RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/REG/M/60 
29 March 2011 
 (11-1527) 
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements 
Sixtieth Session  
 
 
 
NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 14-15 MARCH 2011 
 
Chairmen:  Mr. A. Suescum (Panama) and  
Mr. F. Riegert (France)  
 
 A. A
DOPTION OF THE AGENDA  
1. The 60th Session of the Committee on Regional Trad e Agreements (hereinafter CRTA or the 
Committee) was convened in Airgram WTO/AIR/ 3692, dated 31 January 2011.  The Chairman 
suggested to re-order the Agenda and consider It em C: Consideration of Regional Trade Agreements 
before Item B:  Election of Officers.   
2. Under "Other Business", the Chairman announced  his intention to inform Members of the 
proposed meeting dates of the CRTA for 2011.   
3. The following Agenda was adopted: 
A. Adoption of the Agenda 
B.  Consideration of Regional Trade Agreements 
I. Status Report of the Committee's Work 
 II.  Economic Partnership Agreement between Japan and Switzerland, goods and 
   services 
 III. Free Trade Agreement between Peru and China, goods and services 
 IV. Free Trade Agreement between Costa Rica and Panama, goods and services 
C.  Election of Officers D. Other Business  
4. The Chairman
 recalled that the Latin American Integration Association (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  
B.I S TATUS REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE 'S WORK   
 5. Under this Agenda Item, the Chairman
 provided Members with an update on the 
implementation of the Transparency Mechanism (T M).  He informed the Committee that 36 early 
announcements had been posted on the WTO website (excluding those that had been subsequently 
notified).  He thanked those Members who had submi tted information in line with the requirements of 
the TM and encouraged others to do the same.  He  also reminded Members to inform the Secretariat 
of any changes in the status of early announcements.   WT/REG/M/60 
Page 2  
 
  6. With regards to the factual abstracts to be pr epared on those RTAs covering trade in goods for 
which an examination had already been completed, the Chairman informed Members that all of them 
had been posted on the WTO website, except for one.   Additionally, all factual abstracts in services 
had also been posted on the WTO website.  
7. As regards the preparation of the factual pr esentations under the remit of the CRTA, in the 
case of RTAs involving WTO Members only, there were 31 RTAs for which a factual presentation 
had to be prepared, counting goods and services separately.  He recalled that at the Committee's 52
nd 
Session held on 4 March 2009, Members had agreed to begin considering RTAs involving non-Members under the TM.  Thus, factual presentations  on a further 43 RTAs involving non-Members 
were to be prepared, with priority for those RTAs notified since the adoption of the TM on 14 
December 2006.  Data requests for RTAs notified sin ce the adoption of the TM had been sent to the 
relevant parties.  He then asked the Secretariat to  provide further details on the preparation of factual 
presentations. 
8. A representative of the Secretariat
 said that in the case of Agreements between WTO 
Members, the situation was as follows:  for  China-Pakistan and EU-Croatia, both covering services,  
comments had been received and these factual presenta tions would be issued shortly.  For EU-Côte 
d'Ivoire, goods, some comments had recently been recei ved from the parties.  In the case of Japan-
Viet Nam, goods and services, some comments had been  received.  In both cases, the representative 
of the Secretariat urged the parties to provide ou tstanding comments as soon as possible.  In the case 
of eight RTAs:  US-Bahrain, goods and services;  CAFTA-DR, goods and services;  US-Oman, goods 
and services;  China-Singapore, goods and service s;  Japan-Thailand, goods and services;  EU-
FYROM, services;  and EU-Albania, services;  the f actual presentations had been sent to the parties 
(in most cases back in 2009), but no comments ha d been received.  For EU-South Africa, goods , data 
originally requested in 2007 had still not been provide d by South Africa.  She said that the Secretariat 
had been in touch with the South African authoriti es who had informed them that they expected to 
submit data by the end of April.  For EU-Egypt, go ods, the factual presentation had been sent to the 
parties. For Panama-Honduras, goods and services, da ta from Honduras had not been received yet;  
for Colombia-Mexico, goods and services, data from Colombia was outstanding;  and for El Salvador-
Honduras-Chinese Taipei, goods and services, data from  El Salvador and Honduras was still pending.  
For Korea-India, services, some data had been re ceived from India.  For China-Chile, services, data 
was scheduled to be submitted by 7 April.  Fo r New Zealand-Hong Kong, China, goods and services, 
data was scheduled to be submitted by 14 March.  For Turkey-Chile, goods, data was scheduled to be 
submitted by 15 July.  For Turkey-Jordan, goods, da ta was scheduled to be submitted by 25 July. 
9. As for the RTAs involving non-Members, the situation was as follows:  for Turkey-Serbia, 
goods, data had been received and the factual pres entation was being drafted;  for ASEAN-China, 
services, and EU-Serbia, goods, the factual presentations had been sent to the parties, but no comments had been received.  For Iceland-Faer oe Islands, goods and services, comments had been 
received but the Secretariat was still awaiting some  outstanding data from the Faeroe Islands.  For 
EU-Montenegro, goods and services and Turkey-Mont enegro, goods, comments had been received 
and these factual presentations would be issued s hortly.  For EU-Bosnia Herzegovina, goods;  EFTA-
Lebanon, goods;  EU-CARIFOR UM, goods and services;  Turkey-Syria, goods, CEFTA 
Enlargement, goods;  Ukraine-Azerbaijan, goods;  Ukraine-Belarus, goods;  Ukraine-Russian 
Federation, goods;  Ukraine-Tajikistan, goods;  Uk raine-Kazakhstan, goods;  Ukraine-Turkmenistan, 
goods;  Ukraine-Uzbekistan, goods;  and the Common  Economic Zone, goods, da ta was incomplete.   
10. With regards to RTAs for which not all parties had ratified the agreement yet, the Secretariat 
would wait before the agreement had entered into  force for all the parties before starting the 
preparation of factual presentations.  This involve d six agreements:  ASEAN-Japan, goods;  Australia-
ASEAN-New Zealand, goods and services;  EC-Cam eroon, goods;  Korea-ASEAN, services;  EFTA-
Albania, goods;  and EFTA-Serbia, goods.  The repr esentative of the Secretariat urged the parties to  WT/REG/M/60 
 Page 3 
 
