WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  RESTRICTED 
WT/REG/M/61 
7 July 2011  
 
(11-3345) 
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements 
Sixty-first Session  
 
 
 
NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 28 JUNE 2011 
 
Chairman:  Mr. F. Riegert (France) 
 
 
A. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA  
1. The 61st Session of the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements (hereinafter 'CRTA' or the 
'Committee') was convened in Airgram WTO/ AIR/3754 and corrigendum 1 dated 17 May and 
21 June 2011. 
2. The following Agenda was adopted: 
A. Adoption of the Agenda 
B. Consideration of Regional Trade Agreements 
I. Status Report on the Committee's Work 
 II.  Economic Integration Agreement between China and Pakistan, services 
 III. Economic Partnership Agreement be tween Japan and Viet Nam, goods and  
services  
 IV. Economic Partnership Agreement be tween Japan and Thailand, goods and  
services 
V.  Economic Integration Agreement be tween the European Union and Croatia, 
services 
VI. Economic Integration Agreement be tween the European Union and the 
Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, services   
C. Consideration of Regional Trade Agreements involving WTO non-Members 
I. Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and Serbia, goods.  II.  Free Trade Agreement between the European Union and Montenegro, goods 
and services. 
III. Free Trade Agreement between Turkey and Montenegro, goods.  
D. Other Business  
3. The Chairman recalled that the Latin American Integration Association (LAIA) had been 
granted observer status to the CRTA on an ad hoc  basis and sought confirmation to extend an 
invitation to LAIA to attend the Committee' s next meeting.  It was so agreed. 
B. CONSIDERATION OF REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS  
B.I S TATUS REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE 'S WORK   
 4. Under this Agenda Item, the Chairman provided Members with an update on the 
implementation of the Transparency Mechanism (T M).  He informed the Committee that 40 early 
announcements had been posted on the WTO website  (excluding those that were subsequently 
notified).  He thanked those Members who had submi tted information in line with the requirements of WT/REG/M/61 
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  the TM and encouraged others to do the same.  He  also reminded Members to inform the Secretariat 
of any changes in the status of early announcements.   
5. With regards to the factual abstracts to be pr epared on those RTAs covering trade in goods for 
which an examination had already been completed,  the Chairman informed Members that the last 
remaining factual abstract for an RTA covering tr ade in goods had been drafted and sent recently to 
the parties.   
6. As for the preparation of the factual presentati ons under the remit of the CRTA, he said that 
in the case of RTAs involving only WTO Member s, there were 26 RTAs for which a factual 
presentation had to be prepared, counting goods an d services separately.  He recalled that at the 
Committee's 52nd Session held on 4 March 2009, Members had agreed to begin considering RTAs 
involving non-Members under the TM.  Thus, factua l presentations on a further 38 RTAs involving 
non-Members were to be prepared, with priority fo r those RTAs notified since the adoption of the TM 
on 14 December 2006.  Data requests for RTAs notifie d since the adoption of the TM had been sent to 
the relevant parties.  For three of these RTAs, f actual presentations had been finalised and would be 
considered in the current session of the CRTA.  
7. The Chairman then turned to  the issue of non-notified RTAs.  He recalled that in 
September 2009, following a request from the Chair of the General Council to consult with Members 
on ways to improve the timeliness and completene ss of notifications, the Chair of the CRTA had 
contacted several Members about the status of 65 RT As which had been verified by their parties as 
being in force but not yet notified.  To date, a tota l of 11 of these RTAs had been notified.  He pointed 
out that although some progress had been made, it wa s clear that a considerable number of RTAs had 
not yet been notified and thus lacked the appropr iate legal cover under WTO rules.  During recent 
CRTA meetings, some Members had indicated that  they were in the process of notifying such 
agreements but progress appeared to be slow.  In an  effort to reinvigorate this process, he had recently 
been in touch with the delegations concerned a nd had urged them to notify these RTAs as soon as 
possible.  Also, with the help of the Secretariat,  he had drawn up a list of non-notified RTAs which 
had appeared in factual presentations circulat ed between September 2009 and March 2011.  There 
were 25 such RTAs, six of which had subsequently been notified.  Again, these were RTAs which had 
been verified by their parties as being in force.  He had contacted the dele gations concerned and had 
urged them to submit their notifications as soon as possi ble.  In an effort to promote the transparency 
of RTAs which had not been notified to the WTO but  were confirmed by their parties as being in 
force, he proposed to circulate a list of such RTAs as a room document in the meeting and as a 
working document in advance of the next CRTA meeting.   Finally, he asked the Secretariat to provide 
further details on the preparation of factual presentations. 
8. A representative of the Secretariat said th at in the case of Agreements between 
WTO Members, the situation was as follows:  for EU-Albania, services,  comments had been received 
and the factual presentation would be issued shor tly.  For EU-Côte d'Ivoire, goods, some comments 
had been received from the parties, but final co mments were still pending.  For EU-Egypt, goods, the 
factual presentation had been drafted and sent to the parties.  Comments had been received from 
Egypt, but not yet jointly from the parties.  In  the case of Chile-China, services, the factual 
presentation had been drafted and sent to the parties.   In the case of four RTAs:  US-Bahrain, goods 
and services;  CAFTA-DR, goods and services;  US-Oman, goods and services;  China-Singapore, goods and services;  the factual presentations had been  sent to the parties (in all cases back in 2009), 
but no comments had been received.  In the case of EU-South Africa, goods, and Colombia-Mexico, 
goods and services,  data had been received and the factual pr esentations were being drafted.  For 
Panama-Honduras, goods and services data from Honduras was outstanding; and for 
El Salvador-Honduras-Chinese Taipei, goods and servi ces, data were still pending from El Salvador 
and Honduras.  In the case of Kore a-India, services, some data had been received from India.  For 
New Zealand-Hong Kong, China, goods and services, no data had been received.  For Turkey-Chile,  WT/REG/M/61 
 Page 3 
 
