G/RO/N/173  
 
5 July 2018 
(18-4207) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Rules of Origin  Original: English  
 
  
NOTIFICATION UNDER ARTICLE 5 AND PARAGRAPH 4 OF  
ANNEX II TO THE AGREEMENT ON RULES OF ORIGIN  
NON-PREFERENTIAL AND PREFERENTIAL RULES OF ORIGIN  
1.1.  According to Article 5.1 of the Agreement on Rules of Origin, each Member shall provide to 
the Secretariat, within 90 days after the date of entry into force o f the WTO  Agreement for it, 
its rules of origin, judicial decisions, and administrative rulings of general application relating to 
rules of origin in effect on that date. If, by inadvertence, a rule of ori gin has not been provided, 
the Member concerned shall provide it immediately after this fact becomes known. Article  5.2 
of the Agreement provides, moreover, that during the period referred to in Article  2, Members 
introducing modifications, other than de minimis  modifications, to their rules of origin or 
introducing new rules of origin, shall publish a notice to that effect at least 60 days before the 
entry into force of the modified or new rule in such a manner as to enable interested parties to 
become acq uainted with the intention to modify a rule of origin or to introduce a new rule 
of origin, unless exceptional circumstances arise or threaten to arise for a Member.  
1.2.  Furthermore, paragraph 4 of Annex II to the Agreement on Rules of Origin envisages that 
Members shall promptly provide to the Secretariat their existing or new preferential rules of origin, 
including a listing of the preferential arrangements to which they apply,  judicial decisions, and 
administrative rulings of general application relating to their preferential rules of origin.  In this 
respect, the Committee on Rules of Origin further agreed that notifications made to the 
Committee  on Regional Trade Agreements (CRTA) or the Committee on Trade and Development 
(CTD) could also suffice to dischar ge Members' notification obligations under the Agreement on 
Rules of Origin (G/RO/M/59).  As a result, the Committee  agreed that notifications which had been 
initially received by the CRTA or the CTD should also be circulated by the Secretariat to the CRO.  
Information regarding such notifications, including related to preferential rules of origin, can also 
be obtained through the WTO database on regional trade agreements ( http://rtais.wto.org ) or the 
WTO database on pref erential trade agreements ( http://ptadb.wto.org ). 
1.3.  With reference to these rules, the following notification has been received:  
LIBERIA  
(Notification in English ) 
A. NON-PREFERENTIAL RULES OF ORIGIN  
The Republic of Liberia does not have any non -preferential rules o f origin.  
B. PREFERENTIAL RULES OF ORIGIN  
The Republic of Liberia applies the rules of origin of the Economic Community of West African 
States (ECOWAS), as set forth in Articles 35 and 38 on "ECOWAS Trade L iberalization Scheme" 
and "Community Tariff Treatment" respectively of Chapter VII I of the Treaty of ECOWAS and in 
the "Protocol A/P1/1/03 relating to the definition of the concept of products originating from 
member states of the economic community of Wes t African States"  
(http://www.etls.ecowas.int/etls/about -etls/). The text of the protocol is available at the following 
website link:  G/RO/N/173  
 
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  http://documentation.ecowas.int/down load/en/legal_documents/protocols/Protocol%20Relating%
20to%20the%20Definition%20of%20the%20Concept%20of%20Products%20Originating%20from
%20Member%20States%20of%20the%20Economic%20Community%20of%20West%20African%
20States%202003.pdf  
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