RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  G/MA/M/40 
7 November 2005 
 
 (05-5208) 
Committee on Market Access  
 
 
MINUTES OF THE MEETING HELD ON 3 OCTOBER 2005 
 
Chairman: Mr. Martin Pospíšil (Czech Republic)  
Subject discussed                                                                                                                                      Page  
 
1. Periodic report of the Committee to the Council for Trade in Goods including 
factual  information on waivers expiring on 31 October 2005 (G/MA/SPEC/30) ...............2  
2. Submission of HS96 documentation (G/MA/TAR/2/Rev.36) ................................................2  
3. HS2002 changes.............................................................................................................. ...........2 
(i) Introduction of HS2002 changes to schedul es of concessions using the CTS database 
(WT/L/605) – Report by the Secretariat on the status of  work ..................................................2 
(ii) Extension of the HS2002 waiver (WT/L/598) .............................................................................3  
4. Background Information on certain uncertified commitments – Note by the 
Secretariat (JOB (05)/167)...................................................................................................... ...3 
5. Situation of schedules of WTO Members – Note by the Secretariat 
(G/MA/W/23/Rev.2) .............................................................................................................. ....3 
6. Modalities and operation of the Integrated Data Base (IDB) ...............................................4 
(i) Status of submission of the requi red documentation (G/MA/IDB/2/Rev.22) ..............................4 
(ii) Report by the Secretariat ................................................................................................. ...........4  
7. Consolidated Tariff Schedules (CTS) Database .....................................................................4 (i) Report by the Secretariat on the status of work..........................................................................4  
8. Dissemination of the ID B and the CTS Database...................................................................5 
(i) Communication from the Economic Commission for Latin American and the 
Caribbean (G/MA/W/68) .......................................................................................................... ..5 
(ii) Communication from the Agency for In ternational Trade Information and Co-
operation (AITIC/ACICI) (G/MA/W/69).....................................................................................5  
9. Transitional Review under Paragraph 18 of the Protocol of Accession of the 
People's Repub lic of China..................................................................................................... ..5 
(i) Questions and/or Comments Submitted to  China by the European Communities, 
Japan, and the United States in documents G/MA/W/70, G/MA/W/72, and G/MA/W/71, respecti vely ........................................................................................................ ....5 
10. Draft Report (2005) of the Committ ee to the Council for Trade in Goods 
(G/MA/SPEC/31)................................................................................................................. ....10  
11. Election of th e Vice Chairperson ........................................................................................... 10 
12. Other Business............................................................................................................. ............10 
(i) Date of the next meeting ................................................................................................... ........10 
ANNEX 1 ........................................................................................................................ ......................11 
ANNEX 2 ........................................................................................................................ ......................14 
 
 The  Committee adopted
 the agenda as reproduced in document WTO/AIR/2669. An 
annotated agenda was circulated in document JOB(05)/213. 
 
 G/MA/M/40 
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 1. Periodic report of the Committee to the Council for Trade in Goods including factual 
 information on waivers expiring on 31 October 2005 (G/MA/SPEC/30) 
 
1.1 The Chairman
 drew the Committee's attention to document G/MA/SPEC/30 which contained 
the draft periodic report of this Committee.  This report1 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 
(CTG) for examination.  The report contained in its Annex a table summarizing factual information 
on the waiver under process submitted by Israel.  Israel had forwarded a request for a waiver 
extension in connection with the introduction of HS 96 changes to its schedule of concessions.  Factual 
information from Israel concerning its request had been circulated in document G/L/744, and a draft 
decision had also been circulated in document G/C/W/528.  
 1.2 The Committee took note
 of the request, approved  the draft waiver decision and agreed  to 
forward them to the CTG for appropriate action.  2. Submission of HS96 documentation (G/MA/TAR/2/Rev.36) 
 
2.1 The Chairman
 drew the Committee's attention to document G/MA/TAR/2/Rev.36 which 
reflected the present situation concerning the su bmission of required documentation. From the 
document, it could be noted that the HS96 submi ssions of three Members remained pending due to 
ongoing consultations and/or negotiations.   
 
2.2 The Committee took note  of the document. 
 
3. HS2002 changes 
 
(i) Introduction of HS2002 changes to schedul es of concessions using the CTS database 
(WT/L/605) – Report by the Secretariat on the status of  work 
3.1 A member of the Secretariat  (Mr. J. Richtering) introduced the report which is contained in 
Annex I.   3.2 The representative of the United States
 asked when the review of developed country files 
would be done, and whether they would be s ubmitted for multilateral review in a batch.  
 3.3 A member of the Secretariat
 (Mr. J. Richtering) stated that the developed country files would 
be released as and when they became ready, and not in a batch.  By end of November, the Secretariat 
could release a number of the files, and early next year the remaining files. 
 
