RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/MA/M/48 
7 May 2009 
 (09-2233) 
Committee on Market Access  
  
MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 28 APRIL 2009 
 
Chairman: Dr. Mohammad SAEED (Pakistan)
 
 Subjects discussed
 Page  
 
1. Periodic Report of the Committee to the Council for Trade  in Goods ...............................2  
2. Introduction of HS96 Changes to Schedules of Concessions ................................................2  
(i) Submission of HS96 documentation (G/MA/TAR/2/Rev.42).......................................................2  
(ii) Draft decision on procedures leading to th e verification and certification of HS96 
changes relating to the schedules of 64 Members (JOB(09)/21/Rev.1)......................................2  
3. Introduction of Harmonized System 2002 Changes to Schedules of Concessions Using the Consolidated Tariff Schedules Database (WT/L/605) ..........................................3
 
(i) Report by the Secretariat on the status of work..........................................................................3  
4. Introduction of Harmonized System 2007 Changes to Schedules of Concessions 
Using the CTS Database (WT/L/673)......................................................................................3  
(i) Report by the Secretariat on the status of work..........................................................................3  
(ii) Transposition of Members' CTS Files to the HS2007 Nomenclature – Notes on 
Methodology (JOB(09)/24 and Add.1)........................................................................................4  
5. Modalities and Operation of the Integrated Data Base (IDB) ..............................................4  
(i) Status of submission of the required documentation  (G/MA/IDB/2/Rev.29 and 
Corr.1) ........................................................................................................................ ................4  
(ii) Report by the Secretariat on the status of work..........................................................................4  
6. Consolidated Tariff Schedules Database ................................................................................5  
(i) Report by the Secretariat on the status of work..........................................................................5  
(ii) Consolidated Tariff Schedules Databas e Formats for Tariff Commitments and 
Specific  Commitments in Agriculture in HS2002 Nomenclature (JOB(09)/32) ........................5  
7. Improving the Timeliness and Comp leteness of Notifications..............................................5  
(i) Report by the Chairman......................................................................................................... .....5 
8. Other Bu siness................................................................................................................. ..........7  
(i) Tariff Information ............................................................................................................. ..........7  
(ii) Situation of schedules ......................................................................................................... ........7  
(iii) Date of next meeting ........................................................................................................... ........7  
9. Election of th e Chairman ....................................................................................................... ..7 
ANNEX 1 ........................................................................................................................ ........................8 G/MA/M/48 
Page 2  
 
   The Committee adopted
 the agenda as reproduced in WTO/AIR/3350.  An annotated agenda 
was circulated in document JOB(09)/36.  
1. Periodic Report of the Committee to the Council for Trade  in Goods  
1.1 The Chairman
 drew the Committee's attention to document G/MA/SPEC/41 which contained 
the draft periodic report of the Committee.  He noted that this report, 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 pro cess submitted by the Members concerned.   
 
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 c oncerning their requests 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. Introduction of HS96 Changes to Schedules of Concessions 
(i) Submission of HS96 documentation (G/MA/TAR/2/Rev.42) 
2.1 The Chairman
 drew the Committee's attention to document G/MA/TAR/2/Rev.42 which 
reflected the present situation concerning the subm ission of required documentation. In terms of the 
changes introduced in relation to the previous ve rsion of the document, he noted that Panama had 
submitted some revised documen tation circulated as Rev.2. 
 2.2 The Committee took note
 of the document. 
 
(ii) Draft decision on procedures leading to th e verification and certification of HS96 changes 
relating to the schedules of 64 Members (JOB(09)/21/Rev.1) 
2.3 The Chairman  recalled that in early 2008, the atte ntion of the Committee was drawn to the 
situation of uncertified HS96 changes.  He furthe r recalled that while procedures existed for the 
introduction and certification of HS96 changes to  schedules (L/6905) only a limited number of 
Members had actually used them (see G/MA/TAR /2/Rev.42 for a list of Members).  For the 
remaining Members, the Secretariat had done the work of introducing these changes to schedules 
when establishing the Consolidat ed Tariff Schedules (CTS) database and when undertaking the HS02 
transposition work.  The issue befo re the Committee was that none of this Secretariat work had been 
verified or certified which had created a rather  ambiguous situation.  Consequently, the Committee 
had agreed that the Secretariat should look at this issue and come back with a proposal to address the 
matter.  So, at the last meeting of the Committee, the Secretariat had outlined draft procedures which  
provided for the verification and certification of those HS96 changes (paragraph 2.4, G/MA/M/47). The Committee had requested that these procedures be  elaborated into a draft decision for discussion 
in the Committee.  The Secretariat had drafted such  procedures (contained in  JOB(09)/21 and Corr.1) 
and they were discussed in the  Committee at its informal meeting of 26 March 2009. 
 
