10-1151 JOB/MA/6                         2 March 2010 
 
Committee on Market Access 
 
 
Background Note prepared for th e Committee's discussion on the  
 Decision on Notification Procedures for Quantitative Restrictions  
 
Note by the Secretariat1 
 
I. INTRODUCTION 
1. This note has been prepared at the request of the Chairman of the Committee on Market 
Access in light of the consultations held in  May 2009 on the timeliness and completeness of 
notifications in relation to the Decision on Notif ication Procedures for Quantitative Restrictions 
(G/L/59) (hereinafter referred to as "the QR Decision"2).  Those consultations revealed a number of 
issues including questions concerning the type of me asures that should be notified pursuant to the QR 
Decision, whether such notifications should be circ ulated to all Members and how to deal with the 
duplication of notifications.  It was suggested that  a useful first step might be to identify those 
measures which could be classified as quantitative restri ctions, but were notified in other fora.  Doing 
this exercise would enable the identification of those measures whose only forum for notification was 
the Committee on Market Access pursuant to the QR  Decision.  It would also provide useful 
information to address the issue of duplication of notifications.3 
2. The note is structured as follows:  Section II provides information about the treatment of 
quantitative restrictions under the GATT and the WT O.  Section III provides a non-exhaustive list of 
the types of measures which are considered to be quantitative restrictions.  Section IV looks at the 
legal basis or relevant provisions underpinning su ch measures.  Section V details where they are 
notified, and finally Section VI offers some conclusions. 
II. INFORMATION ON TREATMENT OF SUCH RESTRICTIONS4  
3. Much of the history of the GATT through the fift ies and the sixties was concerned with efforts 
to secure the elimination of import restrictions mainta ined by a large number of Contracting Parties.  A 
number of Committees and Groups we re set up to identify and examine what were at one time described 
as "residual restrictions" (i.e. those which were inc onsistent with the provision s of Article XI, but which 
contracting parties were allowed to pr eserve through the "g randfather clause"5) and to present findings 
and recommendations with a view to achiev ing their elimination.  These included, inter alia , the 
following: 
- Committee III; es tablished in 1957. 
-  Working Group on Residual Re strictions; established in 1960. 
- Joint Working Group on Import Rest rictions; established in 1970 and  
-  Group of Three; established in 1971.   
                                                      
1 This document has been prepared under the Secret ariat's own responsibility and is without prejudice 
to the positions of Members and to their ri ghts and obligations under the WTO Agreement. 
2 The QR decision is reproduced in Annex 1.    
3The QR Decision provides that in such cases wher e a quantitative restriction has been notified under 
another provision, only the document symbol under which the measure is circulated needs to be notified under 
the decision.  
4 GATT documents NTM/W/2 and MTN.GNG/NG2/W/1 provide more details on the treatment of 
quantitative restrictions under the GATT.  
5  Paragraph 1(b) of the Protocol of Provisional Application  allowed original contracting parties to  
exempt from the obligations contained in Part II of the GATT those pre-existing mandatory domestic legislation 
that would otherwise be inconsistent with the Agreemen t, which included the general elimination of quantitative 
restriction under Article XI of the GATT 1947. JOB/MA/6 
Page 2 
 
