mexico-Central America, and US-Panama goods and services, the factual presentations had been sent to the 
parties. Comments on these factual presentations were overdue and the Secretariat urged the 
parties to provide them as soon as possible so these factual presentations could be distributed. For Switzerland-China, new data had recently been received from China as a result of which parts of 
the factual presentation would need to be redraf ted. For the Dominican Republic-Central America, 
goods and services, data had been received but th e Secretariat was awaiting clarification on some 
issues from the parties. For Korea-India, services, data had been received from Korea and some data from India. For Korea-ASEAN, services, data had been received from Korea only. For Georgia-
Russian Federation, goods, data had been received  from Georgia. For Iceland-China, data due on 
19 December 2014 had not yet been received from either party. For EU-Papua New Guinea, Fiji, and EU-Cameroon, both goods, data had been rece ived from the EU only. For Hong Kong, China-WT/REG/M/76 
 
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 Chile, and EFTA-Colombia, both goods and services, data had been received and the factual 
presentations were being drafted. For EFTA-Central America, goods and services, no data had been received from Panama. For Korea-Australia, goods and services, no data had been received from Korea. For Japan-Australia, goods and servic es, data had been received from Australia and 
some from Japan. For Canada-Korea, goods and serv ices, no data had been received from Korea. 
For Canada-Honduras, goods and services, data was due on the 20
th of April. 
2.15.  With regard to RTAs involving non Members, the situation was as follows: for 
Iceland-Faeroe Islands, goods and services, the factual presentation had been sent to the Parties 
in 2009. Comments had been received but the Secretariat was still awaiting some outstanding data from the Faeroe Islands. For the Customs Union between the Russian Federation, Belarus and Kazakhstan, and the EAEU the Secretariat was currently drafting the factual presentation. For 
EFTA-Bosnia and Herzegovina, goods, data had b een received and the factual presentation was 
being drafted. For Armenia's accession to the EA EU, goods and services, data was due by 26 June. 
For EU-San Marino, EFTA-Lebanon, Turkey-Syr ia, CEFTA Enlargement, Ukraine Azerbaijan, 
Ukraine-Turkmenistan, the Common Economic Zone, Russian Federation-Serbia, Russian 
Federation-Turkmenistan, and EU-ESA, all goods,  and EU-CARIFORUM, goods and services, data 
was not complete. It had recently been brought to the attention of the Secretariat that the 
agreement between the Russian Federation and Azer baijan was also to be put on hold pending 
clarification on its status and that of the CIS Agreement. The Secretariat was awaiting further clarification from the Russian Federation on this.  
2.16.  A third category concerns 5 agreements – ASEAN-Japan, EU Cote d'Ivoire, the new CIS 
Agreement, all goods and EU-Central America and EU Ukraine, goods and services – for which the 
Secretariat understood not all parties had ratified the agreement yet and so the Secretariat intended to wait until the agreement had entered into force for all the parties before commencing 
the preparation of factual presentations. She urged the parties to notify the Secretariat when their 
respective agreement entered into force for all the parties. She also  urged Members to make every 
effort to comply with the deadlines as requested so  that the Secretariat could do its best to adhere 
to the CRTA's work programme. 
ITEM B.II TRADE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE EU ROPEAN UNION AND COLOMBIA AND PERU, 
GOODS AND SERVICES 
(The minutes of the consideration of this agreement are being distributed as a separate 
document.) 
 ITEM B.III AGREEMENT BETWEEN SINGAPORE AN D THE SEPARATE CUSTOMS TERRITORY OF 
TAIWAN, PENGHU, KINMEN AND MATSU ON ECON OMIC COOPERATION, GOODS AND SERVICES 
 (The minutes of the consideration of this agreement are being distributed as a separate 
document.) 
 ITEM B.IV FREE TRADE AGREEM ENT BETWEEN THE UNITED ST ATES AND THE KINGDOM OF 
BAHRAIN, GOODS AND SERVICES 
 
(The minutes of the consideration of this agreement are being distributed as a separate document.) 
 
3  ELECTION OF OFFICERS 
3.1.  Under Item C, Election of Officers, the Chai rman recalled that it had been agreed by Members 
during the General Council meeting on 20 February 2015, that he would continue as the Chairman 
of the CRTA until further notice. He thanked Members for their support.  WT/REG/M/76 
 
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 4  ITEM D. OTHER BUSINESS 
4.1.   The Chair indicated that the dates scheduled for the remainder of the CRTA's meetings in 
2015 were 22-23 June, and 23-24 September. There would also be a meeting in November but the dates were not confirmed yet.  
4.2.  The Committee took note of the comments made. 
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