3.4 The Chairman  recalled that on 29 June 2005, when th e Secretariat had given the technical 
briefing on issues arising from this HS2002 transpos ition exercise, it had made the point that it had 
introduced HS96 changes to the schedules of a number of Members in connection with the 
preparation of the CTS database.  The reason this issue had been brought before this Committee was 
because the results of this transposition exercise undertak en by the Secretariat had not been verified or 
certified.  At that technical briefing, a questi on had been asked regarding which Members were 
concerned by this issue. In response to that request, the Secretariat had circulated document 
JOB(05)124/Add.1 which provided such a list.   3.5 The Chairman
 noted that he was bringing this matter up again in order to suggest to the 
Members concerned that they could use the work done by the Secretariat in order to prepare and 
submit their HS96 documentation in accordance with the procedures which existed for the 
                                                      
1 Issued as G/MA/163.   G/MA/M/40 
 Page 3 
 
 
 introduction of HS96 changes to schedules. Those pr ocedures were contained in document L/6905.  
The Committee could revisit the situation next year and see to what extent there had been follow-up 
action by the Members concerned. If the picture did not look good, the Committee might wish to look 
at alternative ways of reaching the goal of  bringing legal certainty to those changes.  
 
3.6 The Committee took note  of the statements. 
 
(ii) Extension of the HS2002 waiver (WT/L/598) 
3.7 The Chairman  recalled that a number of Members had been given an extension of the waiver 
or a new waiver through the form of a "collec tive decision" in order to introduce HS2002 changes 
domestically and to subsequently undertake the exercise of introducing these changes to their 
respective schedule of concessions. The draft deci sion had been adopted by the General Council on 
13 December 2004.  This waiver which be gan on 1 January 2005 would expire on  
31 December 2005.  It was evident that the HS 2002 exercise as foreseen under WT/L/605 was not 
going to finish by the end of this year and he propos ed that this waiver be extended for another year.  
He suggested that that the Secretariat work on a dr aft decision which would  be faxed to all Members, 
if no comments were forthcoming within a certain  period of time, then the decision would be 
considered acceptable and forwarded to the CTG for appropriate action.  If th ere were any substantive 
comments then he would  call a meeting of the Committee to discuss them.  3.8 The Committee took note
 of the statement and agreed to the Chairman's proposal. 
 
4. Background Information on certain uncertified commitments – Note by the Secretariat 
(JOB(05)/167)  
4.1 The Chairman  noted that in the course of the info rmal meeting of the Committee on Market 
Access, which had immediately preceded this me eting, Members had discussed a note by the 
Secretariat JOB(05)/167 concerning the issue of  certain uncertified commitments. Members had 
agreed that the various procedures outlined in the note should be followed in order to complete the 
certification process of these commitments.  He now wished to put it before the Committee for formal 
approval.  4.2 The Committee agreed
 that the various procedures outlined in the note (JOB(05)/167)  should 
be followed in order to complete the certification process of these commitments.   
 
5. Situation of schedules of WTO Members – Note by the Secretariat (G/MA/W/23/Rev.2) 
 
5.1 The Chairman  noted that the Secretariat had prepar ed an updated version of the document  
G/MA/W/23 which reflected the situation of sche dules of WTO Members.  There were two document 
references that had been omitted from this table: 
 
1) Under El Salvador, column 7, the rectifi cation/modification document relating to the ITA 
which had been circulated as G/MA/TAR /RS/45/Add.1 needed to be included. 
 
2) Under Pakistan, column 7, a rectificati on/modification document relating to additional 
concessions which had been circulated as G/MA /TAR/RS/94/Add.2 needed to be included. 
 
5.2 The Committee took note  of the document and the corrections.  
 G/MA/M/40 
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 6. Modalities and operation of the Integrated Data Base (IDB) 
 
(i) Status of submission of the required documentation (G/MA/IDB/2/Rev.22)  
6.1 The Chairman
 noted that document G/MA/IDB/2/Rev.22 had been circulated to all Members.  
This document presented the situation of ID B submissions as of 19 September 2005.   
 
(ii)  Report by the Secretariat 
6.2 A member of the Secretariat  (Mr. J. Richtering) introduced the report which is contained in 
Annex II.  
6.3 The representative of the United States
 thanked the Secretariat for the update on submissions 
to the IDB and noted that the value of the IDB was the linking of the tariff rates contained in the CTS 
with the trade data in the IDB.  At a previous  meeting there had been a discussion about obtaining 
trade data from sources other than official IDB subm issions.  His first question was how this effort 
was proceeding. Secondly, he wished to know if at  some point, there was going to be an attempt to 
indicate, for example, where a country had not ma de a submission through the formal IDB process, 
but that this information had been obtained from other sources.  6.4 A member of the Secretariat
 (Mr. J. Richtering) stated that the Secretariat had identified a 
possible source of trade data in the UN statis tical database COMTRADE and the Secretariat had 
established ways to download the data electronica lly. There were also the ITC/UNCTAD databases. 
The Secretariat had in the context of the Ne gotiating Group on Market Access reported on other 
sources and data availability on more than one o ccasion. He noted that the problem was that they 
would need Members’ authorisation before such da ta could be included in the IDB. If it was useful 
the Secretariat could report to this Committee on the situation of complementary data in the databases 
of other agencies. 
 
