RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/MA/M/39 
13 May 2005 
 (05-1975 ) 
Committee on Market Access  
  
MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 30 MARCH 2005  
 
Chairman: Dr. Magdi Farahat (Egypt
) 
  
 Subjects discussed:
                     Page  
 
1. Periodic report of the Committee to th e Council for Trade in Goods including 
factual  information on waivers expiring on 30 April 2005 (G/MA/SPEC/29)....................2  
2. Submission of HS96 documentation (G/MA/TAR/2/Rev.35)................................................2  
3. Submission of HS2002 documentation....................................................................................2  
(i) Submission of HS2002 documentation pursuant  to the General Council Decision in 
WT/L/407(G/MA/TAR/4/Rev.8)...................................................................................................2  
4. International Convention on the Ha rmonized Commodity Description and 
Coding System – Changes in the HS to be introduced on 1 January 2007 (G/MA/W/67).................................................................................................................... .........2
 
(i) Statement by the WC O representative ........................................................................................2  
5. Modalities and operation of the Integrated Data Base (IDB) ...............................................9  
(i) Status of submission of the required documentation (G/MA/IDB/2/Rev.21) ..............................9  
(ii) Report by the Secretariat ...................................................................................................... ....10  
(iii) Common Analytical Market Access Database (CAMAD) (JOB(04)/179) – Information 
by the Secretariat ............................................................................................................. .........11  
6. Consolidated Tariff Schedules (CTS) Database...................................................................11  
(i) Introduction of Harmonized System 2002 c hanges to Schedules of Concessions using 
the CTS database (WT/L/605)  - Report by the Secretariat on the status of work....................11  
7. Dissemination of the IDB and the CTS Database ................................................................12  
(i) Communication from the S outh Centre (G/MA/W/66)..............................................................12  
8. EC – import bans applied by Nigeria....................................................................................12  
9. Date of the ne xt meeting ....................................................................................................... ..13 
10. Election of th e Chairman ....................................................................................................... 13 
ANNEX 1 ........................................................................................................................ ......................14  
ANNEX 2 ........................................................................................................................ ......................16  
ANNEX 3 ........................................................................................................................ ......................17  
 
 The  Committee adopted  the agenda as reproduced in document WTO/AIR/2535 with the 
inclusion of the following items under Other Busin ess:  "EC – import bans applied by Nigeria" and 
"Date of the next meeting". An annotated ag enda was circulated in document JOB(05)/43. G/MA/M/39 
Page 2  
 
 1. Periodic report of the Committee to the Council for Trade in Goods including factual 
 information on waivers expiring on 30 April 2005 (G/MA/SPEC/29) 
 
1.1 The Chairman
 drew the Committee's attention to document G/MA/SPEC/29 which contained 
the draft periodic report of this Committee.  This  report would be finalized in the light of the 
discussion that took place at this meeting and would be submitted to the Council for Trade in Goods 
for examination.  The report contained in its A nnex a table summarizing factual information on the 
waivers under process submitted by the Members con cerned.  Three Members had forwarded requests 
for waiver extensions in connection with the in troduction of HS96 changes to their schedules of 
concessions.  Factual information had been provide d by these Members concerning their request and 
draft decisions had also been circulated.    
 1.2 The representative of the United States
 informed the Committee that the US had lifted its 
reservation on Argentina's HS96 docum entation and requested that the information in the Annex be 
amended to reflect this situation.  
 
1.3 The representative of Mexico  supported the waiver requested by Panama, but wished to note 
that this GATT Article II waiver related to a tech nical issue concerning some tariff lines that were 
affected by HS changes.  It did not imply the modi fication of the tariff structure of that Member.  He 
urged Members maintaining reservations to lift them  as soon as possible, so that the process could 
conclude.  
 
1.4 The Committee took note  of the statements, approved  the draft waiver decisions and agreed  to 
forward them to  the Council for Tr ade in Goods for appropriate action. 
  
2. Submission of HS96 documentation (G/MA/TAR/2/Rev.35) 
 
2.1 The Chairman  drew the Committee's attention to document G/MA/TAR/2/Rev.35 which 
reflected the present situation concerning the submission of required documentation under the 
procedures to incorporate HS changes to schedules of concessions (L/6905).  From the document, it 
could be noted that the HS96 submissions of four Members remained pending due to ongoing 
consultations.   
 
2.2 The Committee took note  of the document. 
 
3. Submission of HS2002 documentation  
 
(i) Submission of HS2002 documentation pursuant to the General Council Decision in 
WT/L/407(G/MA/TAR/4/Rev.8) 
3.1 The Chairman  referred to document G/MA/TAR/4/Rev.8  which reflected the situation with 
respect to the circulation of HS2002 documentation.    3.2 The Committee took note
 of the information. 
 
4. International Convention on the Harmon ized Commodity Description and Coding 
System – Changes in the HS to be in troduced on 1 January 2007 (G/MA/W/67) 
(i) Statement by the WCO representative 
4.1 The Chairman  recalled that the HS2007 changes were approved and would enter into force on 
1 January 2007.  The changes, were communicated  to the WTO by the WCO, and circulated in 
document G/MA/W/67.     G/MA/M/39 
 Page 3 
 
