WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/REG170/7/Add.1 
7 January 2009 
 (09-0021) 
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements Original:   English 
  
 
ENLARGEMENT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION 
 
Questions and Replies
 
 
Addendum  
 
  The following communication, dated 6 January 2009,  is being circulated at the request of the 
Delegation of the European Communities.  
 This document reproduces the questions addressed to the Parties and the responses submitted. 
 
_______________ 
 
 
GOODS ASPECTS
 
 
Questions from the Delegation of Australia  
 
European Communities' Schedule, Part IV  
 
Australia refers to document WT/REG 170/7 containing a response dated 24 
November 2006 by the European Communities to questions raised by Australia and the United States in the context of EC-25 enlargement.  
 
In light of the European Communities' resp onses, Australia seeks clarification from  
the European Communities as to:  
 
(a) whether the EC is applying unilaterally determined levels of EC-25 Part IV 
commitments, in light of advice previous ly provided to the WTO Membership in 
2004 (GlSl20);  
(b) whether the European Communities considers that Part IV of the EC-15 CXL 
schedule and Parts IV of the individual schedules of the Ten Member States 
acceding to the European Communities in May 2004 no longer have the status of scheduled commitments within the meaning of Article 3 of the Agreement on 
Agriculture;  
(c) whether the European Communities considers that there is an EC-25 schedule in 
existence, within the meaning of Articles 3 and 8 of the Agreement on 
Agriculture;  
 WT/REG170/7/Add.1 
Page 2  
 
  (d) whether, in regard to part IV of the EC Schedule and the schedules of the Ten 
Members acceding to the European Communities in May 2004, the EC intends to follow the procedures followed in re gard to the EC-15 enlargement and the 
establishment of Part IV of EC-15 CXL schedule, which involved a multilateral verification procedure  
 Australia recalls that the European Communities referred, inter alia, in its responses of 
19 January 2004, to negotiations with certain WTO members and to a working document outlining a methodolgy for consolidating EC-25 commitments under Part IV, which according to the European Communities, had been accep ted by Australia. The European Communities 
also advised that it would be notifying an EC-25 schedule to the WTO Members in the first 
quarter of 2007.  
  In the interests of transparency, Australia wishes to clarify that it has not held any 
negotiations with the European Communities on Pa rt IV of its schedule. Consistent with the 
provisions of the WTO Agreement on Agriculture, GATT 1994 and the Marrakesh Protocol to the 
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade 1994 -and as confirmed in an adopted Panel report 
(WT/DS265/R, paragraph 7.158) --adjustments to commitments in Part IV of a Member's schedule cannot be legally validated by any negot iations in regard to adjustments to scheduled 
tariff commitments. Any adjustments to Pa rt IV require a multilateral procedure .  
  The EC would like to draw Australia's atten tion to the working document circulated in the 
Committee on Agriculture of 4 December 2008 conc erning EC 25 commitments on Domestic Support 
and Export Competition. This working document outlines the methodology the EC followed when consolidating the export subsidy and domestic s upport commitments after the enlargement of 1 May 
2004.  The EC also circulated in the Committee on Ag riculture the result of netted-out export subsidy 
commitments and aggregated AMS figures. For eas e of reference, we enclose below the above-
mentioned documents, as Annex. 
  The approach outlined in the above-mentioned working document follows the same methodology that was used for the previous EC en largement in 1995 (enlarge ment of EC12 to EC15), 
which was accepted by Australia at that time, incl uding the way of consolidating the export subsidy 
commitments and domestic support commitments. 
 
 The new EC25 agricultural schedule on agricultura l subsidies (Part IV) does not result in an 
overall increase in the level of agricultural subs idies set out as commitments. By netting-out the 
export subsidies the EC has not introduc ed new export subsidy product groups. 
 
 As regards its notification, the EC will notify the EC25 schedule to the WTO, as required 
under the relevant WTO agreements , at an appropriate moment.  
  Prior to this, the schedule of EC15 CXL needs to be certified. To date, 4 WTO Members – Australia, the United States, New Zealand and Cana da - have not lifted their reservations on the 
certification of the EC CXL schedule.  
  WT/REG170/7/Add.1 
 Page 3 
 
 
  ANNEX 
 
Preliminary results of the EC25 consolidation of domestic support and export subsidies under 
GATT Article XXIV.6 
 
1.  Consolidation of domestic support 
 
 The result of the consolidation of domestic support commitment is presented in Annex 1. The 
methodology consisted of converting the commitmen ts of each New Member State (NMS) expressed 
in national currencies into euro and adding it to th e EC15 commitment. The aver age exchange rate for 
2000-2002 was used1. The resulting total AMS commitment for EC25 amounts to 71 724 million 
euro.  
2.  Consolidation of export subsidies 
 
The NMS10 outlay commitments expressed in na tional currency were converted into euro. 
From the commitments, the intra trade between NM S1, EC15 and NMS9 (also converted into euro) 
was deducted. The netted out outlays were then a dded to the corresponding EC commitment. For the 
conversion into euro the average exchange rate for 2000-2002 was used.  
 For the NMS volume commitments, the same  methodology was used. The beverages amounts 
were converted into 000 hl to match the EC commitment unit.  
 
When matching the NMS10 commitment with EC15 product groups, there were cases where 
there was not full correspondence. In  those cases, as there was no in formation available on the actual 
use of export subsidies at product level within the NMS10 product groups, the NMS10 commitments 
were split based on CN codes and matched with th e corresponding EC15 group. The detailed result 
can be found in annex 2. 
 The NMS10 commitments which do not correspond to any EC15 product group are accounted 
for separately in Annex 3.  
3. Matching of commitment periods EU 15 and NMS 
 
 The commitments of the NMS are expressed in  calendar years. The EC commitments are 
usually expressed in budget years or other periods de pending on the product. In order to align the EC 
commitment periods and the corresponding trade figu res with the calendar year, a double average was 
used as an approximate. The average for the period 2000-2002 is calculated as the average of the two 
averages for the years1999-2002 and 2000-2003 respec tively. This is believed to be the best 
approximate to convert the EC periods into calendar year.  
 
