. /.  
RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  WT/REG140/M/2 
10 November 2004 
 
 (04-4785) 
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements 
Thirty-Seventh Session  
 
 
 
EXAMINATION OF THE AGREEMENT FOR A NEW-AGE ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP 
BETWEEN JAPAN AND SINGAPORE  
 
Note on the Meeting of 7 October 2004  
 
Chairman: Mr. R. Saborío Soto (Costa Rica) 
 
 
1. The meeting was convened in document WTO/AIR/2393. 
2. Under Agenda Item B.III of its Thirty-Seven th Session, the Committee on Regional Trade 
Agreements (hereinafter CRTA or the Committee) took up the second round of examination of the  goods and services aspects of the Agreement betwee n Japan and Singapore for a New-Age Economic 
Partnership (JSEPA).    
3. The Chairman
 said that the first round of examination had been held during the Committee's 
35th Session in December 2003 with the proceedi ngs of the meeting appearing as document 
WT/REG140/M/1 and Corrigendum 1. Since then, the Parties had provided written responses to 
questions posed by delegations which had been di stributed in document WT/REG140/5.  He proposed 
to use the Standard Format relating to the goods  aspects, document WT/REG140/3, and the Standard 
Format relating to services aspects, document WT/REG 140/4, to consider the Agreement.      
4. The representative of Japan  thanked Members who had shown an interest in this Agreement.  
He hoped that the replies distributed to Member s were satisfactory and expressed his delegation's 
willingness to answer new questions. 
A. G OODS ASPECTS  
5. The representative of the United States  said that most of his questions related to the 
"substantially all trade" requirement .  He thanked the Parties for their prompt responses and said he 
would submit additional queries in writing.  He sai d that although Singapore's schedule called for 
tariff elimination on all products from Japan by the end of 2002, Japan's schedule contained 
significant tariff-line carve outs and omissions.  In fact, four chapters of the Harmonized System were not even included.  Some of the omissions in Jap an's schedule concerned agricultural products that 
Singapore did not produce, but others were for products for which, given domestic consumption 
patterns, one would expect significant trade flows in  the absence of high protective tariffs.  He asked 
the delegation of Japan for its views on these obser vations.  During the last discussion of this 
Agreement, the representative of Japan had noted that although Section I.3 of the Standard Format 
stated that all goods were covered by the Agreemen t, this did not mean that the tariff on all goods 
would become zero.  The response to question II. 1(d) of document WT/REG140/5 stated that for 
2003, 24 per cent of Japan's tariff lines were not yet included in the schedule.  If the correct inference 
to be made from this statement was that not all tariffs on the 76 per cent of lines included in Japan's 
schedule would be eliminated, he requested the Par ties to provide more specific information on tariffs 
that would not be eliminated.  He thanked the Pa rties for their answer to question 20 in document WT/REG140/M/2 
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WT/REG140/5.  To further elucidate his delegation' s understanding of Article 75, paragraph 2 of the 
Agreement, he asked the Parties to provide exampl es of incentives or grants which were offered to 
promote investment.  The representative of Japan
 asked the representative of the United States to 
provide his questions in writing so that they could be  referred to capitals for more specific answers.   
6. The Chairman  asked delegations wishing to submit written questions to send them to the 
Secretariat by 29 October and for the Parties to  provide written responses by 3 December.  The 
examination of the Agreement would continue  at a future Session of the Committee.   
B. SERVICES ASPECTS  
7. In the absence of comments by  delegations, the Chairman  said it appeared that the factual 
examination of the services aspects of the Agreement between Japan and Singapore for a New-Age 
Economic Partnership had been co mpleted and he proposed that the Secretariat begin drafting the 
examination report of this Agreement. 
8. The Committee took note  of the comments made.  
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