 
  4. An effort to achieve liberalization or eliminat ion of quantitative restrictions was made during 
the Tokyo Round (1973-1979).  Another major effort in this direction was initiated under the Ministerial 
Work programme in 1982 when a Group was establis hed to review existing Qu antitative Restrictions 
and other Non-Tariff Measures, the grounds on which these were mainta ined by the Contracting Parties 
and their conformity with the provisions of the Genera l Agreement, so as to achieve their elimination or 
to bring them into conformity.  In 1986, this Group was abolished and a "Technical Group on 
Quantitative Rest rictions and other Non-Tariff  Measures" was esta blished to continue with the updating 
of the documentation prepared by the former group.6  In early 1995, the Committee on Market Access 
was established by the Gene ral Council in order to inter alia  conduct the updating and analysis of the 
documentation on quantitative restrictions and othe r non-tariff measures, in accordance with the 
timetable and procedures agreed by the CONTRACTING PARTIES in 1984 and 1985 (GATT 
BISD 31S/227 and 228, and GATT BISD 32S/92 and 93).7  On 1 December 1995, the Council for Trade 
in Goods adopted the QR Decisi on which had been approved by the Committee on Market Access on 
31 October 1995.8  A format (G/MA/NTM/QR/2) for the notif ication of QRs was adopted also by this 
Committee in 1997.9  
III. TYPES OF RESTRICTIONS   
5. There are different measures which are considered quantitative restrictions and different ways 
by which quantitative restrictions can be made effec tive.  The list with the symbols provided below was 
originally contained in the Annex to the Group on Quantitative Restriction's (1985) Report and the 
recommendation was that they should be used for futu re notifications to the Group and other relevant 
GATT bodies.10  The recommendation was also that if a gove rnment considered that its measure could 
not be classified by the use of a particular sym bol, when making notifications, then it should provide a 
precise indication of the type of restriction used. In the QR Decision, Members agreed to use these 
symbols in their notification to indicate the type of restriction being notified:  
• Prohibition (P) 
• Prohibition except under defined conditions (CP) 
• Global quota (GQ) 
• Global quota allocated by country (GQC) 
• Bilateral quota (i.e. anything less than a global quota) (BQ) 
• Automatic licensing (AL) 
• Non-automatic licensing (NAL) 
• Quantitative restriction made effective through state-trading operations (STR) 
• Mixing regulation (MXR) 
• Minimum price, triggering a quantitative restriction (MPR) 
• "Voluntary" export restraint (VER) 
• Seasonal restriction (S) (this code was meant as  a "suffix" to be added to the above as 
appropriate) 
• Export restriction (X)  (this code was meant as a "suffix" to be added to the above as 
appropriate) 
 
                                                      
6 BISD/33S, p. 54.  
7 WT/GC/M/1 and WT/L/47. 
8 G/C/M/7. 
9 G/MA/M/10. The format (G/MA/NTM/QR/2) is reproduced in Annex 2.   
10 BISD/32S, p. 92.  JOB/MA/6 
 Page 3 
 
 
  6. Recent notifications pursuant to the QR Decisi on provide examples of qua ntitative restrictions 
including:  
 -  A global quota on chlorofluorocarbons, which the Member considers to be justified under 
Article XX:(b) of the GATT 1994 (to fulfil the ob ligations under the 1987 Montreal Protocol on 
Substances that Depl ete the Ozone layer). 
 
-  A non-automatic licensing system applied to arms and ammunitions, which the Member 
 considers to be justified under Article XX:(b)  of the GATT 1994 (public security reasons).  
 
- A prohibition to, except under defined conditions, import military weapons, arms, and  ammunition, which the Member considers to be  justified under Article XXI:(b) of the GATT 
 1994. 
 
IV. WTO PROVISIONS ADDRESSING SUCH RESTRICTIONS 
7. There are several legal provisions under the WT O Agreement that deal w ith such restrictions. 
The most notable being the general pr ohibition to introduce such measures as laid out in Article XI:1 of 
the GATT 1994 entitled " General Elimination of Quantitative Restrictions"
11.  This provision provides 
in relevant part: 
 
"1.  No prohibitions or restrictions other th an duties, taxes or other charges, whether 
made effective through quotas, import or e xport licences or other measures, shall be 
instituted or maintained by any contracting party on the importation of any product of 
the territory of any other contracting party or on the exportation or sale for export of 
any product destined for the territory of any other contracting party."  
8. However, the same Article does allow for th e introduction of restrictions under specified 
conditions as follows: 
 
"2 (a) Export prohibitions or restrictions tem porarily applied to prevent or relieve 
critical shortages of foodstuffs or other products essential to the exporting 
contracting party; 
(b) Import and export prohibitions or restri ctions necessary to the application of 
standards or regulations for the classification, grading or marketing of 
commodities in international trade; 
(c) Import restrictions on any agricultural or fisheries product, imported in any 
form,* necessary to the enforcemen t of governmental measures which 
operate:..." 12 
9. Other provisions in the WTO Agreement do a llow Members to introduce restrictions on the 
importation or exportation of goods under  specific conditions, for example:  
 
