RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/REG36/4/Add.1
18 September 2000
(00-3676)
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements Original:  English
FREE TRADE AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE FORMER YUGOSLAV
REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA AND SLOVENIA
Questions and Replies
Addendum
II. TRADE PROVISIONS
3. Rules of Origin and Co-operation in Customs Administration
Has the European System of Cumulation of  Origin been applied since the date of
signature of the Agreement, as i ndicated in the Standard Format?
The negotiations of the so-called harmonized preferential rules, which are similar to those
applied between Slovenia and Croatia, have been concluded.  Nevertheless, a protocol that modifies
the Agreement has not been signed yet.
The new rules of origin will contain only bilateral cumulation of origin and will not introduce
the European System of Cumulation of Origin between the Parties.
5. Safeguards
In the reply to the question on safeguar ds contained in document WT/REG36/4, the
Parties had indicated that global safeguards would most probably be applied to the Parties to
the Agreement.  Under what conditions such a situation would occur?  To what extent the
reference to balance-of-payments (BOP) in that same context is relevant since those restrictions
were treated differently than safeguards under the rules of GATT Article XXIV?
If a global safeguard measure was applied and the situation on the market demanded the
extension of the safeguard action to the FTA, the Party could under the provision of the FTA
provisionally decrease or nullify the concessions agreed under that Agreement.
In the case of BOP, the Parties, as it is allowed under paragraph 8(b) of GATT Article XXIV,
agreed that where a Party is in serious BOP difficulties, or under imminent treat thereof, that Party
may, in accordance with relevant provisions of the GATT, adopt restrictive measures.  However, the
measures to be applied have to be adopted under the relevant provisions of the FTA.WT/REG36/4/Add.1
Page 2
8. Sector-specific Provisions
How the Parties established which agricultural products should be included in the
Agreement?
Parties negotiated the Agreement on the grounds of their economic and trade interests.
Consequently, they included in the Agreement the agricultural products according to the trade volume
and interests of the relevant enterprises.  They did not include products that are not produced or grown
on their territories.
Which agricultural product lines still face  duties and which percentage of the trade
between the Parties (for each Party) each of these products presents?
The agricultural product lines which have been liberalized are evident from Annexes 1 and 2
to Protocol 2 to the Agreement.  Hence, all the rest of the product lines which are not listed in the
Agreement still face duties.
All Annexes were submitted to the WTO together with the complete text of the Agreement.
From the statistical information provided by Slovenia in document WT/REG36/2/Rev.1, it is
possible to determine that the Agreement covers 96 per cent of imports of agricultural products into
Slovenia.  Furthermore, the agricultural products that are covered by the Agreement (listed either inAnnex 1 or 2 to Protocol 2) represent 23 per cent of all trade between the Parties (industrial and
agricultural), while industrial products represent 76 per cent of all trade.  Thus, only 1 per cent of all
trade is not covered by the Agreement.
Could the Parties provide an indication of wh en they might negotiate full liberalization
of trade in the agricultural sector?
Parties do not plan further liberalization of trade in agriculture sector since the Agreement
covers substantially all the trade between the Parties.
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