RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/REG/M/41 
7 February 2006 
 
 (06-0516) 
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements 
Forty-First Session   
 
 
 
NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 23 AND 24 JANUARY 2006 
 
Chairmen:  Mr. R. Saborío Soto (Costa Rica ) 
and Mr. A. Egger (Switzerland ) 
 
 
A. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA  
1. The 41st Session of the Committee on Regional Trad e Agreements (hereinafter CRTA or the 
Committee) was convened in Airgram WTO/AIR/2734, dated 9 January 2006.  As requested by the 
Committee, an annotated draft agenda had been distributed by fax on 29 November 2005. 
2. The Chairman  announced that under "Other Business" he would raise the issue of technical 
cooperation activities conducted by the Secretariat in the area of regional trade agreements in 2005.   
3. The following Agenda was adopted: 
A. Adoption of the Agenda 
B. Reporting on the Operation of the Agreement. 
  Association Agreement between the European Community and Cyprus 
  Association Agreement between the European Community and Malta   Free Trade Agreement between the United States and Israel 
C. Examination of Regional Trade Agreements: 
I. Status Report on the Examination Work 
II. Europe Agreement between the Eu ropean Communities and Bulgaria, 
Services 
III. Europe Agreement between the Eu ropean Communities and Romania, 
Services 
IV. Free Trade Agreement between Turkey and Croatia 
V. Free Trade Agreement between Georgia and Armenia 
VI. Free Trade Agreement between the Kyrgyz Republic and Armenia 
VII. Closer Economic Partnership Agreem ent between China and Hong Kong, 
China, Goods and Services 
VIII. Closer Economic Partnership Agreemen t between China and Macao, China, 
Goods and Services 
IX. Free Trade Agreement between Chile a nd El Salvador, Goods and Services 
X. Free Trade Agreement between the United States and Chile, Goods and 
Services 
XI. Free Trade Agreement between the United States and Singapore, Goods and 
Services 
XII. Free Trade Agreement between the Un ited States and Jordan, Goods and 
Services 
XIII. Caribbean Community and Common Market, Services 
 WT/REG/M/41 
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  D. Other Business 
 
