RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/MA/M/44 
21 May 2007 
 
 (07-2054) 
Committee on Market Access  
  
 
MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 4 APRIL 2007 
 
Chairman: Dr. Mohammad Saeed (Pakistan)
 
  
Subject discussed
 Page  
 
1. Periodic report of the Committee to th e Council for Trade in Goods including 
factual information on waivers expiring on 30 April 2007 (G/MA/SPEC/35).....................1  
2. Submission of HS96 documentation........................................................................................2  
3. Introduction of Harmonized System 2002 changes to schedules of concessions using the CTS database (WT/L/605) – Report by the Secretariat on the status of 
work........................................................................................................................... .................2
 
4. Introduction of Harmonized System 2007 changes to schedules of concessions 
using the CTS database (WT/L/673) – Report by the Secretariat........................................2  
5. Modalities and operation of th e Integrated Data Base..........................................................3  
6. Consolidated Tariff Schedules Database – Report by the Secretariat on the 
status of work ................................................................................................................. ...........3  
7. Other Bu siness................................................................................................................. ..........3  
8. Election of th e Chairman ....................................................................................................... ..3 
ANNEX I........................................................................................................................ .........................4  
ANNEX II ....................................................................................................................... ........................5  
ANNEX III...................................................................................................................... ........................6  
ANNEX IV....................................................................................................................... .......................7  
 
  The Committee adopted
 the agenda as reproduced in WTO/AIR/2984.  An annotated agenda 
was circulated in document JOB(07)/41. 
 
1. Periodic report of the Committee to the Council for Trade in Goods including factual 
information on waivers expiring on 30 April 2007 (G/MA/SPEC/35) 
1.1 The Chairman  drew attention to document G/MA/SPEC /35 which contained the draft periodic 
report of the Committee.  He noted that this repor t, which would be finalized in the light of the 
discussion that would take place at this meeting,  would be submitted to the Council for Trade in 
Goods (CTG) for examination1.  The report contained in its Annex a table summarizing factual 
information on the waivers under process submitted by the Members concerned.   
                                                      
1 Finalized report was ci rculated as G/MA/195. G/MA/M/44 
Page 2  
 
   
1.2 He noted that Argentina and Panama had forwarded requests for waiver extensions in connection with the introduction of HS96 chang es to their schedules of concessions. Factual 
information had been provided by these Members co ncerning their request and  draft decisions had 
also been circulated.    
 
1.3 The Committee took note
 of the requests, approved  the draft waiver decisions and agreed  to 
forward them to the CTG for appropriate action.  
2. Submission of HS96 documentation 
2.1 The Chairman
 drew attention to document G/MA/TAR/2/Rev.39  which reflected the present 
situation concerning the submission of required docum entation.  From the document, it could be noted 
that the submissions of Argentina and Panama  remained pending. In addition some information 
needed to be provided by Venezuela in order fo r certification of their HS96 documentation to take 
place.  The Secretariat was preparing the documenta tion of Paraguay and Thailand for certification. 
 
2.2 The Committee took note  of the document and the statements. 
 
3. Introduction of Harmonized System 2002 chan ges to schedules of concessions using the 
CTS database (WT/L/605) – Report by the Secretariat on the status of work 
3.1 The Chairman  informed the Committee that he had be gun to meet individually with those 
Members who had not as yet approved their own HS02 f iles, but whose files had been approved by all 
other Members. He further noted that as these Memb ers were not in contact with the Secretariat, it 
was difficult to provide an explanation for this dela y. There were 39 Members in that situation. He 
recalled that he had sent a letter to these Members about the same matter last summer, but there had 
been no reaction.  As a result, he had felt that it might be more useful to meet with these delegations 
and find out what was delaying the approval of th eir HS02 files. He hoped that these meetings would 
yield some results. He also stressed that this situation would delay the HS07 transposition work on 
these schedules, as a certified HS02 file would be requi red before the Secretariat could begin work on 
the HS07 changes.  
 
3.2 A member of the Secretariat  (Mr. J. Richtering) introduced the report which is contained in 
Annex I. 
 3.3 The Committee took note
 of the report.  
 
4. Introduction of Harmonized System 2007 chan ges to schedules of concessions using the 
CTS database (WT/L/673) – Report by the Secretariat 
4.1 The Chairman  informed the Members that Thailand had requested to join in the HS07 waiver. 
The communication was circulated as an addendum to  the original waiver decision that had been 
circulated in WT/L/675.   4.2 A member of the Secretariat
 (Mr. J. Richtering) introduced the report which is contained in 
Annex II. 
 4.3 The Committee took note
 of the report.  
   G/MA/M/44 
 Page 3 
 
 
  5. Modalities and operation of the Integrated Data Base 
- Status of submission of the required documen tation (G/MA/IDB/2/Rev.25) and Report by the 
Secretariat  
 5.1 The Chairman
 referred to document G/MA/IDB/2/Rev .25 which presented the situation of 
IDB submissions as of 21 March 2007. 
 