                                                      
11 While the reference in the title of Article XI is to "quantitative restrictions", the term "restrictions" is  
used in the body of that Article.  In this paper, the terms have been used interchangeably.  
12 There are no provisions under the Agreement on Agriculture or the Committee on Agriculture 
notification procedures for notifying import restrictions on agricultural products under Article XI:2(c) of GATT 
1994.  This is because Article 4.2 of  the Agreement on Agriculture has for eclosed the possibility of maintaining 
these measures.  JOB/MA/6 
Page 4 
 
 
  • Annex 5 of the Agreement on Agriculture :  This provides for a deviation from Article 4:2 of the 
Agreement on Agriculture, which provides that Memb ers shall not maintain, resort to, or revert 
to any measures (ex quantitative  import restrictions, variable import levies) of the kind which 
have been required to be converted into ordinary  customs duties from the entry into force of the 
WTO Agreement.  This provision is only applic able to primary agricultural product and its 
worked and/or prepared products  which were designated with the symbol "ST-Annex 5" in 
Section I-B of Part I of a Member’s Schedule. 
 
• Balance-of-payments restrictions (BOPs ):  Members retain the right to restrict the quantity or 
value of merchandise permitted to be imported su bject to certain conditions in order to  
safeguard their external financial position and ba lance-of-payment situation.  See Articles XII 
and XVIII of the GATT 1994, as well as the Understanding on Balance-of-Payments 
provisions of the GATT 1994. 
 
• Emergency action (Safeguard) on imports of part icular products :  Members retain the right to 
introduce measures to suspend their obligations when, as a result of unforeseen developments, 
any product is being imported into the territory of  that Member in such increased quantities and 
under such conditions as to cause or threaten serious injury to domestic producers of like or 
directly competitive products .  See Article XIX of the GATT 1994 and the Agreement on 
Safeguards.  
 
• Safeguard action for development purposes :  Developing country Members have the right to 
request, in case they consider that no measur e consistent with the other provisions of the GATT 
1994 is practicable to achieve th e objective, to introduce measures  to promote the establishment 
of a particular industry with a view to raising the general stan dard of living by notifying the 
special difficulties faced.  Se e Section C of Article XVIII of the GATT 1994 and framework 
Decision of 1979 (the Enabling Clause) 
 
• State-trading Enterprises :   Article XVII of the GATT 1994.  Interpretative Note to Articles XI, 
XII XIII, XIV and XVIII, also says that throughout these Articles "the terms "import 
restrictions" or "export restrictions" include r estrictions made effective through State-trading 
operations."  Paragraph 4 of Article XVII re quires Members which maintain State-trading 
enterprises to notify the products imported into or exported from their territories by such 
enterprises. 
 
• General exceptions :  Members retain the right to take measures which may restrict trade in 
goods if, for example, they are necessary to pr otect human, animal or plant life or health.  
Such measures cannot constitute a means of arb itrary or unjustifiable discrimination between 
countries where the same conditions prevail or a di sguised restriction on international trade. –  
See Article XX of the GATT 1994.  Some of th ese provisions were further developed in the 
Agreement on Technical Barriers to Trade and the Agreement on Sanitary and Phytosanitary 
Measures 
 
• Security exceptions :  Members retain the  right to restrict trade in goods to protect essential 
national security interests.  See Article XXI of the GATT 1994 
 
• Waivers : Members have the right to request a  temporary authorization, in exceptional 
circumstances, to derogate from any provisi on contained in the WTO Agreement, including 
the GATT 1994, which has to be approved by th e other WTO Members.  See Article IX(3) of 
the Marrakesh Agreement establishing the WTO 
  JOB/MA/6 
 Page 5 
 
 
  V. WHERE ARE THESE RESTRICTIONS NOTIFIED 
10. In examining the notifications made unde r the various Committees set up to oversee the 
covered agreements Annex1A, it would appear th at most measures that might be considered 
quantitative restrictions have a venue for notificati on pursuant to the relevant Annex 1A Agreement or 
GATT 1994 provision.  For example, those measu res covered by Article XI:2(a) of GATT 1994 
relating to foodstuffs are for the most part notified13 to the Committee on Agriculture in accordance 
with the Article 12 of the Agreement on Agriculture .  Those maintained under XI:2(b) are notified to 
the TBT Committee.  Those pertaining to Balance of Payments restrictions are addressed in the 
Committee on Balance of Payments.  Those concer ning emergency safeguard action are handled in 
the Safeguards Committee. Measures which are provide d through waivers are considered in the CTG 
and subsequently the General Council.  Those under Article XVIII: C to the CTD, and those under 
Article XX(b) are notified to the SPS Committee and TBT Committee.   
 
