WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/RL/18 
13 July 2006 
 
 (06-3391) 
Negotiating Group on Rules Original:   English 
 
 
 
NEGOTIATING GROUP ON RULES 
 
Report by the Chairman to the  
Trade Negotiations Committee  
 
 
1. The Negotiating Group of Rules, at its meeting of  10 July 2006 devoted to matters related to 
regional trade agreements (RTAs), approved the anne xed text for submission to the consideration of 
the Trade Negotiations Committee. 
2. The annexed text was negotiated under paragr aph 29 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration 
(WT/MIN(01)/DEC/1) and in accordance with the instru ctions contained in paragraph II.2 of     
Annex D of the Ministerial Declaration adopt ed on 18 December 2005 (WT/MIN(05)/DEC). 
3. The text consists of a draft decision establishi ng a Transparency Mechanism for RTAs to be 
implemented on a provisional basis, in accordance with paragraph 47 of the Doha Ministerial Declaration. 
_______________  TN/RL/18 
Page 2  
 
  ANNEX
 
TRANSPARENCY MECHANISM FOR 
REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS 
Draft Decision  
 
 The General Council, 
 Having regard  to paragraph 1 of Article IX of th e Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the 
World Trade Organization ("WTO Agreement"); 
Conducting  the functions of the Ministerial Conference in the interval between meetings 
pursuant to paragraph 2 of Article IV of the WTO Agreement; 
Noting  that trade agreements of a mutually prefer ential nature ("regional trade agreements" or 
"RTAs") have greatly increased in number and have become an important element in Members' trade 
policies and developmental strategies; 
 Convinced that enhancing transparency in, and unders tanding of, RTAs and their effects is of 
systemic interest and will be of benefit to all Members; 
 Having regard also  to the transparency provisions of Article XXIV of GATT 1994, the 
Understanding on the Interpretation of Articl e XXIV of GATT 1994 ("GA TT Understanding"), 
Article V of GATS and the 1979 Deci sion on Differential and More Favou rable Treatment, Reciprocity 
and Fuller Participation of Develo ping Countries ("Enabling Clause"); 
 Recognizing  the resource and technical constraints of developing country Members; 
 Recalling  that in the negotiations pursued under the te rms of the Doha Mini sterial Declaration1, 
in accordance with paragraph 47 of that Declaration, agreements reached at an early stage may be 
implemented on a provisional basis; 
 Decides: 
A.  Early Announcement 
1. Without prejudging the substance and the timi ng of the notification required under Article 
XXIV of the GATT 1994, Article V of the GATS or the Enabling Clause, nor affecting Members' 
rights and obligations under the WTO agreements in any way: 
(a) Members participating in new negotiations aimed at the conclusion of an RTA shall 
endeavour to so inform the WTO. 
(b) Members parties to a newly signed RTA shall convey to the WTO, in so far as and 
when it is publicly available, informati on on the RTA, including its official name, 
scope and date of signature, any foreseen timetable for its entry into force or 
provisional application, relevant contact  points and/or website addresses, and any 
other relevant unrestricted information. 
                                                      