 
 4.2 In this regard, he wished to extend a wa rm welcome to the representatives from the WCO, 
Mr. Chriticles Mwansa (Director, Ta riff and Trade Affairs Directorate) and Mr. Isaak Wind (Deputy 
Director Nomenclature and Classification) also on  behalf of the Committee, and thank them for 
attending  this meeting.  It was clear that the work done in the Harmonized System (HS) Committee 
had a significant impact on the work done here, a nd Members had to take advantage of the presence 
of  the representatives form the WCO in order to seek clarification on this specific matter or on any 
other issue the dealt with by the WCO.   4.3 The representative of the WCO
 (Mr. I. Wind) stated that the Preamble to the Harmonized 
System Convention emphasised the importance of ensuring that the Harmonized System was kept 
up-to-date in the light of changes in technology or in patterns of international trade.  Article 7 of the 
Convention further stated that it was for the HS Committee to propose to the WCO Council such 
amendments to the HS Convention as might be consid ered desirable, having regard, in particular, to 
the needs of users.  
4.4 Amendments to the HS were discussed, in  the first instance, by  the HS Review Sub-
Committee.  The results of these discussions were  presented to the HS Committee for approval, 
which, in turn, prepared at the end of the review cycle period a draft Recommendation for adoption by 
the WCO Council.  4.5 On 26 June 2004, the WCO Council had a dopted a Recommendation comprising amendments 
prepared by the HS Committee to amend the HS.  Contracting Parties to the HS Convention were 
notified by the Secretary General on 12 July.  On this  date a period of six m onths started during which 
any Contracting Party could object any of the r ecommended amendments.  No such objections were 
filed at the end of that period, which meant that  all amendments listed in the Recommendation had 
been adopted.  These amendments would enter into force on 1 January 2007. 
 
4.6 At its First Session (in 1988), the HS Committee ha d agreed to allow an interval of about four 
to five years between each Recommendation ame nding the HS Nomenclature under the Article 16 
procedure.  The first set of amendments following the introduction of the HS in 1988 came into force 
on 1 January 1992.  The amendments were mainly editorial.  The second set of amendments, which 
were more substantial, came into effect on 1 January 1996.  This set contained almost 400 
amendments and the number of HS codes incr eased from 5,018 to 5,113.  The third list of 
amendments, which were also substantial, came into force on 1 January 2002.  Although the number 
of amendments was slightly less than that of the HS96 amendments, the number of HS codes increased again, from 5,113 to 5,224.  One of the re asons that the implementation date was six years 
after the previous one and not four or five , was the development of the WTO Harmonized 
Non-Preferential Rules of Origin.  At that time it was suggested to facilitate these rules by amending 
the HS.  However, since the development of the rules had taken longer than anticipated, it was 
decided to postpone any amendment of the HS in th is respect until the conclusion of the development 
of  harmonized non-preferential rules of origin.  4.7 In this context, he wished to draw the Comm ittee's attention to the fact that still more than 
10 per cent of the Contracting Parties had not yet notified the WCO Secretariat on the implementation 
of the HS 2002 amendments.  This was of great concern to the WCO, other Contracting Parties and the WCO Secretariat.  Contracting Parties were oblig ed to implement amendments to the HS in their 
customs tariffs and trade statistics.  
4.8 Finally, the fourth set of amendments, which was actually the third review of the HS, would 
come into force on 1 January 2007.  Some 350 ame ndments were included in the list, which would 
result in a decrease of HS codes from 5,224 to 5,056.   
 G/MA/M/39 
Page 4  
 
  I. General scope of the HS2007 amendments
 
 4.9 As indicated, this was in fact the third ma jor revision of the Harmonized System since it was 
approved by the WCO Council in 1983 and implem ented in 1988.  It included 354 sets of 
amendments.  The initial proposals for the ame ndments were discussed by the HS Review 
Sub-Committee, which presented the final r esults to the HS Committee in May 2004. 
 4.10 In addition to the simplification in some areas, the main sources of these amendments were: 
 
• Technological progress; 
• Change in trade patterns; 
• Clarification of texts to ensure uniform application; 
• Adaptation of the Nomenclature to reflect trade practice; and 
• Amendments related to the social and environmen tal fields, i. e., new subheadings to facilitate 
the monitoring and control of:  certain species of fish; products of bamboo (INBAR (FAO)); pesticides (Rotterdam Convention); ozone-dep leting substances (Montreal Protocol); and 
products containing asbestos 
 
 (i) Simplification of he adings and subheadings 
 4.11 The HS Committee agreed to simplify the struct ure of the Nomenclature for different reasons.  
Examples of simplification at heading level were:  
• Chapter 95, where the headings covering toys (i.e., headings 95.01, 95.02 and 95.03) were 
merged into a single heading, without any subdiv ision – the headings invo lved had become duty 
free under WTO agreements; and 
• new heading for vacuum cleaners (heading 85.08)  – following discussions in the HS Committee 
vis-à-vis the distinction between hou sehold vacuum cleaners and others. 
 
 (ii)  Technological progress 
 
4.12 In the area of technological progress it was in particular Chapters 84, 85 and 90 which were 
involved (“hi-tech products”). 
  The following changes could be mentioned:  
• revision of Note 5 to Chapter 84 with resp ect to automatic data processing machines: 
¾ no longer references to digital, analogue or hybrid machines.  Consequential amendments 
to the subheadings of heading 84.71; 
¾ when presented separately, the following apparatus would no longer be classified in 
heading 84.71 :  printers (heading 84.43); 
 lan and similar equipment (heading 85.17); 
 cameras (heading 85.25); 
 monitors (heading 85.28); 
¾ clarification of classification of other equipm ent which can be used with ADP machines; 
 
• heading 84.43: 
¾ now also encompassed all types of printers , facsimile apparatus and copying machines; 
¾ it also included so-called multi-functioning m achines, which were capable of printing, 
copying and facsimile; 
  G/MA/M/39 
 Page 5 
 
 
 • new heading 84.86 for semi-conductor or flat pa nel display manufacturing equipment, together 
with a new Note 9 to Chapter 84, clarifying certain expressions and giving priority to classification in this new heading over classifica tion in other headings of the Nomenclature; 
 
• wired and wireless telephone equipment in a single heading:  heading 85.17; 
 
• merging the headings for apparatus for record ing or reproducing sound (new heading 85.19), 
with appropriate new structure; 
 
• merging the headings for media (new heading 85.23), with appropriate new structure; and 
 
• revision of the structure of the subheadings for semi-conductors (heading 85.42). 
 
