WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/REG/8
11 October 1999
(99-4279)
REPORT (1999) OF THE
COMMITTEE ON REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS
TO THE GENERAL COUNCIL
Chairman:  Mr. Krirk-Krai Jirapaet (Thailand)
I. INTRODUCTION
1. The terms of reference of the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements (CRTA) are:
"(a) to carry out the examination of agreements  in accordance with the procedures and terms
of reference adopted by the Council for Trade in Goods, the Council for Trade in
Services or the Committee on Trade and Development, as the case may be, and
thereafter present its report to the relevant body for appropriate action;
(b) to consider how the required reporting on the operation of such agreements should be
carried out and make appropriate recommendations to the relevant body;
(c) to develop, as appropriate, procedures to facilitate and improve the examination
process;
(d) to consider the systemic implications of such agreements and regional initiatives for the
multilateral trading system and the relationship between them, and make appropriate
recommendations to the General Council;  and
(e) to carry out any additional functions assigned to it by the General Council."1
2. At its first meeting in 1999, the CRTA elected Mr. Krirk-Krai Jirapaet (Thailand) as
Chairman of the Committee.  Mr. Chul-Ki Ju (Korea) continued to serve as Vice-Chairman until hisdeparture from Geneva in Summer 1999.  The two other Vice-Chairmen were
Mr. Guillermo González (Argentina) and Mr. Andrew Stoler (United States).
3. During 1999, the Committee held four sessions, each including examinations of some
individual regional trade agreements (RTAs) and discussions of systemic and general matters (see
Attachment 1).  A number of informal consultation s have also been held, in an effort to reach
conclusions on agreements under review.
II. OBSERVER STATUS
4. The Committee agreed to grant observer status in the CRTA to the Latin American
Integration Association (LAIA), on an ad hoc  basis.  Definitive decisions on the requests for observer
status listed in document WT/REG/W/11/Add.1 will be made in accordance with the guidelines to be
defined by the General Council.
                                                     
1 Document WT/L/127, paragraph 1.  The footnote attached to that paragraph is not reproduced here.WT/REG/8
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III. EXAMINATION OF REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS
5. To date, 118 RTAs have been notified to the GATT/WTO:  93 under GATT Article XXIV;
14 under the Enabling Clause;2 and eleven under GATS Article V.  The Committee has currently
under review a total of 72 agreements.3  The examination of 64  of these agreements has been referred
to the Committee by the Council for Trade in Goods (CTG), seven by the Council for Trade inServices (CTS) and one by the Committee on Trade and Development (CTD).  Draft reports on the
examination of 30 agreements are currently under consideration; for 31 other agreements, reports are
being drafted or factual examinations are currently underway.  There are eleven RTAs for which
factual examination has not yet started
4 (see Attachment 2).
6. In the context of the examination of 41 individual agreements, the Committee also considered
the System of European Cumulation of Origin, whic h modified or replaced earlier rules of origin
provisions in those agreements.
7. At the 23rd Session of the CRTA, held in July 1999, the Chairman stressed the urgency of
completing the reports on the examination of 30 RTAs for which the drafting process was already
engaged.  The drafting of six of these reports made progress during 1999, but the Committee has so
far been unable to finalize any of them.
IV. REPORTING ON THE OPERATION OF AGREEMENTS
8. To fulfil item 1(b) of its Terms of Reference, the Committee had adopted, on
20 February 1998, recommendations to the CTG, CTS and CTD, later adopted by these three bodies,
with respect to how required reporting on the operatio n of RTAs should be carried out.  In order to
operationalize the reporting on RTAs notified under GATT Article XXIV, the Committee acceptedthe Secretariat's proposed timetable for biennial reporting in 1999 (see Attachment 3).
9. By October 1999, the Secretariat had received (and was processing for distribution) the
biennial reports of the following RTAs:  Ca ribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM),
Central American Common Market (CACM), Czech  Republic-Slovak Republic Customs Union, and
European Free Trade Association (EFTA), EFTA-Czech Republic, EFTA-Slovak Republic, andEFTA-Turkey.
V. PROCEDURES TO FACILITATE AND IMPROVE THE EXAMINATION PROCESS
10. Regarding item 1(c) of the Committee's Terms of Reference, it can be noted that both the
"Standard Format for Information on Regional Trade Agreements", in the area of goods, and the
"Standard Format for Information on Economic Integration Agreements", in the area of services, have
been used by the parties of all RTAs newly refe rred to the Committee as a preliminary step in the
examination process.
