RESTRICTED
WORLD TRADE G/TRIMS/W/9
3September 1997
ORGANIZATION(97-3552)
Committee onTrade-Related Investment Measures
REPORT (1997) OFTHE COMMITTEE ON
TRADE-RELATED INVESTMENT MEASURES
Draft
Please findattached adraftfortheannual report oftheCommittee onTrade-Related Investment
Measures totheCouncil forTrade inGoods. Thisdraftissubmitted forconsideration bytheCommittee
atitsmeeting on15September 1997.G/TRIMS/W/9
Page2
REPORT(1997) OFTHE COMMITTEE ON
TRADE-RELATED INVESTMENT MEASURES
Draft
I. GENERAL
1. Thisreport issubmitted pursuant toArticle 7.3oftheAgreement onTrade-Related Investment
Measures, which requires theCommittee onTrade-Related Investment Measures toreport annually
totheCouncil forTrade inGoods. TheReport covers theperiod November 1996-August 1997.1
2. TheCommittee meton17March [and15September 1997] under thechairmanship of
Mr.Vassili Notis (Greece) [andMr.Javier Paulinich (Peru), respectively]. Theminutes ofthese
meetings havebeencirculated indocuments G/TRIMS/M/6 [and7].Themeetings oftheCommittee
were open toallMembers andgovernments withobserver status intheWTO. Atitsmeeting of
17March, theCommittee accorded regular observer status tointernational intergovernmental
organizations thathadenjoyed observer status intheCommittee onanadhocbasis (IMF, OECD,
UN,UNCTAD andWorld Bank). TheCommittee considered requests forobserver status made by
several other international organizations.
II. IMPLEMENTATION
3. Atthemeetings heldduring theperiod under review, theCommittee continued itsexamination
ofnotifications submitted pursuant toArticle 5.1oftheAgreement onTrade-Related Investment
Measures. Thisprovision requires Members tonotify anytrade-related investment measure ("TRIM")
inconsistent withtheAgreement within 90daysaftertheentry intoforce oftheWTO Agreement.
Article5.2oftheAgreementgivesthebenefitoftransitionperiodfortheeliminationofmeasuresnotified
under Article 5.1.Pursuant toadecision adopted bytheGeneral Council inApril 1995, governments
eligible tobecome original WTO Members thataccepted theWTO Agreement after1January 1995
have aperiod of90daysafter thedateoftheir acceptance oftheWTO Agreement tomake the
notifications foreseen inArticle 5.1,provided thattheperiod fortheelimination ofTRIMs notified
under Article 5.1continues tobegoverned byreference tothedateofentry intoforce oftheWTO
Agreement itself.2
4. TheCommittee hasreceived notifications under Article 5.1fromArgentina, Barbados, Chile,
Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Cyprus, theDominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Indonesia, India,
Mexico, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Thailand, Uganda, Uruguay,
Venezuela andSouth Africa (Annex 1).Inthecaseofsome Members, notifications weresubmitted
laterthanthe90-day period foreseen forthem. While there isnoobligation todoso,some Members
notified theCommittee thattheydidnotapply anyTRIM inconsistent withtheAgreement (Annex 2).3
1Theprevious annual report iscontained indocument G/L/133.
2WT/L/64
3Notifications under Article 5.1circulated in1995 have been derestricted asof28May 1996. Following
thedecision taken bythegeneral Council on18July1996 onderestriction andcirculation ofWTO documents,
documents containing notifications under Articles 5.1,5.5and6.2areissued unrestricted, provided thatMembers
mayatthetimeofthesubmission ofadocument indicate totheSecretariat thatthedocument should beissued
asrestricted.G/TRIMS/W/9
Page3
5. IntheCommittee 'sdiscussions onthesenotifications, somedelegations havesought clarification
oradditional information ofafactual nature. Differing views continue tobeexpressed onissues such
asthetiming ofnotifications inrelation totheprovisions ofArticle 5.1,theadequacy oftheinformation
provided innotifications, therecent introduction ormodification ofcertain measures inrelation tothe
provisions ofArticles 2and5.4,andtherelationship oftheprovisions oftheAgreement tothose of
other WTO agreements, including theAgreement onSubsidies andCountervailing Measures andthe
Agreement onAgriculture.
6. Article 5.5deals withtheconditions under which during thetransition periods stipulated in
Article 5.2Members mayapply TRIMs notified under Article 5.1tonewinvestments. While astandard
format forthesubmission ofnotifications under thisprovision hasbeenadopted bytheCommittee
(G/TRIMS/3), sofarnosuchnotifications havebeenmade.