 (iii)  Changes in trade patterns 
 
4.13 The HS Committee had set thresholds for th e creation of headings and subheadings.  These 
thresholds, which referred to the annual volume at worldwide basis, had been set at USD 100 million 
for headings and USD 50 million for subheadings.  They were also used when considering the 
deletion of headings and subheadings with low volume of trade.  
4.14 It was to be noted, however, that these thr esholds did not apply with respect to headings or 
subheadings for products of social or environmental concern.  4.15 The increase from USD 20 million to USD 50 m illion for the deletion of subheadings with 
low volume of trade adopted for this review cycle,  was the main reason of the decrease of the total 
number of subheadings from 5,224 to 5,056. 
 4.16 New subheadings had been created for:  
• certain types of fresh flowers (heading 06.03); 
• macadamia nuts (subheading 0802.60); 
• edible bamboo shoots (subheading 2005.91); 
• poly(lactic acid) (subheading 3907.70); 
• oriented strand board (subheading 441012); 
• medium density fibre board (subheadings 4411.12 to 4411.14); and 
• certain types of drinking glasses (heading 70.13). 
  (iv) Clarification of texts to ensure uniform application 
 
4.17 A number of texts were amended with a view to better aligning the English and French texts, 
or to clarifying the scope of the (sub)heading.  Examples were:  
• subheading 0406.40 (blue-veined cheese); 
• subheading 2208.40 (classification of cachaca); 
• heading 38.22 (prepared culture media); 
• heading 39.24 (hygienic articles of plastics); and 
• heading 44.18 (assembled flooring panels). 
 
 (v)  Adaptation of the Nomenclature to reflect trade practice 
 
4.18 At the request of industry, the structures for the provisions of fibreboard (heading 44.11) and 
plywood (heading 44.12) had been review ed to reflect better trade practice. 
 G/MA/M/39 
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  (vi) Amendments related to the social and environmental fields 
 
4.19 Following proposals from other international organisations, a number of new headings or 
subheadings would be introduced with respect to pr oducts of environmental or social concern.  It 
concerned in particular : 
 
• Chapter 3:  certain species of fish; 
• Chapters 44, 46, 47, 48 and 94:  bamboo or rattan products; 
• Chapters 28, 29 and 38:  certain chemicals falling under the Rotterdam Convention – new 
heading 28.52 covering compounds of mercury with  revised Note 1 (B) to Section VI providing 
priority to classification in the new heading; 
• Heading 38.24:  new subheadings for mixtures containing ozone-layer depleting substances 
(Montreal Protocol); 
• Chapter 48:  amendment of Note 4 with a view to widening the scope of “newsprint” to include 
such paper obtained from recycled fibres; and 
• Chapter 68:  asbestos containing products. 
  II. Obligations
 
 4.20 Contracting Parties to the HS Convention were obliged to bring their Customs tariff and 
statistical nomenclatures into conformity with the amended Harmonized System in line with 
Article 16.4 of the Convention.  In th is case this date was 1 January 2007. 
 4.21 The WCO Secretariat was offering technical assistance to Members in this respect, e.g., by 
publishing supporting material or by verifying th e draft nomenclatures based on the amended HS 
Nomenclature. 
 
 III. Where were we now?
 
 4.22 The adopted amendments had been distribut ed to WCO Members and were available to the 
public on the WCO Web site (www.wcoomd.org
). 
 
4.23 Draft correlation tables had been prepared by the Secretariat for approval by the HS Committee.  The HS Committee had a first discussi on in March this year and would finalise its 
discussions in September 2005.  These tables would be incorporated in a brochure containing the new 
texts with their current (HS 2002) texts, a list of  deleted code numbers a nd new code numbers.  The 
tables would be made available to interna tional organisations in electronic format. 
 
4.24 The HS Committee and the HS Review Sub-Committee were currently reviewing the 
Explanatory Notes with a view to updating them for HS 2007.  The publication of the revised texts in hardcopy format was foreseen for September 2006.  P ublication in electronic format (on Internet and 
CD-ROM) would follow soon. 
 
4.25 Member administrations had to update their Customs and statistical nomenclatures.  Other 
international organisations using the HS, such as WTO and UNSD, also had to up-date their 
instruments.  In the case of WTO it concerned the updating of the tariff schedules.  It also included a 
further review of the Harmonised Rules of Non-Pref erential Origin, once they had been adopted.  In 
this context, it was noted that the dr aft rules were based on the HS96 edition. 
 
4.26 The WCO Secretariat was offering its assistan ce to the other international organisations in 
this respect.    G/MA/M/39 
 Page 7 
 
