WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/REG220/M/1 
22 March 2010 
 (10-1504) 
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements 
Fifty-sixth Session  
 
 
 
CONSIDERATION OF THE ENLARGEMENT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION  
TO 27 MEMBERS STATES, GOODS AND SERVICES 
 
Note on the Meeting of 15-16 March 2010  
 
Chairman: Mr D. Brauns (Germany) 
 
 
1. The meeting was convened in document WTO/AIR/3502/Rev.1, dated 1 March 2010. 
2. Under Agenda Item C.II of its 56th Session, the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements 
(hereinafter CRTA or the Committee) considered th e Agreement on the Enlargement of the European 
Union (EU) to 27 Members States (goods and services), (hereinafter the Agreement).  
3. The Chairman  noted that the Agreement had entere d into force on 1 January 2007 and had 
been notified by the Parties to the WTO on 27 September 2006 under Article XXIV:7(a) of the GATT 1994 and the Understanding on the Interpre tation of Article XXIV of GATT 1994 as an 
Agreement establishing a customs union (doc ument WT/REG220/N/1), and on 26 June 2007 under 
GATS Article V:7(a) as an Agreement providing for th e liberalization of trade in services within the 
meaning of Article V of the GATS (document S/C/N/397).  The text of the Agreement, together with its Annexes, was available on th e WTO Regional Trade Agreements Information System website.  
4. The Factual Presentation on the goods and services aspects (document WT/REG220/2 dated 
11 August 2009) had been prepared by the Secretar iat on its own responsibility in full consultation 
with the Parties, in accordance with paragraph 7(b) of the Transparency Mechanism (TM) for 
Regional Trade Agreements (document WT/L/671).  In  addition, written questions and replies on this 
Agreement had been distributed in document WT /REG220/4, dated 3 March 2010.  The document 
containing the results of the general incidence calcu lation for the Enlargement of the European Union 
to 27 Member States prepared by the Secretar iat had been distributed as document WT/REG220/3 
dated 18 August 2009.  He proposed to organize the consideration of the Agreement by first asking 
the Parties and then other Members for general co mments.  The Committee would then turn to the 
specifics of the Agreement using the Factual Presenta tion to guide the debate.  He proposed that the 
Committee would go through the Factual Presentati on section by section, and then look at the 
questions and replies document.  
5. The representative of the European Union (EU)
 welcomed the consideration of the 
Agreement on EU27 enlargement at the CRTA.  He hoped that the review would enable Members to 
understand better the key features of the last enla rgement in January 2007, when Bulgaria and 
Romania had become Member States of the EU, by completing the fifth and largest wave of 
enlargement started in May 2004.  He thanked the WTO Secretariat for the Factual Presentation, and 
their support throughout the process.  The EU had wo rked very closely with the Secretariat and had 
stepped up efforts to meet all the established deadlines.   WT/REG220/M/1 
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  6. The Treaty of Accession concluded with the two new Member States - Bulgaria and Romania 
– had been signed on 25 April 2005 and had entered into force on 1 January 2007.  Prior to that, a 
long process of accession had taken place which had entailed enormous efforts for the new Member 
States to adopt the EC's acquis communitaire  – i.e. the whole body of EC law and regulations – the 
reform of domestic bureaucratic and administrative procedures, and a substantial strengthening of the 
judicial system.  The Accession Treaty for Bulgaria and Romania had set out the conditions for their 
admission to the EU, and encompassed 30 chapters ex tending far beyond trade:  it comprised the four 
freedoms (free movement of goods, persons, servi ces and capital) – which represented the core 
economic pillar of European integr ation - and other issues, such as competition law, taxation, social 
policy, SME policies, environment, consumer health protection, and external relations.  Overall, the 
enlargement, like previous ones, had not changed an ything within the EU but  had rather represented 
an extension of the territorial scope of EU policies to the two new Member States.  As a consequence, 
Bulgaria and Romania had fully adopted the EU common commercial policy, including the common external tariff, all commitments under bilateral, pl urilateral and multilateral ag reements, and all rules 
and regulations related to the functi oning of the EU internal market.  He noted that free trade in goods 
