RESTRICTED  
  
WT/REG/M/104  
 
17 October  2022 
(22-7811) Page: 1/4 
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements  
Hundredth  and Fourth  Session    
 
 
NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 22 SEPTEMBER  2022 
Chairm an: Ambassador H.E. Mr. Taeho LEE (Republic of Korea ) 
A. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA  
1.1.  The 10 4th Session of the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements (hereinafter "CRTA " or the 
"Committee") was convened in Airgram WTO/AIR/RTA/ 29/Rev.1  dated 12 September  2022.  
1.2.  The Chairman welcomed delegations to the to the 10 4th Session of the CRTA. He recalled that 
the meeting was subject to a hybrid approach, with some Members in the room and others 
connecting remotely through Interprefy. The Airgram  set out the draft agenda. The delegations of 
the United Kingdom and Kenya had requested that the consideration of the ir agreement be 
postponed to the following meeting of the Committee in November. Therefore,  this item had been 
removed f rom the agenda. Under a genda Item G "Other Business", he would inform Members about  
the issue of  "WTO Reform" and  the proposed dates  for CRTA  meetings for the rest of the year.  
1.3.  The Committee adopted  the Agenda:  
 The following items were proposed for the agenda:  
 Adoption of the Agenda  
 Early announcements ( http://rtais.wto.org ) 
 Notifications of regional trade agreements : 
(I) Trade agreement between  the United Kingdom and Colombia, Ecuador 
and Peru, goods and services (WT/REG 425/N/2 - S/C/N/1028/Add.1 ) 
(II) United Kingdom  - Colombia, goods and services  –Notification of 
termination  (WT/REG410/N/2 -S/C/N/1024 /Add.1)  
 Non-notified RTAS (WT/REG/W/169)  
 Status on the preparation of factual presentations ( WT/REG/W/170 to be 
issued)  
 Consideration of Regional Trade Agreements  
(I) Free Trade Agreement between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) 
Member States and Singapore, services (S/C/N/807/Rev.1, 
WT/REG460/1, WT/REG460/2 to be issued)  
(II) Economic Partnership Agreement between Kenya and the United 
Kingdom, goods (WT/REG417/N/1, WT/REG417/N/1/Add.1, 
WT/REG417/1, WT/REG417/2 to be issued)  WT/REG/M/104  
 
- 2 - 
 
  (III)  Trade Agreeme nt between Switzerland and the United Kingdom, goods 
(WT/REG437/N/1, WT/REG437/1, WT/REG437/2)  
(IV) Association Agreement between the United Kingdom and Tunisia, goods 
(WT/REG433/N/1, WT/REG433/1, WT/REG433/2 to be issued)  
(V) Free Trade Agreement between the Unite d Kingdom  and the Republic of 
Korea, goods and services (WT/REG431/N/1 -S/C/N/1029, 
WT/REG431/1, WT/REG431/2 to be issued)  
(VI) Free Trade Agreement between the Republic of Korea and the Republic 
of Central America (Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua a nd 
Panama), goods and services (WT/REG452/N/1 -S/C/N/1054, 
WT/REG452/1, WT/REG452/2 to be issued)  
 Other business  
B.  EARLY ANNOUNCEMENTS  
1.4.  The Chairman  indicated that no early announcements had been received since 2019. He invited 
all Members that were active in RTAs to accordingly inform the Committee of recent developments. 
He also reminded Members to inform the Secretariat of any changes in the status  of early 
announcements.  
C. NOTIFICATIONS OF REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS  
1.5.  The Chairman  indicated that two notifications had been received since the 103rd session of the 
CRTA.  
1.6.  C.I. Trade Agreement between the United Kingdom, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru , goods and 
services , (WT/REG425/N/2 -S/C/N/1028/Add.1 ).  
1.7.  C.II. United Kingdom – Colombia (goods and services) Notification of Termination 
(WT/REG410/N/2 -S/C/N/1024/Add.1 . Following entry of the Agreement notified under C.I. t he 
United Kingdom and Colombia had noti fied the termination of the temporary arrangement allowing 
trade in goods and services between them to be carried out under preferential terms, in document 
WT/REG410/N/2 - S/C/N/1024/Add.1.   
1.8.  In addition, since the circulation of the revised Airgram the Secretariat had received a 
notification of the entry into force of the SADC Protocol on Trade in Services. This notification would  
be included in the Airgram for the next session of the CRTA.  
D. NON-NOTIFIED RTAS  
1.9.  The Chairman  stated that an updated list of non -notified RTAs had been  recently circulated as 
WT/REG/W/169. It contained 62 RTAs issued in factual presentations up to 12 September 2022. 
Compared to the previous list, one RTA had been added and none had been removed. The SADC 
Proto col on Trade in Services was still included because the updated list had been  issued just before 
the receipt of the notification. Accordingly, entry number 43 would be removed from the next version 
of the document.  
E. STATUS ON THE PREPARATION OF FACTUAL P RESENTATIONS  
1.10.   As regards the preparation of the factual presentations under the remit of the CRTA – in the 
case of RTAs involving WTO members only – there were currently 51 RTAs for which a factual 
presentation had to be prepared, counting goods and service s separately.  
1.11.   Factual presentations on a further 37 RTAs involving non -Members were to be prepared, 
counting goods and services separately, as previously agreed by the Committee.  WT/REG/M/104  
 