 
  IV. Conclusions  
 4.27 The HS 2007 edition reflected not only chang es in trade patterns, it also took into account the 
structure of other international agreements, i.e., the WTO’s Information Technology Agreement.   The 
structure in some areas had been simplified, thus  resulting in a decrease of code numbers.   
Implementation of the amendments at the date  foreseen might raise problems for customs 
administrations, due to some complicated transfers.  In this regard, the WCO could provide technical 
assistance to Members and other international organisations.  4.28 The representative of India
 stated that she had a few questions regarding the HS2007 changes 
and its implications for the ongoing work in the WTO particularly with regard to the negotiations on 
Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA). Thus fa r the transposition into the HS2002 nomenclature 
had hardly begun. In fact, there was not even one tr ansposition with had been carried out fully.  There 
were a number of certifications and verifications s till pending.  In fact, there were some Members still 
facing problems with the transposition of their sch edules into the HS96 nomenclature. The point was 
that Members were short of time.  She had taken note that the WCO could help with the transposition 
from the HS2002 to HS2007 nomenclature But she s ought some further views on how Members were 
going to accomplish the transposition into HS2007.  What kind of implications would it have on the 
negotiations?   4.29 The representative of the Philippines
 stated that her delegation shared the concerns expressed 
by India.  Her question was whether, in the di scussion in the HS Committee, there had been an 
attempt to come up with classification to take account  of rules of origin.  In the Committee on Rules 
of Origin a lot of problems had appeared because the HS nomenclature was not structured to take 
account of rules of origin.  In the scope of the amendments for HS2007, other areas were taken into 
account like technological progress, changes into trad e pattern, and she wanted to know if account had 
also been taken of rules of origin.  
 4.30 The representative of the United States
 wished to respond to the point that India had made. As 
far as the implications on the NAMA negotiations  went, the HS2007 changes would have no effect 
because the Negotiating Group had agreed to negotiate  on the basis of the HS96 nomenclature.  So 
Members were not under any pressure to finalise th ese HS2007 changes in their schedules in order to 
allow those negotiations to go forward.  However,  the other question that Members faced was how 
were they going to incorporate these HS2007 changes into their schedules.  His response was that the 
system that was used to create the Consolidat ed Tariff Schedules Database and which was now being 
used in respect of the HS2002 changes might be th e way forward.  Essentially, the Secretariat would 
do the work for Members.  There might be some Members who were able to do the initial work 
themselves and pass that on to the Secretariat to re duce some of the burden on the Secretariat.  But he 
shared India's concern in respect of the sense of urgency because the HS2007 changes were supposed 
to be introduced into Members' schedules by 1 January 2007.  There was a lot of work to be done in order to get to that stage.  So th ere needed to be a discussion, perh aps, in an informal context on the 
subject of how Members were going to proceed in incorporating these HS2007 changes in their 
schedules.  
 
4.31 The representative of Romania
 had two questions.  Her first question concerned the deadline 
established for the Explanatory Notes which was September 2006.  The deadline seemed a little too 
late. In saying this, she was taking into consider ation what was legally binding in Romania.  If  
Romania wanted to change the nomenclature from HS2002 to HS2007, the changes would have to 
pass through Parliament and become law.  If the Explanatory Notes were available only in 
September 2006, it would take appr oximately one month to translate it into Romanian, and by 
mid-December the Parliament stopped its work.  So there was just not enough time.  The key question 
was whether these Explanatory Notes were binding.  If not, then that might be the solution.  Her 
second question related to information technology (IT) products.  There were some classification 
issues raised in the Committee on ITA which had b een sent to the WCO.  Her question was whether G/MA/M/39 
Page 8  
 
 the HS2007 changes took into consideration this problem of classification that had been encountered 
on these IT products.   4.32 The representative of Argentina
 wished to have more information on the use of the social and 
environmental criteria as regarded the in clusion of amendments in the new HS. 
 
4.33 The representative of the WCO , in response to the question from India concerning the 
possible assistance by the WCO in transposing tariff schedules, stated that the WCO Secretariat could 
assist the WTO by clarifying what kind of commoditi es were to be classified under specific headings 
or subheadings.  
 
4.34 With respect to the question from the Philippi nes concerning rules of origin, so far there had 
been no  proposal to amend the HS nomenclature in  order to facilitate rules of origin.  The main 
reason was that formally speaking there were no rules of origin as yet.  That was the position of the HS Committee.  As long as the WTO had not fina lized non-preferential rules of origin, the HS 
Committee would not start discussions on how to fac ilitate origin rules in the context of the HS 
nomenclature.   4.35 The observations by the US were clear and he had not noted any question from that delegation.   
4.36 With respect to Romania question, he indicated  that the Explanatory Notes to the HS were not 
part of the HS Convention and therefore were not binding to contracting par ties.  However, he was 
aware that some contracting parties had put them in to national law.  With respect to the publication 
date of September 2006, it might seem late but he wished to explain the procedures. As he had 
indicated, the HS Review Sub-Committee and also the HS Committee had already discussed partially 
the amendments which were necessary for the Explanat ory Notes to be in line with the HS2007.  The 
final set of amendments to the Explanatory Notes  would be discussed in March 2006 by the HS 
Committee so at that point, all contracting parti es would know what the amendments would be. They 
were incorporated in the report and the report was sent to the WCO Council for approval which was 
in June 2006.  So a Member administration could ta ke from the report, the text and start translating/ 
preparing the national Explanatory Notes.  It  was al most not possible to do it in a quicker way taking 
into account the fact that the HS Review Sub-Comm ittee which was dealing in the first instance with 
the amendments met only twice a year, like the HS  Committee.  The current dates were March and 
September for the HS Committee to approve any amendm ents to the Explanatory Notes.  With regard 
to the question on IT products, at the moment th ere was one commodity before the HS Committee to 
be discussed.  It concerned so-called set up boxes. He hoped that the discussions would be finalised in 
September this year.  There were no other IT products on the agenda of the HS Committee for 
classification.  As to whether the HS2007 structur e solved classification problems, one would only 
know on 2 January 2007.  He knew that some HS members were classifying some products in one way and others were classifying the same products in  another way.  That particular problem would be 
solved in 2007.  However, the problem of the rate of  duty to be allocated to such a product had to be 
addressed by WTO Members.  
 
