WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/REG/M/48 
9 January 2008 
 
 (08-0092) 
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements 
Forty-eighth Session  
 
 
 
NOTE ON THE MEETIN G OF 29 NOVEMBER 2007 
 
Chairman:  Mr.  J.  Metcalfe (United Kingdom ) 
 
 
A. ADOPTION OF THE AGENDA  
1. The 48th Session of the Committee on Regional Trad e Agreements (CRTA) was convened in 
Airgram WTO/AIR/3097 and Revision 1, dated 18 Oc tober and 15 November 2007, respectively.   
The Chairman  welcomed officials and experts from Capitals .  Under "Other Business" he wished to 
raise the tentative calendar of meetings for the CRTA in 2008 and technical cooperation activities 
conducted in 2007 in RTAs.   
2. The following Agenda was adopted.  
A. Adoption of the Agenda 
B.  Consideration of Regiona l Trade Agreements (RTAs) 
I. Status report on the Committee's work 
II. Association Agreement between the European Communities and Chile, 
services 
III. Free Trade Agreement between Turkey and Morocco, goods 
C. Annual Report (2007) to the General Council D. Other Business 
 
3. The Chairman
 recalled that the Latin American Integr ation Association (the LAIA) had been 
granted observer status to the CRTA on an ad hoc  basis and sought confirmation to extend an 
invitation to LAIA to attend the Committee's next meeting.  It was so agreed . 
B. CONSIDERATION OF REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS (RTA S) 
B.I. Status Report on the Committee's work 
 
4. Under this agenda item, the Chairman  provided Members with an update on the 
implementation of the Transparency Mechanism.   First he informed them that 30 early 
announcements had been placed on the WTO website.  Paragraph 2 of the Transparency Mechanism 
provided for the Secretariat periodically to provide  Members with a synopsis of the communications 
received.  A list of early announcements received to  date had been prepared and was available in the 
room.  In addition eight factual abstracts for RT As for which an examination had already been 
completed had been posted on the WTO Website, and 30 had been prepared and sent to the 
relevant parties for comment.  The Secretariat had recently received comments on four abstracts 
(China-Macao, China, goods;  EC-Turkey, goods;  New Zealand-Singapore goods;  and 
Turkey-Croatia goods) and expected to post them on the WTO website shortly.  Comments on the 
other factual abstracts which had been sent to Memb ers were awaited;  the deadline for some of these 
was long past.  He urged all Members to try and submit comments as soon as possible.  WT/REG/M/48 
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  5. He also informed Members that there were  currently 51 RTAs for which a factual 
presentation had to be prepared, counting goods and services separately.  This did not include 
28 RTAs involving non-Members, or for which sp ecific commitments had not yet been agreed, an 
issue that needed to be addressed at some point .  The Secretariat was presently drafting factual 
presentations for 15 RTAs, which were sche duled for the Committee's next Session.   There continued 
to be some teething problems with respect to th e deadlines mandated by the Transparency Mechanism 
and with regard to the receipt of tariff and trade data.  He asked the Secretariat for further details.  
6. A member of the Secretariat  noted that by the end of the current meeting 11 RTAs would 
have been considered under the Transparency Mechanism, a considerable achievement in the 
first year of the Mechanism, but short of where the Committee had hoped to be at the end of 2007.  Under the work programme for 2007, which had been  agreed with Members in March, 11 RTAs had 
been scheduled for consideration in the current sessi on.  Of these only two were on the Agenda of the 
meeting, with the rest having been rescheduled fo r 2008.  There remained difficulties with several 
aspects of the Transparency M echanism process:  some Members continued to have problems 
respecting the deadlines for data submission and in so me cases the format and quality of data received 
had not been as expected.  He believed these were teething problems which should be resolved over 
time as Members became more acquainted with th e requirements of the process.  Some Members 
continued to experience difficulties in resp ecting deadlines for comments and questions.
 
