WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/L/756 
29 May 2009 
 (09-2599) 
  
  
 
PROCEDURES LEADING TO THE VERIFICATION AND CERTIFICATION OF  
HS96 CHANGES RELATING TO THE SCHEDULES OF 64 MEMBERS 
 
Decision of 27 May 2009
* 
  
 The General Council , 
  Having regard to  paragraph 1 of Article IV, and pa ragraph 1 of Article IX of the 
Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Tr ade Organization (the "WTO Agreement"); 
 
 Conducting  the functions of the Ministerial Conference in the interval between meetings of 
the Ministerial Conference pursuant to paragraph 2 of Article IV of the WTO Agreement;   Recalling that the CONTRACTING PARTIES to GATT 1947, by their Decision of 
26 March 1980
1 (the "1980 Decision"), established procedures for the modification and rectification 
of schedules of tariff concessions; 
  Recalling  that the CONTRACTING PARTIES to GATT 1947, by their Decision of 
8 October 1991
2 (the "1991 Decision"), established simplif ied procedures to introduce changes in the 
Harmonized Commodity Description and Coding System ("HS") to schedules of concessions; 
 
 Recalling  that, at its meeting of 27 November 1998, the Committee on Market Access 
approved the Consolidated Tariff Schedules ("C TS") Database technical co-operation project3; 
  Recalling  also that the General Council, by its Decision of 15 February 2005
4 
(the "2005 Decision"), established a procedure for the introduction of HS 2002 changes to Members' 
schedules of concessions using the CTS Database and that such procedure requires the 
WTO Secretariat to prepare and to make available a draft CTS schedule for each developing Member;   Noting that a number of WTO Members have used, with most having already completed, 
the procedures contained in the 1991 Decision to introduce HS 1996 ("HS96") changes to their 
schedules of concessions, but that there remain sixty -four developing Members that have yet to begin 
these procedures;   Taking into account  that the WTO Secretariat automatically undertook the work of 
introducing HS96 changes to the schedules of th ese sixty-four developing Members when it 
                                                     
 
* Secretariat note:   Adopted in accordance with  the Decision-Making Proced ures under Articles IX and 
XII of the WTO Agreement agreed by the Gene ral Council in November 1995 (WT/L/93). 
1 L/4962, BISD 27S/25-26. 
2 L/6905, BISD 39S/300. 
3 G/MA/M/16.  See also G/MA/63 concerning details of the CTS Database project. 
4 WT/L/605. WT/L/756 
Page 2  
 
  established the CTS Database and when it followed the procedures contained in the 2005 Decision, 
but that this work remains unverified and uncertified;   Recognizing  the importance of having complete certified schedules that reflect concessions in 
the correct nomenclature and of the work already done  by the Secretariat in order to achieve such an 
objective expeditiously; 
  Decides  as follows: 
 1. For the purpose of introducing HS96 chang es into the schedules of concessions of the 
sixty-four WTO Members listed in the Annex to th is Decision, the following procedures supersede the 
procedures contained in the 1991 Decision:  (a) For each WTO Member listed in the Annex to this Decision, the WTO Secretariat shall 
extract from the CTS database the information pe rtaining to the HS96 changes not covered by 
the 2005 Decision and shall post this informa tion on the Members' website.  For each 
Member listed in the Annex to this Decision, this information shall be referred to as the 
HS96 file of that Member.  In preparing these HS96 files, the WTO Secretariat shall take into account all previously certified rectifications  and modifications made to the relevant 
WTO Member's schedules of concessions
5, and shall,  to the extent possible, ensure that the 
scope of the concessions remain unchanged.   The WTO Secretariat shall make available to all 
WTO Members at the same time the HS96 files concerning each of the sixty-four 
WTO Members listed in the Annex. 
 (b) All WTO Members, including the sixty-four Members listed in the Annex to this Decision, 
shall have six months to examine each HS96 file. 
 
(c) Following expiration of this examination peri od, the Chairman of the Committee on Market 
Access shall convene an informal dedicated session of the Committee on Market Access to 
conduct a multilateral review of each HS96 file.  If, at the dedicated session, any Member 
raises an objection to one or more specific ta riff lines in an HS96 file, the multilateral review 
of that HS96 file shall continue in inform al dedicated sessions of the Committee on Market 
Access, which shall be held at intervals of si x weeks as necessary until such review has been 
concluded.  If there are no objections to an HS 96 file or when all objections to an HS96 file 
have been withdrawn, the multilateral review of the HS96 file in question shall be considered 
concluded and such file sha ll be considered approved by the Committee on Market Access. 
 
(d) The WTO Secretariat shall expeditiously prep are a paper version of each approved HS96 file 
for certification pursuant to the 1980 Decision. 
 
  
                                                     
 
5 See G/MA/W/23/Rev.6 for the most recent situation of schedules of WTO Members.  WT/L/756 
 Page 3 
 
 
  ANNEX 
 
1. Angola 
2. Antigua and Barbuda 
3. Bahrain 
4. Bangladesh 
5. Barbados 
6. Belize 
7. Benin 
8. Botswana 
9. Burkina Faso 
10. Burundi 
11. Cameroon 
12. Central African Republic 
13. Chad 
14. Chile 
15. Congo 
16. Congo, Democratic Republic of 
17. Côte d'Ivoire 
18. Djibouti 
19. Dominica 
20. Dominican Republic 
21. Ecuador 
22. Fiji 
23. Gabon 
24. Gambia, The 
25. Ghana 
26. Grenada 
27. Guinea Bissau 
28. Guinea 
29. Guyana 
30. Haiti 
31. Jamaica 
 32. Kenya 
33. Kuwait 
34. Lesotho 
35. Madagascar 
36. Malawi 
37. Maldives 
38. Mali 
39. Mauritania 
40. Mozambique 
41. Myanmar 
42. Namibia 
43. Niger 
44. Nigeria 
45. Papua New Guinea 
46. Peru 
47. Rwanda 
48. Saint Kitts and Nevis 
49. Sain Lucia  
50. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines 
51. Senegal 
52. Sierra Leone 
53. Solomon Islands 
54. South Africa 
55. Sri Lanka 
56. Suriname 
57. Swaziland 
58. Tanzania 
59. Togo 
60. Trinidad and Tobago 
61. Uganda 
62. United Arab Emirates 
63. Zambia 
64. Zimbabwe 
 
 
 
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