1 WT/MIN(01)/DEC/1.  TN/RL/18 
 Page 3 
 
 
  2. The information referred to in paragraph 1 above is to be forwarded to the WTO  Secretariat, 
which will post it on the WTO website and will periodi cally provide Members with a synopsis of the 
communications received. 
B.  Notification 
3. The required notification of an RTA by Members that are party to it shall take place as early 
as possible.  As a rule, it will occur no later than di rectly following the parties' ratification of the RTA 
or any party's decision on application of the relevant parts of an agreement, and before the application 
of preferential treatment between the parties. 
4. In notifying their RTA, the parties shall specify under which provision(s) of the WTO 
agreements it is notified.  They will also provide the full text of the RTA (or those parts they have 
decided to apply) and any related schedules, anne xes and protocols, in one of the WTO official 
languages; if available, these shall also be subm itted in an electronically exploitable format.  
Reference to related official Intern et links shall also be supplied. 
C.  Procedures to Enhance Transparency 
5. Upon notification, and without affecting Memb ers' rights and obligations under the WTO 
agreements under which it has been notified, th e RTA shall be considered by Members under the 
procedures established in pa ragraphs 6 to 13 below. 
6. The consideration by Members of a notified RT A shall be normally concluded in a period not 
exceeding one year after the date of notification.  A precise timetable for the consideration of the RTA shall be drawn by the WTO Secretariat in consultation with the parties at the time of the notification. 
7. To assist Members in their consideration of a notified RTA: 
(a) the parties shall make available to the WT O Secretariat data as specified in the 
Annex, if possible in an electronically exploitable format; and 
(b) the WTO Secretariat, on its own responsib ility and in full consultation with the 
parties, shall prepare a factual presentation of the RTA. 
8. The data referred to in paragraph 7(a) shall be  made available as soon as possible.  Normally, 
the timing of the data submission shall not exceed  ten weeks – or 20 weeks in the case of RTAs 
involving only developing countries – after the date of notification of the agreement. 
9. The factual presentation provided for in paragr aph 7(b) shall be primarily based on the 
information provided by the parties; if necessary, the WTO Secretariat may also use data available 
from other sources, taking into account the views of the parties in furtherance of factual accuracy.  In 
preparing the factual presentation, the WTO Secr etariat shall refrain from any value judgement. 
10. The WTO Secretariat's factual presentation shall not be used as a basis for dispute settlement 
procedures or to create new rights and obligations for Members. 
11. As a rule, a single formal meeting will be devoted to consider each notified RTA; any 
additional exchange of information should take place in written form. 
12. The WTO Secretariat's factual presentation, as well as any additional information submitted 
by the parties, shall be circulated in all WTO o fficial languages not less than eight weeks in advance 
of the meeting devoted to the consideration of th e RTA.  Members' written questions or comments on TN/RL/18 
Page 4  
 
  the RTA under consideration shall be transmitted to the parties through the WTO Secretariat at least 
four weeks before the corresponding meeting; they sha ll be distributed, together with replies, to all 
Members at least three working days before the corresponding meeting. 
13. All written material submitted, as well as th e minutes of the meeting devoted to the 
consideration of a notified agreem ent will be promptly circulated in all WTO official languages and 
made available on the WTO website. 
D.  Subsequent Notification and Reporting 
14. The required notification of changes affecting th e implementation of an RTA, or the operation 
of an already implemented RTA, shall take pl ace as soon as possible after the changes occur.  
Changes to be notified include, inter alia , modifications to the preferential treatment between the 
parties and to the RTA's disciplines.  The parties shall provide a summary of the changes made, as 
well as any related texts, schedules, annexes and prot ocols, in one of the WTO official languages and, 
if available, in electronically exploitable format.
2 
15. At the end of the RTA's implementation period,  the parties shall submit to the WTO a short 
written report on the realization of the liberalization commitments in the RTA as originally notified. 
16. Upon request, the relevant WTO body shall provide  an adequate opportunity for an exchange 
of views on the communications subm itted under paragraphs 14 and 15. 
17. The communications submitted under paragraphs 14 and 15 will be promptly made available 
on the WTO website and a synopsis will be periodi cally circulated by the WTO Secretariat to 
Members. 
E.  Bodies Entrusted with the Implementation of the Mechanism 
18. The Committee on Regional Trade Agreements ("CRTA") and the Committee on Trade and 
Development ("CTD") are instructed to implement this Transparency Mechanism.3  The CRTA shall 
do so for RTAs falling under Article XXIV of GATT 1994 and Article V of  GATS, while the CTD 
shall do so for RTAs falling under paragraph 2(c) of  the Enabling Clause.  For purposes of performing 
the functions established under this Mechanism, the CTD shall convene in dedicated session. 
F.  Technical Support for Developing Countries 
19. Upon request, the WTO Secretariat shall provide  technical support to developing country 
Members, and especially least-developed countries, in the implementation of this Transparency 
Mechanism, in particular – but not limited to - with respect to the preparation of RTA-related data and 
other information to be submitted to the WTO Secretariat. 
G.  Other Provisions 
20. Any Member may, at any time, bring to the a ttention of the relevant WTO body information 
on any RTA that it considers ought to have been submitted to Members in the framework of this 
Transparency Mechanism. 
                                                      
2 In their notification, Members may refer to official Internet links related to the agreement where the 
relevant information can be consulted in full, in one of the WTO official languages. 
3 The Director-General is invited to ensure consistency in the pr eparation of the WTO Secretariat 
factual presentations for the different types of RTAs, taking into account the variations in data provided by 
different Members.  TN/RL/18 
 Page 5 
 