6.5 The Committee took note  of the document, report and statements. 
 
7. Consolidated Tariff Schedules (CTS) Database 
 
(i) Report by the Secretariat on the status of work 
7.1 A member of the Secretariat  (Mr. J. Richtering) reported that since the last meeting of the 
Committee, IDB/CTS staff were continuing w ith 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).  Li nked files were prepared for Antigua and 
Barbuda, Indonesia, Nigeria and Peru; 
• Incorporating recently issued HS96 certification documents for Guatemala and Uruguay; 
• A number of recently adopted certification documen ts still had to be incorporated in the CTS 
(Bahrain, Korea, Malaysia, Morocco, No rway, New Zealand, Pakistan, US). 
 7.2 The Committee took note
 of the report. 
   G/MA/M/40 
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 8. Dissemination of the IDB and the CTS Database 
 
(i) Communication from the Economic Commission for Latin American and the Caribbean 
(G/MA/W/68) 
(ii) Communication from the Agency for Interna tional Trade Information and Co-operation 
(AITIC/ACICI) (G/MA/W/69) 
8.1 The Chairman  drew attention to the communications  from the two organizations requesting 
access to the IDB and CTS databases.     8.2 The representative of the United States
 pointed out that the guidelines laying out the  
dissemination policy of the two databases also said that this was potentially a reciprocal process and 
data that these organisations had could be provided to the WTO as we ll.  He noted that there were a 
number of gaps in IDB submissions for countri es that were members of the Economic Commission 
for Latin America and the Caribbean and it was his understanding that the Commission did in fact have information that might fill some of those ga ps. So, he requested that the Secretariat be in 
communication with the Commission in order to ensure a two-way flow of information. 
 8.3 The Chairman
 pointed out that, as in the case of past re quests, in a letter in which he informed 
the organizations of the Committee’s decision, he also  invited them to share relevant information.   
 8.4 The Committee took note
 of the statement and approved  the requests from the Commission 
for Latin American and the Caribbean and the AITIC for access to the IDB and CTS database.  
 
9. Transitional Review under Paragraph 18 of th e Protocol of Accession of the People's 
Republic of China 
(i) Questions and/or Comments Submitted to China by the European Communities, Japan, and 
the United States in documents G/MA/W/70, G/MA/W/72, and G/MA/W/71, respectively 
9.1 The Chairman  said that with respect to this fourth review, a number of comments/questions 
had been put to the Chinese delegation from the Eu ropean Communities, Japan and the United States, 
which had been circulated in documents G/MA/W/70,  71 and 72 respectively. He noted that as was 
the practice, first he would ask the Chinese delegati on to take the floor, and then he would give the 
floor to the respective delegations who had put forward questions, and the Committee would take 
them in order of their submissions, European Co mmunities, United States and then Japan.  He would 
then open the floor to any other delegation who wish ed to raise any questions or make comments.  
Then, China could take the floor again to provide fu rther clarifications or additional responses to the 
any questions raised.    
9.2 The representative of China
 thanked Members for their interest  in the trade policy of China. 
Before, his colleague responded to the questions raised  under this agenda item, he wished to raise the 
issue of the irrelevance of some of the questions that China had received with regard to the mandate 
of this Committee. Last year in this Committee when China had responded to questions put to it, 
China had stated that its responses were without prejudice to its understanding and judgement as to 
whether some of the questions themselves fell within the mandate of this Committee.  Nevertheless, in 
a spirit of co-operation and seriousness, China had pr oceeded to respond in detail to all the questions 
put to it.  However, that spirit of co-operation a nd seriousness had not been reciprocated and questions 
of the same nature had been put again in the CT G review.  In fact, the CTG, according to the 
accession protocol of China was the body with the mandate to review these questions. He noted that, 
in view of this, in order to follow the provisions  in the accession protocol, his delegation in this 
meeting was not in a position to respond to those questions regarding export restrictions and state G/MA/M/40 
Page 6  
 
 trading. As indicated, Annex 1A of the Accession Pr otocol explicitly provided that information on 
export restrictions and state trading was to be deal t with in the CTG. In view of that, China would 
respond to questions relating to those issues in the forthcoming CTG meeting which would conduct 
the transitional review this year as provided for in Annex 1A of China’s Accession Protocol. That 
being said, he assured Members that China woul d continue its work on TRM in a pragmatic and 
professional spirit in order to provide a clarificati on and explanation regardin g China's trade policies 
to the extent possible. Without that spirit, he and his colleagues would not have sacrificed their 
Golden National Day holidays in order to be present at  this meeting.  Therefore, China's approach was 
simply to avoid having a repeated review of the sa me topics by two bodies in this organization.  China 
believed that this was legitimate,  well grounded and believed that Me mbers would fully understand.  
 
