WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/TF/W/132 
10 July 2006 
 
 (06-3307) 
Negotiating Group on Trade Facilitation Original:   English 
  
COMMUNICATION FROM TURKEY 
 
 The following communication, dated 7 July 2006,  is being circulated at the request of the 
Delegation of Turkey. 
_______________ 
 
PROPOSAL ON INTERNET PUBLICATION 
 I. INTRODUCTION 
1. The following textual proposal is submitted by Turkey for consideration by the Negotiating 
Group. It is based on the proposals on publication and availability of information presented in the 
communication TN/TF/W/45 of 8 June 2005 and takes account of the discussions and other 
submissions
1 on this issue in the Negotiating Group.   
2. As Turkey stated in its communication, a possi ble agreement should cover headings inter alia; 
Enquiry Points, Information Available at We bsites and Establishment of Working Group on 
Transparency.  
3. Certainly such an agreement should also in clude provisions on Special and Differential 
(S&D) treatment. However as Turkey's proposal sugg ests a specific approach to developing country 
Members, this part should be concluded followi ng the discussions to reach a consensus on how to 
specifically elaborate on the S&D treatment. 
II. EXPLANATION OF PROPOSAL 
4. Turkey suggests three main headings; Enquiry Po ints, Information Available at Websites, and 
Establishment of Working Group on Transparency to be included to a possible agreement. 
5. Article X of GATT 1994 clearly states that all laws, regulations, judicial decisions and 
administrative rulings affecting imports and exports should be published. This is not a new provision 
and we believe that all countries had enough time to fulfill this obligation through either Official 
Gazettes or other means. However our aim in th is proposal is to improve accessibility to this 
legislation. In other words, this proposal should not be seen as an alternative to the publication 
obligation but be accepted as a complementary tool.  
6. Trade enquiry points have been discussed in th e negotiations through the proposals of several 
countries. We define Trade Facilitation National Enquiry Point (enquiry point) as a coordinator 
governmental body responsible for providing informa tion on trade legislation. We would prefer to 
have a single national enquiry point with the purpos e of easy access for Memb ers or traders. If we 
establish more than one enquiry points as suggested in different submissions2 this might create 
confusion concerning the responsibilities of each of these and be counterproductive. 
                                                      
1 TN/TF/W/6, 7, 8, 96, 114. 
2 TN/TF/W/6, 8, 10, 26, 96, 114. TN/TF/W/132 
Page 2  
 
  7. Members shall notify the contact information of the enquiry point and website addresses in 
order to make such information available to g overnments and other interested parties. Such 
notification shall be submitted to the responsible body for the implementation of the new agreement.  
8. An electronic communication system linking diverse regulatory and administrative bodies is 
essential for coordinating trade legislation and informa tion. In addition, it is our understanding that to 
ensure timely, accurate and easily accessible informa tion, the best manner is Internet. Thus, enquiry 
points should establish national websites. 
9. Developed-country Members shall provide a ve rsion of their trade legislation on their 
websites in one of the official WTO languages. However, for most of the developing-country 
Members this may be unfeasible due to the ava ilability of resources and technological facilities. 
Having this in mind, we suggest that developing c ountry Members shall provide their trade legislation 
in their official language. In addition, all Me mbers shall make available information on their 
legislation through a format to be decided by the Working Group on Transparency.  This format may include, as we stated in our previous paper, the name  of legislation, the responsible authority, a short 
summary if so wished and keywords. We believe that such a system would also be useful as a part of 
S&D treatment for developing-country Members. 
10. In brief, any government or trader looking for information on a country's trade legislation may 
reach the relevant documents by accessing this country's national enquiry point's website and 
searching by keywords. 
11. The establishment of such a system will necessitate  a lot of technical work. Thus, it would be 
preferable to establish a Working Group on Transpar ency. This Group shall be formed by technical 
experts and its working period shall be limited w ith the possibility of extension. The responsibilities 
of this Group may be defined as; determining th e content of national websites, deciding on a common 
national website format, generating the format th rough which Members will provide information and 
determining search keywords. 
Textual Proposal
 
 
I. ENQUIRY POINTS 
A. ESTABLISHMENT OF  ENQUIRY POINTS  
1. Members shall ensure that an enquiry point be established. 
2. This enquiry point will be responsible for; 
(a) answering all reasonable enquiries from other Members and interested parties in other 
Members, 
(b) providing the relevant information and docum ents related to trade procedures in a 
non-discriminatory and convenient manner, 
(c) facilitating coordination among competent national authorities. 
3. The enquiry point shall institute a na tional website on trade legislation.   TN/TF/W/132 
 Page 3 
 
 
  B. NOTIFICATION  
4. Members shall notify [Council for Trade in Goods] [Trade Facilitation Committee] the 
contact information of the enquiry points and the we bsite addresses in order to make such information 
available to governments and traders. 
II. INFORMATION AVAILABLE AT WEBSITES 
5. In their website;  
(a) Developed-country Members shall make availa ble a copy of their trade legislation in 
one of the official WTO languages. 
(b) Developing-country Members shall provide a copy of their trade legislation in their 
official language. 
(c) All Members shall supply information on their trade legislation in one of the official 
WTO languages through the format to be decided by the Working Group on 
Transparency (referred in paragraph 8). 
6. Members shall, whenever practicable, provide  documents regarding the outline of major 
trade-related procedures, and information on requi rements for importation and exportation of goods in 
one of the official WTO languages.  
III. ESTABLISHMENT OF WORKING GROUP ON TRANSPARENCY  
7. Members agree to establish a Working Group on Transparency under [Council for Trade in 
Goods] [Trade Facilitation Committee] for a period of one year, with the possibility of extension in 
order to; 
(a) Determine the content of national websites. 
(b) Decide on a common national website format. 
(c) Generate the format through which Members will provide information. 
(d) Determine search keywords. 
 
__________