                                                     
2 Differential and More Favourable Treatment, Reciprocity and Fulle r Participation of Developing
Countries , Decision of 28 November 1979.
3 This last figure is not strictly comparable to the total of notified RTAs, since it takes into account
agreements of accession to existing RTAs, as well as agreements on trade in services parallel to existing RTAsin the goods area.
4 Six RTAs recently notified under GATT Article XXIV are yet to be transmitted to the Committee for
examination.WT/REG/8
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VI. SYSTEMIC IMPLICATIONS OF REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS AND
INITIATIVES FOR THE MULTILATERAL TRADING SYSTEM AND THE
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THEM
11. Under item 1(d) of the Committee's Terms of Reference, the Committee made use of
Members' written submissions and informal papers prepared by the Secretariat (see Attachment 4).
12. In 1999, the work of the Committee under this item was built upon questions raised in written
contributions by the delegations of Hong Kong, China and Japan, which attempted to identify the
issues that have arisen from the interpretation and application of individual provisions of GATS
Article V and considered possible linkages be tween GATS Article V and GATT Article XXIV.  A
further submission on GATS Article V by the European Communities and their Member States was
circulated on 21 September 1999.  Discussions in the Committee focussed primarily on the
interpretation of individual provisions in GATS Article V, particularly in regard to the scope of"substantial sectoral coverage" and "substantially all discrimination".  Some Members noted that
some of these issues were also being considered in the Council for Trade in Services;  however, other
Members felt that they should be considered in the Committee as part of the systemic debate.
13. At the CRTA's 22
nd Session, it was agreed that a synoptic paper would be prepared by the
Secretariat, based on the "Checklist of Systemic Issues" (document WT/REG/W/12) andsummarising, on a factual basis, the discussion that had already taken place on the issues.  A first draft
was circulated to Members by the Secretariat on 22 September 1999.
14. As a further contribution to the work of the CRTA, the Secretariat has distributed two updates
of the informal paper entitled "Basic Information on Regional Trade Agreements Notified to the
GATT/WTO and in Force" (updated on 22 April and 22 
 September 1999).
VII. FINAL REMARKS
15. The Committee has made substantial headway in the factual examination of a number of
RTAs, but has been unable to finalize reports on any of these examinations.  Progress in this regard
was slowed, inter alia , by disagreement among Members on the interpretation of certain elements of
those rules relating to RTAs, as well as on procedural aspects.  Similarly, the Committee is not in a
position to make recommendations to the General Council under item 1(d) of its Terms of Reference.WT/REG/8
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ATTACHMENT 1
Individual RTAs examined in 1999
Twenty-First Session – 10-11 February 1999
EC-Principality of Andorra Turkey-Hungary
Hungary-Israel Turkey-Romania
Israel-Czech Republic Turkey-Israel
Israel-Slovak Republic Turkey-Lithuania
Twenty-Second Session – 29-30 April and 3 May 1999
EC-Slovenia (Interim Agreement) Israel-Slovak Republic
Slovenia-Latvia Turkey-HungarySlovenia-Lithuania Turkey-Romania
Slovenia-Estonia Turkey-Israel
EC-Principality of Andorra Turkey-Lithuania
Hungary-Israel CEFTA
Israel-Czech Republic
Twenty-Third Session – 1-2 July 1999
Slovenia-Latvia Turkey-Hungary
Slovenia-Estonia Turkey-Romania
Latvia- Czech Republic Turkey-Israel
Lithuania-Czech Republic Turkey-Lithuania
Latvia-Slovak Republic Estonia- Czech Republic
Lithuania-Slovak Republic Estonia- Slovak Republic
Hungary-Israel Turkey-Czech Republic