11. Therefore, those measures which would appear  to only have the QR Decision as a forum for 
notification are:  
 
(a) export prohibitions or restrictions temporarily applied to prevent or relieve critical shortages 
of foodstuffs or other products essential to th e exporting Member as per Article XI:2(a) of the 
GATT 1994 provided that the Member is not a developed Member and not a developing 
Member who is a net-food exporter of the specific food stuff concerned.  
 
(b) import restrictions on fisheries pursuant to Article XI:2(c) of the GATT 1994.  
 (c) those introduced pursuant to Article XX of the GATT 1994 (with the exception of sub-
paragraph (b) relating to measures necessary to protect human, animal or plant life or health, 
which are covered by either the TBT or the SPS Agreement).  Such measures include inter 
alia those 1) necessary to protect public morals, 2) relating to the importation or exportation 
of gold or silver, 3) relating to products of prison labour; 4) imposed for the protection of 
national treasure of artistic, historic or archeol ogical value; 5) relating to the conservation of 
exhaustible natural resources if they are made effective in conjunction with restrictions on 
domestic production or consumption; 6) undert aken in pursuance of obligations under any 
intergovernmental commodity agreement; 7) in volving restrictions on exports of domestic 
materials necessary to ensure essential quantities of such materials to a domestic processing 
industry during periods when the domestic price of such materials is held below the world 
prices as part of a governmental stabilization plan.  
 
(d) those introduced pursuant to Article XXI of the GATT 1994.  Such measures are those which 
that Member considers necessary for the protection of its essential security interests 
1) relating to fissionable materials or the materi als from which they are derived; 2) relating to 
the traffic in arms, ammunition and implements of  war or traffic in other goods and materials 
as is carried on directly or indirectly for the purpose of supplying a military establishment; 
and 3) taken in time in war or other emergency in international relations.  However, paragraph 
1 of Article XXI provides that  nothing shall be  construed to require any Member to furnish 
any information the disclosure of which it consider s contrary to its essential security interests.   
 
                                                     
 
13 Article 12.2 of the Agreement on Agriculture prov ides that notification of the institution of such 
measures is required of developed Members and of those developing Members who are net-food exporters of 
the specific foodstuff concerned but no other developing Member. JOB/MA/6 
Page 6 
 
 
  VI. CONCLUSIONS 
12. At the last informal meeting held on the i ssue several Members considered that the main 
problem relating to the QR Decision has been the lo w levels of compliance.  Based on the experience 
of the Secretariat, some of the reasons for this  situation could be related to the following: 
 
(a) Members are not aware of the existence of the QR Decision; 
(b) Members are not sure about what me asures to notify under this Decision;  
(c) Members have already notified many of these measures to a different Committee or Group; (d) Members considered they do not have to notify measures which are WTO compatible; and 
(e) Lack of transparency from the fact that notif ications are compiled by the Secretariat into a 
 database without being circulated nor made easily accessible to other Members.  This may 
 have prevented Members from getting acquainted with the type of information notified by 
 others. 
 13. In terms of substance, having some clarity about what measures are to be notified under the 
QR Decision may improve overall compliance levels.  In this respect, the Committee may wish to 
consider whether this Decision should cover onl y those measures which have no other forum for 
notification as identified in paragraph 10.
14  Alternatively, it may wish to maintain the current 
notification requirements under the QR Decision, but  clarify that they also include measures 
maintained under Article XX and XXI of GATT 1994.   
14. In terms of procedural improvements, the Co mmittee may wish to think about circulating the 
notifications.  It may also wish to consider, unde r the assumption that there is a new decision, a new 
notification format, the establishment of a new data base (which could at one point be made accessible 
to all Members), and to recommence complete notifications on the basis of the new decision.  Such 
full notifications could be made every three years  instead of the current two years (to give some 
respite from this notification obligation but with out making it outdated) with modifications and 
changes notified as and when they occur.   
                                                     