2.4 The revised version of that document presently  before the Committee included the corrections 
circulated in the corrigendum as well as the comment  made by Canada at th e informal meeting about 
incorporating somewhere in the text the notion of   this exercise not affecting the scope of the 
                                                     
 
1 Finalized report was ci rculated as G/MA/236.   G/MA/M/48 
 Page 3 
 
 
  concessions.  Language to this effect had been in cluded in paragraph 1(a) of the decision.  He 
proposed that the Committee approve the decision2 and agree that it be forwarded to the CTG and 
subsequently the General Counc il for appropriate action.  
 2.5 The Committee so agreed
.  
 
3. Introduction of Harmonized System 2002 Ch anges to Schedules of Concessions Using 
the Consolidated Tariff Schedules Database (WT/L/605)  
(i) Report by the Secretariat on the status of work 
3.1 A member of the Secretariat  (Mr. Jurgen Richtering) stated that a revised full report was 
issued as JOB(06)/8/Rev.9 on  17 March 2009.  The status of the HS02 transposition exercise was 
reflected in the first page of the report.  Only 10 files had not yet been sent for multilateral review.  
This did not look like much progress since he had last  reported on this project but to put things into 
perspective he wished to highlight some of the difficulties faced:   
 
- There were many exchanges taking place with some Members (between 20 and 40 emails) 
and sometimes up to two new submissions were no tified again.  This implied additional work 
as the Secretariat had to compare the new subm ission to the original CTS file in HS96 and 
reprocess the Member's submission.  
- No reply or very late replies to the Secretaria t's comments/request for additional information.  
- Double transposition for some Members which had their original CTS file in HS92 
nomenclature.   
- The Secretariat had received further comment s for files which had already gone through the 
multilateral review and which were approved by a ll Members.  In this case the Secretariat had 
to prepare a revised file. 
 
3.2 He hoped that delegations and their expert s in capitals understood the workload and the 
Secretariat's  ongoing efforts to complete this exerci se.  Regarding the certification of files that were 
approved, he pointed out that the number of certif ied files would be much higher if more Members 
could approve their own files.   3.3 The Committee took note
 of the report. 
 
4. Introduction of Harmonized System 2007 Ch anges to Schedules of Concessions Using 
the CTS Database (WT/L/673)   
(i) Report by the Secretariat on the status of work 
4.1 A member of the Secretariat  (Mr. Jurgen Richtering) reported that there had not been much 
work done by the Secretariat on the processing of files.  The Secretariat had so far received only 
2 submissions. They intended to start the work  of processing developing country files as soon as the 
Committee had approved the proposed guidelines that the Secretariat had introduced at the last 
informal meeting which was circulated in document JOB(09)/24.     The Committee took note
 of the report. 
 
                                                      
2 The draft decision was subsequently issued as G/C/W/619 .  G/MA/M/48 
Page 4  
 
  (ii) Transposition of Members' CTS Files to th e HS2007 Nomenclature – Notes on Methodology 
(JOB(09)/24 and Add.1) 
4.2 The Chairman
 recalled that at the informal mee ting of 26 March 2009, the Committee had 
considered  Secretariat document JOB(09)/24.  In this document, the Secretariat had provided some 
practical solutions aimed at simplifying in as much as possible the structure of Members' WTO 
schedule of concessions, while preserving their rights and obligations.  The basic idea was to develop 
common rules that could be applied to all schedul es that the Secretariat was going to process and 
verify.  There were no comments at that meeting on this document.  The Secretariat had recently 
circulated an addendum.     
4.3 The representative of the United States
 noted that the addendum to the methodology that had 
been proposed for this transposition had been only r ecently issued.  His delegation wished to review  
that addendum in the course of the next couple of  weeks, but was nevertheless in a position to  
approve the documents on an ad referendum  basis at this meeting, on the understanding that if it had 
any concerns it would come back to the Committee.  
 
4.4 In light of the intervention, the Chairman  proposed that the documents be considered 
approved provided no comments were forthcoming by  any Member within two weeks from the date 
of the meeting.  4.5 The Committee so agreed
. 
 