Croatia-Slovenia Turkey-Slovak RepublicIsrael-Czech Republic EU-Tunisia (Med. Agreement)
Israel-Slovak Republic Turkey-Estonia
Twenty-Fourth Session – 22 September and 8 October 1999
EC-Slovenia (Interim Agreement) EC-Principality of Andorra
Latvia- Czech Republic Croatia-Slovenia
Lithuania-Czech Republic Estonia- Czech Republic
Latvia-Slovak Republic Estonia- Slovak RepublicLithuania-Slovak Republic EU-Tunisia (Med. Agreement)WT/REG/8
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ATTACHMENT 2
RTAs for which draft reports on the examination are currently under consideration (30):
ANZCERTA (Services) EC-Bulgaria IA
EC-Czech Republic IA EC-Enlargement (Goods)
EC-Enlargement (Services) EC-Estonia FTA
EC-Hungary IA EC-Hungary EA (Services)
EC-Latvia FTA EC- Lithuania FTA
EC-Poland IA EC-Poland EA (Services)
EC-Romania IA EC-Slovak Republic IAEC-Slovak Republic EA (Services) CEFTA
EFTA-Bulgaria FTA EFTA-Estonia FTA
EFTA-Hungary FTA EFTA-Israel FTA
EFTA-Latvia FTA EFTA-Lithuania FTA
EFTA-Poland FTA EFTA-Romania FTAEFTA-Slovenia FTA Iceland-Faroe Islands
NAFTA (Goods) NAFTA (Services)
Norway-Faroe Islands Switzerland-Faroe Islands
RTAs for which reports are being drafted or factual examinations are well engaged (31):
Canada-Chile FTA Canada-Israel FTA
Czech Republic-Estonia FTA Czech Republic-Latvia FTA
Czech Republic-Lithuania FTA Czech Republic-Turkey FTAEC-Faroe Islands EC-P. of Andorra CU
EC-Slovenia IA EC-Turkey CU
EU-Tunisia Euro-Mediterranean Agr. European Union (Services)
Israel-Czech Republic FTA Israel-Hungary FTA
Israel-Slovak Republic FTA MERCOSUR
Poland-Lithuania FTA Romania-Moldova FTA
Slovak Republic-Estonia FTA Slovak Republic-Latvia FTASlovak Republic-Lithuania FTA Slovak Republic-Turkey FTA
Slovenia-Croatia FTA Slovenia-Estonia FTA
Slovenia-Latvia FTA Slovenia-Lithuania FTA
Turkey-Estonia FTA Turkey-Hungary FTA
Turkey-Israel FTA Turkey-Lithuania FTATurkey-Romania FTA
RTAs for which factual examination has not yet commenced (11):
EC-Palestinian Authority FTA Faroe Islands-Estonia
Estonia-Latvia-Lithuania FTA Israel-Slovenia FTA
Kyrgyz Republic-Moldova FTA Kyrgyz Republic-Russian Fed. FTA
Kyrgyz Rep.- CU Russian Fed./Belarus/Kazakhstan Kyrgyz Republic-Ukraine FTA
Kyrgyz Republic-Uzbekistan FTA Slovenia-F.Y.R.O.M. FTATurkey-Bulgaria FTAWT/REG/8
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ATTACHMENT 3
Schedule for the Submission of Biennial Reports on RTAs in the Course of 1999
Reports due on 15 May 1999 (10)
Australia-New Zealand Closer Economic Relations Trade Agreement (ANZCERTA)
Australia-Papua New Guinea Agreement (PATCRA)
Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM)
Central American Common Market (CACM)Czech Rep./Slovak Rep. Customs Union
European Free Trade Association (EFTA)
EFTA/Czech Rep.
EFTA/Slovak Rep.
EFTA/TurkeyUnited States/Israel
Reports due on 15 October 1999 (14)
European Communities (EC)/Algeria
EC/Cyprus
EC/Egypt
EC/Iceland
EC/Israel
EC/JordanEC/Lebanon
EC/Malta
EC/Morocco
EC/Norway
EC/Certain Non-Europ ean Countries and Territories II (PTOM II)
EC/Syria
EC/Switzerland and LiechtensteinEC/TunisiaWT/REG/8
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ATTACHMENT 4
List of Documents on Sy stemic Issues (1999)
WT/REG/W/34 Communication from Hong  Kong, China on "Systemic Issues
Arising from Article V of the GATS"
WT/REG/W/35 Communication from the European Communities and their Member
States on "Article V of the GATS:  Systemic Issues"
Informal Papers
- Non-paper by Japan on "Interpretative Remarks on Article V:1 of GATS", distributed in the
22nd Session of the CRTA on 29 April 1999.
- Japan's Comments on document WT/REG/W/34, distributed in the 23rd Session of the CRTA
on 1 July 1999.
- Informal Paper by Hong Kong, China on "Systemic Issues Arising from Article V of the
GATS", on 28 June 1999.
- Informal Paper by the Secretariat, "Basic Information on Regional Trade Agreements
Notified to the GATT/WTO and in Force", updated on 22 April and 22 September 1999.
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