9.3 Another representative from China
 noted that under the agenda item, China was willing to 
respond to the rest of the comments and questions presented to his delegation before the meeting. 
However, in addition to the point made by his co lleague, he wished to request Members to refrain 
from asking repetitive questions, in particular those questions where the wordi ng was almost the same 
as in the previous years.  On those questions, Chin a’s response would be brief as its stance remained 
the same.  9.4 As regarded the Development Policy for Auto mobile Industry and its implementing rules, he 
said that during the enactment of the policy and the rules implementing the policy, responsible authorities in the Chinese government had consulted the automobile industry including the foreign-
invested companies and other interested parties.  Public comment solicitation had also been carried 
out via internet or other means where appropriate.  Therefore, he believed that the whole process of enacting the policy and its implementing rules had been fair and transparent.   9.5 On the issue relating to the specific impl ementing rule “Administrative Measures for the 
Import of Automobile Components Fulfilling the Char acteristics of a Whole Vehicle”, China believed 
that the policy aimed at streamlining the importation and exportation of automobile spare parts and components in and out of China and as well as st rengthening law enforcement against the tariff 
evasion and circumvention.  The automobile industr y was growing at an unprecedented rate in China, 
and during these years there was enough evidence show ing that some enterprises were deliberately 
circumventing and evading tariffs by disassembling cars, importing different spare parts via different 
ports of China and finally assembling them back in to whole brand new cars.  It was against this 
background that China had put into place such a measur e in order to make sure that the importation of 
these spare parts was not used to be assembled overni ght into brand new cars a nd then sold the next 
morning.  The Measures adopted the WCO HS defi nitions of automobiles and its spare parts and 
Articles 21 and 22 provided detailed explanation as to  when or by what criteria those spare parts 
would be regarded as constituting the characteristics of a whole vehicle in order to prevent further 
tariff evasion and circumvention.  This kind of explanation according to China’s technical experts was 
a common practice of customs that was exercised in many countries. The Measure, in their view, was 
designed in a way to protect the interest of large automobile companies of the Members concerned, as 
well as their huge investment in China.  It would protect their locally manufactured automobiles from unfair competition practices.  
 
9.6 As for the concerns of Members regardi ng the consistency of the policy with China’s 
commitment in paragraph 93 of the Working Part y Report, he believed it was not against China’s 
commitment since no spare semi-knocked down (S KD) or completely knocked-down (CKD) tariff 
lines were created. He noted that only when separ ate SKD and CKD tariff line were created could 
paragraph 93 of the Working Party Report be a pplied.  Regarding the joint venture ownership 
requirement, China took note of the comments made but believed that what was being discussed was 
WTO obligation and consistency, and in this rega rd China did not think that there was a problem. 
  G/MA/M/40 
 Page 7 
 
 
 9.7 On the automobile type standards and recogn ition, this was a technical regulation issue and 
China was not in a position to go into details in this Committee. China took note of the comments and 
believed there had already been exchanges among Chinese experts and the Members concerned and 
China encouraged similar exch anges to clarify more technical issues in the future. 
 
9.8 On the China Compulsory Certification (CCC) regulation, here again China believed that this 
was a technical regulation issue and should not be taken up in this Committee. However, to explain 
the background a little bit, it was a system that Chin a had introduced in order to unify the previous 
CCIB and Great Wall marks, which had been unifie d because of the request of some WTO Members 
during the accession negotiations, despite of the fact that those two recognition systems had been 
implemented consistently with WTO rules especially  regarding national treatment. After accession,  
China had designed the CCC system to implement their accession commitments.  The CCC system 
was in full conformity with WTO rules.  It had greatly facilitated trade, as witnessed by the strong 
growth of both imports into and export s out of China since China’s accession. 
  
9.9 On import prohibition of used goods, he noted that China had made its position very clear in 
previous meetings and he would not elaborate on th is issue again. Besides the import prohibition of 
used goods, tariff rates on photographic products, customs classification issues, VAT for  diammonium phosphate (DAP) and monoammonium phosphate (MAP) were questions that had been 
raised before and China's stance remained the same on these issues.  Nevertheless, China would brief 
the Committee on the latest developments on some of these issues.  On photographic products, China 
had suggested in their responses in previous years that experts could meet to discuss the technical 
details and before this meeting he had been informed that the latest expert meeting had been held in 
early September. On VAT for DAP and MAP, at this  stage, China had no plans to revise the policy. 
 9.10 As for tariff rate quotas (TRQs) on fertilizer s, the annual TRQ allocation, including the TRQ  
reserved for state trading and non-state tradi ng were all published in form of MOFCOM 
announcements and were available on the MOFCOM website.  Members might also refer to the 
Annex 1A information that had been provided to this Committee for the serial numbers of these announcements.  9.11 The representative of the European Communities
 thanked the Chinese delegation for his 
statement, however he had to express a certain disap pointment that a number of the questions had not 
been addressed in particular on export restrictions, an d that China had chosen to not go into details on 
other questions. He noted the argument that some of  these questions had been asked before and this 
may be the case. However in order to avoid repetiti ve questions, it might be an idea for the Chinese 
delegation to provide the Committee with answers in writing. His delegation’s questions/comments 
dated from 5 August 2005, so there would have been the time to do this.  He w as sure that answers in 
writing would be an appropriate remedy against repetitive questions, and a fuller and satisfactory 
explanation would then allow his delegation to not come back to these questions every time. 
However, he had taken note of the answers given on the new auto policy, and also of the fact that 
answers to some of the other questions  would be provided in the CTG.  
 