7. For the first meeting of the CRTA in 2008 17 RTAs had been scheduled for consideration.    
A factual presentation on US-Morocco goods and services had been completed and issued.  With regard to the other RTAs, in the case of EC(25) services;  EC-Albania goods;  MERCOSUR, services;  
Panama-Singapore, goods and services;  and the Trans-Pacific SEP, goods and services, all the 
necessary data had been received and the factual pr esentations were currently being drafted or had 
been sent to the parties for comment .  The Secretariat would need the cooperation of the Parties with 
respect to the specified deadlines for the receipt of comments in order to keep these RTAs on the 
Agenda for the next meeting. 
8. The situation with regard to other factual presentations was as follows:  for EFTA-Tunisia, 
goods, the Secretariat had sent the draft factual pr esentation to the Parties, although the data for 
Iceland and Tunisia was still incomplete.  The Secretariat was awaiting comments from Tunisia on the 
factual presentation which had been sent in July.  For India-Singapore, goods and services, the factual 
presentation had been drafted but the Secretariat ha d encountered a problem with India's tariff and 
was awaiting clarification from the Indian author ities.  For Japan-Mexico, goods and services, the 
Secretariat had received tariff data from both Parti es, although there was some data missing in the 
tariff of Japan.  The Secretariat had received impor t data from Mexico but was still missing trade data 
from Japan.  For Panama-El Salvador, goods and serv ices, the Secretariat had received data that was 
not coherent with that of COMTRADE and was liaising with the Parties for clarification.  For Turkey-Tunisia, goods, the Secretariat had received data from Turkey but was still awaiting the tariff 
phase down from Tunisia. 
9. He also provided an indication of the work that had been achieved by the Committee in 2007 
based on the work programme established by the S ecretariat for the CRTA in 2007.  A total of 
11 RTAs would have been considered by the end of  the current meeting.  23 RTAs had been initially 
scheduled (counting goods and services separately) for consideration in the CRTA.  The situation for 
the rest was:  for EC-South Africa, goods, the data  from the EC had been received.  However, the 
South African authorities had indicated that they w ould be unable to provide the relevant tariff and 
trade data before mid-2008 and the Secretariat woul d try to get the information as soon as possible.  
For EC-Egypt, goods, data had been received from th e EC.  However, the tariff received from Egypt 
was unusable and the Secretariat was liaising with the Egyptian authorities to try and resolve this 
problem.  For EFTA-Tunisia, Japan-Mexico, Turkey-Tunisia and Panama-El Salvador, he had already  WT/REG/M/48 
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  referred to the problems being experienced.  Fo r US-Morocco, EC(25) and MERCOSUR, there was 
no specific problem and they would be considered in 2008.   
10. The Chairman  urged all Members to try and adhere to the deadlines as much as possible as 
the success of the Transparency Mechanism would be determined by the willingness of Members to 
comply with their obligations. 
11. With regard to the review of the Transparency Mechanism, he drew Members' attention to the 
fax of 15 November in which he had indicated hi s intention to inform Members at the CRTA meeting 
about the outcome of informal consultations he ld with Members on the initial review of the 
Transparency Mechanism.  As stated in the fax,  following consultations w ith delegations, it was his 
understanding that Members had felt that there was not yet enough experience in the CRTA and none 
in the CTD (for RTAs notified under the Enabling Clause)  for an initial review to be completed at this 
time.  In the light of this, he had agreed with  the Chairman of the Negotiating Group on Rules, 
Ambassador Vallés Galmes, that Ambassador Vallés should make a statement with regard to the 
initial review of the Transparency Mechanism to Me mbers at the next regular meeting of the General 
Council scheduled for 18 and 19 December 2007. 
12. The representative of the United States  said she looked forward to the statement by the 
Chairman of the Negotiating Group on Rules to the Ge neral Council.  She suggested that it would be 
useful for the Secretariat to circulate written no tification to CRTA members at the time when the 
factual presentations were issued, noting the exact date at which questions from Members needed to 
be submitted to the Secretariat rather than in the agenda itself.  She also  suggested not scheduling 
CRTA meetings until there was a good corpus of factua l presentations that had been completed or was 
close to completion.  She agreed that the comple tion of 11 RTAs in the first year was a good sign. 
13. The Chairman  asked the Secretariat to reflect on the first suggestion.  With regard to the 
second proposal, he feared that if the dates were not announced in advance, the discipline on the 
parties to meet deadlines would disappear.  His init ial reaction was therefore that this would delay 
even further hamper the work of the CRTA. 
14. The representative of the European Communities (EC)  agreed that the first year of the 
Mechanism had been successful and urged Memb ers to comply with the deadlines under the 
Mechanism.  With regard to the review of the Mechanism, she acknowledged that thus far there had 
been insufficient experience.  Sh e asked the Chair to suggest to the Chair of the Negotiating Group on 
Rules that he consult with Members before deliv ering his statement to the General Council.  She 
invited Members to engage in the review and to  begin constructive discussions and suggested that 
Members needed to start thinking about a new timeframe for 2008. 
15. The representative of Brazil  agreed with the United States and the EC on the importance of 
the statement to be made by the Chair of the Negotiating Group on Rules.  His delegation believed 
there was always room for improvement in the rules and procedures of the Mechanism, which was being applied provisionally, and would participate actively in the review. 
16. The representative of Australia
 agreed that the first year of the Mechanism had been 
successful and would improve over time.  He beli eved that there was a need to schedule CRTA 
meetings in advance to keep up the momentum.  L ogistically also it was important for his delegation 
which had to carefully plan travel from Australia in advance. 
17. The Chairman  believed it would be difficult to set a timeframe for the review because part of 
the CRTA's ability to learn from the experience of the operation of the Mechanism lay in the fact that 
the CTD had not yet considered any agreement.  Without this experience it would be difficult to WT/REG/M/48 
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  conclude when the time would be ripe to discuss a timeframe.  But he was willing to consult on the 
issue. 
18. The representative of the United States
 noted that under paragraph 23 of the Transparency 
Mechanism a permanent Mechanism was not envi sioned until the completion of the Round and 
therefore she did not believe there was a need to rush to establish a deadline for a review. 
19. The representative of Brazil  recognized the insufficient experience to begin the review and 
therefore believed it was not appropriate at this stage to set deadlines.  However, his delegation 
believed that a review needed to be conducted and requested an updat e from the Chair in this regard. 
20. The representative of the EC  said she did not want to suggest a timeframe but rather to ask for 
suggestions on the way ahead for the next year. 
21. The Chairman  agreed to remain responsive to request s to take the review forward and would 
remain in contact with the Chair of the CTD on this issue. 
22. The representative of the United States  said that her delegation did not believe that 
consultations on the review of the Transparency  Mechanism were within the purview of the CRTA 
but rather in the Negotiating Group on Rules.  She th erefore requested the Chairman to consult with 
Members before proceeding any further with consultations. 
23. The Chairman  noted that the Decision on the Transpar ency Mechanism required a review of 
the experience of operating the Mechanism.  Si nce that experience lay in the Committees operating 
the Mechanism – the CRTA a nd the CTD – it was logical that the review should draw on their work.  
However, if it had been the will of Members to alte r the text of the Decision, it was clear that he 
would have conveyed such proposals to the Chair of the Negotiating Group on Rules and he was sure 
the Chair of the CTD, would have done likewise.  It would then have been, quite properly the 
responsibility of the Chair of the Negotiating Group  on Rules to facilitate formal negotiations on 
reviewing the text of the Mechanism. 
24. The representative of the EC  supported the statement by the Chairman.  
B.II – III. (The minutes of the consideration of th e Agreements listed under agenda items B.II-III are 
being distributed as separate documents). 
 C. A
NNUAL REPORT (2007)  TO THE GENERAL COUNCIL  
25. Under this agenda item, the Chairman  noted that a draft of this report had been distributed in 
document WT/REG/W/51.  Some minor changes had been made following the receipt of new notifications which he would mention while going thr ough the relevant sections of the document.  In 
his fax of 15 November, he had asked delegations  to submit any preliminary comments on this Report 
to the Secretariat in advance of this meeting.   It was his understanding that comments had been 
received from one delegation.   
26. In formal mode, he proposed that the Committe e entrust the Secretariat with the task of 
modifying the report with the agreed changes, and that the Committee adopt the Annual Report, 
which would be submitted to the Ge neral Council.  It was so agreed
. 
 