between the EU and Bulgaria and Romania had alr eady been in place before  their accession, through 
the so-called Europe Agreements, which had b een superseded by the Act of Accession.   
7. The EU noted that the level of liberaliza tion in services had been much lower under the 
Europe Agreements and, therefore, the EU enlargement had represented new market access 
opportunities for the services sectors, affecting comp anies based in the EU territory or in third 
countries.  The Act of Accession had extended the EU  internal freedoms to establish and to supply 
services to all sectors of activity, unless otherwise spec ified.  The full range of service sectors and all 
modes of supply had been liberalized, with some limited exceptions.  In terms of the GATS, the 
Act of Accession had had complete sectoral covera ge and had provided for the elimination of all 
discrimination.  He considered that the Act of Ac cession for Bulgaria and Romania had fully met all 
WTO requirements, notably those under Article XXIV of GATT 1994 and Article V of the GATS.   
8. As a result of the enlargement, the EU  had engaged in negotiations pursuant to 
Article XXIV:6 of the GATT 1994 and Article XXI  of the GATS.  As regards goods aspects, 
15 WTO Members had submitted claims and related negotiations had been actively pursued with 
seven of them.  Two agreements had been concl uded and implemented; three had recently been 
concluded and were being implemented, and two remained outsta nding.  As regards services aspects, 
the EU had been engaged in consultations with ei ght affected Members pursuant to the procedures for 
the implementation of Article XXI:1 of the GATS.   The consultations had been extended until 
30 September 2010 and their results would be comm unicated to WTO Members in due course and in 
the relevant forum.  With respect to the certifica tion of EU schedules,  he reminded Members that, on 
22 February 2010, the WTO General Council had taken note of the stat ements with regard to the 
EU15 schedule and, as a result, it was expected that a fully fledged EU15 schedule would soon be 
certified by the WTO Director General.  The c onclusion of the Geneva Agreement on Trade in 
Bananas, in December 2009, would also allow the EU to move further with the certification of the 
EU25 schedule.  Once the negotiations on Article XXIV.6 related to Romania's and Bulgaria's 
accession were finalised, the certification of the EU27 schedule would follow.  He thanked Members for their interest and questions, to which the EU ha d replied in writing and would endeavour to clarify 
further issues, if needed, and answer any oral ques tions Members wished to raise during the meeting.  
9. The representative of the United States
 commented that with respect to the previous 
expansion of the EU to 25 Member States, the EU had reported in Marc h 2009 that national 
ratification procedures for the EC's certified Cons olidated Schedules in services had not yet been 
completed by certain Member States (WT/REG170/ 9).  The EU had reported that those Member 
States were doing their outmost to complete ratifi cation as soon as possible, and that the European 
Commission had requested an opinion from the European  Court of Justice (ECJ) aimed at clarifying, 
among other issues, whether national ratification in  EU Member States was actually necessary.  She  WT/REG220/M/1 
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  asked the EU to provide an update of the status of  its certified Consolidated  Schedule and whether any 
additional Members States had ratified the Schedul e since March 2009.  She also asked whether the 
ECJ had issued an opinion in response to the Commi ssion's request and whether, to the extent that 
national ratifications cont inued to be necessary, the Act of Accession for the two Member States, or 
any related agreement, would require that Bulg aria and Romania ratify the EU final certified 
Consolidated Schedule in a timely manner.  The representative of the EU  informed Members that at 
present, 16 EU Member States had completed their national ratification procedures.  These were: Austria, Germany, Denmark, Finland, Hungary, Gr eece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, 
Poland, the Slovak Republic, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.  She confirmed that the ECJ's opinion had been that the conclusion of agreements which involve mixed competence 
between the EU and the Member States fell under nati onal ratification procedures.  As a consequence, 
the enlargement to include Bulgaria a nd Romania fell under the ongoing process of 
