G/RO/79  
 
10 November 2 016 
(16-6158) Page: 1/2 
   
 
REPORT OF THE COMMIT TEE ON RULES OF ORIG IN 
TO THE GENERAL COUNCIL  
ON PREFERENTIAL RULE S OF ORIGIN FOR LEAST DEVELOPED COUN TRIES  
1. This report is being submitted by the Committee on Rules of Origin (CRO) to the General 
Council  in accordance with the requirem ents of Paragraph 1.10 of the Ministerial Decision of 
7 December 2013 (WT/L/917) and of Paragraph 4.4 of the Ministerial Decision of 
15 December  2015 (WT/L/917/Add.1) on Preferen tial Rules of Origin for Least Developed 
Countries (LDCs).    
2. According to both decisions , the CRO "shall annually review the developments in preferential 
rules of origin applicable to imports from LDCs" and report to the General Council.   The CRO 
therefore conducted a review of developments in preferential rules of origin for LDCs d uring its 
formal meeting of 22 September 2016. At the meeting, Members considered the following 
developments with respect to preferential rules of origin for LDCs:  
 Kazakhstan notified its preferential rules of origin for LDCs (G/RO/N/148) ;  
 The delegation of the European Union recalled that the EU Commission will introduce, as of 
January 2017, a new system of self -certification of origin for registered exporters from LDCs 
(the "REX" system, RD/RO/44) ; and  
 The delegations of Norway and of Switzerland reporte d tha t they will apply the same 
self-certification system as of January 2017.   After a phase -in period , the existing 
"certificate of origin Form A " will no  longer be valid and tariff preferences will only be 
granted to registered exporters who provide  a valid "statemen t on origin " as proof of origin.  
3. In addition the following specific elements on which the CRO was mandated to conduct 
follow -up work were considered : 
(i) Notification of preferential trade data by preference -granting Members ; 
4. The 2015 Minister ial Decision reiterate d that preference -granting Members shall notify 
annually data regarding their preferential imports. This requirement was contained in the 
Transparency Mechanism for Preferential Trade Arrangements (PTA  Transparency Mechanism, 
WT/L/806 ). Members therefore considered a note prepared by the Secretariat summarizing the 
information available concerning preferential imports for each preference -granting Member 
(G/RO/W/163).   With respect to preferential trade data, information was available as follows:  
(i) Data ( preferential annual imports and tariff rates) is complete for Australia; Canada; Chile; 
the EU; the Republic of Korea; Norway and the United States; and  
(ii) Data is not available for China; Iceland; India; Japan; Kazakhstan; Kyrgyz R epublic; 
Morocco; New Zealand; Russian Federation; Switzerland; Chinese Taipei; Tajikistan; 
Thailand; and Turkey.  
5. Several Members expressed concern over the fact that many Members had not provided the 
necessary information to the Secretariat. The Chairman urged all Members to work with the 
Secretariat to ensure their annual notifications of preferential trade data are up to date.  
6. Members, in addition, heard a presentation by the Secretariat about a new function in the 
WTO Tariff Analysis Online which would  allow Members to consult data about national preferential 
imports ( https://tao.wto.org ) at the tariff line level, for each preference -granting Member.  G/RO/79  
 
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  (ii) The CRO shall agree on modalities for the calculation of utiliz ation rates; and  
7. The 2015 Ministerial Decision required  the CRO to agree on modalities  for the calculation of 
utilization rates  so that the Secretariat can make such calculations.  In that respect, Members 
considered a background n ote by the Secretariat de scribing possible methodologies for the 
calculation of utilization rates .  In the note, the Secretariat recommended using  a simple 
methodology based on preferential trade as reported by Members as a share of total trade on 
dutiable lines eligible for prefe rences. While most Members agreed with this recommendation, 
some were concerned with a possible underestimation of utilization rates. As a result, the 
Chairman concluded that consultations on this topic would be organized.  
(iii) Notification of preferentia l rules of origin and a new template for notifications.  
8. Members reviewed the status of notifications of preferential rules of origin and preferential 
trade data (G/RO/W/163).  A total of 21 WTO Members have submitted notifications to the CRO 
and/or to the Committee on Trade and Development (CTD).  The level of detail of the information 
provided by each preference -granting Member varie d considerably and not all preferential schemes 
and p referential rules of origin had  been considered under the PTA Transparen cy Mechanism 
(these procedures were adopted in 2010). In order to retrieve general information about the 
eligibility conditions and coverage of preferential schemes, Members were asked to refer to the 
WTO database of preferential trade arrangements (http://ptadb.wto.org ). 
9. In addition to existing notification procedures, t he 2015 Ministerial Decision require d the 
CRO to "develop a template for the notification of preferential rules of origin to enhance 
transparency and pr omote a better understanding of the rules of origin applicable to imports from 
LDCs". Members therefore considered a draft template submitted by Benin on behalf of the LDC 
group (G/RO/W/ 160).   
10. Several Members thought the proposed template was a useful ins trument to enhance 
transparency.  With respect specifically to the proposed draft , some  Members warned against 
duplicating notification requirements and indicated that some of the information required in the 
proposed draft was already contained in notifica tions under the Transparency Mechanism for 
Preferential Trade Arrangements (PTA Transparency Mechanism, WT/L/806).  In addition, some 
Members mentioned that it could be challenging to provide all the requested information in an 
official WTO language.  Some  Members also questioned the scope of the template and asked if all 
preferential rules of origin for LDCs should be notified under the new template, even if they had 
already been notified under existing provisions.  
11. The LDC Group agreed to revise the propos ed template to reflect  the comments made. 
The Chairman thus concluded that informal consultations would be organized once the revised 
proposal was received.  
(iv) Notification about the measures being taken to implement the provisions of the 
Ministerial Dec ision  
12. Up to and including  the date of this report, n o preference -granting Member had notified the 
Committee about the measures being made to implement the provisions of the 2015 (Nairobi) 
Decision.   According to the Nairobi Ministerial Decision, d eveloped countries must submit such 
notifications by 31  December 2016.   Developing countries providing preferences must submit such 
notifications when they are in a position to undertake the provisions of the Decision in accordance 
with the flexibilities laid out i n paragraph 4.1.  The Chairman urged Members to start preparations 
as early as possible to ensure that their notifications would be submitted in time.  
13. In concluding  the review , the Chairman invite d Members to develop their individual rules of 
origin in acc ordance with the guidelines and the provisions provided in both Ministerial Decision s.  
 
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