RESTRICTED  
  
WT/REG/M/74  
 
31 October 2014  
(14-6325)  Page: 1/4  
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements 
Seventy-fourth Session  Original: English  
 
 NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 23 SEPTEMBER 2014 
Chairman: Ambassador Francisco Pirez Gordillo (Uruguay) 
1  ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA 
1.1.  The 74th Session of the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements (hereinafter 'CRTA' or the 
'Committee') was convened in Airgram WTO/AIR/4338 dated 11 August 2014. 
1.2.  The Chairman welcomed Members to the 74th Session of the CRTA. He also welcomed 
participants from the Third WTO Advanced Course on Regional Trade Agreements who were sitting 
in on the meeting. He then announced he would inform Members of two issues under Other 
Business: the proposed schedule for CRTA meetings for the rest of the year and the date of the 
WTO Seminar on Cross-cutting Issues in RTAs. 
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  
 Implementation of the RTA Transparency Mechanism 
II. Free Trade Agreement between Australia and Malaysia, goods and services III. Free Trade Agreement between the Association of Southeast Asian Nations 
(ASEAN), Australia and New Zealand, goods and services 
IV. Free Trade Agreement between Mexico and Uruguay, goods 
V. Free Trade Agreement between Chile and Nicaragua, goods and services 
 
C. Consideration of Regional Trade Agreements involving non-WTO Members 
I. Economic Integration Agreement be tween the European Union and Serbia, 
services 
   
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/85) AND 
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RTA TRANSP ARENCY MECHANISM (WT/REG/W/86). 
2.1.  The Chairman provided an update to Memb ers with regard to the Committee's work and the 
implementation of the Transparency Mechanism. A total of 39 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 Mechanism and encouraged others to do so. He also reminded Members to inform the Secretariat 
of any changes in the status of early announcements.  WT/REG/M/74 
 
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  2.2.  With regards 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 34 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 TM's procedur es. Thus, factual presentations on a further 
29 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/85 and contained 63 RTAs issued in factual presentations up to 4 September 2013.  
2.4.  Regarding RTAs for which the factual consideration had been 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/86. Since the document had been 
issued some comments had been received for the Factual Presentation of ASEAN-China, services. 
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 his 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. 
He urged Members to comply with this obligation and looked forward to receiving implementation 
reports. For EU-Chile which was the basis of a mock implementation report, clarification of some issues by the Parties was still awaited before circulating the report as an official document. 
2.7.  A representative of the Secretariat provided  Members with the status of the preparation of 
factual presentations for RTAs. With regard to RTAs between WTO Members, for US CAFTA-DR, goods and services, the factual presentation ha d been sent to the parties in 2009 and 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 recently been received 
and the Secretariat was awaiting final joint comments. For US-Colombia, goods and services, the factual presentation had been sent to the parties in 2012. Comments had been received from 
Colombia only. For EU-Colombia-Peru, Singapore-Chinese Taipei, and Switzerland-China, all goods 
and services, data had been received and the factual presentations were being drafted. For 
US-Bahrain, goods and services, the Secretariat expe cted to issue the factual presentation shortly. 
For US-Panama, goods and services, data had been received but some issues remained to be 
clarified. For the Dominican Republic-Central America, goods and services, the Secretariat was awaiting clarification on data issues from some of the parties. For Mexico-Central America, goods 
and services, data from Guatemala was outstanding. For Korea-India, services, data had been 
received from Korea and some data from India. For Korea-ASEAN, services, data had been 
received from Korea only. For Georgia-Russian Fe deration, goods, some data had been received 
from Georgia. For EU-Georgia, and EU-Moldova, both goods and services, and EU-Cameroon and 
EU-Papua New Guinea, Fiji, both goods only, the Secretariat had recently received notifications 
and was in the process of sending out the data requests. 
2.8.  With respect 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 
some outstanding data from the Faeroe Islands was awaited. For the Customs Union between the 
Russian Federation, Belarus and Kazakhstan, the factual presentation was being drafted. For EU-San Marino, EFTA-Lebanon, Turkey-Syria , CEFTA Enlargement, Ukraine-Azerbaijan, 
Ukraine-Turkmenistan, Ukraine-Uzbekistan, the Common Economic Zone, Russian 
Federation-Azerbaijan, Russian Federation-Serbi a, Russian Federation-Turkmenistan, Russian 
Federation-Uzbekistan, and EU-ESA, all goods an d EU-CARIFORUM, goods and services, data was 
not complete. WT/REG/M/74 
 
