RESTRICTED  
  
WT/REG/M/75  
 
3 December 2014  
(14-7048)  Page: 1/5  
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements 
Seventy-fifth Session 
 Original: English  
 
 NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 10 NOVEMBER 2014 
Chairman: Ambassador Francisco Pirez Gordillo (Uruguay) 
1  ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA 
1.1.  The 75th Session of the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements (hereinafter 'CRTA' or the 
'Committee') was convened in Airgram WTO/AIR/4359 dated 2 October 2014. 
1.2.  The Chairman welcomed Members to the 75th Session of the CRTA. He then announced he 
would inform Members of two issues under Other Business: technical cooperation activities 
conducted in 2014 and those scheduled for 2015 in th e area of regional trade agreements; and the 
proposed schedule for CRTA meetings for next 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 (WT/REG/W/87)  
- Implementation of the RTA Transparency Mechanism (WT/REG/W/88) 
II. Free Trade Agreement between China and Singapore, goods and services  
III. Free Trade Agreement between the Un ited States and the Republic of 
Korea, goods and services 
IV. Agreement between New Zealand and the Separate Customs Territory of 
Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu on Economic Cooperation, goods and services. 
C. Adoption of the Annual Report (2014) of the CRTA to the General Council 
(WT/REG/W/89). 
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. It was so agreed. 
2  CONSIDERATION OF REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS  
B.I STATUS REPORT ON THE COMMITTEE'S WORK - NON-NOTIFIED RTAS (WT/REG/W/87) AND 
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RTA TRANSP ARENCY MECHANISM (WT/REG/W/88). 
2.1.  The Chairman provided an update wi th regard to the Committee's work and the 
implementation of the Transparency Mechanism. A total of 41 early announcements were currently 
on the WTO website (not counting those which had been subsequently notified). He thanked Members who had submitted information in line with the requirements of the Transparency WT/REG/M/75 
 
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  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.  With regard to the preparation of the fact ual presentations under the remit of the CRTA, in 
the case of RTAs involving WTO members only there were currently 40 RTAs for which a factual 
presentation had to be prepared, counting goods and services separately. He recalled that at the 
Committee's 52nd Session held on 4 March 2009, Members had agreed to begin considering RTAs 
involving non-Members under the Transparency Mechanism's procedures. Thus, factual 
presentations on a further 36 RTAs involving non-Members were to be prepared. Members had 
agreed that those 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/87 and contained 62 RTAs issued in factual presentations up to 30 October 2014.  
2.4.  Turning to RTAs for which the factual consideration was delayed due to lack of comments 
from Parties, the Chairman said he had continued consultations with delegations to see what could 
be done to resolve this issue and to reduce the number of RTAs on this list. An updated list of such RTAs had been recently circulated as WT/REG/W/88. He hoped that outstanding comments would 
soon be made available and the factual consideration of these agreements could then be 
undertaken.  
2.5.  Regarding the backlog in the receipt of da ta necessary for the preparation and drafting of 
factual presentations for certain RTAs, he had continued consultations with a number of 
delegations in this regard and was pleased to report that delegations had expressed a willingness 
to provide missing information as soon as possible. 
2.6.   Lastly, concerning implementation reports, he reminded Members that implementation 
reports were already due for 114 RTAs, and the end of implementation for 10 RTAs was in 2014. 
For EU-Chile which was the basis of a mock implementation report, he announced that the Parties had recently circulated the implementation report as document WT/REG164/R/I on 
6 November 2014. He hoped this would encourage other delegations to submit their 
implementation reports and urged Members to comply with this obligation. 
2.7.  The representative of Chile expressed his sati sfaction at having completed in conjunction with 
the European Union and with the assistance of the Secretariat, the preparation of the report under 
paragraph 15 of the Transparency Mech anism for Regional Trade Agreements. 
2.8.  The Agreement between the European Union and Chile had been signed 12 years ago. Trade 
between their countries had increased consider ably: between 2003 and 2013, exports had grown 
by an average of 8% a year, while, during the same period, the average annual growth rate for 
imports had been 14.8%. 
2.9.  Referring to the preparation of the report submitted as document WT/REG164/R/I, he 
stressed that they had tried to produce a document containing information that was relevant and 
of the greatest interest to the parties. They were  aware that this was a first report and were sure 
that it would continue to be developed by themselves and other Members in the future. Chile was ready and willing to work with its partners to prepare reports similar to the one they had 
submitted. The report contained four sections : Background Information on the Agreement; 
Provisions on Trade in Goods; Provisions on Trade in Services; and Other Provisions in the Agreement. It also included two annexes containing back up statistics. 
2.10.  The delegation called upon Members to uphold the value given to transparency in the 
Organization and to ensure that it would be translated into concrete actions such as the Transparency Mechanism for Regional Trade Agreements. 
2.11.  The representative of the European Union was pleased to table the first implementing report 
on the EU-Chile Agreement, prepared in comp liance with paragraph 15 of the Transparency 
Mechanism Decision. He thanked Chile and also the Secretariat for their very good cooperation during the preparation of the document. As he had said in previous meetings, it was important to WT/REG/M/75 
 
