G/L/1159  
 
2 November  2016 
(16-6012) Page: 1/2 
   
 
 REPORT (201 6) OF THE COMMITTEE O N RULES OF ORIGIN  
TO THE COUNCIL FOR T RADE 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 201 6: on 22 April and 
on 22 September  under the chairmanship  of Mr. Christian WEGENER (Denmark ) and of 
Mr. Chih-Tung CHANG (Chinese Taipei ) respectively .  At its meeting of 22 Sep tember , the CRO 
conducted the twenty -second  review of the implementation and operation of the Agreement.  
3. The main objective of the Agreement on Rules of Origin relates to negotiations to harmonize 
non-preferential rules of origin (Harm onization Work Progra mme, HWP).  These ne gotiations , 
initiated in 1995 and conducted in collaboration with the Technical Committee on Rules of Origin at 
the World Customs Organization  (WCO) , came to a virtual halt in 2007 due to divergences on a 
number of "core policy issues"  and ha ve since been at a stalemate .  As noted in the 2013 Report 
of the CRO to the Council for Trade in Goods  (G/L/1047) , Members hold different views regarding 
the need to finalize or not  the HWP .  Given  this state of affairs, the implementation and opera tion 
of the Agreement is not satisfactory . 
4. In the absence of harmonized rules , Members  agreed to initiate a transparency and 
"educational" exercise to exchange information about existing non-preferential rules of origin.  As 
a result, two "information sess ions" on non -preferential rules of origin were held in 2016 .  During 
these sessions, Members learnt, from private sector rep resentatives, how existing 
(non-harmonized) national rules of origin impacted trade and business operations.  
The presentations made  were circulated to Members (documents RD/RO/36  to RD/RO/ 47).  
In addition, summaries of the se sessions were prepared and circulat ed in documents G/RO/W/162 
and G/RO/W/167 , respectively.  
5. Drawing on the views heard during this educational exercise, the dele gation of Switzerland 
has proposed to circulate questions to initiate discussions in the Committee about possible 
principles and guidelines to streamline non -preferential rules of origin.1 
6. Furthermore , the Committee reviewed and validated the technical acc uracy of the results of 
the transposition exercise conducted by the Secretariat.  All draft harmonized rules of origin have 
now been transposed to the most recent version of the Harmonized System and compiled in a 
single document (JOB/RO/5/Rev.1 and JOB/RO /5/Rev.1/Corr.1).   The Committee agreed that this 
should remain a working document and that Members could submit comments to the draft 
transposed rules at any time.  
7. With respect to preferential rules of origin, the Committee held dedicated discussions on 
preferential rules of origin for least -developed countries (LDCs), in particular in light of the 
requirements of the 2013 (Bali) Ministerial Decision (WT/L/917) and the 2015 (Nairobi) Ministerial 
Decision (WT/L/917 /Add.1 ).  In that context, the Committee re viewed the availability of trade data 
regarding preferential trade arrangements  (PTAs), considered possible methodologies  for the 
calculation of utilization rates  (G/RO/W/161) , reviewed the status of notifications of preferential 
rules of origin (G/RO/W/16 3) and discussed a template for the notification of prefere ntial rules of 
                                                
1 Subsequently circulated as JOB/RO/6  G/L/1159  
 
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  origin (G/RO/W/160 ).  As required by both Ministerial Decisions, a detailed report on this issue 
was prepared for the General Council G/RO/ 79 and an oral repo rt will be delivered at the 
Sub-Committee on LDCs . 
 
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