5.2 A member of the Secretariat  (Mr. J. Richtering) introduced the report which is contained in 
Annex III.  
5.3 The representative of the  United States,
 referring to Members who had recently acceded such 
as Cambodia, Vietnam and Saudi Arabia and who we re mentioned in the report as Members who had 
not yet submitted any IDB information, asked wh ether the information these Members had provided 
during their accession procedures could not be used in the IDB. 
 
5.4 A member of the Secretariat  (Mr. J. Richtering) noted that at least for that moment the 
Secretariat policy was to include only information that had been explicitly submitted to the IDB. 
However, a possible approach may be to request t hose Members to transfer any relevant information 
available in the Accessions Division to the IDB.  
 
5.5 The Committee took note  of the report and the statements made and agreed  that the 
Secretariat should proceed as proposed in paragraph 5.4.  
6. Consolidated Tariff Schedules Database – Repo rt by the Secretariat on the status of 
work 
6.1 A member of the Secretariat
 (Mr. J. Richtering) introduced the report which is contained in 
Annex IV.  6.2 The Committee took note
 of the report.  
 
 
7. Other Business  
- Secretariat document on tariff information  
 7.1 The Chairman
 noted that the Secretariat had circulated a document G/MA/TAR/3/Rev.11 
which provided the most recent information available in  the tariff library. The document also included 
the website addresses where more recen t national tariffs could be found. 
 7.2 The Committee took note
 of the document. 
 - Date of the next meeting
 
 
7.3 The Committee took note  that the next meeting of the Committee would take place on 
5 October 2007.  
8. Election of the Chairman 
8.1 The Committee re-elected
 Dr. Saeed (Pakistan) as Chairman for 2007.  G/MA/M/44 
Page 4  
 
  ANNEX I  
 Introduction of HS 2002 changes
 
 
 I will just give you a brief summary of the work on the HS2002 files.  A full report will be 
contained in JOB(06)/8/Rev.5 which will be issu ed shortly to assist Members during the next 
multilateral review.  As of end Marc h we have the following situation: 
 
A. 18 draft HS02 files remain to be to be prepared 
B. 12 draft HS02 files have been completed and sent to Members for review but are not yet due 
for multilateral review  
C. 21 draft HS02 files currently released for multilateral review 
D. 55 HS02 files released and passed the multilateral review 
E. 12 HS02 Files approved for certification  
 
 The number of files approved for certification could be much higher if only Members could 
signal their approval. This missing obligation to self-approve appears like the main weakness of the 
current transposition procedures.  In this contex t, I would like to express my appreciation for the 
Chair's efforts to urge Members to approve their own files which have passed the multilateral review.  
This is quite timely as the number of files that ha ve passed the multilateral review has reached more 
than 50 per cent of the WTO Membership.   
 
The number of files that still have to be prepared  has, unfortunately, not come down considerably 
in the last 6 months. There are several reasons for this: 
 
• More extensive follow up work on files that  have already been sent out to Members 
• Verification of developed and developing Members' HS 2002 (and one case of HS 1996) 
submissions and preparation of comments sent to these Members 
• Need to integrate a large number of recen t certifications (ITA, Pre-UR: Geneva 1994 
Protocol, and many others) 
• Struggling with remaining nomenclature inconsis tencies in certified legal instruments (we are 
really cleaning up a lot of legacy problems of  past decades of scheduling which were not 
always checked for nomenclature consistency; a lthough it takes time we feel that we really 
need to take this time to have clean schedules which would facilitate all future work in this 
field) 
 
I am, of course, aware that time may be s oon running out when the scheduling phase of the 
negotiations begins and the Secretariat has to issue the ENFs (Electronic Negotiating Files).  But 
irrespective of the choice of nomenclature, be it HS 96 or HS2002, the electronic schedules need to be 
'clean' and consistent.         
 
 
    
 
    G/MA/M/44 
 Page 5 
 
 
  ANNEX II 
Introduction of HS 2007 changes  
 
The HS 2007 documentation was sent out to all Members in January 2007 as stipulated in 
General Council decision WT/L/673.  It contained a CD ROM with an MS Access database including 
both the HS2007 and HS2002 nomenclatures, a conc ordance table between the HS2007 and the 
HS2002 nomenclatures and the layout of the electronic fo rmats to be used for the transposition files.  
Reference documents of the General Council Deci sion as well as of the 2007 Harmonized System 
amendments and correlation table were also included in the CD ROM.  The in formation has also been 
made available for downloading at the WTO Members' website. 
The procedures for the HS 2007 transposition also stipulated that the Secretariat transposes 
the schedules of developing country Members, ex cept for those who undertake to prepare their own 
transposition and submit a notification to this ef fect before 31 March 2007.  As of today the 
Secretariat received three communications from Members who indicated their preference to prepare their own HS2007 transposition files.  I would like to remind you that only those Members that 
choose this option, i.e. to do the transposition themselves, need to  no tify the Secretariat.  
  