EU27 consolidation not under the EU 25 which had not been finalized yet.  The consolidated schedule 
of the EU27 would enter into force after the comp letion of EU internal procedures and she reassured 
Members of the EU's commitment to the conclusion of negotiations pursuant to Article XXI of GATS 
and to provide the necessary clarifications and up dated information on EU internal procedures to 
affected Members.  
10. The representative of Argentina
  noted that Paragraph 59 of the Factual Presentation stated 
that, as a result of the EU enlargement, Romania applied non- ad valorem  tariffs on 985 lines and 
Bulgaria had increased the number of non- ad valorem  rates in its tariff to 601.  In terms of EC 2007 
tariffs, Bulgaria and Romania had increased the number of non- ad valorem  duties to apply to 10% or 
more of all tariff lines and the Factual Presenta tion had suggested that this implied a loss of 
transparency.  Argentina had asked the EU to provide information for a relevant period, for example 
2006-08, on the evolution of trade with Bulgaria and Romania for the tariff lines that were not subject to non- ad valorem  duties before their accession to the EU.  Argentina believed the EU had been 
mistaken in its response that Argentina supported the idea of applying specific or ad valorem  duty 
whichever was higher.  As had been stated in  document JOB(08)/122, Argentina supported the 
application of specific or ad valorem  duty whichever was lower, not  whichever was higher.  The 
representative of the EU 
took note of the comments made by Argentina. 
11. The representative of the United States  recalled that the general incidence calculation was 
required under paragraph 5(a)  of Article XXIV of the GATT and applied specifically to customs 
unions.  The United States had examined the genera l incidence calculation and had provided some 
questions to the EU.  For the benefit of Member s, she repeated the questions and hoped that the 
Secretariat could answer some of the questions a nd perhaps provide an addendum to its report.  She 
requested confirmation of the composition of import s in the calculations since, paragraph 4(b) of  
WT/REG220/3 said that "contractual preferences" were excluded.  She also asked whether Romania and Bulgaria's FTA trade with the EU and the EU 's FTA trade with them was excluded;  whether 
other FTA trade, such as Romanian FTA trade with countries in Southeast Europe, was excluded;  and 
whether GSP preferential trade for Bulgaria, Ro mania or the EU was excluded in the pre and 
post-enlargement calculations.  She also asked how ad valorem  equivalence had been dealt with in 
paragraph 4(b) as well as how tariff rate quotas had been  treated in the calculation of applied rates and 
imports and, for example, whether the in-quota applied tariff rates had been assessed on individual 
countries' specific trade in TRQ products used in the calculations.  Finally,  with reference to a 
concordance table used to link EU 2006 and 2007 tables due to a nomenclature change she asked 
whether there had been significant changes in th e Bulgarian and Romanian nomenclatures in the 
2004-2006 period, as well as in their adoption of the EU Common External Tariff, that required similar concordance work;  how Bulgarian and Romania 2004-2006 import data had been concorded 
to the EU27 2007 applied nomenclature;  and whet her there was concordance table.  She finally 
requested the Secretariat to quantify what if an y statistical uncertainties would arise, from these 
nomenclature issues in the examination of whethe r the customs union met the GATT XXIV:5a test.  WT/REG220/M/1 
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  The Secretariat
 suggested that it would circulate a note on the methodology used in the general 
incidence calculation which would answer as many of the questions as possible. 
12. The Chairman  noted that the consideration of the goods and services aspects of the 
Enlargement of the European Union to 27 Member  States had allowed the Committee to clarify a 
number of questions and oral discussion of the Ag reement could be concluded in accordance with 
paragraph 11 of the TM.  If any delegations wished  to ask follow-up questions they were invited to 
forward submissions in writing  to the Secretaria t by 22 March 2010 and the Parties were asked to 
submit replies  in writing by no later than 5 April 2010.  In accordance with paragraph 13 of the TM 
all written submissions, as well as the minutes of the meeting would be circulated promptly, in all WTO official languages, and would be  made available on the WTO website. 
13. The Committee took note
 of the comments made. 
__________