RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/REG/M/54 
29 September 2009 
 (09-4543) 
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements 
Fifty-fourth Session  
 
 
 
NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 15 SEPTEMBER 2009 
 
Chairman:  Mr. D. Brauns (Germany ) 
 
 
A. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA  
1. The 54th Session of the Committee on Regional Trad e Agreements (hereinafter CRTA or the 
Committee) was convened in Airgram WTO/AI R/3410, dated 7 August 2009.  Under "Other 
Business", the Chairman  announced his intention to provide information on the remaining programme 
of the Committee for the year and the RTA Section' s relocation to the Centre William Rappard.  In 
addition, the representative of New Zealand  wished to make a statement on the quality of RTAs 
appearing before the Committee.  
2. The following Agenda was adopted: 
A. Adoption of the Agenda 
B. Consideration of Regiona l Trade Agreements (RTAs) 
I. Status report on the Committee's work 
II. Closer Economic Partnership Agreem ent between Pakistan and Malaysia, 
services 
III. Free Trade Agreement between the Re public of Korea and Singapore, goods 
and services 
IV. Free Trade Agreement between Turkey and Albania, goods 
V. Economic Partnership Agreement be tween Brunei Darussalam and Japan, 
goods and services 
VI. Economic Partnership Agreement be tween Japan and Indonesia, goods and 
services 
VII. Free Trade Agreement betw een Armenia and Ukraine, goods 
VIII. Free Trade Agreement between Georgia and Ukraine, goods 
IX. Free Trade Agreement between the Kyrgyz Republic and Ukraine, goods X. Free Trade Agreement between Chile and Panama, goods and services XI. Free Trade Agreement between Mexico and the Northern Triangle – El 
Salvador, Guatemala and H onduras, goods and services. 
C.  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 . 
 
  WT/REG/M/54 
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  B. C
ONSIDERATION OF REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS  
B.I Status Report on the Committee's work 
 4. Under this Agenda item, the Chairman
 provided Members with an update on the 
implementation of the Transparency Mechanis m (TM). He informed them that 32 early 
announcements had been placed on the WTO website  (not counting those RTAs which had been 
subsequently notified).  He thanked those Member s who had submitted information in line with the 
requirements of the TM and encouraged others to do so.  He also reminded Members to inform the 
Secretariat of any changes in the status of the early announcements to keep them up to date.  For 
instance, if an agreement moved from being unde r negotiation to being signed, this should be 
communicated to the Secretariat so that the information on early announcements could be kept up to 
date.  On the issue of transparency, the Ch airman reminded Members that at the CRTA's 53rd Session, 
under "other business", he had informed the Committ ee that he had been asked  by the Chairman of 
the General Council in the context of the Trade Policy Review Body's monitoring of recent developments in trade to consult with Members on ways to improve the timeliness and completeness 
of notifications and other information flows.  In this regard, he asked those Members who had RTAs 
in force that had not yet been notified to the WTO, to please do so as soon as possible.  It was his intention to contact the relevant delegations shor tly to discuss when and how these agreements could 
be notified.   
5. As regards the factual abstracts to be prepar ed on RTAs covering trade in goods for which a 
factual examination had already been completed, 19 had been posted on the WTO website, and 35 had 
been prepared and sent to the relevant parties for their comments.  He urged those parties to submit 
their comments as soon as possible.  In addition all 20 factual abstracts in services had been sent to 
the relevant parties, 11 of which had been posted on the WTO website. 
6. As regards the preparation of the factual pr esentations under the remit of the CRTA, in the 
case of RTAs involving WTO Members only there were presently 46 RTAs for which a factual 
presentation had to be prepared, counting goods an d services separately.  He recalled that at the 
Committee's 52
nd Session held on 4 March 2009, Members had agreed to begin considering RTAs 
involving non-Members under the procedures of the TM.  Thus, factual presentations on a further 41 
RTAs involving non-Members were to be prepared, with priority for those RTAs notified since the 
adoption of the TM on 14 December 2006.  Data re quests for the 21 RTAs notified since the adoption 
of the TM had been sent to the relevant parties.   The consideration of these RTAs would begin in 
2010.  He asked the Secretariat to provide further details on the preparation of factual presentations. 
7. A representative of the Secretariat  said that, under the work programme for the CRTA for 
2009, which was agreed with Members in Ja nuary 2009, 21 RTAs (counting goods and services 
notifications separately) were to have been consid ered in the current Session of the CRTA.  Of these, 
13 RTAs together with Mexico-Northern Triangl e, goods and services (which had been postponed 
from the Committee's April Session) were on the Agenda  of the current Session.  Regarding the eight 
RTAs which were not on the current S ession's Agenda the Factual Presentation of  EU Enlargement 
(27), goods and services had recently been circulated  and would be considered at the CRTA's next 
session.  For US-Bahrain, goods and services, all outst anding data had been received from Bahrain at 
the end of March and the Factual Presentation had been sent to the Parties for comments in early July.  The Secretariat was still awaiting comments on the draf t.   For Japan-Thailand, goods and services, all 
the remaining data had been received recently and consideration of the Agreement would be 
scheduled as soon as possible.  For EC-South Afri ca, the Secretariat was still awaiting data from 
South Africa which had been requested in Febr uary 2007 and had contacted the South African 
authorities to try to resolve this matter.  For EC-Eg ypt, originally scheduled for consideration in July 
2007, tariff data from Egypt had not been provided yet.  The Secretariat continued to liaise with 
Egypt's authorities to try and resolve this situation.  WT/REG/M/54 
 Page 3 
 