9.12 The representative of the United States  thanked the Chinese delegation for the responses 
provided, and in particular for taking time from Chin a's national holiday to come to this meeting. He 
noted that this was the fourth annual transitiona l review before the Committee on Market Access and 
in the view of the United States the transitional re view was still a very useful mechanism especially as 
China continued to phase in commitments it had made in its accession agreement. The transitional 
review served the fundamental interests of transp arency that underlined the WTO Agreement. It 
allowed Members to seek clarifications on China's policies and practices and to convey to China what 
Members' expectations were. In turn it gave China the opportunity to clarify its policies and practices 
and to hopefully prevent misunders tandings and trade frictions. The US submission had three areas of G/MA/M/40 
Page 8  
 
 focus which contained strong WTO concerns on thei r part. The first area was the tariffs on imported 
auto parts. Earlier this year, in April a new set of regulations had become effe ctive.  Those regulations 
were likely to result in China breaking its tariff bind ings. China sought to apply the higher tariff rate 
applicable to complete automobiles to imported pa rts. These new regulations also called into question 
China's commitment in its accession agreement to elim inate local content requirements. He noted that 
the European Communities and Japan had raised sim ilar issues and concerns and his delegation urged 
China to reconsider these regulations and take in to account Members' concerns. The next area of 
focus was export quotas, in particular, on coke a key steel input/import. He was disappointed that the Chinese delegation had not responded to their questions  on this issue.  In the past it was true, for 
example, last year that this issue came up both before the Committee on Market Access and the CTG.  
His delegation as well as others had raised it in  this Committee, but China's responses had been 
incomplete. As a result when the CTG had conducted its  review, of which the first part is to review 
the reports received from the subsidiary bodies, his de legation had raised those questions again in an 
attempt to get full responses from China.  As a r esult, he would not call them repetitive questions. 
But, his delegation did look forward to China's respon se on this issue in the CTG, in particular his 
delegation was seeking confirmation that China woul d eliminate the export quotas on coke in 2006.  
There was a general WTO prohibition on export quotas and earlier this year an official from China's 
National Development and Reform Commission had stated publicly that these quotas on coke would 
be eliminated in 2006, but his delegation had not yet seen any formal announcement from the Chinese government.  His delegation's last area of focus de alt with trading rights on books, newspapers and 
magazines. China had not responded to this issue because China's view was that this was a state 
trading question. However, the US view was that  this was not. China reserved the importation of 
books, newspapers and magazines to state tradi ng enterprises, however in China's accession 
agreement China had committed as of December 2004  to allow foreign firms and individuals to 
import books, newspapers and magazi nes. As a result, in the US view, it was no longer a state trading 
issue but a right that Members should have given China's commitment in its accession agreement.  
This issue had two components, first was the right to import as already mentioned and the 
commitments in China's accession agreement were ve ry clear on this. As of December 2004, foreign 
firms and individuals should have the right to im port these products. A related right was the right to 
distribute those products once they had been impor ted. On that issue, China had committed to 
allowing foreign firms to distribute books, newspapers and magazines freely as of December 2004. There had been an exemption up until that time. Hi s delegation had raised questions with regard to 
distribution services before the Council for Trade in Services (CTS) a few weeks ago.  At that 
meeting China had indicated that it wished to respond to these questions on distribution services 
before the Committee on Market Acce ss, when it would also address th e question of trading rights for 
books, newspapers and magazines.  His delegation was disappointed that China did not have a 
response to those two sets of issues at this meeting.   He urged China to res pond to those questions and 
to reconsider its measures, and looked forw ard to responses on these issues before the CTG. 
 
9.13 The representative of Japan
 acknowledged that the TRM process provided very important 
opportunities for WTO Members to confirm, clarif y and understand progress made by China to meet 
its accession commitments. He joined the United St ates in thanking the Chinese delegation for being 
at this meeting despite very important national ho lidays.  Much progress had been made by China to 
meet their commitments. However, Japan was still concerned with several issues as shown in its 
paper. Many of them had been raised by the Un ited States and the European Communities. He wished 
to focus on two issues, in particular. One concer ned tariffs on photographi c products, and the other 
concerned export licensing on coke. He thanked China for its explanation on the first issue, and it was 
true that there had been communication between experts this year. Unfortunately, Japan had not 
received a satisfactory explanation for China’s curr ent practice which consisted of China applying 
specific duties on several photographic products wh ich resulted in the imposition of much higher 
tariffs than what China had committed to in its  accession.  Since Japan considered this a very 
important issue both in terms of the economic si gnificance and in terms of the implementation of  G/MA/M/40 
 Page 9 
 
 
 China's commitments and consistency with WTO rul es, Japan wished to reiterate the importance of 
this issue and to request China to provide reasons as to why it continued with th is practice.   On coke, 
he shared the concerns of the European Comm unities, and supported the European Communities' 
proposal that China respond to th ese issues in writing in order to he lp avoiding repetitive questions 
and any misunderstandings. 
 