4.37 On the question from Argentina with respect to  products of social and environmental concern, 
these products were included in the HS at the requ est of members of the HS Convention or at the 
request of International Organisations.   
4.38 The representative of Kenya
 stated that in the case that the Doha negotiations dragged on 
beyond 2007, and it was true that Members had agr eed that their  schedule of commitments would be 
in HS2002, what would be the implication?   G/MA/M/39 
 Page 9 
 
 
 4.39 The Chairman  responded that even if negotiations had not gone beyond 2005, Members still 
had to think about the HS2007 conversion at some point.  The question raised by Kenya was mostly a WTO issue, not a WCO one.  4.40 The representative of Brazil
 sought clarification regarding the response provided by the WCO 
representative to Romania's question.  The WCO representative had mentioned that there was still 
need for final approval to be taken by the Counc il in March 2006.  Apparently there were no 
comments, no amendment to the HS2007 changes and that  this was the final version.  He wished to 
know whether at the level of the WCO there was scop e for any possible amendments to be included to 
the HS2007 changes or whether this was the final versi on.  What was the final approval that had to be 
taken in March 2006? 
 4.41 The representative of the WCO
 stated that there was difference between what the WCO called 
legal text and non legal texts.  Legal texts were the HS2007 amendments as approved by all 
contracting parties early this year.  To these ame ndments there would be no further amendments or 
objections.  In respect of the non legal text for example the Explanatory No tes, the Committee would 
only start looking at them after the final approval of  the legal text.  So the Explanatory Notes were 
being discussed at the moment and they should reflect the legal texts as they will stand on 
1 January 2007.   4.42 In response to a question by the S ecretariat, the representative from the WCO
 confirmed that 
the correlation tables were non-legal texts. 
 4.43 The Chairman
 noted that the Committee should start looking into the incorporation of the 
HS2007 changes to the WTO schedules of concessions.  In fact, the sooner this work was done, the 
better it was for Members.  There were obvious advant ages to doing this work prior to 1 January 2007 
including the fact that the situation of waivers c ould be avoided.  His general thinking was that it 
would be best if the Secretariat could do the HS 2007 transposition exercise in the same manner as it 
was doing the HS2002 transposition exercise. Th e HS2002 procedures were in motion and the 
Committee could look into using those proce dures as a blueprint for the HS2007 changes.  If 
Members could accept this idea in pr inciple then the Committee would need to look into how this 
item could be included as part of the  regular WT O budget.  Perhaps the Secretariat could look into 
this matter and come up with proposal for the Committee including budgetary estimates. 
  4.44 The representative of India
 asked the Secretariat when the HS2002 exercise would be 
completed.   
4.45 A member of the Secretariat
 (Mr. J. Richtering) indicated that he could not give a date as to 
when the exercise would conclude.  He could only indicate when the Secretariat could send files to 
Members.  The Secretariat would do its utmost to send the files of all developing countries to Members before the Hong Kong Ministerial meeting.  4.46 In response to a question from Switzerland
, a member of the Secretariat  (Ms. D. Probst) 
indicated that with respect to developed country sch edules, the Secretariat was working on a similar  
time-frame.  So she was aiming to have tho se schedules ready by the end of the year.  
 4.47 The Committee took note
 of the statements and agreed  to the Chairman's proposal.  
 5. Modalities and operation of the Integrated Data Base (IDB) 
 
(i) Status of submission of the required documentation (G/MA/IDB/2/Rev.21)  
5.1 The Chairman
 noted that document G/MA/IDB/2/Rev.21 had been circulated to all Members.  
This document presented the situation of ID B submissions as of 6 September 2004.   G/MA/M/39 
Page 10  
 
  
5.2 The representative of Canada
 informed the Committee that Canada had submitted yesterday 
2004 import information, and 2005 tariff information.  5.3 The representative of Romania
 stated that her delegation had asked the Secretariat to maintain 
all information submitted to IDB for the period 199 7-2002 under a provisional basis.  However, in the 
table in document G/MA/IDB/2/Rev.21, this provi sional status had not been referred to for 1999 
under Romania.   5.4 A member of the Secretariat
 (Mr. J. Richtering) stated that he had taken note of the 
information provided by Canada.  He also wished to inform the Committee th at the Secretariat had 
received very recently the 2005 tariffs for Armenia.  As to the question from Romania, he pointed out 
that this document did not distinguish between files maintained in the provisional and approved area. 
It simply referred to the fact that the file had not yet been processed.   (ii)   Report by the Secretariat 
5.5 A member of the Secretariat
 (Mr. J. Richtering) introduced the report which is contained in 
Annex 1.  5.6 The representative of Australia
 stated that her authorities had noted a delay between when a 
Member made a submission and its loading into the IDB.  She wondered whether the Secretariat could 
provide an explanation as to why this was the case.  Were the delays due to problems with the data in 
the individual submissions and could anything be done to remedy that situation?  What was the 
typical time lag between the submission of data by a Member and the loading of that data into the 
IDB?  
5.7 A member of the Secretariat
 (Mr. J. Richtering) stated that the delays were mostly related to 
the format of the submissions.  In some cases, de lays exceeded even a year and these were mainly 
cases where problems had been iden tified in the submission and the Secretariat was awaiting a 
response from the Member concerned.  These probl ems related usually to nomenclature issues and 
correlations between imports.  The delays were also  due to the format.  The format in which some 
countries sent the data  made it very burdensome for the Secretariat to proce ss.  If the Secretariat 
received a tariff file in a 1997 word document, th e task of processing the data was made more 
complicated than if the file was in a database type format.  If the data was  in a suitable format, then 
the actual processing would take from a couple of days to one or two weeks.  However, there was now 
a queue in executing the work.  In particular, in th is period of time, many staff members were engaged 
in support work for the negotiations which had led to some delays.  
 
5.8 The representative of Canada  wished to reiterate Canada's view that it was very important for 
all Members to submit in a timely fashion inform ation to the IDB especially in view of the NAMA 
and Agriculture negotiations.  For example, in his presentation, Mr. Richtering had made reference to 
a document that was relevant in terms of the cons ideration of the issue of treatment of unbound tariff 
items in the context of NAMA negotiations.  In  reviewing the document on the status of IDB 
submission, his delegation had noted, for exam ple, that for certain Members there was key 
information missing which did not allow an assess ment of the various issues put before the NAMA 
Negotiating Group especially with respect to current applied tariffs.  In certain cases, information 
more recent then 2001 and 2002 was not present.  This  clearly illustrated the usefulness of having the 
most recent information in the IDB and the im portance of submitting documentation in a timely 
fashion. 
 5.9 The representative of Brazil
 agreed with the comments made by Canada.  In this regard, 
Brazil was looking forward to the discussion on the CAMAD which might shed some light on the blanks that currently existed in the IDB.  He sought a clarification from the Secretariat.  The  G/MA/M/39 
 Page 11 
 
 
 Secretariat had mentioned that there was a requ est from the Committee on Trade and Environment for 
applied tariffs and trade in environmental goods.  If that was the case, had that Committee provided an 
indication of what those products were?  Was there a list or definition provided?  5.10 A member of the Secretariat
 (Mr. J. Richtering) stated that when discussing this subject with 
staff from the Trade and Environment Division,  they had referred to document JOB(05)/57. 
  5.11 The Committee took note
 of the report and the statements.  
 