 
  goods and Turkey-Jordan, goods, da ta was scheduled to be submitted by 15 July and 25 July, 
respectively.  For Korea-ASEAN, services, the data  request was being prepared and would be sent out 
shortly.  
9. As for the RTAs involving non-Members, the situation was as follows:  for Turkey-Serbia, 
goods, comments had been received and the factual presen tation would be issued shortly.  In the case 
of ASEAN-China, services, the factual presentation ha d been sent to the parties, but no comments had 
been received.  For Iceland-Faeroe Islands, goods and services, comments had been received but some 
outstanding data was pending from the Faeroe Islands.  For EU-Bosni a Herzegovina, goods;  
EFTA-Lebanon, goods;  EU-CARIFORUM, goods a nd services;  Turkey-Syria, goods, CEFTA 
Enlargement, goods;  Ukraine-Azerbaijan, goods;  Ukraine-Belarus, goods; Ukraine-Russian 
Federation, goods;  Ukraine-Tajikistan, goods;  Uk raine-Kazakhstan, goods;  Ukraine-Turkmenistan, 
goods;  Ukraine-Uzbekistan, goods;  and the Common Economic Zone, goods, data was not complete.   
10. With regards to RTAs for which not all parties had ratified the agreement yet, the Secretariat 
would wait before the agreement had entered into  force for all the Parties before starting the 
preparation of factual presentations.  This was th e case of five agreements:  ASEAN-Japan, goods;  
Australia-ASEAN-New Zealand, goods and services;  EC-Cameroon, goods;  EFTA-Albania, goods;  
and EFTA-Serbia, goods.  She urged the parties to  notify the Secretariat when their respective 
agreement would enter into force for all the parties.   She also urged all Members to comply with the 
deadlines in order to adhere to the CRTA's work programme. 
11. The Chairman said that it was clear from the Secr etariat's statement that the Committee was at 
risk of significant slippage in its work programme of consideration of RTAs under the TM.  Since it 
was generally acknowledged that the TM had been a success so far, it was in the interest of all 
Members to ensure that deadlines were respected and the work pr ogramme under the TM proceed as 
planned.  He was confident that the Committee coul d rely on the cooperation of all Members in this 
regard. 
12. B.II-B.VI.  (The minutes of the consideration of the Agreements listed under agenda items 
B.II-VI are being distributed as separate documents). 
C. CONSIDERATION OF REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS INVOLVING WTO  NON -MEMBERS  
13. Under this Item, the Chairman recalled th at during the CRTA meeting of 4 March 2009, 
Members had agreed to consider RTAs involving non-Members under the Transparency Mechanism's 
procedures and that RTAs notified since 14 Decemb er 2006, including future notifications, should be 
taken up before the others.  Members had made it cl ear that the consideration of such agreements by 
the Committee had no implications for the views or  positions of any Member with respect to the 
consistency of that RTA with the WTO rules and would be without prejudice to the rights and obligations of Members under the WTO Agreements, as clearly stated in paragraphs 1 and 5 of the 
Transparency Mechanism Decision.  Members had also agreed that the consideration of such 
agreements in the CRTA would be organized under a separate Agenda Item. 
14. C.I-C.III. (The minutes of the consideration of  the Agreements listed between WTO Members 
and non-Members under agenda items C.I-III are being distributed as separate documents). 
D. O
THER BUSINESS  
15. The Chairman informed Members of the propo sed dates for the CRTA's meetings in 2011. 
These were 22-23 September and 8-9 November 2011. 
16. The Committee took note of the comments made. 
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