 
14 Some thought would need to be given about 10(c) as the exemption from such a notification for 
certain developing Members was  provided for in the Agreement on Agriculture.  JOB/MA/6 
 Page 7 
 
 
  ANNEX I  
 
 
DECISION ON NOTIFICATION PROCEDURES FOR QUANTITATIVE RESTRICTIONS  
 
Adopted by the Council for Trade in Goods on 1 December 1995  
 
 The Committee, in pursuance of its ma ndate (paragraph (d) of document WT/L/471), agrees  
that: 
 
- Members shall make complete notifications of th e quantitative restrictions which they maintain 
by 31 January 1996 and at two-yearly intervals thereafter, and shall notify changes to their 
quantitative restrictions as and when these changes occur; 
 - Such notifications shall contain: 
 
 - a full description of the products and tari ff lines (or parts of ta riff lines) affected 
together with the relevant heading or  sub-heading in the Harmonised System 
nomenclature; 
 - a precise indication of the type of restri ction, using the agreed  symbols (BISD 32S/108) 
as annexed; 
 - an indication of the grounds and WTO justification for the measures maintained, 
including the precise provisions whic h they cite as a justification; 
 - a statement on the trade effects of the measure;  in order to ensure full transparency, the 
notification should include a description of  the administrative me chanism as sociated 
with the measure, unless this mechanis m has been notified under the Agreement on 
Import Licensing Procedures or  another WTO Agreement.  Also under trade effects, the 
notification should include information on th e quantity of permis sible imports, on the 
degree of quota utilization (in the case of exiting quotas) and, where available, on the 
level of production or consumption. 
 - Members which have made, under other WTO provisions, notifications of quantitative 
restrictions (including notifications to the GATT Technical Committee on Quantitative 
Restrictions and Other Non-Ta riff Measures) which fulfil th e requirements fo r quantitative 
restrictions notifications under the 1984 and 1985 decisions and which are up-to-date, shall 
notify the fact;  thereupon, the Se cretariat shall input such notif ications into the quantitative 
restrictions data base; 
 
- It will be open to Members to make revers e notifications where they deem appropriate; 
 - The Secretariat shall provide, to assist delegatio ns in the preparation of their notifications, on 
request, the extract of the quantitative restrictions data base pertaining to its own restrictions; 
 
- The notifications shall be stor ed in a new data base, identical to the existing quantitative 
restrictions data base.  The latter shall cease to exist wh en the GATT 1947 is terminated; 
 
                                                     
 
1 The statement or understanding contained in document PC/I PL/M/9, paragraphs 6, 7 and 8 applies also to this 
Decision . JOB/MA/6 
Page 8 
 
 
  - The Secretariat shall publish periodically a document listing the WTO Members having made a 
notification.  The Secretariat shall make available to Members, as and when requested, on paper 
or computer tape, detailed  extracts of the quantitative restrictions data base.  The notifications 
themselves shall be available fo r consultation in the Secretariat; 
 
- The Committee shall, at two-yearly intervals af ter receipt of the complete notifications, review 
the notifications received, on the basis of Secretariat summaries similar to the summaries 
prepared for the GATT Technical Group on Quanti tative Restrictions and Other Non-Tariff 
Measures.  JOB/MA/6 
 Page 9 
 
 
  ANNEX TO THE DECISION ON NOTIFICATION OF  
QUANTITATIVE RESTRICTIONS  
 
Symbols to be used in notifica tions of quantitative restrictions2 
 
 
P Prohibition 
 CP Prohibition except under defined conditions 
 
GQ Global quota  
GQC Global quota allocated by country 
 BQ Bilateral quota (i.e. anything less than a global quota) 
 
AL Automatic licensing  
NAL Non-automatic licensing 
 STR Quantitative rest riction made effective thr ough state-trading operations 
 
MXR Mixing regulation  
MPR Minimum price, triggeri ng a quantitative restriction 
 
VER "Voluntary" export restraint 
 add the following suffixes to the above as appropriate: 
 
