WT/COMTD/W/223  
 
28 February 2017  
(17-1217) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Trade and Developmen t  
 
COMMUNICATION FROM T HE CHAIRMAN OF THE C OMMITTEE ON TRADE AN D 
DEVELOPMENT TO THE LATIN AMERICA N INTEGRATION ASSOCIAT ION  
The following communication from the Chairman of the Committee on Trade and Development, 
dated 24 February 2017, was sent to the Chairm an of the Committee of Representatives of the 
Latin American Integration Association.  
 
_______________  
 
 
Excellency,  
 
I am pleased to respond to your communication of 6 September 2016, which was circulated to the 
Committee on Trade and Development (CTD) in  document WT/COMTD/W/220. For purposes of 
transparency, this response is also being circulated to Members in the CTD.  
 
As you correctly indicated, the "List of RTAs which have appeared in factual presentations […] and 
have not yet been notified to the WTO"  is circulated for consideration in the Committee on 
Regional Trade Agreements (CRTA). I would note that it has not been the practice to date for such 
a list to be circulated in the CTD; it would be for the Committee to determine whether a list of this 
nature would be useful for its work.  
 
With respect to the background to this list in the CRTA and the criteria for inclusion of an RTA, I 
consulted with the CRTA Chairman, who provided me with the following information:  
 
"The list of non -notified RTAs was fi rst circulated at the 62nd session of the CRTA, held 
on 22 and 23 September 2011. It was a response by the Chairman of the CRTA to a 
call by the Chairman of the General Council of the WTO in 2009 to the Chairs of all 
WTO bodies to improve notifications of RTAs. The RTAs that are included in the list are 
first verified as being in force by their parties through factual presentations prepared 
by the WTO Secretariat: the parties to each draft factual presentation are asked to 
verify a table of all RTAs in whic h they participate. Once the information is verified, all 
agreements confirmed as being in force but not notified to the WTO are included in 
the list of non -notified RTAs and circulated before each CRTA meeting."  
 
I also shared with the CRTA Chairman your request for the removal from this list of the 
agreements between Latin American Integration Association (LAIA) countries. On this point, the 
CRTA Chairman informed me that there is no consensus among Members at this time to remove 
these agreements from the  list.    
 
Similarly, there is no consensus for the document "Report to the WTO on Instruments Concluded 
under the 1980 Treaty of Montevideo" to be circulated under the symbol WT/COMTD/N/*, as you 
requested.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 WT/COMTD/W/223  
 
- 2 - 
 
  Therefore, until the matter is resolve d, we would need to maintain the existing practice in the CTD 
with respect to the circulation of the annual LAIA reports. Accordingly, the latest report from LAIA, 
containing the Individual Notification Data sheets for agreements concluded by LAIA member 
countries under the 1980 Treaty of Montevideo during the year 2015, is being circulated as 
document WT/COMTD/93.  
 
Please accept, Excellency, the assurances of my highest consideration.  
 
 
Ambassador Christopher Onyanga Aparr  
Chairman  
Committee on Trade and D evelopment  
 
To: The Chairman  
Committee of Representatives of the Latin America n Integration Association  
Cebollatí 1461, CP 11200  
Montevideo  
Uruguay  
 
CC:  Ambassador Daniel Blockert  
 Chairman of the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements  
 
 
 
 
 
 
__________