9.14 The representative of China  thanked delegations for their comments. He also wished to clarify 
some points. Firstly, regarding the point made by th e European Communities with regard to the issue 
of written responses, he believed that it was the c onsistent position of China from the start of the 
transitional review process in the WTO that this was a process where China was not in a position to 
provide materials in written form. However, he believed that all the information and responses 
provided by China were contained in the minutes of  the meeting and Members should refer to those 
minutes. Secondly, with regard to the auto policy i ssue, he wished to add that since the industrial 
policy of automobile development in China had been  in place there had been a lot of questions by 
Members concerning specific provisi ons. Members had been concerned about the ambiguity of some 
of the provisions.  In the previous TRMs, China had responded that more detailed rules would be 
formulated to implement this policy and in the l ast year these rules had come out. Specifically, he 
wished to mention the two which some of the Members had looked at in detail but maybe others had not. The first one was the Ministry Decree from the Customs Administration, the National 
Development Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Commerce. It was Decree No. 125 which was basically “the Measures  Concerning Administration of the Auto Spare 
Parts which would have the Characteristic of a Whole Automobile/Vehicle”. The second one was the 
announcement made by their customs authorities, Announcement No. 4 of the year 2005, which further detailed the criteria/rules as to how to ve rify and implement the detailed provisions in these 
rules. With that, he believed the process was very  clear and transparent.  There was a different 
question with regard to whether there were local content issues involved, whether there were tariff 
binding commitments involved.  In China’s view, this did not have any implication with regard to 
TRIMs measures basically because it did not relate  in any way to the investment measures 
themselves. As to the tariff binding commitment, Ch ina was looking into the details of these rules and 
wanted to make sure that they were in conformity  with their commitments. On  the point that had been 
raised by United States on export restriction and  tr ading rights, he would respond to this question in 
the CTG meeting. Lastly on the question from Japa n on the photographic products, in referring to the 
minutes of the last meeting of the Committee last y ear, there was a fairly long paragraph explaining 
China’s position. China was of the view that it  was consistent with the commitment made.  
Specifically, there was no provision in this organisation which said that Members could not apply specific duties on these products as long as the specif ic duties imposed were not higher than those 
committed in China’s schedule. He took note of the concerns of the Japanese delegation and proposed 
to have an exchange among experts on the deta ils of how those calculations should be done. He 
believed that progress between the two sides had been  good. He encouraged exchanges of this kind on 
technical issues among experts. Such exchanges were helpful in further clarifying the position of each 
side.  9.15 The Chairman
 noted that the report2 of the review, as in previous years, would be a brief 
factual report indicating that the review had ta ken place, an acknowledgment of the documentation 
submitted pursuant to the review, and a reference to  the discussions that had taken place, as reflected 
in the minutes of this meeting.    9.16 The Committee took note
 of the statements. 
 
                                                      
2 Issued as G/MA/164 and Corr.1. G/MA/M/40 
Page 10  
 
 10.  Draft Report (2005) of the Committee to the Council for Trade in Goods 
(G/MA/SPEC/31) 
 
10.1 The Chairman
 noted that the Committ ee was required to submit annually a report on its 
activities to the CTG.  A draft report to the CTG,  covering the activities of the Committee in 2005, 
was circulated in document G/MA/SPEC/31.  Th e report would be updated in light of today's 
meeting.   10.2 The Chairman
 noted that following last year's procedure, the updated draft report would be 
sent to the Members by fax, and if no comments we re forthcoming within a certain time period then 
the report3 would be considered adopted.  If there were  minor changes, a revised report would be 
circulated with the changes mark ed clearly and if no comments were  submitted within a certain time 
frame, the revised report would be considered adopted.    10.3 It was so agreed
.     
 
11.  Election of the Vice Chairperson 
 
11.1 The Chairman  noted that as he had indicated at the last formal meeting he intended to hold 
informal consultations on a Vice-Chair of th e Committee for 2005. He had completed those 
consultations and had already informed the Memb ers of the results of those consultations on 
29 June 2005 at the time of the technical briefing.   On the basis of the understanding reached, he 
proposed that the Committee elected Mr. Josip Perv an (Croatia) as Vice-Chair of this Committee by 
acclamation.   11.2 The Committee elected
 Mr Josip Pervan as Vice-Chair. 
 
12. Other Business  
 
(i) Date of the next meeting 
12.1 The Committee took note  that the multilateral review as provided for under the WT/L/605 
procedures may take place in early December to examine 24 schedules.  It also took note   that the next 
meeting of the Committee would take place in the Sp ring of next year. However, no definitive date 
had been fixed as yet.   
                                                      
3 Issued as G/L/748.  G/MA/M/40 
 Page 11 
 
 
  
ANNEX 1 
 HS 2002 transposition project: 
 
 
The pace of work of the HS02 project has been  a bit slower than anticipated due to the 
complexity of the task at hand. The challenges the Secretariat has been facing relate to two major 
issues: 
1. the complex nature of some of the World Cu stoms Organization (WCO) concordances which are 
not always clearly documented. This relates, in pa rticular, to the lack of detailed descriptions of 
the ex-outs of HS96 subheadings.   
2. a number of inconsistencies in Members sch edules, often relating to Pre-Uruguay Round 
commitments, and their treatment in the CTS beca me apparent. These needed to be identified and 
resolved before undertaking the actual transposition. It is for that reason that in nearly all cases 
the HS02 transposition was accompanied by a revi sion of the related CTS file of the Member 
concerned. It is obvious that this required more wo rk than anticipated but at  the same time it will 
lead to an improvement in the quality of CTS.  
 
