RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/REG/M/42 
15 May 2006 
 (06-2367) 
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements 
Forty-Second Session   
 
 
 
NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 3 AND 4 APRIL 2006 
 
Chairmen:  Mr. R. Saborío Soto (Costa Rica ) 
Mr. O. Camara (Senegal ) 
and Mr. A. Egger (Switzerland ) 
  
A. A
DOPTION OF THE AGENDA  
1. The 42nd Session of the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements (hereinafter CRTA or the 
Committee) was convened in Airgram WTO/ AIR/2786/Rev.1, dated 23 March 2006.   
2. The Chairman  announced that under "Other Business" he  would raise the issues of the recent 
distribution of biennial reports, and the dates for the next CRTA meeting.   
3. The following Agenda was adopted: 
A. Adoption of the Agenda 
B. Election of Officers 
C. Examination of Regional Trade Agreements: 
I. Status Report on the Examination Work 
II. Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR) Agreement  
III. Free Trade Agreement between Romania and the Republic of Moldova  
IV. Caribbean Community and Common Market, Services  
V. Free Trade Agreement between Turkey and Croatia 
VI. Free Trade Agreement between the Un ited States and Chile, Goods and 
Services  
VII. Free Trade Agreement between the Rep ublic of Korea and Chile, Goods and 
Services  
VIII. Enlargement of the European Union   
IX. Closer Economic Partnership Arrangeme nt between China and Hong Kong,  
China, Goods and Services  
X. Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement between China and Macao, 
China, Goods and Services  
XI. Other Agreements, on which Replies to  Additional Questions Have Been 
Submitted: 
Free Trade Agreement between Israel and Mexico  European Communities – Mexico Free Trade Agreement  European Communities – Jordan Euro-Mediterranean Agreement  
Free Trade Agreement between Canada and Costa Rica  
Singapore – Australia Free Trade Agreement  
Free Trade Agreement between Chile and El Salvador  
D. Other Business WT/REG/M/42 
Page 2  
 
  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. ELECTION OF OFFICERS  
5. The Chairman  proposed that the Committee elected by acclamation Ambassador Ousmane 
Camara as the new Chairman of the CRTA.  He said that Ambassador Camara was an experienced 
diplomat and negotiator and would add a valuable contribution to this Committee.  He added that 
Mr. Egger would remain as the Vice-Chairman of the CRTA.  It was so agreed .   
6. The newly elected Chairman  thanked Ambassador Saborío for his excellent work during the 
past two years and wished him success in his new role as Chairman of the Special Session Dispute 
Settlement Body.  He also thanked delegations for having chosen him at this particular, challenging, 
moment that should lead to a significant modification of their work.   
C. EXAMINATION OF REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS  
I. Status Report on the Examination Work 
7. Under this Agenda Item on the Agenda, the Chairman  provided the Committee with a status 
report of the examination work.  As had been agreed in the 41st Session of the CRTA, this meeting 
would concentrate on regional trade agreements (R TAs) already under examination, rather than 
undertake new examinations that could potentially fo llow a different process if the new transparency 
mechanism was approved by 30 April 2006.  Follow ing that decision, and thanks to delegations' 
efforts to reply to the Chairman's request of 9 Fe bruary 2006, it had been possible to include in the 
Agenda a considerable number of agreements that were currently undergoing the factual examination 
process.  He hoped to advance or conclude, a good number of those examinations.  He informed the 
Committee that the Secretariat had performed a detailed screening of the status of different 
agreements after reviewing the existing documentation and had comp iled the information in a list 
which had been distributed for this meeting and whic h he invited a representative of the Secretariat to 
present.   
8. The representative of the Secretariat  explained that it had been its intention to clarify the 
status of every RTA because after ten years of th e CRTA's existence, there were some RTAs whose 
examination status was not perfectly clear.  The document that had been distributed comprised several groups of agreements.  Table A included the 22 ag reements, counting goods and services separately, 
that were still in the factual examination process, i.e. those agreements whose factual examination had 
not been concluded by the Committee.  Outstandi ng documentation for the 13 agreements highlighted 
in bold had been submitted some time ago so that they could be included in the Agenda for this 
Session and their factual examination concluded.  The factual examination of the remaining nine 
agreements could be continued when the outstanding  documentation became available.  As a footnote 
to Table A, she informed delegations that an er ror had slipped in into the Chairman's fax of 
9 February 2006.  Two agreements had been include d in Table 1 of the Annex, namely the Free Trade 
Agreement (FTA) between Bulgar ia and the Former Yugoslav Re public of Macedonia and that 
between Bulgaria and Turkey.  In fact, the factua l examination of those two agreements had been 
concluded in the 27
th Session of the Committee, in Novemb er 2000, when the representative of 
Bulgaria had noted that the deadlines considered fo r the submission of questions to these agreements 
had expired.  Table B related to the three agreemen ts for which additional questions had been received 
in spite of their factual examination having been considered concluded by the Committee.  The two 
agreements, in bold, for which the parties had pr ovided written answers had been included in the 
Agenda.  Table C included the 31 agreements for which the Committee had considered the factual 
examination concluded pending the provision of answ ers to additional questions.  Within Table C WT/REG/M/42 
Page 3 
 