4.6 The Chairman  recalled that he had raised  one further issue at the informal meeting concerning 
HS07 work and that was the matter of the dead line for the submission of the HS07 documentation 
from developed Members' as well those developing  Members who are preparing the documentation 
themselves. He had proposed that such submissions be made approximately six months from the date 
of this formal meeting (so that would be 31 Oc tober 2009).  Given that Members had more guidance 
on how to handle some of the more complicated tran sposition questions, he thought that this might be 
a realistic date. No Member had raised an objecti on at the informal meeting to the proposal.  He 
wondered whether Members could confirm thei r agreement at this formal meeting.  
 4.7 The  Committee agreed
 to the proposed date.   
 
5. Modalities and Operation of the Integrated Data Base (IDB) 
(i) Status of submission of the required documentation  (G/MA/IDB/2/Rev.29 and Corr.1) 
5.1 The Committee took note  of documents G/MA/IDB/2/Rev. 29 and Corr.1 which contained the 
status of submissions of the required documentation.   
 
(ii) Report by the Secretariat on the status of work 
5.2 A member of the Secretariat  (Mr. Jurgen Richtering) introduced the report which is contained 
in Annex I.  5.3 The Committee took note
 of the report. 
  G/MA/M/48 
 Page 5 
 
 
  6. Consolidated Tariff Schedules Database   
(i) Report by the Secretariat on the status of work  
6.1 A member of the Secretariat  (Mr. Jurgen Richtering) noted that as announced at the 
October 2008 meeting of this Committee, the Secret ariat had started to load the HS 2002 version of 
the CTS to the File Transfer Fac ility.  The document (JOB(09)/32) presented the formats that would be 
used in the new version of the CTS in HS 2002 nomenc lature.  The Secretariat in tended to load in the 
coming month 70-80 Members files to the provisional area of the IDB/CTS File Transfer Facility.  
 6.2 The Committee took note
 of the report.  
 (ii) Consolidated Tariff Schedules Database Fo rmats for Tariff Commitments and Specific 
Commitments in Agriculture in HS2002 Nomenclature (JOB(09)/32) 
6.3 The Chairman
 noted that the Secretariat docume nt JOB(09)/32 whic h was before the 
Committee presented revised formats that would be used in the new version of the CTS database in the HS2002 nomenclature.  It covered Members' tari ff commitments as well as specific commitments in 
agriculture in the HS2002 nomenclature.  
 
6.4 The representative of the United States
 noted that his authorities were still reviewing this 
document, especially the section relation to speci fic commitments in agriculture. So, as with the 
earlier agenda item, his delegation stood ready to approve the document on an ad referendum  basis on 
the understanding that if it had any concerns it would come back to the Committee within two weeks.  
 
6.5 The representative of the European Communities  indicated that his authorities were in the 
same position.   6.6 In light of the interventions made, the Chairman
 proposed that document JOB(09)/32 be 
considered approved by the Committee provided no comments were forthcoming by any Member 
within two weeks from the date of the meeting.   6.7 The Committee so agreed
. 
 
7. Improving the Timeliness and Completeness of Notifications 
(i) Report by the Chairman 
7.1 The Chairman  noted that the report he was about to make was the same one that he had 
provided to the Chairman of the Trade Policy Review  Body (TPRB) with the assurance that the latter 
would be kept informed by the next Chairman of the Committee on Market Access of any further 
developments regarding this issue.  
 
7.2 The relevant notifications overseen by the Committee on Market Access stemmed from the following three decisions:  the Decision on Notifi cation Procedures for Quantitative Restrictions  
(G/L/59) (in short the "Decision on QRs");  the Decision on Reverse Notification of Non-Tariff 
Measures (G/L/60) (in short the "Decision on NTMs") ; and the Decision on the Supply of Information 
to the Integrated Database (IDB) for Personal Co mputers (WT/L/225) (In short the "Decision on  IDB 
tariff and trade data"). 
 7.3 The Committee had first considered the question of timeliness and completeness of notifications pursuant to these decisions at an  informal meeting held on 26 March 2009.   
 G/MA/M/48 
Page 6  
 
  7.4 In relation to the Decision on QRs and th e Decision on IDB tariff and trade data, room 
documents were circulated by the Secretariat which provided information on the status of notifications 
under these two decisions; these room documents were  reissued as (JOB(09)/33) and (JOB(09)/34), 
respectively.  In respect of the Decision on NTMs , he believed that the Committee had agreed with 
the three observations he had made, namely: (1) he w ould not put this Decision in the same basket as 
the other two.  Its difference lay in  the fact that it was not an obligation for a Member to notify under 
this Decision; (2) In practise, Members did engage in some form of reverse notification when they 
raised a bilateral concern in the context of Comm ittee meetings; and (3) There had been an intensive 
period of reverse notifications of NTBs unde rtaken in the context of the NGMA.   
 