 
  21. The WTO Secretariat shall establish and maintain an updated electronic database on 
individual RTAs.  This database shall include releva nt tariff and trade-relate d information, and give 
access to all written material related to announced or  notified RTAs available at the WTO.  The RTA 
database should be structured so as to be easily accessible to the public. 
H.  Provisional Application of the Transparency Mechanism  
22. This Decision shall apply, on a provisional basis,  to all RTAs.  With respect to RTAs already 
notified under the relevant WTO transparency provis ions and in force, this Decision shall apply as 
follows: 
(a) RTAs for which a working party report has been adopted by the GATT Council and 
those RTAs notified to the GATT under the Enabling Clause will be subject to the 
procedures under Sections D to G above. 
(b) RTAs for which the CRTA has concluded the "factual examination" prior to the 
adoption of this Decision and those for wh ich the "factual examination" will have 
been concluded by 31 December 2006, and RTAs notified to the WTO under the Enabling Clause will be subject to the procedures under Sections D to G above.  In 
addition, for each of these RTAs, the WTO S ecretariat shall prepare a factual abstract 
presenting the features of the agreement. 
(c) Any RTA notified prior to the adoption of this Decision and not referred to in 
subparagraphs (a) or (b) w ill be subject to the procedures under Sections C to G 
above. 
I.  Reappraisal of the Mechanism 
23. Members will review, and if necessary modify, this Decision, in light of the experience 
gained from its provisional operation, and replace it by a permanent mechanism adopted as part of the 
overall results of the Round, in accordance with para graph 47 of the Doha Declaration.  Members will 
also review the legal relationship between this Mechanism and relevant WT O provisions related to 
RTAs. 
_______________ 
ANNEX 
Submission of Data by RTA Parties 
1. RTA parties shall not be expected to make av ailable the information required below if the 
corresponding data has already been subm itted to the Integrated Data Base (IDB),
4 or has otherwise 
been provided to the Secretariat in an adequate format.5 
                                                      
4 Trade and tariff data submissions in the context of an RTA notification can subsequently be included 
in the IDB, provided that their key features are approp riate.  In this respect, see document G/MA/IDB/W/6 
(dated 15 June 2000) for the Guidelines for Supplying PC IDB Submissions and documents G/MA/115 (dated 
17 June 2002) and G/MA/115/Add.5 (dated 13 January 2005) for WTO Policy regarding the dissemination of 
IDB data. 
5 Data submissions can be furnished in PC database  formats, spreadsheet formats, or text-delimited 
formats; the use of word-processing formats should be avoided, if possible. TN/RL/18 
Page 6  
 
  2. For the goods aspects in RTAs, the parties sha ll submit the following data, at the tariff-line 
level:
6 
(a) Tariff concessions under the agreement: 
(i) a full listing of each party's preferential duties applied in the year of entry 
into force of the agreement; and 
(ii) when the agreement is to be implemen ted by stages, a full listing of each 
party's preferential duties to be applied over the transition period. 
(b) MFN duty rates: 
(i) a full tariff listing of each RTA party' s MFN duties applied on the year of 
entry into force of the agreement;7 and 
(ii) a full tariff listing of each RTA party's MFN duties applied on the year 
preceding the entry into force of the agreement. 
(c) Where applicable, other data (e.g., prefer ential margins, tariff-rate quotas, seasonal 
restrictions, special safeguards and, if available,  ad valorem  equivalents for non- ad 
valorem  duties). 
(d) Product-specific preferential rules of origin as defined in the agreement. 
(e) Import statistics, for the most recent three years preceding the notification for which 
they are available: 
(i) each party's imports from each of the other parties, in value; and 
(ii) each party's imports from the rest of the world, broken down by country of 
origin, in value. 
3. For the services aspects in RTAs, the parties sha ll submit the following data, if available, for 
the three most recent years preceding the notificati on:  trade or balance of payments statistics (by 
services sector/subsector and partner), gross domes tic product data or production statistics (by 
services sector/subsector), and relevant statistics on foreign direct investment and on movement of 
natural persons (by country and, if possible, by services sector/subsector). 
4. For RTAs involving only developing countries, in particular when these comprise least-
developed countries, the data requirements specifi ed above will take into account the technical 
constraints of the parties to the agreement. 
__________ 
 
                                                      
6 References to "tariff-line level" shall be understood to mean the detailed breakdown of the national 
customs nomenclature (HS codes with, for example, 8, 10 or more digits).  It is crucial that all data elements 
supplied use the same national customs nomenclature or ar e associated with correspo nding conversion tables. 
7 In the case of a customs union, the MFN applied common external tariff.