-S Seasonal restriction  
-X Export restriction 
 
                                                     
 
    2BISD 32S/108. JOB/MA/6 
Page 10 
 
 
  ANNEX II  
 
FORMAT FOR NOTIFICATION OF QUANTITA TIVE RESTRICTIONS (PURSUANT TO THE 
DECISION ADOPTED BY THE COUNCIL FOR TRADE IN GOODS ON 1 DECEMBER 1995, 
G/L/59)  
 
 
1. The attached format has been prepared to assi st Members in making notifications of quantitative 
restrictions in pursuance of the Decision on Notification Procedures  for Quantitative Restrictions, 
adopted by the Council for Trade in Goods on 1 De cember 1995, and contained in document G/L/59.  
 The Decision states that:  
 "Members shall make complete notifications of the quantitative restrictions which they maintain 
by 31 January 1996 and at two-yearly intervals thereafter, and shall notify changes to their 
quantitative restrictions as and when these changes occur; ..." 
 
 In this regard, the format requests the Member to indicate whether this is a first-time notification 
or a change to a notification made previously.  While the Decision does not oblige a Member to notify 
the fact that their governments do not maintain quantitative restrictions, Members are encouraged to 
provide such information for transparency purposes.  
2. The Decision contains a list of the specif ic information with respect to each quantitative 
restriction that the Member shall provide in its not ification.  This information corresponds to that 
requested in each of the columns in the attached table.  First, the Decision calls for "a full description of 
the products and tariff lines affected together wi th the relevant heading or sub-heading in the 
Harmonised System nomenclature"; th is information is called for in the first and second columns of the 
attached table.  With regard to the third column, th e Decision contains an Annex of all the types of trade 
measures which are considered as quantitative restri ctions for the purposes of this Decision.  Each 
measure corresponds to a symbol;  this  symbol must be inserted in this  third column.  The Decision calls 
for "an indication of the grounds and WTO justifica tion for the measures maintained, including the 
precise provision which they cite as a justification";  th is is requested in the fourth column of the table.  
Finally, the Decision calls for "a statement on the trad e effects of the measures ;...a description of the 
administrative mechanism a ssociated with the measure,...inform ation on the quantity of permissible 
imports, on the degree of quota utilization (in the case  of existing quotas) and, where available, on the 
level of production or consumption".  This informa tion should be included in the fifth and sixth columns 
of the attached table. 
 3. In addition, the Decision calls for Members to not ify the "fact" that notifications of quantitative 
restrictions have been made under other WTO provisions.  Such inform ation is requested on the last 
page of the notification form, including the WTO docu ment reference in which this notification can be 
found.  
   JOB/MA/6
 Page 11Notification form for Quantitative Restrictions (QRs) 
(pursuant to Decision G/L/59) 
 
Country: ____________________________________________________ Date:  ____________________________________________________ 
First Time Notification under Decision G/L/59: 
yes_____ no_____(date(s) and document symbol(s ) of previous notification)___________ 
_________________________________________________________________ 
 1. QRs not previously notified under WTO Agreements  
 
(Describe QRs not previously notified under WTO Agreements in the chart below.  If additional space is needed, please provide, on separate 
pages, the same information as in this chart.) 
 
Harmonized System No. Detailed Product 
Description Type of QR (in 
Annex of G/L/59) WTO Justification (ex. 
Article XX, XI, etc.) Trade Impacts/Document 
reference/other comments,  if any 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
 
 
    
  JOB/MA/6 
Page 12 
2. Notifications of QRs made under other WTO Agreements  
 1. Agreement on Agriculture:    Notifi ed:   yes____  (Document reference:_____________________ 
         no_____  
2. Agreement on Balance of Payments: Noti fied:   yes____  (Document reference:_____________________ 
         no____  
3. Agreement on Safeguards:  Notifi ed:  yes____  (Document reference:_____________________ 
         no____ 
 
4. Agreement on Textiles:   Notifi ed:  yes____  (Document reference:_____________________ 
           no____ 
 
5. Agreement on Import Licensing:  Noti fied:   yes____  (Document reference:_____________________ 
          no____ 
 
6. Other_____________________: Document reference:_____________________________________  
 
  
 
  
 
__________