(iii)  Common Analytical Market Access Database (C AMAD) (JOB(04)/179) – Information by the 
Secretariat 
5.12 A member of the Secretariat  (Mr. J. Richtering) introduced the report which is contained in 
Annex 2.  
 5.13 The representative of the United States
  stated that CAMAD promised to be a comprehensive 
database as it would combine the WTO IDB and UN databases for both tariffs and trade data.  As 
Members moved forward in the NAMA Negotiating Group, supplemental information would assist 
negotiators as countries prepared to evaluate form ulae options.  Applied tariff data was essential as 
NAMA negotiators worked to establish a methodology to convert non- ad valorem  tariffs to ad 
valorem  equivalents and to develop approaches for unbo und tariff lines.  His delegation agreed with 
the approach outlined by the Secretariat for addr essing key issues of data sources, coverage and 
dissemination.   
 5.14 The representative of  the European Communities
 agreed with the US and Canada about the 
importance of having up-to-date data supplied by the various Members.  It was vital for both the 
NAMA and the Agriculture negotiations.   
 
5.15 The Chairman  stated that there was a disappointing c overage in the IDB.  Everybody agreed 
to that and there were various comments about th e importance of having comprehensive databases for 
the negotiating processes in both NAMA and Agricu lture.  The CAMAD database would be a very 
useful addition in this area in the sense that it would represent a very comprehensive database culled 
from not just WTO sources but also the ITC and UNCTAD.  He thought that the Committee should 
start exploring the idea of using the CAMAD database to assist Members in their IDB submissions.  It 
would be in a sense similar to the HS2002 CTS process where the Secretariat would be helping Members fulfil their WTO obligations.  He also fe lt that it may be useful for the Secretariat to 
re-examine the format of IDB submissions.  He was given to understand that even when an IDB 
notification was made to the Secretariat, the processing time was long and required a substantive 
amount of human resources depending on the format of the data.  So the Committee might wish to 
request the Secretariat to look at how to improve the format for IDB notifications.  If these ideas seemed, in principle, to be tempting, then mayb e the incoming Chairman could hold consultations on 
the matter based on a paper to be prepared by the Secretariat.   5.16 The Committee took note
 of the report and the statements, and agreed  to the Chairman's 
proposal.  
 
6. Consolidated Tariff Schedules (CTS) Database 
 
(i) Introduction of Harmonized System 2002 chang es to Schedules of Concessions using the CTS 
database (WT/L/605)  - Report by the Secretariat on the status of work 
6.1 A member of the Secretariat  (Mr. J. Richtering) introduced the report which is contained in 
Annex 3.   G/MA/M/39 
Page 12  
 
 6.2 A member of the Secretariat
 (Ms. D. Probst) stated that as for developed country schedules, 
there had been quite a lot of coordination with  the Economic Research and Statistics Division to 
ensure uniformity in the final outcome, in partic ular, with respect to the final formatting and 
presentation of the schedules.  This would be presen ted in chronological order from HS Chapter 1 to 
97 and would have the standard columns for WTO Sc hedules.  Other technical elements concerning 
the CTS database had also been discussed in orde r to ensure consistency and uniformity and easy 
processing.  At this point in time, the schedule of Japan had been completed and should be circulated 
very soon.  Thereafter other developed countries' schedules would be prepared in turn.    6.3 The representative of Kenya
 requested clarification on how unbound tariffs were to be treated 
in the exercise. 
 6.4 A member of the Secretariat
 (Mr. J. Richtering) stated that the issue of unbound tariff lines 
arose at the time when in doing the correlation from HS96 to HS2002 the Secretariat had to be sure 
that a  commitment at a tariff line level which was below the HS 6-digit level was treated correctly.  
Of course, unbound tariff lines as such did not fall into the project of the transposition.   
 6.5 The Chairman
 noted that the Secretariat had identified a few issues in connection with the 
transposition work including the subject of uncertified items.  He proposed that the Secretariat prepare 
a paper outlining the various issues and at a future da te provide an informal technical briefing to the 
Committee on those technical issues that still required some work.   
 
6.6 The Committee so agreed.  
  
7. Dissemination of the IDB and the CTS Database 
 
(i) Communication from the South Centre (G/MA/W/66) 
7.1 The Chairman  recalled that on 12 June 2002, th e Committee had adopted document 
G/MA/115 containing the dissemination policy of th e IDB and CTS databases.  Certain organizations 
UNCTAD, IMF, World Bank, ITC) had been give n automatic access to these two databases.  
However the Committee had also agreed that other inter-governmental organizations wishing to have 
access would need to obtain approval from the Committee on a case-by-case basis.  This was 
contained in paragraph 5 of the previously men tioned document.  In this connection, since the 
dissemination policy had been adopted, the Co mmittee had granted access to a number of 
organizations, namely: the OECD, the FAO, the ITCB, UNESCAP, the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery, the CARICOM Secretar iat, the UNECE, the Pacific Islands Forum 
Secretariat, the ANDEAN Community Secretariat an d the Commonwealth Secretariat.  All this was 
reflected in document G/MA/115/Add.5.  Today, the Committee had before it a request for access to 
these two databases from the South Centre.  The re quest was contained in document G/MA/W/66.  
The South Centre had undertaken to use and publis h the information contained in these databases in 
accordance with the terms and conditions laid out in document G/MA/IDB/115.  If the Committee 
agreed to grant access, he proposed writing to the So uth Centre in similar terms as he had done to the 
organizations which had recently been granted access and ask them about what data they might have 
that they could share with us on a reciprocal basi s.  Additionally, he would be encouraging them to 
urge their members to submit to the IDB if they had not already done so.    7.2 The Committee took note
 of the statement and approved  the request from the South Centre for 
access to the IDB and CTS database.  
 