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  find the right balance between providing transpar ency on RTAs and the burden of the reporting 
obligation. He hoped that this first implementing report could be used as an example in this. He intended to start preparing other implementation reports and invited any interested Members to indicate if they wished to cooperate. He beli eved that the implementation reports should be 
prepared on the basis of a standard template to ensure the same level of statistics and information 
on the RTAs. He was however open to consider an  alternative template if such template would 
guarantee adequate information and thus serve the transparency purpose.   
2.12.  The European Union believed that the implementation reports would help Members to have 
an overview of the final results of each agreemen t and to have additional information on RTAs and 
their role in the multilateral system. Discussions focusing on the characteristics of the RTAs in force would help the work of the Committee. His delegation fully shared the proposal made by the 
Chair at the CRTA of April 2014 that Members shou ld submit such reports and that a discussion on 
them could only be undertaken when a critical number of reports were submitted to the Secretariat. He continued to do his share to this end. 
2.13.  As already presented at the CRTA of October 2013, the trade pillar of the EU-Chile 
Association Agreement had been identified as a good basis for the preparation of the first 
implementation report because it covered both tr ade in goods and trade in services as well as 
public procurement, the right of establis hment and intellectual property rules.  
2.14.  A representative of the Secretariat provided Members 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 only. For ASEAN-China, services, 
the factual presentation had been sent to the Parties in 2010, some comments had been received but the Secretariat was awaiting final joint comments from some ASEAN members. For 
US-Colombia, goods and services, the factual pres entation had been sent to the Parties in 2012 
and comments had been received from Colombia only. For EU-Colombia-Peru, 
Singapore-Chinese Taipei, goods and services, the factual presentations had been drafted and sent 
to the Parties for comment. For Mexico-Central America, and Switzerland China, both goods and 
services, data had been received and the Secretar iat hoped to send the draft factual presentations 
for comment to the Parties for comment shortly. For US-Bahrain, goods and services, the Secretariat hoped to issue the factual presentation shortly. For US-Panama, goods and services, 
data had been received and the Secretariat was currently finalizing the draft to send to the Parties 
for comment. For the Dominican Republic-Central America, goods and services, the Secretariat was still awaiting clarifications on data issues from El Salvador, Honduras and the 
Dominican Republic. For Korea-India, services, data had been received from Korea and some data 
from India. For Korea-ASEAN, services, data ha d been received from Korea only. For Georgia-
Russian Federation, goods, some data had been received from Georgia only. For EU-Georgia, and 
EU-Moldova, both goods and services, the Secretariat had received some data from the EU; the 
deadline for the remaining data was 9 December. For EU Cameroon and EU-Papua New Guinea, Fiji, both goods only, data was also due by 9 December. For Iceland-China, goods and services, 
data was due by 19 December. For Hong Kong, Chin a-Chile, goods and services, data was due by 
12 March 2015. 
2.15.  With regard to RTAs involving non Members, 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, the Secretariat was currently drafting the factual presentation. For EU-San Marino, EFTA-Lebanon, Turkey-Syria, 
CEFTA Enlargement, Ukraine Azerbaijan, Ukrain e-Turkmenistan, Ukraine-Uzbekistan, the Common 
Economic Zone, Russian Federation-Azerbai jan, Russian Federation Serbia, Russian 
Federation-Turkmenistan, Russian Federation Uzbekistan, and EU-ESA, all goods, and EU-CARIFORUM, goods and services , data was not yet complete.  
2.16.  A third category concerned 6 agreements – ASEAN-Japan, EU Cote d'Ivoire, EFTA Colombia, 
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. 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 th e Parties. She also urged Members to make every WT/REG/M/75 
 
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  effort to comply with the deadlines when the Secretariat sent the data requests and deadlines for 
comments so the Secretariat could ensure that the CRTA's work programme proceeded as intended. 
ITEM B.II FREE TRADE AGREEMENT BETWEEN CHIN A AND SINGAPORE, GOODS AND SERVICES  
 
