WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/C/W/519 
3 June 2005 
 (05-2287) 
Council for Trade in Goods Original:   English 
  
 
UNITED STATES -  REQUESTS FOR WAIVERS FOR THE  
CARIBBEAN BASIN ECONOMIC AND RECOVERY ACT (CBERA, AS AMENDED), THE  
AFRICAN GROWTH AND OPPORTUNITY ACT (AGOA), AND THE 
ANDEAN TRADE PREFERENCE ACT (ATPA, AS AMENDED) 
 
Follow-up comments and questions from China
 
  
The following communication, dated 30 May 2005, is being circulated at the request of the 
Delegation of the People's Republic of China. 
 
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 We appreciate that the United States has replie d to our questions and circulated them in 
document G/C/W/518 dated 13 May 2005 which we note also contain US replies to questions from 
India and Pakistan.  After carefully examining the US  replies to our own questions, we feel the need 
to ask a few follow-up questions for clarification from the United States.  Some questions have also been prompted by the US replies to questions from India and Pakistan which we find interesting to us. 
 We wish to reassure all Members that we s upport the efforts made by developed Members to 
further the objective of providing improved market access conditions for developing Members, 
especially the least-developed ones among them. Ou r purpose in seeking clarification from the United 
States is to understand better the details of the preferen ces so as to ensure really tangible benefits for 
the beneficiary Members as well as the integrity of  the multilateral trading system. Apparently the 
U.S. legislations relating to its present waiv er requests are very complex and technical.  
 
We therefore hope that Members would bear with  us and expect that the United States will 
provide necessary clarification to our following questions. 
 
1. With respect to delay in the submission of the waiver requests, we regret that the United 
States chose to wait for as long as over four years in the case of CBERA and AGOA legislations and 
some three years in the case of ATPA legislati on.  We do not find it convincing that such long 
departures from obligations could be justified by the US  statement that the US had felt it to be best to 
wait until all prospective changes are completed and to vet informally its submissions with its partners 
before the submission of the requests.  
  
 Paragraph 3 of the decision on renewal of th e CBI waiver granted by the General Council in 
1995 (WT/L/104) provided that “the United Stat es shall promptly notify the General Council of 
any……modification being considered in the list of  eligible products and duty-free treatment 
thereof……”.  
  In accordance with this decision, will the United States please clarify reasons why it could 
not notify the General Council of the modification in duty-free treatment of apparel products imported 
from CBERA beneficiary countries when these modifications were  being considered? G/C/W/519 
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2. The data supplied by the United States in re ply to the fourth question from China indicates the 
following progression of US imports from beneficiary countries under these programmes: 
Imports in Million $ 
Programme 
   1983    2000              2004  
CBTPA        0       159  6,483 
CBI        0        75  4 AGOA 0         0  1,613 
        ATPA        0         2  1,156 
  A footnote to these data states that they may differ from data supplied by the US Office of Textile and Apparel.  
Could the US please clarify in w hat manner these data are different?  
 
3. Replies by the United States confirm that dut y-free treatment granted by the United States to 
apparel imports from the beneficiary countries are conditional on the use of US-produced materials 
(including yarns and fabrics), except when relevant materials are not available in the US in commercial quantity.  Data published by the USA showed that a significant amount of US textile 
exports went to the beneficiary countries since the entry into force of these programmes whereas 
duty-free imports from the beneficiary countries into  the US in the excepti onal cases of commercial 
unavailability of US materials are very insignificant.  Such provisions granting special privileges to 
the US textile industry are not available for other sectors.  
 Could the United States please comment on our concern that the revenue foregone by the US 
on import of apparel under these programmes (on the condition that these imports contain, e.g. US 
yarns and fabrics) effectively confers an advantage on US yarn and fabric producers and constitutes a 
specific subsidy to U.S. textile industry?  Meanw hile could the United States also comment on our 
concern that such provisions effectively confinin g the beneficiary countries to  use US-produced yarns 
and fabrics which are not competitive vis-à-vis yarns and fabrics from other sources seriously impair 
the export competitiveness of the beneficiary countries? 
 
4. In replying to the question why the United St ates also seeking waivers from Article XIII of 
the GATT 1994, the United States stated that "in so me cases, the duty-free treatment is subject to 
quantitative restrictions (QRs)".  We find it difficu lt to understand such QRs given the aim of the 
preferences is to develop the textile and clothing industry of the beneficiary countries.  Moreover, 
Article XIII seems to be relate d to exceptions to Article XI. 
 
 Would the United States please explain the rationale behind such QRs?  
 
5. The draft decision on CBERA and AGOA prepar ed by the United States draw consideration 
to the 1994 Decision on Measures in Favour of Least-developed Countries. 
 
 Could the United States please clarify which part of the provision in that 1994 Decision 
provide for discrimination among least-developed countries? 
 
6. We note that the AGOA legislation will expi re in 2015 while the third-country fabrics 
provision will expire in 2007.    G/C/W/519 
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  Could the United States please explain the ra tionale for such discrepancy? Also whether the 
uncertainty about the continuation of third-country fabr ic provision would not already start affecting 
the AGOA beneficiary Members' export prospects?  
 
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