G/L/1085  
 
 
4 November 2014  
(14-6407)  Page: 1/1  
   
 
 REPORT (2014) OF THE COMMITTEE ON RULES OF ORIGIN 
TO THE COUNCIL FO R TRADE IN GOODS 
1. This report is being submitted to the Council for Trade in Goods in accordance with 
Article 6.1 of the Agreement on Rules of Origin  (the Agreement), which provides that "The 
Committee shall review annually the implementation and operation of Parts II and III of this Agreement having regard to its objectives.  The Committee shall annually inform the Council for 
Trade in Goods of developments during the period covered by such reviews." 
2. The Committee on Rules of Origin (CRO) held two formal meetings in 2014:  on 10 April and 
on 30 October under the chairmanship of Mr. Marhijn VISSER (The Netherlands) and of Mr. Ken Chang-keng CHEN (Chinese Taipei) resp ectively.  A number of informal meetings and 
consultations were also held in 2014. 
3. The main area of work of the CRO relates to negotiations for harmonized non-preferential 
rules of origin (Harmonization Work Progra mme, HWP). These negotiat ions, mandated under 
Part IV of the Agreement, were initiated in 1995 and conducted in collaboration with the Technical 
Committee on Rules of Origin at the World Customs Organization (WCO).  Despite substantive progress in elaborating specific rules of origin for thousands of tariff lines, the negotiations came 
to a virtual halt in 2007 due to divergences on a number of "core policy issues" and have since lost 
momentum. As noted in the 2013 Report of the CRO to the Council for Trade in Goods, Members are, at present, divided as to the relevance of fi nalizing the HWP. Given this difference in Members' 
views, it is difficult for the Chairman to propos e any concrete work on the draft harmonized rules 
of origin. 
4. Pending the continuation of the HWP, the CRO ag reed to initiate a transparency exercise to 
exchange information about the non-preferential rule s of origin.  In fact, 42 Members have notified 
to the Secretariat that they apply some type of non-preferential rules of origin.  In the absence of 
harmonized rules, the only disciplines that appl y to such rules are those of Article 2 of the 
Agreement.  Members agreed to engage in an ex ercise to better understand the design, coverage 
and effect of existing non-preferential rules. 
5. In addition, the CRO has conducted work with a view to finalizing the transposition of draft 
harmonized rules of origin to more recent vers ions of the Harmonized System.  This exercise, 
which had been mandated to the WTO Secretariat, has been finalized and the rules are now 
available in the 2002, 2007 and 2012 versions of the HS (mechanically transposed rules as well as 
some simplified rules according to recommendations from the World Customs Organization). Members have reviewed the transposed rules in HS Chapters 1 to 40 to verify their technical 
accuracy. 
6. Finally, the CRO initiated work on preferential rules of origin for Least Developed Countries 
(LDCs) as a result of the adoption of Ministerial Decision WT/L/917.  The CRO agreed on the 
procedures to review new developments related to  such rules and conducted the first review of 
developments.  The CRO took note of new rules associated with a duty-free and quota-free scheme recently implemented by Chile.  It also he ard a presentation by the Secretariat about the 
Database on Preferential Trade Agreements, wh ere Members' notifications and legislation on 
preferential rules of origin can be accessed ( http://ptadb.wto.org ).  
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