WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONS/C/W/92
4 January 1999
(99-0002)
Council for Trade in Services
PROCEDURES ON REPORTING ON REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENTS1
The following procedures are adopted as general guidelines with respect to
reports/information on regional trade agreements submitted to the Council for Trade in Services:2
1. Such reports/information will also be available to the Committee on Regional Trade
Agreements,  as an input to the Committee's work under item 1(d) of its terms of reference.
2. Where appropriate, a description of developments in the agreements not contained in the
information previously presented to the WTO3 and trade statistics covering the last representative
period, for both trade among parties to the agreements and trade with third parties, should be
provided.4
3. Where appropriate, parties to the agreements may make use, in presenting information, of the
Standard Format for Information on Economic Integration Agreements on Services (document
WT/REG/W/14).  This would facilitate both the task of parties in reporting on their agreements and
the task of WTO Members in considering the reports.
The above procedures will not in any way affect the legal rights and obligations of WTO
Members.
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1 The Council for Trade in Services, at its meeting on 23 November 1998, took note of these
procedures which had been recommended by the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements.
2 Regional trade agreements (RTAs) reporting to the Council for Trade in Services are agreements
liberalizing trade in services among the parties, notified under Article V:7(a) of the GATS.  In addition to initial
notification and provision of relevant data, as requested, parties to an RTA are required to "report periodically ...
on its implementation" in the case of an agreement which is implemented on the basis of a time-frame (GATSArticle V:7(b)).
3 In case particular sectors and/or modes of delivery were excluded from, or only partially covered by,
the regional liberalization process, the relevant data should also be provided .
4 Statistics on the national product at the country level, broken down by the different services sectors or
sub-sectors, would also be desirable.