RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TCA/M/24 
17 December 2008 
 (08-6180) 
Committee on Trade in Civil Aircraft
 
  
MINUTES OF THE MEETING  
HELD ON 10 NOVEMBER 2008 
 
Chairperson:  Ms. Cecilie Kverme 
  1. The Committee on Trade in Civil Aircraft (the  "Committee") held a regular meeting on 
10 November 2008.   
2. The Committee adopted the following agenda:   
Page
 
A. ELECTION OF A NEW CHAIRPERSON ...........................................................................................1  
B. REVISION OF THE PRODUCT COVERAGE ANNEX OF THE 1979  AGREEMENT ON TRADE 
IN CIVIL AIRCRAFT .....................................................................................................................1  
C. OTHER BUSINESS ........................................................................................................................4  
D. DATE OF NEXT REGULAR MEETING ...........................................................................................4  
E. ADOPTION OF THE ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2008 ..........................................................................4  
 
 
A. ELECTION OF A NEW CHAIRPERSON  
3. Due to the departure of the Committee's Chairp erson since the date of the last Committee 
meeting in November 2007, the Committee meeting w as opened by Mr. Johann Human, Director of 
the Rules Division.  Mr. Human announced that af ter having broadly consulted the Signatories, he 
sensed the Committee was now in a position to elect a new Chairperson.  Accordingly, 
Mr. Human proposed that the Committee elect Ms Cecilie Kverme, of Norway, as the new 
Chairperson of the Committee on Trade in Civil Aircraft, to replace Mr. Guilluame Cliche.  The 
Committee elected Ms Kverme as the new Chairperson by acclamation.   
4. The new Chairperson thanked the Committee fo r being elected and expressed the hope that, 
notwithstanding her planned departure from Geneva in  August 2009, she would be able to assist the 
Committee advance its work over the coming year.   
B. REVISION OF THE PRODUCT COVERAGE ANNEX OF THE 1979  AGREEMENT ON TRADE IN CIVIL 
AIRCRAFT  
5. The Chairperson  reminded Signatories that at its mee ting of 7 November 2007, the Committee 
requested the Secretariat to prepar e a Technical Note outlining the extent to which the Product Coverage 
Annex ("PCA") of the Agreement on Trade in Civil Airc raft may need to be updated or revised in the 
light of the latest version of the Harmonized Codi ng and Description System (" HS") that entered into TCA/M/24 
Page 2  
 
  force in 2007.  A Technical Note prepared by the Secretariat was circulated by fax to Signatories on 
3 September 2008.   
6. The Chairperson
 explained that the last revision of the PCA was made in 2001, following two 
years of discussions and consultations among the Si gnatories in the Technical Sub-Committee.  On 
that occasion, the formal review process was trigge red with the Committee referring consideration of 
the matter to the Technical Sub-Committee, which performed essentially two functions.  First, it 
reviewed and agreed upon the substance of the chang es needed to be made in order to bring the PCA 
into line with the Harmonized System.  Second,  it recommended that the Committee instruct the 
Secretariat to produce a draft revised Protocol to replace the then existing 1 986 Protocol annexed to 
the Agreement on the basis of the views expressed  by Signatories.  Once the Signatories had agreed 
upon the language of the draft revised Protocol, incl uding the changes to be made to the PCA and the 
language of the Decision to be taken for the purpose of adopting the new PCA, it was presented to the 
Committee for approval.   
7. The Chairperson invited Signatories to expr ess any views on both the substance of the 
Technical Note circulated by the Secretariat and the process they considered might be usefully 
followed to advance this agenda item.   
8. The delegate of Japan  congratulated Ms Kverme on her a ppointment as the new Chairperson 
of the Committee, and expressed his gratitude for the work undertaken by her predecessor 
Mr. Guillaume Cliche.  He then presented a series of  comments and questions on the substance of the 
Technical Note prepared by the Secretariat, focu sing on changes identified in the Technical Note to 
Product Coverage Annex Subheadings Ex 3926.90 , 6812.90, 8525.10, 8525.20, 8527.90, 9030.83 
and 9030.89.  A copy of these comments and questions  was distributed to all participants at the 
meeting.   
9. On the matter of process, the delegate of Japan st ated that the same or similar approach taken 
to adopting the 2001 Protocol could be followed th is time around.  However, in the absence of any 
comments from other Signatories on the substance of the possible modifications that may be needed 
to the Product Coverage Annex, he believed it would be premature to start the process at this stage.  
The delegate of Japan therefore proposed that this  item be maintained on th e agenda of the next 
regular meeting of the Committee in November 2009.  He also requested the Secretariat to prepare a 
revised Technical Note, on the basis of all Signato ries' comments, which could be used to facilitate 
discussions at the Committee's next regular meeting in November 2009.   
10. The delegate of Canada  congratulated the new Chairperson on her appointment.  She 
presented three technical points on the Technical Note pr epared by the Secretariat.  The first related to 
Subheading Ex 3926.90.  The delegate of Canada noted  that while the Technical Note identifies that a 
new subheading 8536.70 has been created fo r products previously classified under 
Subheading 3926.90, the Product Coverage Annex does not list the newly created 
Subheading 8536.70.  With this in mind, the delega te of Canada asked whether the updated version of 
the Product Coverage Annex will include Subheading 8536.70.  Secondly, the delegate of Canada 
requested confirmation that there is no change  to the treatment of Subheading 9023.00, which 
comprises aircraft ground maintenance simulators.  She noted that the 2001 Protocol amending the 
Product Coverage Annex, which confers duty fr ee treatment for aircraft ground maintenance 
simulators, classified this product under Subheading 9023.00.  Thirdly, the delegate of Canada asked 
what Product Coverage Annex was used by the Secr etariat as the basis for the comparison set out in 
the Technical Note, and whether it was the Product Coverage Annex adopted with the 2001 Protocol 
or another document?   
11. The delegate of the European Communities  joined other delegations in congratulating 
Ms Kverme on being elected to the post of Ch airperson of the Committee, and thanked her  TCA/M/24 
 Page 3 
 