- 3 - 
 
  1.12.   The factual presentations for seven other services agreements were on hold,  pending the 
negotiation of services commitments. Of these, one involve d non-WTO m embers. An updated list of 
all such RTAs had been  recently circulated as document WT/REG/W/170.  
1.13.   The Chairman informed the Committee that he had held consultations with a few delegations 
regarding the backlog due to late or non-receipt  of data necessary for the preparation of factual 
presentations and comments on factual presentations.  He was disappointed that the majority of 
delegations he had contacted failed to respond positively to his request for consultations. At a time 
when there was momentum among Members to improve transparency within the Organization, he 
was puzzled that actions d id not match statements. Members should collectively try to improve 
transparency in RTAs, and that work ed both ways: transparency was a right, but esp ecially in this 
case, also an obligation.  He hoped that delegations  would  from now on respond positively to his 
request for consultations on the backlog, with the aim of providing the missing information as soon 
as possible.  
1.14.   He underlined that these consu ltations were also beneficial for Members themselves  as they  
may help to identify bottlenecks and whether any additional help from the Secretariat was required. 
In that respect, he had  been informed that the RTA Section would be organizing a series of webi nars 
entitled "RTA Data Dialogues", aimed at technical officials handling RTA data submissions. The aims 
were to enhance knowledge of WTO RTA data processing procedures, improve the quality of data 
submissions, and lessen the time and work burden for Membe rs' technical experts. Tentatively, they 
were scheduled for 18 October and 29 November 2022 and invitations w ould be sent out to CRTA 
delegates after the meeting. He suggested that Members should encourage their capital -based 
colleagues to participate in t hese dialogues. Eventually this would serve to clear some of the backlog.  
1.15.   The representative  of the United States  thanked the Chairman for his intervention and 
reminder of the importance of providing the required information. He wished to echo this and 
encouraged Parties to provide the fullest possible data and information in order for the Secretariat 
to complete the drafting of the outstanding factual presentations. The lack of transparency 
contribute d to the decreasing relevance  of this body for some stakeholders. His delegation urged all 
Members to participate in the exercise.   
1.16.   A representative of the Secretariat  provided the following information. Concerning 
Agreements among Members , the Secretariat was drafting factual present ations for ASEAN -Hong 
Kong, China (G&S), Turkey -EFTA (G&S), and Turkey -Serbia (S) and should be in a position to send 
them soon to the Parties for comment.  For Peru's accession to the CPTPP , data ha d been received 
from some of the Parties and clarification  and additional data had been sought from some Parties.  
For EU -PNG, Fiji, (G) data was awaited f rom Fiji. Data had been received from Samoa and the 
Solomon Islands concerning their accession to th e Agreement.  For ECOWAS (G), some data ha d 
been received fro m Togo, Niger, Senegal and Benin; no data ha d been received from the other 
Parties.  For the AFTA most of the data had been received from the Parties and the Secretariat would 
shortly start draft ing the factual presentation; for India -Mauritius (S) data was still awaited from 
India. For Turkey -EFTA data was still awaited from EFTA; for EFTA -Ecuador data was awaited from 
EFTA, while for Ecuador the MFN 2020 tariff  data was pending . For EFTA -Indonesia data was awaited 
from the Parties.  For the GCC (G), respons es were awaited from the Parties to members questions.  
1.17.   With regard to the agreements  involving the United Kingdom, the Secretariat had received 
comments  from most of the Parties for the UK-ESA (G). Comments were awaited on UK -Albania 
from the United Kingdom. A data request had been sent for the latest notification, that of the 
Agreement between the United Kingdom, Colombia, Ecuador,  and Peru (G&S). Factual presentations  
were being drafted  on the UK's Agreements with the following Parties: Japan, Georgia, the EU and 
North Macedonia. The drafts of UK agreements with Japan and the EU would be shortly sent to the 
Parties for comment. For the remaining agreements involving the UK drafting was yet to start or 
data and  further clarifications from a number of the non -UK Parties  were still pending . 
1.18.   Concerning factual presentations involving non -members, the Secretariat was currently 
drafting factual presentations for UK -Serbia (G&S) and Turkey -Serbia (S). The factual presentation 
for Turkey -Serbia would be sent to the Parties for comment shortly. Drafting of the factual 
presentation for P ACER  Plus would start soon. For the CIS Agreement (G) some comments had been 
received. For the EAEU -Iran Agreement  (G), the deadline for data submission was 22 June 2020; no 
data had been received. For the EAEU -Serbia Agreement (G) data ha d been received only from 
Serbia. Data concerning the accession of the Comoros to the EU -ESA Agreement was due on WT/REG/M/104  
 