8. EC – import bans applied by Nigeria 
8.1 The representative of the European Communities  stated that her delegation had originally 
hoped to have this item dealt with as a formal item on the agenda but because of delays in  G/MA/M/39 
 Page 13 
 
 
 communication it was being brought  up under "Other business".  The Communities wanted to raise 
the point on the new tariff regime and trade rest rictive measures in Nigeria.  The Communities had 
noticed that various restrictive measures were introduced between 2002 an d 2004 and that these had 
had a negative impact on the normal trade flows between the Communities and Nigeria.  Her delegation had taken  up these issues  on a bilateral basis including at Ministerial level and while there 
had been some indication that there would be a new tariff regime introduced and also some 
indications concerning both import and export bans , her delegation had thought that it could be 
helpful to raise the issue here in order to encour age Nigeria to commit to an early removal of these 
non-compatible import and export ba ns and also to encourage reduction of other trade restrictive 
measures.  This could help to avoid the escalation of any dispute and could also help in the regional 
harmonization that was ongoing.  So as she had menti oned there had been some indications that there 
would be reform and so she welcomed that commitme nt to reform the tariffs and to bring them into 
line with other ECOWAS member states.  Her dele gation also welcomed the statements concerning 
removal of import and export bans including bringing  the tariffs for these banned products in line with 
the new tariff structures.  The Communities strongl y encouraged the early removal of the import and 
export bans this year if possible.  This would send a very positive signal about Nigeria's commitment 
to meeting its responsibilities under WTO Agreements.  The Communities also encouraged Nigeria to 
review other trade restrictive measures which wo uld include the high registration fees applied to 
imports by the national agency for food and drugs administration and control and in connection with 
some planned visits for the purpose of certification of good manufacturing practice.  At the same time, 
the Communities recognized the concerns of Nigerian industry and the need to phase in reform but the 
need for early action had to be stressed due to complaints from the Communities' own exporters and 
the possibility of therefore having to raise this  at dispute settlement.  Depending on how her 
delegation progressed in its discussions with Nigeria, ther e might be need to revert to this subject at a 
later stage.    
8.2 The representative of Nigeria
  took note of the  Communitie s' concern regarding Nigeria's 
import bans but encouraged the Communities to submit their complaints in writing so that she could 
forward it to her capital for the necessary instructions .  That would also enable Nigeria to respond to 
the Communities in writing.  She assu red Members that the current bans  were essentially temporary.   
 8.3 The Committee took note
 of the statements.  
 
9. Date of the next meeting  
 
9.1 The Committee took note  that the next meeting of the Committee would take place on 
29 June 2005, subject to confirmation. 
 
10.  Election of the Chairman 
 
10.1 The Committee elected  Mr Martin Pospíšil (Czech Republic) as Chairman for 2005. 
  
 G/MA/M/39 
Page 14  
 
  
ANNEX 1 
 
Integrated Data Base 
Report by the Secretariat 
 
 
IDB Submissions
 
 
 As of 10 March 2005, cut off date for the latest Status of Submissions document, 
G/MA/IDB/2/Rev.21, the Secretariat has received the following submissions: 
 
• Armenia tariff for 2005  
• Canada tariff for 2005 and imports for 2004 
 
IDB Dissemination and Uses  
  The Secretariat continues to load information onto the IDB Internet File Transfer Facility on a 
monthly basis.  As of today 30 March 2005, files for 106 Members
1  and four acceding countries and 
territories are available on the IDB website.   On the uses of IDB and CTS data I would like to mention three cases: 
1. In the context of the Negotiating Group on N on-Agricultural Market Access a document was 
prepared on unbound tariff lines (TN/MA/S/14) which was based on information from the 
CTS and the IDB; 
2. As part of an inter-agency effort under the au spices of the United Nations, the Secretariat has 
again used IDB data, complemented with data from ITC and UNCTAD, to calculate the statistical indicators for monitoring the implementation of the trade-related Millennium 
Declaration Goals;  and   
3. More recently, a request was received from th e Committee on Trade and Environment on the 
final bound and applied duties of environmental goods. 
 
Technical Assistance
 
 
Since the September 2004 meeting of the Committ ee, Secretariat staff have undertaken   
- 4 national workshops on IDB and Non-agricultura l Market Access in Oman, Bahrain, Israel 
and Turkey; 
- 2 regional workshops on Non-agricultural Mark et Access in Madagascar and Mozambique 
(JITAP) and   
- 2 regional workshops on IDB and Trade Nego tiating Skills in Gabon and Egypt, covering 
Francophone and Anglophone Africa, respectively.  
                                                      
1 This counts the European Communities as one for its 25  members and Switzerland and Liechtenstein as one.   G/MA/M/39 
 Page 15 
 
 
 IDB Internet Analysis Facility (technical report)  
 
