. /.   WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/REG/W/54 
8 June 2010 
 
 (10-3120) 
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements  Original:   English 
  
 
CROSS CUTTING ISSUES ON RTAS 
 
Communication from Australia;  Cana da;  Hong Kong, China;  India;
  
New Zealand and the Republic of Korea  
 
 
 The following communication, dated 4 June 2010  has been received from the Delegations of 
Australia;  Canada;  Hong Kong, China;  India;  New Zealand and the Republic of Korea with the 
request that it be circulated to Members and include d in the agenda for consideration at the meeting of 
the CRTA to be held on 14-15 June 2010. 
 
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I. BACKGROUND 
1. The Committee on Regional Trade Agreements (CRTA) has a mandate "to consider the 
systemic implications of [RTAs] and regional initia tives for the multilateral trading system".  In 2002, 
the Secretariat produced two background documen ts which provided factual, cross-cutting 
descriptions of certain elements of RTAs - rules of origin regimes (WT/REG/W/45) and coverage of 
RTAs (WT/REG/W/46).  
2. More recently, Members have expressed support for the CRTA undertaking this type of work. 
 - In his Summary on 2 December 2009, the Chairman of the Seventh Ministerial 
Conference noted that "while the WTO tr ansparency mechanism had worked quite 
well, there is still room for improvement , through … highlighting better the common 
elements in different RTAs".  
  - At the Trade Policy Review Body on 22 January 2010, the Chairperson summarized 
Members’ discussions by noting that "on RT As, I sense that there is support among 
the Membership for a more focused work pr ogramme on this issue, and I will suggest 
to the Chairman of the CRTA that he conduc ts consultations on how to take that work 
programme forward". 
 
3. We thank the previous and current Chairp ersons of the CRTA for their continued 
consultations on this issue and hope that this pr oposal can form the basis for the CRTA undertaking 
this valuable work.  
II. CROSS-CUTTING ELEMENTS OF RTAS 
4. We support the RTAs transparency mechanism a nd look forward to its permanent adoption as 
part of the overall results of the Doha Round.  The RTAs transparency m echanism has been very 
useful at shedding light on the key elements of individual RTAs.  The purpose of this proposal is to WT/REG/W/54 
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  use the information gathered in the CRTA, including  under the transparency mechanism, to improve 
our knowledge of RTAs in a systemic way. 
5. While Members now have a better understanding of  the details of notified RTAs (thanks to 
the RTAs transparency mechanism), there is less  information available on how other RTAs affect 
Members' trade interests in a systemic way and how th ey interact with the multilateral trading system.  
It is well known that the number of RTAs is growi ng and that an increased percentage of world trade 
is occurring under RTAs.  This proposal is inte nded to improve Members’ understanding of the 
cross-cutting elements of RTAs and of their systemic significance. 
6. Based on the Chair's informal consultations a nd discussions at the CRTA, we propose that the 
following approach should form the basis of our work.   
 - It would be based on papers, prepared by the Secretariat on its own responsibility, on 
horizontal, cross-cutting issues.   
  - The papers would be descriptive and factua l in nature;  they would not contain value 
judgments or legal analysis and would no t single out particular Members or RTAs. 
 
 - It would be based on all notified RTAs that are in force.   - It would be a comprehensive exercise which would look at all issues listed in the 
contents list of factual presentations. 
 
 - It would  not replace the work of the Rules Negotiating Group on RTAs' systemic 
 issues. 
 
 - It would  not create new legal rules or obligations on RTAs. 
  - It would  not create de facto  benchmarks for RTAs. 
 7. While this work is not intended to change WTO disciplines on RTAs – only the 
Rules Negotiating Group has a mandate to do that – th e information gathered could make a valuable 
contribution to discussions on systemic RTAs issues.   As the Chair of the Rules Negotiating Group 
noted in his communication of 6 May 2010, we 'n eed to understand the economic implications of 
RTAs better before the rules can be "clarified and improved"'. 
III. PROPOSAL 
8. That Members agree to resume and re-energi se the CRTA's work on horizontal, cross-cutting 
elements of RTAs.  This work would be based on factual, descriptive papers prepared by the 
Secretariat as outlined above. 
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