WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/COMTD/62/Add.2 
7 March 2008 
 (08-1018) 
Committee on Trade and Development Original:   English 
  
 
AMENDMENT TO THE FIRST AGREEMEN T ON TRADE NEGOTIATIONS AMONG 
DEVELOPING MEMBER COUNTRIES OF THE ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL  
COMMISSION FOR ASIA AND THE PACIFIC (BANGKOK AGREEMENT) 
  
ASIA-PACIFIC TRADE AGREEMENT
 
 
Communication from China  
 
Addendum  
 
 
 The following communication, dated 29 February 2008, is being circulated at the request of 
the delegation of China.  
_______________ 
 
 
REPLIES TO THE QUESTIONS POSED BY THE UNITED STATES ON THE ASIA-
PACIFIC TRADE AGREEMENT (APTA) 
 
Notification 
1. The notification by China (WT/COMTD/N/22) states the Bangkok Agreement was notified to 
GATT on 2 November 1976 in accordance with the En abling Clause.  We note the Enabling Clause 
was adopted by the contracting parties of the GATT in 1979.  
2. Please provide a clarification of the author ity under which the agreement was originally 
notified.  
Reply
: 
It is right that the Bangkok Agreement was notified to GATT on 2 November 1976.  
Meanwhile, it should also be pointed out that the Agreement was originally made in line with the 
obligations of Contracting Parties under Article XX XVI with respect to principles and objectives of 
PART IV of GATT and in Article XXXVII:4 with re spect to specific commitments.  A Decision was 
taken in this regard on 14 Ma rch 1978 (Document No. L/4653).  The Agreement was subsequently 
considered as notified under Enabling Clause ad opted in 1979, which has provision similar to 
Article XXXVII:4 of GATT. 
The notification information is contained in the table titled "Regional Trade Agreements 
Notified to the GATT/WTO and in Force" at the WTO official website. 
(http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/region_e/eif_e.xls .)  WT/COMTD/62/Add.2 
Page 2  
 
    GATT/WTO notification  Consideration process in 
CRTA 
Agreement Date of 
entry 
into 
force Date 
notified 
by 
Parties* Related 
provisions Type of 
agreement 
** Document 
series Status           
FP=Factual 
Presentation; 
FA=Factual 
Abstract Ref. 
APTA  17-Jun-
76 2-Nov-
76* Enabling 
Clause PS L/4418 
L/4418/Corr.1 Report adopted 25S/109 
14.03.78 
* Dates of WTO documents containing notification ** CU=Customs Union; EIA=Economic Integratio n Agreement; FTA=Free Trade Agreement; PS=Partial 
Scope 
 
Membership 
3. Recent agreements to which the Republic of Korea is a party ( e.g., Free Trade Agreement 
between the Republic of Korea and Chile, WT /REG169/N/1 and S/C/N/302) were notified under 
Article XXIV and GATS V.  Further, estimates by the World Bank of over 200 countries ranked the 
Republic of Korea the world's 12th largest economy in terms of to tal gross national income and 49th in 
per capita terms.  ( See http//web.worldbank.org/wbsite/external/datastatistics .)  Lastly, we note that 
paragraph 2 of the Enabling Clause states that it applies to " Regional or global arrangements entered 
into amongst less-developed contracting parties for the mutual reduction or elimination of tariffs.. ." 
4. Please explain the parties' rationale for noti fying the APTA under the Enabling Clause.  
Reply : 
 
As an original member country of the old Ba ngkok agreement, ROK has participated in the 
Agreement since its establishment in 1976.  The Bangkok Agreement has been already acknowledged 
as a regional preferential agreement among developi ng countries authorized in the Enabling Clause 
when it was notified to the WTO.  The revised  Bangkok Agreement, i.e. APTA is not a new 
agreement but is just resulted from renaming in  the vision of expanding trade among member 
countries.  Thus, it was notified under the Enablin g Clause, and it does not require any change in 
original member countries maintaining their status.  In addition, APTA is a partial scope agreement.  
 
Trade coverage 
5. What percentage of trade among the APTA members is covered by the new consolidated 
tariff list?  What percentage of tariff lines?   WT/COMTD/62/Add.2 
 Page 3 
 
 
  Reply : 
 
Percentage of Trade Coverage  
Concession Offering 
Country Import Value (2004) 1) No. of Tariff Lines 2) 
Bangladesh 4.3  3.4 
China 38.1 20.3 
India 11.9 10.9 
Republic of Korea 31.2 10.6 
Sri Lanka 12.1 7.1 
Total 32.5 - 
Note:  
(1) Share of import value of  the products under the new consolidated concession in 
relation to total import value from other APTA members (including special concession 
lists for LDCs).  
(2) Since all concession lists are not based on same HS digit classification, tariff lines for 
Bangladesh, China, Republic of Korea, and Sri Lanka are converted to HS 6-digit.  The 
percentage is calculated by dividing the number of converted tariff lines conceded by 
5,224 which is total number of tariff lines of HS 6-digit in 2002. 
Source: ESCAP secretariat calculations based on UNCOMTRADE  
 
6. What are the actual utilization rates for APTA preferences? 
Reply : 
 
As is the case for many RTAs, actual utilizati on rates are not readily available. Furthermore, 
in the case of APTA, since the effective date of implementation is 1 September 2006, the elapsed time 
is insufficient to draw definite conclusions on utilization rates.  Information dissemination on the 
concessions, in particular for the business sector , is still underway in many APTA members.  
Notwithstanding the above caveats, a study was u ndertaken, between China and the Republic of 
Korea, as pilot countries.  For the period of Se ptember 2006 to June 2007, th e rates are 13.4 per cent 
for the Republic of Korea and 24.8 per cent for China.  
 