7.5 Following the discussion at that meeting, there appeared to be agreement that the record of 
notifications  under the Decision on QRs and the Decisi on on  IDB tariff and trade data  had not been 
good. He had advanced some simple ideas on how to impr ove that situation.  He  had also put forward 
some thoughts on how to make Members more aware of the Decision on NTMs.   He convened a second consultation on 16 April in or der to have a more thorough discussion of his ideas as well as to 
hear alternative ideas.  
 7.6 The discussion on 16 April was very useful .  Concerning the Decision on QRs, while 
Members in general were willing to accept his fi rst proposal to send a letter drawing Members' 
attention to this Decision, the Committee agreed that  there first needed to be a clarification of the 
definition of QRs or more precisely of the QRs to be  notified pursuant to the Decision.  This had not 
always been clear to Members in the past and par tially explained why compliance levels were low. In 
respect of his second proposal to circulate the QR no tifications, in light of certain interventions made 
at the meeting, the Committee took th e view that circulation of such notifications at this stage would 
be premature and would be preferable once the database had more complete information.  The 
Committee had agreed to look into both questions be fore the summer, prior to sending out the letter  
proposed by him.  
 7.7 In respect of the Decision on NTMs, the Co mmittee had agreed to his proposal that six 
months before a review of these notifications was supposed to take place (which was every two years 
at the same time as the review of QRs),  the Ch airman was to send a letter out to Members drawing 
their attention to the fact there was a venue for such types of notification and that the Committee 
would be assessing such notifications at its mee ting which was to take place in six months.  
 7.8 Concerning the Decision on IDB tariff and trade data, he had proposed that the Committee give the flexibility to the Secretariat to pursue the option which it thought would yield the best result for the Member concerned in terms of filling that Me mber's data gaps.  It being understood, that the 
delegation would be kept fully info rmed of any data that had not been directly submitted by it and 
would retain the right to object to the inclusion of any data which it might consider not reflecting 
accurately its situation.  A non-exha ustive list of options was contai ned in paragraph 15 of document 
JOB(09)/34.  At that meeting, questions were as ked about the options which had been presented by 
the Secretariat.  The Committee agreed that the S ecretariat should prepare a paper which outlined how 
such options would work in practise in case the Secretariat decided to use them.  A meeting would be 
held once such a paper is ready.  
 7.9 The representative of India
 noted that there was one thing he wished to add to the Chairman's 
report on this issue.  In the opinion of his delegati on, a lot of this information was already available 
in-house through the notifications which Members had made to various Committees which handled 
trade in goods. One could take a look at tapping that  source directly without having to ask Members to 
notify some of the QRs again to the Committee on Market Access.  
 7.10 The Chairman
 noted that he had already sent his report  to the Chairman of the TPRB, but he 
proposed that this issue be taken up by his successo r and a report be made of  it the next time the  G/MA/M/48 
 Page 7 
 
 
  Chairman of the TPRB was informed of developmen ts in this Committee concerning the subject of 
notifications.   7.11 The Committee took note
 of the report and the statements.  
  8. Other Business 
(i) Tariff Information  
8.1 The Committee took note
 of the Secretariat document G/MA/TAR/3/Rev.13 which provided 
the most recent information in the tariff library and the website addresses where more recent national 
tariffs could be found.   
 
(ii) Situation of schedules  
8.2 The Committee took note  of the Secretariat document G/MA/W/23/Rev.6 which contained 
the updated information on the situation of schedules.  (iii) Date of next meeting  
8.3 The Committee took note
 that its next meeting was scheduled for 9 October 2009. 
  
9. Election of the Chairman 
9.1 The Committee elected Mr. Barney Riley (New Zealand) as Chairman for 2009.    
 
  
 
_______________ 
 G/MA/M/48 
Page 8  
 
  ANNEX I
 
 
Integrated Data Base  
 
IDB Submissions  
 
 Since the circulation of the Status of Submissions document, G/MA/IDB/2/Rev.29 and its 
corrigendum, the Secretariat has received 44 import and 33 tariff submissions.  For more details, please refer to the room document (attached to this annex) which lists all th e submissions in detail. 
  
 The following Members have not yet submitte d any information to the IDB: Cambodia, 
Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Re public of the Congo, Guinea Bissau, Haiti, and 
Viet Nam. 
 
