WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
G/L/975 
2 November 2011 
 (11-5560) 
  
 
 
 
REPORT (2011) OF THE COMMITTEE ON RULES OF ORIGIN 
TO THE COUNCIL FOR TRADE IN GOODS 
 
 
1. This report is being submitted to the Council fo r Trade in Goods (CTG) in accordance with 
Article 6.1 of the Agreement on Rules of Orig in (the Agreement), which provides as follows: 
 
"The Committee shall review annually the impl ementation and operation of Parts II and III of 
this Agreement having regard to its objec tives. The Committee sha ll annually inform the 
Council for Trade in Goods of developments during the period covered by such reviews." 
 
2. The Committee on Rules of Origin (CRO ) held two meetings on 06 April and 
27 October 2011.  The CRO elected Mr Daniel O. OWOKO (Kenya) as Chairperson for 2011.  
Observer governments in the General Council of the WTO have observer status in the CRO.  In 
addition, representatives of the ACP, EFTA, IADB, IMF, OECD, UNCTAD, WCO and the World Bank attend meetings of the CRO in the capacity of observers. 
 
3. With regard to the work under Part III of the Agreement, the CRO, took note of the 
notifications under Article 5 and pa ragraph 4 of Annex II of the Ag reement.  To date 83 Members 
have made notifications of non-preferential rules of  origin and 126 Members have made notifications 
of preferential rules of origin.  The Chairpers on / Chairman expressed concern that a number of 
Members had not yet complied with the notification requirements.  They urged Members who had not 
yet notified to do so as early as possible.  4. With regard to the work under part II of the Agreement, the CRO conducted the transitional 
review under Paragraph 18 of the Protocol of Accession of the People's Republic of China. 
 
5. With regard to the Harmonization Work Pr ogramme under Part IV of the Agreement, the 
General Council, at its meeting on 27 July 2007, re cognized that delegations in the CRO felt that the 
difficulties they had encountered on the "implications " issue and in the sector of machinery was such 
that guidance from the General Council was now warran ted on how to take these issues forward.  The 
recommendation of delegations in the CRO was that  work on these issues be suspended until such 
guidance from the General Council would be forthcomi ng.  The General Council then agreed that "in 
the meantime the CRO continue its work with a vi ew to resolving all technical issues including the 
technical aspects of the overall architecture, as s oon as possible".  The General Council also took note 
of the statement that the General Council Chairman noted in this connection that "in terms of next 
steps, delegations had requested the CRO Chair to continue the technical and architecture discussions 
in the regular business of the CRO".  The CRO, at  its meetings on 6 Ap ril and 27 October 2011 
continued its discussions on a number of technical is sues.  In addition, at this meeting on 27 October 
2011, the CRO agreed to the immediate initiation of  the work to transpo se the results of the 
Harmonization Work Programme to more recent ve rsions of the HS nomenclature by the WTO 
Secretariat with a view to concluding that work as soon as possible.  
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