4. The Chairman
 recalled that the Latin American 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 meeting.  It was so agreed . 
B. REPORTING ON THE OPERATION OF THE AGREEMENT  
5. The Chairman   recalled that under item 1(b) of the Co mmittee's terms of reference, a schedule 
for the presentation in 2004 of 19 periodic reports on the operation of agreements had been proposed 
to the CRTA in November 2003, in document WT/R EG/W/48.  Ten reports had been submitted, of 
which seven had already been considered in previous CRTA sessions.  Three biennial reports, 
EC-Cyprus (document WT/REG97/R/B/2), EC-Ma lta (document WT/REG102/R/B/2), and United 
States-Israel (document WT/REG202/R/B/1) were on the day's Agenda under Item B. 
6. Thanking those Members which had fulfilled their obligations, the Chairman called the 
attention of the Committee to an aide-mémoire  prepared by the Secretariat which summarized the 
state of play of biennial reporting.  Of the nine reports not yet received, one  related to an agreement 
which had been superseded by a new agreement currently under examination in the CRTA and hence 
was no longer due.  Of the remaining eight, three re lated to agreements whic h were terminated upon 
the enlargement of the European Union, though th e obligation to submit a report covering the period 
up to 1 May 2004 still existed.  Five related to agreements which remained in force. 
7. A total of 13 biennial reports were in prin ciple scheduled to be submitted in 2006 (biennial 
reports were no longer required for the period after 1 May 2004 for those agreements which ceased to 
exist upon the enlargement of the European Union, nor for the superseded agreement).  However, at 
that juncture, the Chairman proposed that, rath er than establishing a formal schedule for the 
submission of biennial reports for 2006, the Comm ittee awaited the outcome of discussions currently 
taking place in the Negotiating Group on Rules, which had a bearing with this procedure.  He thus 
suggested that the Committee revert to this item in June 2006, while at the same time urging 
delegations which had not yet fulf illed their reporting requirements to do so as soon as possible.  The 
Chairman asked Members if they had other comment s to make under that item and invited them to 
submit any specific questions, relating to the biennial  reports under consideration, in writing to the 
Secretariat by 17 February and the concerned Par ties, to provide an answer by 10 March. 
8. The representative of the European Communities  asked the Parties to the Free Trade 
Agreement between the United States and Israel to  provide specific figures on the coverage of the 
2004 agriculture agreement and if they could indicat e what percentage of agricultural trade was not 
yet duty free.  Furthermore, noting that the biennial report stated that over 99 per cent of imports from Israel entered duty free in the United States, she enquired whether agricultural products from Israel 
under quota or tariff represented less than one per cent  of bilateral trade.  Also, she asked the Parties 
to inform the Committee on what measures were a dopted by the Joint Committee in its July 2004 
meeting to discuss measures to expand bilateral trad e under the FTA.  With respect to the bilateral 
dispute settlement provisions under Article 19 of the Agreement, she enquired whether they had ever 
been used.  Referring to Article 19. 1(f), she asked what were the para meters that decided the use of 
the multilateral or the bilateral dispute settlement mechanism and whether th e use of one mechanism 
prevented the use of the other once the first one was over.  If a multilateral mechanism could not be 
used after the ending of the bilateral mechanism a nd the latter was non-binding (Article 19.1(e):  "the 
report of the panel shall be non-binding"), sh e wondered how could th e Parties guarantee the 
resolution of disputes.  The representative of the United States
 replied that she would provide answers 
in  writing to the questions about the biennial report.   She however recalled that the subject of review 
was the biennial report and not the original Agreem ent, which had already been examined under the 
GATT; she offered however to discuss bilaterally  any questions that the European Communities  WT/REG/M/41 
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  might have regarding the original Agre ement.  The representative of Israel  asked the European 
Communities to provide the questions in writing, so that he could submit them to capital and reply in 
the same way. 
9. The Chairman  asked the Members to submit their written questions to the Secretariat by 
17 February and the parties to respond to them by 10 March.  He also announced that at the next 
meeting, the Committee would discuss the organization of the work on biennial reports. 
C. EXAMINATION OF REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS  
I. Status Report on the Examination Work 
10. The Chairman  provided the Committee with a status report on the examination work.  As of 
mid January 2006, the Committee had under examinati on a total of 144 agreements, of which 113 in 
the area of trade in goods and 31 in trade in services .  In addition, there were 7 RTAs for which the 
Committee had not yet received the mandate for exam ination.  Forty four RTAs were undergoing 
factual examination (of which 18 in this Sessi on), while for 51 RTAs, the Committee had not yet 
started the factual examination.  For the rema ining 49 RTAs the factual examination had been 
concluded.   
11. The Chairman reminded delegations whose RTAs had been recently notified of the possibility 
of having the Secretariat prepare a factual examinat ion on their behalf; delega tions wishing to avail 
themselves to this opportunity should contact the Secretariat as soon as possible.  He also pointed out that in view of the ongoing negotiations, and the fact that Ministers in Hong Kong had given a 
deadline of 30 April to put in place a new transp arency mechanism, delegations needed to ask 
themselves whether to organize future work based in the old tradition or in the new transparency 
mechanism that could be adopted.  Before inviti ng delegations for their comments and ideas on how 
they might organize work in the forthcoming Sessions of the CRTA (scheduled for 27-28 March, 26-27 June, and 9-10 October 2006), he asked the Secretariat to summarize the situation. 
12. The representative of the Secretariat
 said that at the June meeting, if the new transparency 
mechanism was to be approved, there would be some agreements which would be in the middle of the 
current process of examination and others for which a new kind of process would start.  
Consequently, the issue for the March meeting was whether to concentrate on agreements already in 
the examination process, or to start new examinati ons that should then have to follow a different 
process than the one described in the new transparency mechanism, in the case this was approved.  
The Chairman  saw a problem in that there was no certainty that a decision would be taken by 30 April 
and therefore they were not forced to adopt a new kind of examination process.  The representative of 
the United States , who was not satisfied with the curre nt way of examining the agreements, 
considered that it was important for all delegations to work for the completion of the negotiations on a 
provisional transparency mechanism and that they should consequently operate on that basis.  She 
thus agreed with the Secretariat's proposal of tr ying to get as many agreements as possible into the 
same category as those for which the factual exam ination had been concl uded and have the next 
meeting only on those examinations that were in the middle of the examination process, without 
prejudice of the fate of those agreements whose factual examinations had been concluded.  The 
representative of Hong Kong, China  considered that if the objective was to clear the backlog of 
agreements, it would be sensible to focus on tho se examinations that were in the middle of the 
examination and try to get as many agreements as possible ready for the Secretariat's report before 
starting first rounds of examination of other ag reements.  The representative of Chinese Taipei  
supported the Secretariat's idea of trying to simplify the process.  In terms of the preparation of the 
data, it would also save Members' time to wait for those agreements not having gone into the first 
round, because depending on what kind of examinati on took place, they needed to provide different 
types of data.  In the case there was a decision in Ap ril, they could then resolve how to treat those WT/REG/M/41 
Page 4  
 
  agreements already notified but not yet examined.  The Chairman
 concluded that the Committee 
agreed with the Secretariat's proposal. 
C.II-XIII (The minutes of the examinati on of the Agreements listed unde r agenda items C.II-XII are 
being distributed as separate documents.) 
D. OTHER BUSINESS  
13. The Chairman  thanked delegations for their co-opera tion and noted the progress made in the 
examinations tackled during the Session.  He then a nnounced that, in the contex t of the regular review 
of RTA-related technical assistance activities unde rtaken by the Secretariat, as agreed at the 
Committee's 32nd Session, one of its representatives woul d now give an account of the activities 
conducted in 2005 in the area of regional trade agreements.   
14. The representative of the Secretariat  referred to a table that had been distributed to the 
Committee containing the technical  assistance activities conducted in 2005.  The CRTA Secretariat 
had conducted 18 Technical Assistance (TA) activiti es in 2005, and 12 activities were scheduled for 
2006, of which six were RTA-specific regional semi nars (English-speaking Africa, French-speaking 
Africa, Arab and Middle East, Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, Latin America, and the 
Caribbean) and six were part of regional trade polic ies courses.  Other technical assistance activities 
included participation in the Stability Pact Wo rking Group on Trade Liberalization and Facilitation 
meetings.  Most of the activities indicated in the table had been financed by the WTO regular budget, 
donations by Member countries, or by the Global Trust Fund for activities under the Doha Development Agenda.  The participation costs for some of the activities had been incurred by the 
hosting organization.  The objectives of the activiti es listed from raising awareness on RTA dynamics 
in global trade, to training and advising government  officials on WTO rules and procedures on RTAs.  
Virtually all TA activities were addressed to par ticipants from broad regional groupings.  Their 
underlying objective was to contribute to the deve lopment of RTAs that were beneficial to their 
members and complemented the objectives of the WTO.  Since Doha, the RTA Section had been 
entrusted with the additional technical assistance task of clarifying issues related to the negotiations 
on RTA rules to WTO Members requesting such aid. 
15. The Committee took note
 of the comments made. 
__________