                                                     
 
1 See Annex 4. WT/REG170/7/Add.1 
Page 4  
 
  ANNEX 1 
 
 
Commitments Monetary 
unit Monetary name Rate 
per 1 
euro Commitments in €   
            
50.60 CYP Cyprus Pound 0.58 88.00 €   
13,611.32 CZK Czech Koruna 33.49 406.40 €   
0.00 EEK Estonian Kroon 15.65 0.00 €   
67,159.00 EUR Euro 1.00 67,159.00 €   33,808.00 HUF Hungarian forint 253.20 133.50 €   
4.39 SDR Special Drawing 
Rights  0.00 0.00 €   
94.56 LTL Lithuanian Litas 3.58 26.40 €   
0.00 MTL Malta lira 0.41 0.00 €   
3,329.00 USD US dollar 0.92 3,612.20 €   
10,140.00 SKK Slovak Koruna 42.87 236.60 €   
61.85 EUR Euro 1.00 61.80 €   
        Sum Of Commitments in €: 71,723.90 €
        Commitments in € Grand 
Total Sum: 71,723.90 €
  WT/REG170/7/Add.1 
 Page 5 
 
 
    ANNEX 2  
 
 
Export subsidies : 
Budgetary and Quantity 
Reduction Commitments        
     
     
Description of products     
and tariff item numbers Value  Volume  
at HS six digit level  After 
XXVI:6  After 
XXVI:6 
(*)          
     
     
Wheat and wheat flour 1,289.70 1,294.20 14,438.00 15,363.80 
Coarse grains 1,046.90 1,049.70 10,843.20 10,530.40 
Rice 36.8 30.70 133.4 98.20 
Rapeseed 27.7 42.70 103.8 441.90 
Olive oil 54.3 54.30 115 115.00 
Sugar (1) 499.1 513.90 1,273.50 1,374.40 
Butter and butteroil 947.8 945.80 399.3 411.60 
Skim milk powder 275.8 298.00 272.5 323.40 
Cheese 341.7 345.70 321.3 331.70 
Other milk products 697.7 724.10 958.1 1,008.90 
Beef meat 1,253.60 1,324.00 821.7 989.60 
Pigmeat 191.3 273.60 443.5 588.40 
Poultry meat 90.7 182.40 286 430.80 
Eggs 43.7 47.80 98.8 111.90 
Wine (2) 39.2 42.90 2,304.70 6,799.80 
Fruit and vegetables, fresh 52.8 108.70 753.4 1,173.30 
Fruit and vegetables, 
processed 8.3 141.30 143.3 378.50 
Raw tobacco 40.2 40.20 110.8 110.80 
Alcohol (2) 96.1 88.60
1,147.40 1,220.70 
Incorporated products 415 414.40 -  
     
Total 7,448.40 7,963.00   
     
(*) See related annex of our CXL schedule  
(2) Quantities are in 000 hl 
  WT/REG170/7/Add.1 
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  ANNEX 3 
 
NMS commitments not matching EC15 product groups 
      
  Commitments   
NMS Product Outlays mio 
euro Volume 1000t   
CY Sheepmeat 0.3 0.2   
CZ Sheepmeat 0.2 0.6   
SK Sheepmeat 0.5 1.6   
HU Slaughter sheep 2.1 23.0   
          
CZ Vegetable oils 1.0 7.2   
SK Vegetable oils 0.4 3.9   
HU Sunflower oil 2.9 146.0   
PL Rape oil 3.2 30.3   
          
HU Sunflower seed 0.9 71.0   
          
HU Red pepper 1.0 7.0   
          
CZ Beer 1.7 148.9 million 
litres 
SK Beer 0.6 66.4 million 
litres 
          
SK Yeast 0.1 0.5   
          
PL Casein 2.2 15.3   
          
PL  Sowing materials 1.6 41.8   
      
 Total: 18.50    
      
  WT/REG170/7/Add.1 
 Page 7 
 
 
  Annex 4 
 
released date :  Mon, 3 Nov 03 10:55:04    
       
Copyright © Eurostat. All Rights Reserved.    
       
       
       
otp avg Average     
unit nac National currency (including 'eur o fixed' series for euro-zone countries) 
       
 time 2002a00  2001a00  2000a00  average  
currency     1€= 1 xx=€ 
       
cyp Cyprus Pound 0.57530 0. 57589 0.57392 0.57504 1.739012
czk Czech Koruna 30.80360 34.06850 35.59950 33.49053 0.029859
eek Estonian Kroon 15.64660 15.64660 15.64660 15.64660 0.063912
huf Hungarian forint 242.95800 256.59100 260.04500 253.19800 0.003949
lvl Latvian Lats 0.58105 0. 56006 0.55923 0.56678 1.764358
ltl Lithuanian Litas 3.45943 3 .58229 3.69516 3.57896 0.279411
mtl Malta lira 0.40894 0.40301 0.40414 0.40536 2.466941
pln New Polish Zloty 3.85742 3.67214 4.00817 3.84591 0.260016
skk Slovak Koruna 42.69350 43.30010 42.60170 42.86510 0.023329
sit Slovenian Tolar 225.97700 217.98000 206.61300 216.85667 0.004611
usd United States Dollar 0.9455 7 0.89563 0.92361 0.92161 1.085063
       
 
  
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