 
  notify the Secretariat when their respective agreement would enter into force for all the parties.  She 
also urged all Members to comply with the deadlin es as requested in order to adhere to the CRTA's 
work programme.  
11. The representative of the Secretariat  also addressed the issue of non-notified RTAs.  She 
recalled that the former Chairman had contacted sev eral Members in October 2009 about the status of 
65 RTAs based on a list drawn up by the Secretariat a nd which had been verified by their parties as 
being in force but not yet notified.  Since the last CRTA Meeting in September 2010, no additional 
RTAs from this list had been notified.  The Secr etariat had been following up on this issue and 
encouraged all delegations that had been contacted , to try to notify the remaining RTAs as soon as 
possible.  She also reminded Members that pa rtial scope agreements, such as early harvest 
agreements, had also to be notified under the TM.  
12. The Chairman  said that it was clear from the Secretaria t's statement that the Committee was at 
risk of significant slippage in its work programme of consideration of RTAs under the TM.  Since it 
was generally acknowledged that the TM had been a success so far, it was in the interest of all 
Members to ensure that deadlines would be resp ected and the work programme under the TM would 
proceed as planned.  He was confident that th e Committee could rely on  the cooperation of all 
Members in this regard. 
13. The representative of India  thanked the Secretariat for modifying the RTA database as 
requested at the last CRTA meeting in November  2010, to reflect the dual notification of the 
following RTAs:  Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) customs union, India-Korea CEPA1 and ASEAN-
Korea FTA, which had been notified under both GATT Article XXIV and the Enabling Clause.  He 
said that both notifications should be mentioned t ogether as both were equally  legally valid and had 
no hierarchical relationship.  He also recalled that in the last CRTA meeting, some delegations including India had objected to the inclusion of the GCC custom union in the CRTA's work programme.  He pointed out that the RTA Transparency Mechanism did not contain any provisions regarding RTAs with dual notifications, and th at this was being presently discussed within the 
Negotiating Group on Rules (NGR).  On behalf of  his delegation, he reminded the CRTA that it 
should not prejudge the outcome of the NGR and should refrain from including such dual-notified 
RTAs in its work programme or assigning prejudi cial document series numbers. Members would need 
to wait for the outcome of discussions in the Co mmittee on Trade and Development (CTD) and the 
NGR before moving ahead to cons ider such dual-notified RTAs. 
14. The representative of China
 thanked the Secretariat for the proper amendment of the RTA 
database regarding dual notifications.  He reminded Members that the procedure to deal with dual 
notifications was still a pending issue in the WTO, as there were no explicit provisions in this regard.  
Any initiative or action affecting the outcome of  the on-going discussions was therefore neither 
appropriate nor legal and would not ha ve the support of his delegation.   
15. The representative of Egypt  acknowledged that his delegation had received the factual 
presentation on EU-Egypt prepared by the Secretariat and that it was in the process of reviewing it.  
He expressed the support of his delegation to the st atements made by the representatives of China and 
India regarding the issue of dual notifications and said that Members should not take any measures 
that could alter the decision regarding this issue.   
 
                                                      
1 Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement. WT/REG/M/60 
Page 4  
 
  C. 
ELECTION OF OFFICERS  
16. Under this Item, the Chairman  proposed that the Committee elect, by acclamation, Mr 
François Riegert of France, as the incoming Ch airman of the CRTA.  The Committee so agreed . 
D. OTHER BUSINESS  
17. The Chairman  informed Members of the proposed dates for the CRTA's meetings in 2011. 
These were 28-29 June, 22-23 September and 8-9 November 2011.   
18. The Committee took note  of the comments made.  
__________