A number of developing country Members ha d already made HS 2002 submissions. These 
submissions proved helpful to some extent in iden tifying some of the detaile d national concordances.  
However, they could not be taken entirely as the b asis for the Secretariat work because they did not 
follow the methodology laid down in the annex to the General Council decision (WT/L/605). 
Therefore in the first instance the Secretariat unde rtook its own transposition and then compared the 
results with the national submission. This serve d as a cross-check of the Secretariat’s work. 
Deviations were closely scrutinised and validat ed. A detailed comparison was then established 
between the Secretariat’s work and the Member’s s ubmission. It was felt that this would aid country 
experts to appreciate and subsequently approve the Secretariat’s work.  
 
So far, the Secretariat has received substa ntive comments in only two cases. These have 
already been clarified with the national experts. The remaining HS02 files sent out so far may have 
been approved implicitly since no comments were received within the 60 day period following the 
date of the communication transmitting the draft HS02 file to the Member (See paragraph 8 of 
WT/L/605).  Members concerned would need to clarify in writing the situation. 
 
As the Secretariat's team gained more conf idence and experience in the transposition work, 
more rigorous quality controls have been put in plac e to ensure uniform and consistent treatment. In 
order to avoid, as much as possible, ex-post corrections of files already sent out to Members it is 
planned not to send a small number of files every mo nth but rather to send a larger batch every three 
months.  The next batch of draft HS02 files will therefore only be send by end November.  
 Work plan 
 
 
The work on the transposition of developing Me mbers’ schedules is well underway. Out of 
the 113 schedules of developing Member covered by the project, 24 draft HS02 files have already 
been sent to Members and another 17 draft HS02 files are ready or close to completion. There are two 
Members whose schedules are already in the HS 200 2 nomenclature. The cases of the remaining 70 
Members can be categorized as follows:   
1) There are forty seven Members have their schedule in HS 1996 and are not subject to 
outstanding certification proceedings;  G/MA/M/40 
Page 12  
 
 a) A tariff line link has already been established and the binding situation is well defined 
(18 Members); 
b) No tariff line link exists yet because of missing MFN applied duties in the IDB, but 
the situation of bindings can be established; 
c) No tariff line link exists yet because of missing MFN applied duties in the IDB and 
the situation of bindings cannot easily be established; 
2) There are six Members which require a double transposition from HS 1992 via HS 1996 to 
HS 2002.  
3) There are seventeen Member s in HS 1996 which are not yet fully certified;  Uncertified 
commitments could affect the transposition to HS2002. 
 
It is planned to proceed in the order shown in the list.  By the end of this year it is expected to 
have finished most of the Members falling under categories 1) and 2) except for LDC Members.  For 
some Members in category 1.c close cooperation w ith Members will be required to establish clearly 
the situation of bindings.  The Members under categ ory 3) whose schedules are not yet fully certified 
are expected to be significantly reduced by the e nd of 2005 so that these Members can be dealt with in 
the first quarter of 2006. 
 It is appropriate to highlight at this point again the importance of submissions to the IDB. 
MFN applied tariffs for the year 2001 are an es sential input for the calculation of base rates for 
unbound tariff lines and imports for the years 1999-2001 ar e needed in the cont ext of the flexibilities 
for developing Members. More recent years are re quired for any ongoing trade policy work. This is 
not only crucial for the transposition but also for the negotiations as such. 
 
CTS TRANSPOSITION FO R DEVELOPED MEMBERS 
  The verification of the developed country Me mbers schedules has now also been taken up by 
the IDB Section as additional funds have been made  available for that work. Documentation for HS 
2002 changes submitted by developed Members to th e Secretariat will be analyzed, and comments 
will be communicated to the Members concerned for their review. It concerns the submissions of 
Australia, Canada, European Communities, Icela nd, Japan, Norway, New Zealand, Switzerland and 
USA.  This verification exercise covers the three main areas: 
 
1. Consistency of Member's submissions 
 
 Four main sources of inconsistencies have been identified:  
(a) In the concordance tables, for a pair of HS 1996 and HS 2002 codes, different bound duties 
have been reported, in particular: 
o Duties higher in the HS 2002 nomenclature than in the HS 1996; 
o Duties higher in the HS 1996 nomenclature than in the HS 2002; 
o Differences in lines with non- ad valorem  duties that need to be checked manually. 
(b) For the same item in the HS 2002 nomenclature,  different duties reported in the concordance 
tables and in the HS 2002 schedule. 
(c)  HS02 codes reported in the concordan ce tables but not in the HS 2002 schedule. 
(d) Presence of invalid codes at the HS 1996 a nd/or HS 2002 6-digit level in the concordance 
tables or in the HS 2002 schedule.  G/MA/M/40 
 Page 13 
 
 
  
 
2. Differences with the current CTS database 
 
 The HS 1996 duties reported in the concordance ta ble associated with th e transposed HS 2002 
schedule were compared with the CTS database. Diffe rences will be analysed and compared with the 
underlying commitments.   
3. Differences with the WCO standard concordance tables 
 
The WCO standard concordance tables have been used as the basic tool for the transposition of 
developing Members schedules. When comparing deve loped Member's concordance tables with the 
WCO standard tables, some inconsistencies have been revealed that can be summarized as follows: 
 
• Submitted concordance tables are not complete, i.e.  they do not include all the concordances 
covered by the WCO in their documentation (JOB(05)/124). 
• Items not present in the WCO standard table are included. Such "extra" codes imply a 
different transposition of the HS changes, i.e.  the allocation of old subheadings to the new 
ones differs from the standard one.  
 
