WORLD TRADE G/L/193
15October 1997
ORGANIZATION(97-4450)
REPORT (1997) OFTHE COMMITTEE ON
TRADE-RELATED INVESTMENT MEASURES
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-September 1997.1
2. TheCommittee meton17March and15September 1997 under thechairmanship of
Mr.VassiliNotis(Greece)andMr.JavierPaulinich(Peru),respectively.Theminutesofthesemeetings
havebeencirculated indocuments G/TRIMS/M/6 and7.Themeetings oftheCommittee wereopen
toallMembers andgovernments withobserver status intheWTO. Atitsmeeting of17March, the
Committee accorded regular observer status tointernational intergovernmental organizations thathad
enjoyed observer status intheCommittee onanadhocbasis(IMF, OECD, UN,UNCTAD andWorld
Bank). TheCommittee considered requests forobserver status made byseveral 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.
Article 5.2oftheAgreement gives thebenefit ofatransition period fortheelimination ofmeasures
notified under Article 5.1andwhich wereinexistence atleast180dayspreceding theentry intoforce
oftheWTO Agreement. Pursuant toadecision adopted bytheGeneral Council inApril 1995,
governments eligible tobecome original WTO Members thataccepted theWTO Agreement after
1January 1995 haveaperiod of90daysafterthedateoftheiracceptance oftheWTO Agreement
tomake thenotifications foreseen inArticle 5.1,provided thattheperiod fortheelimination ofTRIMs
notified under Article 5.1continues tobegoverned byreference tothedateofentry intoforce ofthe
WTO Agreement itself.2
4. Inaddition tothenotifications ofmeasures under Article 5.1thathadbeensubmitted prior
totheperiod covered bythisreport3,theCommittee received anewnotification from Uganda and
anaddendum tothenotification ofArgentina. Annex 1contains alistofallnotifications ofmeasures
1Theprevious annual report iscontained indocument G/L/133.
2WT/L/64
3These notifications hadbeen submitted byArgentina, Barbados, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, the
DominicanRepublic,Ecuador,Egypt,Indonesia,India,Mexico,Malaysia,Nigeria,Pakistan,Peru,thePhilippines,
Poland, Romania, Thailand, Uruguay, Venezuela andSouth Africa.G/L/193
Page2
under Article 5.1.Inthecaseofsome Members, notifications weresubmitted laterthanthe90-day
period foreseen forthem. While thereisnoobligation todoso,some Members notified theCommittee
thattheydidnotapply anyTRIM inconsistent withtheAgreement. During theperiod under review,
suchanotification wasmade byMali. Annex 2listsallMembers which havemade suchnotifications.4
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.2. Annex 3liststheMembers
which havesubmitted notifications under Article 6.2.
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.
4Notifications under Article 5.1circulated in1995 have been derestricted asof28May 1996. Following
thedecision taken bytheGeneral Council on18July1996 onderestriction andcirculation ofWTO documents,
documentscontainingnotificationsunderArticles5.1,5.5and6.2areissuedunrestricted.Membersmay,however,
atthetimeofthesubmission ofadocument, indicate totheSecretariat thatthedocument beissued asrestricted
iftheysowish.G/L/193
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ANNEX 1
MEMBERS WHICH HAVE SUBMITTED NOTIFICATIONS 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 30September 1996
Costa Rica G/TRIMS/N/1/CRI/1 30March 1995
Cuba5G/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
5Therepresentative ofCuba hasinformed theCommittee that,asaresult ofanewforeign investment law
enacted in1995, thelocal content measures notified byCuba under Article 5.1arenolonger inforce
(G/TRIMS/M/3, paragraph 5).G/L/193
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Member Document Symbol Date ofCommunication
India G/TRIMS/N/1/IND/1/Add.2 11April 1996
Mexico G/TRIMS/N/1/MEX/1 31March 1995
Mexico G/TRIMS/N/1/MEX/1/Rev.1631March 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
6English onlyG/L/193
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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 1995G/L/193
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ANNEX 3
MEMBERS WHICH HAVE SUBMITTED NOTIFICATIONS UNDER ARTICLE 6.2OFTHE
AGREEMENT ONTRADE-RELATED INVESTMENT MEASURES
Argentina
Australia
Brunei Darussalam
Bulgaria
Chile
Hong Kong
India
Indonesia
Israel
Liechtenstein
Nicaragua
Norway
Peru
Philippines
Romania
Singapore
Switzerland
Thailand
Tunisia
Uganda
United States
Venezuela