. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/REG74/M/1 
29 September 2009 
 (09-4539) 
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements 
Fifty-fourth Session  
 
 
 
CONSIDERATION OF THE FREE TRADE AGREEMENT BETWEEN  
THE KYRGYZ REPUBLIC AND UKRAINE, GOODS 
 
Note on the Meeting of 15 September 2009  
 
Chairman: Mr D. Brauns (Germany) 
  
1. The meeting was convened in document  WTO/AIR/3410, dated 7 August 2009. 
2. Under Agenda Item B.IX of its 54
th Session, the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements 
(hereinafter CRTA or the Committee) took up consider ation of the Free Trade Agreement between the 
Kyrgyz Republic and Ukraine (herei nafter 'the Agreement'), goods.  
3. The Chairman  noted that the Agreement had entered into force on 19 January 1998 and had 
been notified by the Parties to the WTO on 15 J une 1999 under Article XXIV:7(a) of the GATT 1994 
and the Understanding on the Interpretation of Article XXIV of GATT 1994 as an Agreement 
establishing a free-trade area (document WT/REG74/N/1) .  The text of the Agreement was available, 
together with its Annexes, on the Parties' offici al websites.  The Factual Presentation on the goods 
aspects (document WT/REG74/6, dated 30 June 2009) had been prepared by the Secretariat on its 
own responsibility in full consultation with the Part ies, in accordance with paragraph 7(b) of the 
Transparency Mechanism for Re gional Trade Agreements (document WT/L/671).  In addition, 
written questions and replies were recently distri buted in document WT/REG74/7, dated 26 August 
2009.  He proposed to organize the consideration of the Agreement by asking first the Parties and then 
other Members to give any general comments.  The Committee would then turn to the specifics of the 
Agreement using the Factual Presentation to guide th e debate.  He proposed to go through the Factual 
Presentation by section, and then through the questions and replies document.  
4. The representative of Ukraine  expressed thanks for the opportunity to discuss the Agreement, 
to the WTO Secretariat for the Factual Presenta tion and to Members for their questions.  The 
Agreement was part of the bilateral agreements of  the members of the Commonwealth of Independent 
States (CIS).  The Agreement covered goods with no exemptions, and probably due to the Agreement, 
trade flows between the Parties had incr eased 11-fold during the last ten years. 
5. The representative of the United States  thanked the Parties and the Secretariat for the 
information provided.  She was pleased to note that  the Agreement liberalized over 99% of tariffs and 
trade between the Parties and it was highly commendable.  
6. The Chairman  noted that the consideration of the goods aspects of the Free Trade Agreement 
between the Kyrgyz Republic and Ukraine had allowed the Committee to clarify a number of 
questions and oral discussion of the Agreement coul d be concluded in accordance with paragraph 11 
of the Transparency Mechanism.  If any delegations  wished to ask follow-up  questions they were 
invited to forward submissions in writing to the Secretariat by 22 September 2009  and the Parties 
were asked to submit replies  in writing by no later than 6 Oc tober 2009.  In accordance with WT/REG74/M/1 
Page 2  
 
  paragraph 13 of the Transparency Mechanism all written submissions, as well as minutes of this 
meeting would be circulated promptly, in all WTO official languages, and would be made available 
on the WTO website. 
7. The Committee took note
 of the comments made. 
__________