Margins of preference 
7. What are the average margins of prefer ence provided by APTA members under the 
agreement?  WT/COMTD/62/Add.2 
Page 4  
 
  Reply:
 
 
Results of the Third Round: Margin of Preference  
 
Margin of Preference Concession Offering Country General Concessions Special Concessions 
Bangladesh 14.1 - 
China 26.7 77.9 
India 23.9 39.7 
Republic of Korea 35.4 64.6 
Sri Lanka 14.0 12.0 
Total 26.8 58.8 
Note: (1) Special concessions are to LDCs Members. 
(2) Margin of Preference means the percentage of a pplied MFN tariffs to be exempted and is estimated 
as a simple average of all items. 
 (3) Unlike the concessions offered by other Particip ating States, in the case of Sri Lanka, the average 
MOP for special concessions is less than that for general concessions.  This may happen if there is an 
overlap in only a few products between the two concession lists, and the MOPs of products for special 
concessions only, are low overall. 
Among the 72 products in Sri Lanka's special con cession list, an additional 64 products (89%) are 
offered only to LDCs and furthermore, the MOP of 43 products (67%) of the 64 products are just 10%, 
thus bringing the average MOP down. 
 
Preservation of preference margins (Article 10) 
8. Would APTA parties be required to renegotiate  their concessions to one another in the 
event of a successful completion of the DDA?  If so, can APTA parties provide assurances that 
this apparent requirement to preserve the value of concessions in the event of tariff changes will 
not impede their willingness to reduce tariffs on an MFN basis at the WTO? 
Reply:  
APTA Participating States will not be required to renegotiate concessions in the event of a 
successful completion of the DDA, as the concessions agreed under APTA are granted as percentage 
of the applied MFN tariffs to be exempted.  Value of concessions under APTA is measured as 
percentage of applied MFN duty exempted, whic h will remain unchanged.  Accordingly, the 
Participating States will be free to modify their tari ffs on an MFN basis.  Independently of the Doha 
Round, on 26 October 2007, the Second Session of th e Ministerial Council agreed to launch a Fourth 
Round of Negotiations, which aims at further wide ning product coverage and deepening the tariff 
cuts. 
9. Are APTA parties required to renegotiate th eir concessions to one another when any of 
the parties enter into other reciprocal preferential arrangements? 
Reply : 
 
No, APTA Participating States are not required to  renegotiate their concessions to one another 
when any of the parties enter into other reciprocal  preferential arrangement.  Article 14 of the APTA 
Agreement makes specific reference to it.    WT/COMTD/62/Add.2 
 Page 5 
 
 
  Potential overlap with other agreements 
10. To what extent do concessions provided in the revised agreement overlap with 
concessions provided by other reciprocal prefere ntial arrangements involving APTA parties 
(including the India-Sri Lanka agreements, GSTP, SAFTA, etc.)? 
Reply : 
 
The overlap in the concession lists does not matter in the implementation because each 
Agreement is different and is independent of comm itments made thereunder.  In case of overlap with 
other agreements, member countries can apply the more advantageous rate.  
 
Non-tariff barriers 
11. Article 6 states that parties shall gradually  relax non-tariff measures existing on 
conceded products and make information about non-tariff measures available on a transparent basis to other APTA parties.  Have any such lists been circulated?  Will APTA members make 
these and future lists available to WTO members,  also in the interest of transparency? 
Reply
: 
 
Presently, trade liberalization among APTA memb ers is only through exchange of mutually 
agreed tariff concessions.  In this regard, no list regarding non-tariff measures has been circulated 
among members.  The issue of information disclosur e regarding non-tariff measures will be discussed 
by APTA members once the Agreement enters in to non-tariff measures area in the future. 
 
Provisions for new Members 
12. Article 30 says membership is limited to developing members of UNESCAP.  Would 
APTA members be receptive to membership requests from countries outside the UNESCAP 
region? 
Reply : 
According to Article 30, APTA "shall be open for accession by any developing member 
country of ESCAP".  The Agreement does not cont ain provisions for accession by other developing 
countries outside the ESCAP region.  
13. Are any countries currently in the process of accession?   
Reply : 
Currently, no country is in the process of accession.  But the Secretariat has received 
expression of interest in APTA membership from around ten UNESCAP developing members. 
__________