- 4 - 
 
  30 March 2021; da ta had been received from the EU. For the UK-Faeroe Islands, UK -Lebanon, and 
UK-Cariforum, data had been  due on 5 May 2021  and was still awaited from the non-UK Parties. For 
UK-Palestine, data had been  due on 10 May 2021. For Turkey -Kosovo and UK -Kosovo da ta had been 
received.  
1.19.   For the following agreements data was not complete: EFTA -Lebanon, Turkey -Syria, 
Ukraine -Azerbaijan, Ukraine -Turkmenistan, and the Russian Federation -Turkmenistan. The data 
requests had been  made a few years ago.  
F. CONSIDERATION OF REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS  
ITEM F.I 
(The minutes of the consideration of this Agreement were being distributed a s a separate document 
WT/REG4 60/M/1)  
 
ITEM F.II  
(The minutes of the consideration of this Agreement were being distributed as a separate document 
WT/REG4 17/M/1)  
 
ITEM F.III 
(The minutes of the consideration of this Agreement were being distributed as a separate document 
WT/REG4 37/M/1)  
 
ITEM F.IV  
(The minutes of the consideration of this Agreement were being distributed as a separate document 
WT/REG4 33/M/1)  
 
ITEM F.V  
(The minutes of the consideration of this Agreement were being distribut ed as a separate document 
WT/REG4 31/M/1)  
 
ITEM F.VI  
(The minutes of the consideration of this Agreement were being distributed as a separate document 
WT/REG 52/M/1)  
 
G. OTHER BUSINESS  
G.(I) WTO Reform  
1.20.   The Chairman  recalled paragraph 3 of the MC12 outcome do cument as it referred to WTO 
reform. As Members were aware, the General Council Chair ha d started consultations on the issue 
of WTO reform. He had been  informed that some WTO Committees ha d also started a ddressing this 
issue.  Although he was in Members ' hands, a t this stage, he could only encourage them to consider 
what could be improved in the context of the CRTA as part of efforts to reform the  WTO. He reassured  
Members that he would make himself available for any discussions or initiatives they thought  
appropriate, be it in the form of one -to-one informal consultations or any other format, such as more 
structured discussions. This was a Member -driven exercise and any progress w ould depend on WTO 
Members . He invited interested Members to contact  him directly should they be willing to discuss 
this issue.  
1.21.   The Chairman informed the Committee that the forthcoming session, which would also be the 
last meeting of the CRTA in 2022, was tentatively scheduled for 14 to 15 November.  
1.22.   The Committee took note  of all the comments made  during the meeting . 
__________