2.17.  (The minutes of the consideration of this agreement are being distributed as a separate document). 
ITEM B.III FREE TRADE AGREEMENT BETWEEN TH E UNITED STATES AND THE REPUBLIC OF 
KOREA, GOODS AND SERVICES   2.18.  (The minutes of the consideration of this agreement are being distributed as a separate 
document). 
ITEM B.IV AGREEMENT BETWEEN NEW ZEALAND AND THE SEPARATE CUSTOMS TERRITORY OF 
TAIWAN, PENGHU, KINMEN AND MATSU ON ECON OMIC COOPERATION, GOODS AND SERVICES  
 
2.19.  (The minutes of the consideration of this agreement are being distributed as a separate document). 
3  ITEM C ADOPTION OF THE ANNUAL REPO RT (2014) OF THE CRTA TO THE GENERAL 
COUNCIL (WT/REG/W/89) 
3.1.  The Chairman said that a draft of the Committee's Annual Report (2014) to the General 
Council had been distributed in document WT/REG/W/89. In his fax of 20 October 2014, he had 
asked delegations to submit any preliminary comments on the Report to the Secretariat in 
advance of the meeting. No comments had been received thus far. However, in light of the circulation by the EU and Chile of the impl ementation report under paragraph 15 of the 
Transparency Mechanism, he proposed that the last two sentences of paragraph 5.2 be deleted 
and replaced with the sentence as follows: "One en d of implementation report of the EU-Chile FTA 
was circulated on 6 November 2014.
1"  
3.2.  The United States said that though the EU had indicated their wish that the report be 
accepted as a template, he wanted to ensure that the way this would be reported did not preclude 
further discussions on that issue.  
3.3.  The European Union clarified that while they  thought the report could be a good example of a 
template and their aim was to provide sufficient transparency and information, they were open to 
discuss alternatives to the template which would attain this objective. They were open to discussions on the template per se. 
3.4.  The Chairman proposed that the Committee entrust the Secretariat with the task of 
modifying the report with the agreed changes,  and that the Committee adopt the Annual Report, 
which would be submitted to the General Council.  
3.5.  The Committee adopted the Annual Re port (2014) to the General Council. 
4  ITEM D OTHER BUSINESS 
4.1.  The Chairman recalled that at the Committee's 32nd Session, the Committee had agreed to 
regularly review the RTA related Technical Assistance activities undertaken by the Secretariat. He 
called on the Secretariat to give an account of these activities carried out in 2014 and planned for 
2015.  
4.2.  The representative of the Secretariat said that as Members could see from the table available 
electronically with the document set for the meeting (document RD/RTA/24), the CRTA Secretariat 
had conducted 14 Technical Assistance (TA) activities in 2014. In addition, it had participated in a 
                                               
1 Document WT/REG/164/R/I 6 November 2014. WT/REG/M/75 
 
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  number of activities on RTAs funded by outside so urces, e.g. APEC seminars on systemic issues 
and safeguards in RTAs and conferences on RTAs. 
4.3.  Fourteen activities were scheduled for 2015, seven of which were intermediate level regional 
activities (formally known as regional trade polic y courses), four were Geneva-based applied trade 
policy courses, one was a Geneva-based introduction course for LDCs, one was a Geneva-based 
thematic course for LDCs and one was an e-learning online course.  
4.4.  Most of the activities indicated in the Table had been funded by the WTO regular budget, 
donations by Member countries, or by the Global Trust Fund for activities under the Doha 
Development Agenda. 
4.5.  The objectives of the activities varied from raising awareness on RTA dynamics in global 
trade, to training and advising government officials on WTO rules and procedures on RTAs, 
including the Transparency Mechanism. Virtually a ll TA activities were addressed to participants 
from broad regional groupings. Their underlying ob jective was to contribute to the development of 
RTAs that were beneficial to their members and that complemented the objectives of the WTO. 
Since Doha, the RTA Section also had been entruste d with the additional TA task of clarifying 
issues related to the negotiations on RTA rules to WTO Members requesting such aid. 
4.6.  The Chairman informed the Committee of th e dates scheduled for the CRTA's meetings in 
2014. These would be held in March, June, September and November. Exact dates would be 
communicated to Members when available. Finally,  he thanked Members for their support and the 
Secretariat and the interpreters and wished all a happy end of the year. 
4.7.  The Committee took note of the comments made. 
 
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