 
  predecessor Mr. Cliche for the work he had done duri ng his time as Chairperson.  He stated that his 
delegation was still examining the Technical Note, and had at this stage only some preliminary 
comments which, in the light of the comments of Japan,  he will need to look at again.  On the process 
to be followed in advancing this agenda item, th e delegate of the European Communities explained 
that while not being adverse to addressing this item again in November 2009, he  thought it would be 
helpful to keep open the possibility of reverting to this issue at an earlier stage, depending upon the 
work that the delegations will be doing, in pa rticular now following the comments by Japan and 
Canada.   
12. The delegate of the United States  welcomed Ms Kverme to the Chair of the Committee.  He 
explained that his delegation was also still in the pr ocess of reviewing the Technical Note prepared by 
the Secretariat.  He expressed an interest in the l ast comment made by Canada with respect to aircraft 
ground maintenance simulators, and asked if the Secr etariat could provide an explanation in terms of 
how the Technial Note was developed.  He tha nked Japan and Canada for their interventions and 
stated that he hoped to have some more technical comments to make in the near future.   
13. With respect to process, the delegate of the Un ited States said that his delegation was more in 
line with the view expressed by the EC in terms of perhaps trying to keep open the possibility of 
doing some work on this agenda item before the next regular meeting.  He suggested that the 
Chairperson might want to consult with Signatories at a later stage, perhap s in Spring, to see where 
things stand.   
14. The Secretariat  explained that the Product Coverage Annex used for the purpose of the 
comparison made in the Technical Note was that attached to the original  Decision adopting the 2001 
Protocol (TCA/4).  The Secretariat noted that th e Product Coverage Annex set out in TCA/4 did not 
include the aircraft ground maintena nce simulators subheading.  A sep arate decision was taken by the 
Committee recommending Signatories to apply duty-free treatment for aircraft ground maintenance simulators classified under subheading HS 9023.00 on an interim basis (TCA/6).  The same decision 
called upon Signatories to confirm with the Committee their interim application.   
15. The Chairperson
 observed that at the present moment th ere did not appear to be a consensus 
on whether the Committee should continue to pursue th is agenda item before the next regular meeting 
of the Committee.  She suggested the Committee might  want to consider one of two possible ways 
forward:  (i) the Committee could agree to reverting to  this agenda item at its next regular meeting;  
or (ii) the Committee could agree to suspend discu ssions until next year's regular meeting, on the 
understanding that a meeting to consider this agenda item could be called earlier should she be 
informed that positions have changed and that a mee ting before next year's regular meeting would be 
desirable.   
16. The delegate of Japan  stated that suspending discussions w ould be odd given that he expected 
that work would continue on this issue even if not addressed in a meeting format before 
November 2009.  He explained that Japan's proposal was to discuss this matter at the next regular 
meeting in November, after having received co mments and questions from other Signatories.  
However, the question of holding interim disc ussions would depend upon reactions from other 
Signatories in coming months.   
17. The delegate of the United States  expressed support for Japan's proposal.   
18. The delegate of Canada  was in agreement with undertaki ng interim discussions.  She noted 
that the last time the issue was raised, it was addressed in the Technical Sub-Committee.  She 
wondered whether the same approach would work this time around.  She emphasized that Canada 
would favour working on this ite m before next November.   TCA/M/24 
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  19. The delegate of the European Communities
 explained that his understanding was that the 
Committee would not be closing the door to discussing this agenda item again before the next meeting 
in November 2009, depending upon the progress that  could be made by the Signatories over the 
coming months.  He stated that the European Communities would be uncomfortable with deciding 
now not to do anything before the next meeting in  November 2009.  He believed further consultations 
between the Signatories might be fruitful.   
20. The delegate of Japan  explained his preference was for Signatories to first of all comment on 
the existing Technical Note, and then, depending upon  the Signatories' reactions, the Secretariat could 
prepare a revised Technical Note which could be used as a basis for discussions at the Committee's 
next regular meeting in November 2009.   
21. The Chairperson  thanked delegations for their interventi ons.  She suggested that for the time 
being, the Committee could agree to reverting to this matter at its next regular meeting, and that in the 
meantime, she would undertake to consult with Signatories at the beginning of 2009 to see whether 
there was scope for performing any work on this item before the Committee's next regular meeting.   
22. The Committee  so agreed.   
C. OTHER BUSINESS  
23. No matters were raised unde r this agenda item.   
D. DATE OF NEXT REGULAR MEETING  
24. The Committee agreed to hold its next regular meeting on Tuesday, 3 November 2009.   
E. ADOPTION OF THE ANNUAL REPORT FOR 2008 
25. The Committee adopted the annual report for 2008.   
26. The meeting was adjourned .   
 
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