 Work is almost completed on:  (1) query selection criteria for the CTS database;  (2) a report on the CTS tariff concessions;  (3) a new product sel ection applet;  and (4) a facility to display 
reporter notes.  A new report on the Tariff Quota info rmation contained in the CTS database has also 
been developed.  The IDB and CTS databases need to be migrated from SQL Server 7.0 to SQL 
Server 2000 before the aforementioned enhancements can be implemented. 
  Concerning the portable IAF, the Secretariat has finished the insta llation package for the 
distribution of the portable IAF.  Recently, the Secretariat noticed an unusual technical problem, 
which is currently being investigated.  Once this problem has been resolved, a beta version of the 
portable IAF can be distributed to users for their evaluation.   For the IAF to function properly, a Java Plug-in from Sun Microsystems has to be downloaded from that company's website and insta lled on the user's PC.  There is a link on the IAF 
homepage to download the Java Plug-in.  Recently, Sun introduced a new version (JRE 5.0).  This 
new version contains a number of changes that might affect the browser security settings in a 
networked environment, and may re quire intervention from the user's IT Support staff to adjust the 
settings.  This concerns only new installations on syst ems where the previous version (JRE 1.4) of the 
Plug-in had not been installed.  The IAF functions  properly with both versions of the Plug-in.  If 
necessary, users can contact the Secretariat (via e- mail to idb@wto.org) if they experience difficulties 
with the new version of the Java Plug-in. 
 G/MA/M/39 
Page 16  
 
 ANNEX 2 
 
Common Analytical Market Access Database 
Report by the Secretariat 
 
 
  The purpose of this informal note (JOB(04)/179) is to inform the Committee on Market Access on efforts undertaken by the Secretariat and other international organizations to improve the 
coverage and content of ma rket access information on goods. 
 
 The IDB and CTS databases are used extens ively by WTO Members, the WTO Secretariat 
and other authorized users.  However, the country coverage of the IDB is incomplete as a number of 
developing country Members seem to encounter di fficulties in preparing and submitting the required 
information to the WTO Secretariat.  
 
 On a number of occasions, the WTO Secretariat was unable to rely on only the IDB/CTS databases to reply to requests by Members and sought ad hoc  co-operation from other international 
organizations to fill in the data gaps.  For exampl e, the IDB/CTS needed to  be complemented with 
data collected by UNCTAD and the ITC for the comp ilation of statistics for the World Trade Report, 
for the annual LDC market access paper and for st udies and simulations required for the Negotiating 
Group on Non-Agricultural Market Access.   
  Recognizing that the ad hoc pooling of data is not  very efficient, the respective teams in WTO, 
UNCTAD and ITC decided to work towards the est ablishment of the Common Analytical Market 
Access Database (CAMAD).  A prototype version of CAMAD, located on a server hosted by the ITC, 
is now operational.  As of end March 2005, WTO, ITC and UNCTAD ha ve loaded all their respective 
trade and tariff data into a common database platform , a SQL Server database.  All three participating 
organizations have full online access via the SQL server interface to the complete set of data. 
    CAMAD is structured around the officially notified IDB and CTS databases. Missing or 
incomplete data will be supplemen ted with data sourced from UNCTAD and the ITC.  The objective 
is to achieve universal coverage  of bound and applied duties, reciprocal and non-reciprocal tariff 
preferences, linked to import flows, from 1996 onwards.   The policy for data dissemination of CAMAD is  envisaged to be as wide as possible, while 
respecting the dissemination policies of each individu al organization.  In particular, dissemination of 
CAMAD will be limited to the current provisions of the IDB/CTS dissemination policy.  Additional 
dissemination restrictions might need to be put in place for information not sourced from the WTO.   CAMAD is expected to bring benefits in terms of :  - Allocation of resources
, with economies of scale, and reduction of duplication in the 
production and dissemination of market access da ta among the international organizations; 
- Improvement of data quality , with the reduction and eliminat ion of data inconsistencies 
among different sources; and 
- Improvement of data coverage , with an almost universal coverage available for MFN bound 
and applied duties, preferential duties, and import flows.       
  G/MA/M/39 
 Page 17 
 
 
 ANNEX 3 
 
Consolidated Tariff Schedules Database 
Report by the Secretariat 
 
 
 Since the last meeting of the Committee, IDB/C TS staff are continuing with their work in the 
following areas:  
• Preparing IDB linked files which include the final bound duties from the CTS following the 
procedures outlined in document (G/MA/156); 
• Updating Members' files with rectificat ions and modifications of schedules; 
• Incorporating recently issued certification documents; and 
• Introducing comments from Members into their CTS files. 
 
HS 2002 transposition project: 
 
 
 The Secretariat has proceeded with recruiting st aff for the project.  One statistician is already 
working with us and two more are to join in the coming weeks.  A programmer will also be with us as 
of next week to work on the development of soft ware tools to assist in the transposition work.  The 
program specifications for an application to fac ilitate the manual HS 2002 transposition are currently 
being drawn up by Secretariat staff.  
In the meantime, preparatory work for the transposition is already well advanced, in 
particular, in the following ways: 
 - The HS96-2002 correlation tables have been refo rmatted and structured into 'independent 
groups' of HS changes in order to fac ilitate the transposition exercise.; and  
- A workflow map and related programmes (SQL  queries based on the CTS database) have 
been developed to identify the tariff lines whic h require manual work in order to establish 
correct correlation tables and those that  can be dealt with automatically.  
 
In the course of these preparations it became apparent that for a large number of Members in 
the CTS, the HS96 changes were not yet certified.  For many of them, an HS96 transposition was 
never submitted. In order to have fully certified sch edules, it is planned to capture also currently 
uncertified HS96 changes and to include them as part of the HS 2002 transposition project.    
 
Another issue which needs to be addressed is related to the issue of unbound tariff lines, in 
particular, if only partial commitments have been done at the level of HS 6 digit subheadings.  The 
best way of identifying partial binding coverage is  through a full link to an applied schedule. The 
Secretariat has so far linked 63 Members' Schedules to  their applied tariff.  To cover the remaining 
Members, the Secretariat depends on additional ID B submissions in HS96 nomenclature preferably 
for the year 2001.    As the resolution of the above issues does not  affect all schedules, work will progress on all 
other schedules. It is planned to send to the Me mbers concerned a first batch of HS02 draft files 
before the end of June 2005.   
 
__________