Editing for multilateral review 
 
 Any observations resulting from the analysis  outlined above will be discussed with the 
Members concerned with the aim of reaching an ag reement with them. In line with the approach 
applied to developing Member's schedules, any outs tanding issues will be reported by the Secretariat 
as its own comments when releasing for multilateral re view the draft HS 2002 transposition file of the 
Member concerned. The format of the files for the mu ltilateral review will be th e same as that adopted 
for developing country Members. 
 
    
 
     
 
    
 
     
 G/MA/M/40 
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ANNEX 2 
 
IDB Submissions
 
 
Since the circulation of the Status of Submissi ons document, G/MA/IDB/2/Rev.22, the Secretariat 
received the following submissions:  
• Argentina     Imports for 2003  
• European Communities    Imports for 2004  
• Philippines     Revised tariff data for 2001 
• Serbia     Tariff data for 2005 
• Iran, Islamic Republic of   Imports for 2002 
  IDB Dissemination and Uses
 
 
The Secretariat continues to load information ont o the IDB Internet File Transfer Facility on a 
monthly basis.  As of 30 September 2005, files for 106 Members4 and four acceding countries and 
separate customs territories are available on the IDB website.  
On the uses of IDB and CTS data, in the cont ext of the Negotiating Group on Non-Agricultural 
Market Access, a document was prep ared on tariff lines bound at low rates (TN/MA/S/15)  which was 
based on information from the CTS and the IDB.  Following a joint request from six Members (Côte 
d'Ivoire, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania , Uganda and Zimbabwe) in the context of a proposal submitted to 
the Special Session of the Committee on Agriculture (JOB(05)/113 refers), two reports were prepared 
from the IDB and CTS databases entitled "Tariff And Trade Information on Selected Agricultural 
Commodities", covering  products listed in A nnex 1 of the Agreement on Agriculture ( JOB(05)/160 
and its Addenda 1 - 7 ) and "Tariff And Trade Information on Selected Non-Agricultural 
Commodities", covering selected pr oducts not listed in Annex 1 ( JOB(05)/162 ). The Secretariat also 
produced another report "Final Bound In-Quota and Out-of-Quota Duties" ( JOB(05)/74 ), sourced 
from the CTS database for the Special S ession of the Committee on Agriculture.   
 
Technical Assistance
 
 Since the March 2005 meeting of the Committe e, Secretariat staff have undertaken   
- 3 national workshops on IDB and Non-agricu ltural Market Access in Malaysia, Panama, 
Philippines; 
- 6 regional workshops on Non-agricultural Market  Access in Austria (Joint Vienna Institute, 
for Eastern Europe), Cameroon (JITAP), Co lombia, Kenya, Myanmar and Trinidad and 
Tobago.  
 IDB/CTS Software Development
 
 
 Internet Analysis Facility  
  A new version of the Internet Analysis Fac ility (IAF) was released in July.  New features 
include query selection criteria for CTS informati on, a report on the CTS tariff concessions and a 
report on Tariff Quotas.  Additionally, the IDB Gl ossary of Terms, which is included in the 
                                                     
 
4 This counts the European Communities as one for its 25  Members and Switzerland and Liechtenstein as one.   G/MA/M/40 
 Page 15 
 
 
 application,  has been completely revised and is no w available in French and Spanish.  Another report 
on Export Subsidies is under development.  On the hardware side, the IAF server will be replaced in 
the coming weeks but this should not cause much disruption to the IAF service.      The portable IAF (beta version), which operat es from data distributed on a DVD and requires 
no Internet connection, should be distributed this  month or next.  This will depend on when the 
Secretariat receives a fix to an unusual technical problem from Microsoft.  Change of MS Access file format
 
 
 Presently IDB and CTS files are posted to the Inte rnet File Transfer Facility in MS Access 97 
format.  In 2006, the Secretariat plans to switc h to MS Access 2002 format, which cannot be opened 
by MS Access 97 desktop software.  Members are re quested to notify the Secretariat via e-mail 
(idb@wto.org) if they are still using MS Access 97 desktop software.   
AVE Forums
 
  In May, at the request of for the Speci al Session of the Committee on Agriculture, the 
Secretariat established an on-line forum where Members can post comments and replies on the submissions of ad valorem  equivalents (AVE's).  A similar facility for the submissions of AVEs for 
the NAMA negotiations was made available last we ek.  These forums, which are password protected, 
can be accessed via the Members' website. 
 
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