As for the actual transposition work, the Secretar iat has focussed its attention in the last two 
months on the ITA commitments.  The Secretariat in troduced last week in the ITA committee a draft 
model list for ITA products in HS 2007 nomenclature fo r the attention of the ITA participants.  This 
work will be of assistance in the regular HS 200 7 transposition because a large part of the HS 2007 
changes has affected the IT sector.   
 
As for the coming months we have to live with the uncertainty regarding the actual start of the 
scheduling since the negotiation modalities have not  yet been finalized. Should this phase begin 
within the next 6-8 months there will not be much time for the Secretariat to progress with the 
HS 2007 transposition.  A further c onstraint is linked to the missing  certifications of HS 2002 changes 
which have passed the multilateral review but whic h have not yet been approved by the Members 
themselves and are thus not yet certified.    
 
While there is certainly no lack of work in the IDB section - concluding HS 2002, catching up 
with the backlog in IDB submissions and the con tinuous flow of requests often related to the 
negotiations – we need to look forward and work on  a strategy for the HS 2007 transposition.  We 
therefore intend to use the following approach: 
 
We will start with limited resources the HS 2007 transposition of  those Members whose 
schedules are fully certified in HS 2002 and not likely to  undergo changes in the context of the DDA.   
The certification of HS 2002 changes is necessary b ecause some of the subheadings covered by HS 
2002 changes are further changed in HS 2007.  
 As LDC's are not expected to undertake further tariff reduction commitments it might be 
worthwhile to advance already with these files.  Unfortunately, only one recently acceded Member 
(Nepal) has a fully certified schedule in HS 2002.   One additional LDC (Cambodia) just yesterday 
approved its file (a result of the Chair's efforts, no doubt) and its certification is thus expected in the 
near future.  Among the 55 HS02 files that have pass ed the multilateral review there are a further nine 
LDCs but for these their own approval is still miss ing.  Another 15 LDCs, all without their own 
approval are subject to the next multilateral review. 
  Assuming a slow but continuous rate of appr oval by LDCs this could be a manageable 
proposition as it allows us to comple te the HS 2002 without too much further delay while at the same 
time enabling us to make progress and gain experience in the HS 2007 transposition.  G/MA/M/44 
Page 6  
 
  ANNEX III 
 
Integrated Data Base
 
 
IDB Submissions  
 
Since the circulation of the Status of Submissi ons document, G/MA/IDB/2/Rev.25, the Secretariat 
received the following submissions: 
 
• Korea, Republic of  2007 tariff data 
• Chinese Taipei 2007 tariff data 
• Indonesia 2002-2003 import data 
• Paraguay 2005 import data 
  
IDB Dissemination and Uses  
  
 The Secretariat continues to load information ont o the IDB Internet File Transfer Facility on a 
monthly basis.  As of  30  March 2007,  653 count ry-periods, covering 112 out of 122 Members and 
five acceding countries, are available on the IDB website.2  
  
 The following Members have not yet submitt ed any information to the IDB: Cambodia, 
Central African Republic, Chad, De mocratic Republic of the Congo, Guinea Bissau, Haiti, Lesotho, 
Mozambique, Saudi Arabia and Viet Nam. 
 
On the uses of IDB and CTS data I would like to mention 
 
• IDB and CTS continue to be used for th e calculation of AVEs for the NAMA Negotiating 
Group; 
• World Tariff Profiles, a new publication which I announced last October is now with the 
printers and should be out by early May. I has been co-produced with ITC and UNCTAD. 
 Technical Assistance
 
 
Since the last meeting of the CMA in April the following TA activities have been undertaken: 
 
Three regional NAMA workshops in  
• Mali for Francophone Africa 
• Vienna for Eastern Europe 
• Fiji for the Pacific region 
 
Two national NAMA workshops in: 
• Honduras  
• Guatemala 
 
The IDB and CTS were also presented in the regional Trade Policy course in Singapore.  
 
 
                                                      
2 The information provided by the European Communities cove rs its 27 member States as of 1 January 2007;  the 
information provided by Switzerl and covers also Liechtenstein.  G/MA/M/44 
 Page 7 
 
 
  ANNEX IV 
 
Consolidated Tariff Schedule Database  
 
 Since the last meeting of the Committee, IDB/ CTS staff have continued their work in the 
following areas:  
 
• Updating Members' files with certified rectif ications and modifications of schedules; 
• Preparation of the CTS file for the newly acceded Member Viet Nam; 
• Updating of IDB linked files further to a revi sion of IDB data for 2001 and/or the respective 
CTS file. 
 
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