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  2.9.  A third category concerned five agreements – ASEAN-Japan, EU-Côte d'Ivoire, 
EFTA-Colombia, the new CIS Agreement, all good s and EU-Central America, goods and services, 
for which the Secretariat understood, not all parties had ratified the agreement yet. The Secretariat intended to wait before the agreement had entered into force for all the parties before 
commencing the preparation of factual presentations. She requested the parties to these 
agreements to notify the Secretariat when their respective agreement had entered into force for all the parties. She urged all Members to make every effort to comply with the deadlines as requested 
so that the Secretariat could do its best to adhere to the CRTA's work programme. 
2.10.  The representative of the United States said he was pleased to see that the list of delayed 
agreements was becoming shorter showing that some  hard work had been put in by the Chair, the 
Secretariat and Members. However, he reminded Members of his rather lengthy intervention at the 
previous CRTA meeting in June 2014 about the list of  non-notified agreements that appeared to be 
becoming longer, and he urged the Members on that list to fulfil their obligations and notify their agreements as soon as possible so that the Transparency Mechanism could work as it should and 
allow Members to review fully these agreements . He referred Members to the United States' 
statement at the CRTA meeting in June 2014 and added that as he always did during the consideration of individual factual presentations he would be noting the non-notified agreements 
for those particular Members. 
2.11.  The representative of Ecuador referring to document WT/REG/W/85, indicated that as 
already stated at the last meeting of the CRTA, Ecuador was a member of the Latin American 
Integration Association under the Treaty of Mo ntevideo of 1980, which had been notified in 
July 1982 as found in document L/5342 under the Enabling Clause that contained provisions with 
regard to agreements among developing countries and to benefit them. As had been established in the case law of the WTO the relevant legal provisions of the Enabling Clause constituted special 
access with regard to the rules of the WTO on  regional trade agreements in goods between 
developing countries. With regard to the agreements involving Ecuador under the Montevideo Treaty, Ecuador noted that enough informatio n had been distributed through the various 
documents, as in WT/COMTD/82 from December 2012. Other documents with similar references 
also contained information including WT/COMTD/72, WT/COMTD/78, WT/COMTD/77, WT/COMTD/76, WT/COMTD/81, and WT/COMTD/59. He  drew the Committee's attention to the fact 
that enough information had already been submitted at the appropriate time. Information on the 
LAIA for 2013 would be provided in the next few weeks. 
ITEM B.II FREE TRADE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE ASSOCIATION OF SOUTH EAST ASIAN 
NATIONS (ASEAN), AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND, GOODS AND SERVICES 
2.12.  (The minutes of the consideration of this agreement are being distributed as a separate 
document). 
ITEM B.III FREE TRADE AGREEMENT BETWEEN  AUSTRALIA AND MALAYSIA, GOODS AND 
SERVICES 
2.13.  (The minutes of the consideration of this agreement are being distributed as a separate 
document). 
ITEM B.IV FREE TRADE AGREEMENT BE TWEEN MEXICO AND URUGUAY, GOODS 
2.14.  (The minutes of the consideration of this agreement are being distributed as a separate 
document). 
ITEM B.V FREE TRADE AGREEMENT BETWEEN CH ILE AND NICARAGUA, GOODS AND SERVICES 
2.15.  (The minutes of the consideration of this agreement are being distributed as a separate 
document). WT/REG/M/74 
 
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  3  CONSIDERATION OF REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS INVOLVING WTO NON-MEMBERS 
ITEM C.I ECONOMIC INTEGRATION AGREEM ENT BETWEEN THE EUROPEAN UNION AND 
SERBIA, SERVICES 
3.1.  (The minutes of the consideration of this  agreement are being distributed as a separate 
document). 
4  ITEM D.  OTHER BUSINESS 
4.1.  The Chairman noted that the dates for th e last CRTA meeting for the year were 10 and 
11 November. He also reminded Members of the WTO Seminar on Cross-cutting Issues in RTAs 
being held on Thursday 25 September. He thanke d delegations from capitals for their presence 
and the proactive participation by Members, the Se cretariat and the Director of the TPRD, and the 
interpreters. 
4.2.  The Committee took note of the comments made. 
 
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