 
  8. For the November meeting of the CRTA, a tota l of ten RTAs were scheduled.  For Ukraine-
the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM), goods and Ukraine-Moldova, goods,  factual 
presentations had been circulated.  For EC-Côte d' Ivoire, goods the Factual Presentation had been sent 
to the Parties on 24 July 2009 and the Secretariat was s till awaiting comments.   F o r  Costa Rica-
Mexico, goods and services, final data had been received from Mexico and the factual presentation 
would be shortly drafted for comments.  For Mexi co-Nicaragua, goods and services, the Secretariat 
was still awaiting some outstanding data from Ni caragua.  For EFTA-SACU, goods, a draft of the 
factual presentation had been sent to the Parties.   The Secretariat was still awaiting comments and 
outstanding data from SACU in order to complete  the factual presentation;  for Japan-Philippines,  
goods and services, the factual presentation had been sent to the Parties for comments on 24 June 2009 and the Secretariat was still aw aiting comments.  As a result, of  the ten RTAs scheduled for the 
November meeting only two factual presentations ha d been circulated, as well as that for the EU 
Enlargement (27) originally scheduled at this meetin g.  Given the number of agreements remaining to 
be considered, as well as the large number of recent no tifications (27 in 2009 already), the Secretariat 
would need all the help it could get from RTA partie s, including the timely submission of data as well 
as comments on factual presentations, if it was to be able to meet its scheduled programme for 2009 
and 2010.  
9. With regard to the agreements with non- Members, the Secretariat had informed the 
Committee at the last meet ing that a request for data for 21 RTAs involving non-Members that had 
been notified since 14 December 2006 had been sent out .  To date, the Secretariat had received very 
little data in response to this request.  The Secret ariat was in contact with several Members and non-
Members to explain the data requirements and hoped to receive more data shortly.  Tentatively, 
consideration of these RTAs had been scheduled in  2010 but given the large number of notifications 
already received in 2009 of agreements between Me mbers only, which should take priority, and the 
Secretariat's own resource constraints, this schedule was subject to change. 
B. II-XI. (The minutes of the consideration of th e Agreements listed under agenda items B.II-XI are 
being distributed as separate documents). 
 
C. O
THER BUSINESS  
10. Under this Agenda item, the Chairman  informed Members that a session of the CRTA would 
be held on Thursday 15 October to finalize the Annual Report of the CRTA to the General Council in view of the Ministerial Conference.  The report would be circulated to Members in advance of the meeting, with a period for comments.  Second, in consultation with the Secretariat, he proposed to 
cancel the CRTA meeting scheduled for 19-20 Novemb er 2009, due to the delays in the receipt of 
data and comments by the parties for a number of RT As which had been scheduled for this meeting, 
as previously reported by the Secretariat.  The RTAs which were scheduled for the November session 
would be included in the Agenda of the first CRTA meeting scheduled for mid March 2010.  The 
exact dates of meetings scheduled for 2010 would be  communicated to Members by the Secretariat at 
a later date.  The representative of the European Communities
 (EC) said that the EC had worked hard 
to ensure that the Factual Presentation of the EU Enlargement (27) would be ready for the November 
meeting.  He believed that cancella tion should be a last resort, especially in light of the important 
backlog in the factual presentations and the Committ ee should consider the three factual presentations 
in the November session.  The representative of Chile  also echoed the EC's concerns about 
overloading the agenda of the March 2010 session.  The Chairman  said that as it was not possible to 
have more than three agreements for considera tion in the November meeting and the Ministerial 
Meeting in December he thought it best to postpon e consideration of the three agreements which he 
believed could be easily considered in the Ma rch 2010 session of the CRTA.  The Committee agreed  
on the cancellation of the November CRTA meeting. WT/REG/M/54 
Page 4  
 