    WT/REG/M/48 
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  D. OTHER BUSINESS  
27. Under this agenda item, the Chairman  raised two issues.  The first was to inform Members of 
tentative dates for the CRTA's meetings in  2008 which were 14-16 April, 17-18 July, 
18-19 September, and 27-28 November.  The second issue concerned technical cooperation activities 
conducted in 2007 in the area of regional trade agre ements.  It would be recalled that at the 
Committee's 32nd Session, it was agreed to regularly review the RTA-related technical assistance 
activities undertaken by the Secretariat.  He invi ted the Secretariat to give an account of such 
activities carried out in 2007 and planned for 2008.  
28. The Secretariat  noted that a table it had distributed to Members showed that it had conducted 
15 Technical Assistance (TA) activities in 2007 thus  far.  Two more activities were scheduled for 
December 2007.  An additional 10 activities had been  scheduled for 2008, of which four were RTA 
specific regional seminars (Arab and Middle East; Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia and 
Caucasus; Latin America; and the Caribbean) and six were part of regional trade policies courses.   
29. Most of the activities had been financed by the WTO regular budget, donations by Members, 
or by the Global Trust Fund for activities under the Doha Development Agenda.  The participation 
costs for some of the activities had been incurred by the hosting organization.  The objectives of the 
activities varied from raising awareness on RTA dynami cs in global trade, to training and advising 
government officials on WTO rules and procedures on RTAs, including the new Transparency Mechanism.  Virtually all technical assistance activ ities had been addressed to participants from broad 
regional groupings.  Their underlying objective had b een to contribute to the development of RTAs 
that were beneficial to their members and that co mplemented the objectives of the WTO.  Since Doha, 
the RTA Section had been entrusted with the additi onal TA task of clarifying issues related to the 
negotiations on RTA rules to WTO Members requesting such assistance.   
30. The Committee took note
 of the statement. 
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