 
  there were different categories: a) 13 agreemen ts for which Members had not submitted any written 
questions.  These agreements were included in Table C.1.;  b) Table C.2 related to agreements for 
which Members had put forward additional questions which had been answered by the parties.  In 
general, these responses had been received a long time  ago but for four of these agreements, in bold, 
replies had been recently distributed and had thereb y been included in item C.XI of the Agenda.  The 
document corresponding to the EFTA-Cro atia Agreement had just been distributed, so it had not been 
included in the Agenda; and c)  Table C.3, that incl uded the four agreements for which the parties had 
not yet replied to additional questions.   
9. The representative of the Secretariat concluded th at to complete the picture, Table D grouped 
the 14 agreements for which the factual examinati on had been "frozen" or stopped by the Committee.  
Among those agreements there were two services ag reements for which the Committee was awaiting 
the definition of specific commitments between the pa rties.  The remaining 12 agreements had been 
concluded with countries that were not WTO Members.   In that respect, consultations had been held 
in the Committee but no agreement had been reached to date.   
10. The Chairman  thanked the representative of the Secretariat.  He considered that it was an 
appropriate moment to clearly define the status of all agreements.  It was evident that the situation 
was still not clear enough, so a supplementary effort was needed to clarify any grey areas in the weeks 
to come.  For this purpose, during the present Sessi on, the objective was first to advance as much as 
possible the factual examination of the 13 agreem ents, counting goods and services separately, that 
had been included in Items C.II to C.X of the Agen da and, second, to reach a final decision on the 
factual examination of the six agreements for wh ich replies from the Parties had been recently 
distributed.  These agreements were included in Item C.XI of the Agenda.   
11. Subsequently, the Chairman proposed 19 May 2006 as the deadline for submitting 
outstanding documentation to the Secretariat.  In particular, he referred to the nine agreements 
included in Table A for which the factual examinati on was underway that were not being examined in 
the present Session and to the four agreements listed in  Table C.3.  He also invited the Parties to the 
Agreement between the United States and Singapo re included in Table B to submit outstanding 
replies.  This would allow the Co mmittee to advance one step forward, at its next Session, towards the 
clarification of the situation.  With respect to th e nine agreements included in Table C.2, for which 
replies to questions had been submitted a long time a go, he proposed that concerned parties, as well as 
interested Members, study the documentation mentione d in the Table and, if necessary, get together 
bilaterally so that the conclusion of the factual ex amination could be confirmed at the next Session.  
In the next Session, the Agreement between EFTA and Croatia, for which replies to questions had 
been recently distributed, would be considered.  He  indicated that as regards the 13 agreements in 
Table C.1, for which Members had not posed a ny written questions, the deadline had expired long 
time ago, in some cases nine years previously.  In his view, the most logical way to proceed would be 
to consider the factual examination of those ag reements concluded, and he asked Members their 
opinion in this respect.  Regarding the "frozen" ag reements, the Chairman assured the Committee that 
he would call for consultations so as to reach a viable solution as soon as possible. 
C.II-X (The minutes of the examination of the Agreem ents listed under agenda items C.II-X are being 
distributed as separate documents.)  
XI. Other Agreements, on which Replies to Additional Questions Have Been Submitted 
- Free Trade Agreement between Israel and Mexico  
  WT/REG/M/42 
Page 4  
 