  11. The Chairman also informed the Committee that the RTA Section would move back to the 
Centre William Rappard and its offices would be  located on the second floor, south wing of the 
renovated part of the building.  The move was sch eduled for mid October.  Telephone and contact 
details would remain the same, but some disruption in  the availability of RTA Section staff was to be 
expected during the period of the move.   
12. The representative of New Zealand
 made a statement on the quality of the RTAs under 
consideration in the framework of the CRTA.  Th e current international ec onomic situation and its 
uncertainties highlighted the importance of trade as an e ngine for growth and the need not to resort to  
or reinforce protectionist approaches.  With the Doha Round yet to be concluded, she noted that 
Members were increasingly looking to bilateral or re gional trade agreements to address their needs.  
In this context, the work of the CRTA assu med renewed significance in encouraging greater 
understanding and consideration of  RTAs.  Members were reminded that the provisions of GATT 
Article XXIV remained pertinent as a basic test – in  particular, that such bilateral or regional trade 
agreements aimed at fostering closer economic inte gration should facilitate trade between the parties, 
but not raise barriers to the trade of other Member s, and that such agreements importantly should 
cover substantially all the trade between the parti es.  Frequently one heard of “RTAs as building 
blocks or stumbling blocks for the multilateral tr ading system”.  The CRTA should consider whether 
the agreements before it were truly building blocks  towards freer trade or whether they perpetuated 
the protection of entire sectors.  The CRTA should work to ensure that RTAs under consideration 
supported the multilateral system in terms of genuine ly covering substantially all the trade, thus 
complementing rather than undermining Members' effo rts in the WTO.  New Zealand appreciated that 
'substantially all the trade' was not defined in th e WTO Agreements, but for New Zealand its meaning 
was virtually all of the parties' trading relationship.  It applied to all aspects of what was understood to 
be trade including trade in merchandise goods, services and investment and also the range of complementary and supporting instruments that f acilitate trade and investment flows, such as 
intellectual property rights protection, rules of orig in, customs facilitation, technical barriers to trade 
and so on.  By way of specific example, for Ne w Zealand, for merchandise goods 'substantially all the 
trade' meant the elimination of 100% of tariff lines,  including in particular on current trade flows.  
Full liberalization remained New Zealand's long st anding and ongoing objective in every free trade 
agreement it negotiated.   
13. The representative of the EC
 shared the overall thrust of New Zealand's statement and 
declared his willingness to discuss the rules of GA TT Article XXIV in the appropriate forum for 
negotiations.  He invited Members to renew their en gagement in the discussions.  He also noted that 
the answers provided by the parties to the agreem ents under consideration in the CRTA were vague 
and standard which he did not c onsider to be ideal for the Committee's work.  He thus invited 
Members to do better in this respect  The representative of Chile  appreciated New Zealand's 
intervention and shared its general ideas.  The full liberalization approach had been used in 
negotiations between Chile and New Zealand and the Agreement among the P4 members 
(Trans-Pacific SEP between New Zealand, Chile, Singapore and Brunei Darussalam) represented a 
good example.  He expressed Chile's willingness to  discuss disciplines on GATT Article XXIV in the 
appropriate negotiating forum and wished to obta in a result as part of the conclusion of the 
DDA negotiations.  The representative of Australia  joined the EC and Chile in supporting New 
Zealand's statement.  He considered the Negotia ting Group on Rules the appropriate forum in which 
to discuss the issue and Australia wa s ready to do so.  The Chairman  also noted that the DDA 
negotiations represented an opportunity  to review GATT Article XXIV.  
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