RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/REG55/M/3
23 June 2000
(00-2560)
Committee on Regional Trade Agreement
Twenty-First Session
EXAMINATION OF THE FREE TRADE AGREEMENT
BETWEEN CROATIA AND SLOVENIA
Note on the Meeting of 30 March 2000
Chairperson: Ms. Silvia Ávila Seifert (Bolivia)
1. The meeting was convened in document WTO/AIR/1268 and Corrigendum 1.
2. Under Agenda Item F.VI of its Twenty-fifth Session, the Committee on Regional Trade
Agreements (CRTA) took up the examination of the Free Trade Agreement between Croatia and
Slovenia.
3. The Chairperson noted that this was the third round of examination of the Agreement, which
had already been considered during the Committee' s Twenty-third and Twenty-fourth Sessions in July
and September 1999, respectively.  The corresponding minutes of these meetings had been distributedas documents WT/REG55/M/1-2.  The set of written questions submitted to the Parties, together with
their responses had been circulated as document  WT/REG55/4.  Given the advanced stage of the
factual examination process, the Chairperson invited delegations wishing to make comments or ask
questions on specific matters to identify the relevant section of the Standard Format for easier
reference.
4. The representative of Slovenia proposed that the Committee consider the factual examination
complete and ask the Secretariat to start drafting the examination report if there were no additional
comments or questions.  The representative of the United States said that his delegation had some
follow-up questions.
5. The representative of the United States asked whether more recent statistical data was
available, given that the information provided by the Parties covered the first quarter of 1998 only.
His delegation was concerned that the Agreement did not meet the "substantially-all-the-trade"requirement and that a significant amount of trade was subject to non-zero preferences.  He asked
whether such preferences were provided through expandable tariff-rate quotas and, if so, how the
levels were set.  The representative of Slovenia agreed to provide statistics covering the period until
the end of 1998 and, if possible, part of 1999.
6. The representative of Australia asked for more information on the number of tariff lines for
which duties were being eliminated.  His delegation was concerned about the lack of substantial trade
coverage as well as non-zero preferences and tariff-rate quotas.  The representative of Slovenia
responded that additional statistics would be provided to address this question.
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7. The representative of Australia asked for the limits on the annual tariff quotas, based on
which the MFN rate of duty on a number of agricultural products was being reduced between the
Parties. The Agreement provided for the Parties to  examine the possibility of granting each other
further concessions taking into account the role of agriculture in their economies, and he asked what
measures, if any, had already been identified to address this issue. The representative of Slovenia
responded that the limits on the tariff quotas could be found in the Annex to the Agreement and that
details on any consultations which had taken place in the Joint Committee on possible further
concessions would be provided in written form.
8. The representative of the United States as ked whether the Parties' membership in this
Agreement limited in any way their ability to make c oncessions in multilateral negotiations.  He also
asked whether the Parties were planning to conclude companion agreements to cover trade in services.
In response to the first question, the representative of Slovenia responded that it did not.  As regards
companion agreements in services, he said that this had not been considered.
9. The representative of the United States asked whether the Parties intended to sign the WTO
Agreement on Government Procurement.  The representative of Slovenia, speaking on behalf of his
delegation only, as Croatia was not a Member of the WTO, confirmed Slovenia's intention to do so, as
had already been stated during its accession negotiations to the WTO.
10. The Chairperson said that the Committee had had a fruitful discussion but that some
outstanding questions remained, to which Slovenia would respond in writing.  She invited Members
to submit their questions by 20 April and the Parties to submit replies before the end of May.  Once
the replies were circulated, any requests for additional information could be dealt with without a
meeting and she proposed that the Committee consider the factual examination complete.
11. The Committee took note of the comments made.
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