The Secretariat loads information onto the IDB Internet File Transfer Facility again on a 
monthly basis.  Currently,  798 country-periods, covering 114 out of 125 Members and six acceding 
countries, are available on the IDB website.
 1 
 Technical Assistance (TA)
 
 
Since the last meeting of the Committee on Ma rket Access in October 2008, the following TA 
activities have been undertaken: 
 
Regional NAMA workshops in  
 
• Fiji for Pacific economies 
• Tunisia for Francophone Africa 
• Namibia for Anglophone Africa (this week) 
 
One national NAMA workshop in:  
• Oman  
 
The IDB and CTS were also presented in the regional Trade Policy course in Colombia.  
 
Software Development
 
  The Secretariat has improved the user interface of  the Internet Analysis Facility and it has 
also developed a new facility to allow a flexible  public download of MFN applied and bound duties at 
the level of HS 6-digit aggregates. The new downloa d facility allows for the selection user-defined of 
groups of products, for one or several Memb ers and for one or more points in time.  
  For an introduction of the new features of the IAF and of the new HS 6-digit download 
facility, the Secretariat will organize a presen tation in English on 12 May 2009 at 10am
2.  It will be 
followed by hands on training sessions – on an inscrip tion basis – in the three working languages.  
These latter sessions will be organized in the second half of May.  
                                                     
 
1 The information provided by the European Communitie s covers its 27 member States as of 1 January 
2007;  the information provided by Switzerland covers also Liechtenstein.  
2 The date for this presentation was changed .   G/MA/M/48 
 Page 9 
 
 
   Finally, I would also like to remind delega tions that on 18-19 May the Secretariat has 
organized, jointly with ITC, UNCTAD and the Wo rld Bank a Data Day. The main purpose of the 
Data Day is to raise policy makers' awareness on a range of data-related issues, introduce users to 
various data applications, draw a ttention to the continuing needs in the data field, and promote 
coherence and co-operation among international agenci es that manage data.  Invitations were sent to 
delegations and concerned in ternational organizations.  
 G/MA/M/48 
Page 10  
 
  Attachment to the Annex  
 
 Since the circulation of the Status of Submissions document, G/MA/IDB/2/Rev.29 and 
Corrigendum, the Secretariat has received the following submissions: 
  
Member IDB submission 
Brazil 2008 imports 
Brazil 2009 tariff data 
Canada 2008 imports 
Canada 2009 tariff data 
China 2007 tariff data 
China 2008 tariff data 
Costa Rica 2009 tariff data 
Dominican Republic 2009 tariff data 
Guyana 2002 tariff data 
Guyana 2005 imports 
Guyana 2006 imports 
Guyana 2007 imports and tariff data 
Guyana 2008 tariff data 
India 2007 imports 
Korea, Republic of 2001 tariff data 
Korea, Republic of 2009 tariff data 
Kuwait 2001 imports 
Kuwait 2002 imports 
Kuwait 2003 imports and tariff data 
Kuwait 2004 imports and tariff data 
Kuwait 2005 imports and tariff data 
Kuwait 2006 imports and tariff data 
Kuwait 2007 imports and tariff data 
Kuwait 2008 imports and tariff data 
Macao, China 2008 imports 
Macao, China 2009 tariff data 
Mongolia 2007 imports and tariff data 
Mongolia 2008 imports and tariff data 
Mongolia 2009 tariff data 
Oman 1998 imports 
Oman 1999 imports 
Oman 2000 imports 
Oman 2001 imports 
Oman 2002 imports 
Oman 2003 imports 
Oman 2004 imports and tariff data 
Oman 2005 imports and tariff data 
Oman 2006 imports and tariff data  G/MA/M/48 
 Page 11 
 
 
  Member IDB submission 
Oman 2007 imports 
Oman 2008 imports 
Oman 2009 tariff data 
Qatar 1998 imports 
Qatar 1999 imports 
Qatar 2000 imports 
Qatar 2001 imports 
Qatar 2002 imports 
Qatar 2003 imports 
Qatar 2004 imports 
Qatar 2005 imports 
Qatar 2006 imports 
Qatar 2007 imports 
Qatar 2008 imports and tariff data 
Qatar 2009 tariff data 
Saudi Arabia 2000 imports 
Saudi Arabia 2001 tariff data 
Saudi Arabia 2002 imports and tariff data 
Saudi Arabia 2003 tariff data 
Saudi Arabia 2005 imports 
Saudi Arabia 2006 imports 
Saudi Arabia 2007 imports 
Saudi Arabia 2008 tariff data 
Taipei, Chinese 2009 tariff data 
Ukraine 2009 tariff data 
 
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