  - European Communities – Mexico Free Trade Agreement 
- European Communities – Jordan Euro-Mediterranean Agreement  
- Free Trade Agreement between Canada and Costa Rica  
- Singapore – Australia Free Trade Agreement 
- Free Trade Agreement between Chile and El Salvador 
12. In reference to the remarks made under Item C.I of the Agenda, the Chairman
 drew the 
attention of the Committee to two categories of th ose agreements:  agreements on which the factual 
examination had been concluded, but for which ad ditional questions had been submitted and replied 
to by the parties.  Those agreements were th e EC-Jordan Euro-Mediterra nean Agreement and the 
services aspects of the Chile-El Salvador FTA, agreements on which the factual examination was 
deemed concluded pending the provision of repli es to additional questions and for which replies 
submitted by the Parties had been available for some  time and had been referred to in the Airgram for 
this Session.  These agreements were Israel – Mexico FTA, European Communities (EC) – Mexico 
FTA, Canada – Costa Rica FTA and Singapore – Aust ralia FTA.  Replies had also been recently 
provided for the EFTA-Croatia FTA in documen t WT/REG132/5 but this agreement would be 
considered at the next Session of the Committee.  He invited Members to make comments on these 
agreements. 
13. In reference to the FTA between Israel and Mexico, the representative of the United States  
asked the Parties to provide the percentage of ta riff lines that were tariff and quota free.  On the 
EC - Mexico FTA, she had noted that Mexico had eliminated duties on 55 percent of both tariff lines and trade flows, and asked the Parties to explain ho w this met the "substantially all trade" criterion.  
The representative of the European Communities
 replied that the EC – Mexico FTA had been 
concluded in July 2005, pending the provision of  replies to additional questions, which had been 
provided.   
14. In relation to the services aspects of the FTA between Chile and El Salvador, the 
representative of Japan  asked what the relationship of the cove rage of Chapter 11 of this Agreement, 
cross-border trade in services, was with the GATS Annex on Air Transport Services.  She sought 
confirmation that the Agreement covered specialty ai r services, which were not included in the Annex 
on Air Transport Services and did not include the selling and marketing of air transport services, 
which were included in the GATS.   The representative of Chile  said the Parties would reply in 
writing.   
15. The Chairman  considered the agreements concluded and asked the Secretariat to begin 
drafting the reports.  However, for the open issues,  he asked for the parties to provide additional 
replies to the questions posed.  It was so agreed . 
D. OTHER BUSINESS  
16. In reference to biennial reports, the Chairman  noted that this referred to the reporting on the 
operation of agreements for which an aide mémoire summarizing the state of play had been circulated 
at the previous session of the Committee in January  2006.  In this regard, he informed the Committee 
that the biennial report for the EFTA-Slovak Repub lic FTA had been submitted and circulated in 
document WT/REG88/R/B/3.  On this same subject he drew Members' attention to the replies to 
questions put forward by Members on the biennial report between the United States and Israel which would be distributed in a document with double symbol WT/REG202/R/B/1/Add.1 and 
G/L/743/Add.1.  These would be considered at a forthcoming meeting of the Committee.  He also WT/REG/M/42 
Page 5 
 
 
  thanked Members which had fulfilled their obligations  and said that periodic reports were useful for 
all Members.  He informed Members that the next Committee meeting would be held on 26 and 
27 June 2006. 
17. The Committee took note  of the comments made. 
__________