7. AnumberofMembershavesubmittednotificationsasrequiredunderArticle6.2whichprovides
fornotification totheSecretariat ofpublications inwhich information onTRIMs canbefound. A
listofthese notifications hasbeencirculated inG/TRIMS/N/2/Rev.1.
8. During theperiod under review, theCommittee wasinformed oftheinitiation ofthree
proceedings under theDispute Settlement Understanding which referred inter aliatotheTRIMs
Agreement, asreflected inG/TRIMS/D/6-8.G/TRIMS/W/9
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ANNEX 1
NOTIFICATIONS RECEIVED UNDER ARTICLE 5.1OFTHE AGREEMENT
ONTRADE-RELATED INVESTMENT MEASURES
Member Document Symbol Date ofCommunication
Argentina G/TRIMS/N/1/ARG/1 30March 1995
Argentina G/TRIMS/N/1/ARG/1/Add.1 21March 1997
Barbados G/TRIMS/N/1/BRB/1 31March 1995
Chile G/TRIMS/N/1/CHL/1 14December 1995
Colombia G/TRIMS/N/1/COL/1 31March 1995
Colombia G/TRIMS/N/1/COL/Add.1 4June1995
Colombia G/TRIMS/N/1/COL/2 31July1995
Colombia G/TRIMS/N/1/COL/2/Corr.1 ...
Costa Rica G/TRIMS/N/1/CRI/1 30March 1995
Cuba G/TRIMS/N/1/CUB/1 18July1995
Cyprus G/TRIMS/N/1/CYP/1 29June1995
Cyprus G/TRIMS/N/1/CYP/2 30October 1995
Dominican Republic G/TRIMS/N/1/DOM/1 26April 1995
Ecuador G/TRIMS/N/1/ECU/1 20March 1996
Egypt G/TRIMS/N/1/EGY/1 29September 1995
Indonesia G/TRIMS/N/1/IDN/1 23May1995
Indonesia G/TRIMS/N/1/IDN/1/Add.1 28October 1996
India G/TRIMS/N/1/IND/1 31March 1995
India G/TRIMS/N/1/IND/1/Add.1 22December 1995
India G/TRIMS/N/1/IND/1/Add.1/Corr.1 18March 1996
India G/TRIMS/N/1/IND/1/Add.2 11April 1996G/TRIMS/W/9
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Member Document Symbol Date ofCommunication
Mexico G/TRIMS/N/1/MEX/1 31March 1995
Mexico G/TRIMS/N/1/MEX/1/Rev.1431March 1995
Malaysia G/TRIMS/N/1/MYS/1 31March 1995
Malaysia G/TRIMS/N/1/MYS/1/Rev.1 14March 1996
Nigeria G/TRIMS/N/1/NGA/1 17July1996
Pakistan G/TRIMS/N/1/PAK/1 30March 1995
Peru G/TRIMS/N/1/PER/1 30March 1995
Philippines G/TRIMS/N/1/PHL/1 31March 1995
Poland G/TRIMS/N/1/POL/1 28September 1995
Poland G/TRIMS/N/1/POL/1/Add.1 4December 1996
Romania G/TRIMS/N/1/ROM/1 31March 1995
Thailand G/TRIMS/N/1/THA/1 30March 1995
Uganda G/TRIMS/N/1/UGA/1 17June1997
Uruguay G/TRIMS/N/1/URY/1 31March 1995
Uruguay G/TRIMS/N/1/URY/1/Add.1 30August 1995
Venezuela G/TRIMS/N/1/VEN/1 31March 1995
South Africa G/TRIMS/N/1/ZAF/1 19April 1995
4English onlyG/TRIMS/W/9
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ANNEX 2
NOTIFICATIONS INDICATING THAT NOTRIMS INCONSISTENT WITH THE
AGREEMENT ONTRADE-RELATED INVESTMENT MEASURES
ARE MAINTAINED
Member Document Symbol Date ofCommunication
Switzerland G/TRIMS/N/1/CHE/1 8August 1995
Israel G/TRIMS/N/1/ISR/1 24October 1996
Honduras G/TRIMS/N/1/HND/1 7July1995
Saint Lucia G/TRIMS/N/1/LCA/1 14February 1996
Mali G/TRIMS/N/1/MLI/1 27May1997
Mauritius G/TRIMS/N/1/MUS/1 27March 1995
Nicaragua G/TRIMS/N/1/NIC/1 18July1996
Singapore G/TRIMS/N/1/SGP/1 9October 1996
Slovenia G/TRIMS/N/1/SVN/1 27March 1995
Trinidad &Tobago G/TRIMS/N/1/TTO/1 1April 1996
Zambia G/TRIMS/N/1/ZMB/1 13April 1995