. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/MA/197 
12 November 2007 
 (07-4880) 
Committee on Market Access  
 
 
 
PERIODIC REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE TO THE 
COUNCIL FOR TRADE IN GOODS  
  
1. The Committee met on 15 October 2007 a nd examined the following issues: 
 
2. The Committee approved the draft periodic report to the Council for Trade in Goods 
(G/MA/SPEC/36). There were no requests for HS96 waiver extensions.   3. The Committee took note of document G/MA/TAR/2/Rev.40 containing information on 
submissions made  pursuant to the procedures to  introduce HS96 changes to schedules of concessions. 
The Committee noted that several Members (see JOB(05)/124/Add.2) had yet to follow the legal procedures contained in GATT document L/6905 to introduce HS96 changes to their  schedules. The 
Committee agreed to revert to this matter at its  next meeting when Members would have had more 
time to reflect on how to address the situation.  
4. The Committee agreed to  forward to the Council for Trade in Goods for approval the HS2002 
"collective" waiver (G/C/W/585)  and the HS2007 "collective" waiver (G/C/W/584).  It was noted 
that with respect to the former, not all Members currently listed in the annex would need to be 
covered by the waiver as inter alia they had already completed the HS02 exercise.  The Chairman 
also noted that during the course of the year, Tha iland, Pakistan and Mexico had requested and been 
covered by the HS2007 "collective" waiver decision contained in document WT/L/675. Their requests 
had been circulated as an addenda to that  waiver decision.     5. The Committee took note of the report by the S ecretariat on work undertaken on the IDB as 
well as the IDB dissemination and uses.  The Secret ariat noted that these databases continued to be 
used for NAMA simulations and AVE calculations. Th ey had also been used for the preparation of 
World Tariff Profiles and the publication of the HS6-digit summaries. 
 6. Concerning the HS2002 transposition exercise using the CTS database, the Committee was 
informed that the number of files that had passed the multilateral review had almost reached 80% of 
the membership.  The Chairman  informed the Committee on his activities to obtain approvals from 
those Members whose files had been approved by all other delegations except their own.  The 
Committee also took note of information provided by the Chairman on a question which had been 
raised about the legal implications of certifying a tariff line which was unaffected by an HS02 change 
but whose binding level had been increased.   
7. Concerning the HS2007 transposition exercise using the CTS database, the Committee noted 
that Australia and Canada had submitted their HS07 f iles. The Secretariat reported that it would start 
its HS07 work by reviewing these HS07 submissions and then turn to those LDC files which have 
been fully certified in HS2002.    8. The Committee approved requests for access to the IDB and CTS database from the United 
Nations Economic Commission for Africa (G/MA/W/86), the International Coffee Organization 
(G/MA/W/87) and the Southern African Customs Union (G/MA/W/88).  G/MA/197 
Page 2  
 
  9. The Committee took note of the Secretariat document entitled "Situation of schedules of 
WTO Members" (G/MA/W/23/Rev. 4).   10. The Committee conducted the transitional review  under Paragraph 18 of the Protocol of 
Accession of the People's Republic of China. Quest ions/comments to China were submitted by the 
European Communities (G/MA/W/91), Japan (G/MA/W/90) and the United States (G/MA/W/89).  
China submitted the information required by Anne x I of its Protocol of Accession in document 
G/MA/W/92.  The Committee's report to the Counc il for Trade in Goods on the review will be 
circulated as G/MA/196 and corr.1.  
11. The Committee considered the draft report of the Committee in G/MA/SPEC/37.   
 12. The Committee elected David Riley (Un ited Kingdom) as Vice-Chairman for 2007.  
 
13.  The Committee took note that its next meeting was scheduled for spring of 2008.  
 
 
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