RESTRICTED
WORLD TRADE WT/L/92
6November 1995
ORGANIZATION(95-3427)
INTERNATIONAL MEAT COUNCIL
Report totheGeneral Council
Report prepared bytheChairperson oftheInternational Meat Council onhisownResponsibility,
inAccordance withArticle IV:8oftheWTO Agreement
TheInternational Bovine Meat Agreement entered intoforce on1January 1995. Asof
31October 1995, thefollowing wereparties totheAgreement: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada,
Colombia, European Communities (15), Japan, NewZealand, Norway, Paraguay, Romania, South
Africa, Switzerland, United States andUruguay. Other Members andintergovernmental organizations
havebeenrepresented atmeetings byobservers.
ThenewInternationalMeatCouncilheldonemeetingon21-22June1995.Mr.ArthurNogueira
ofBrazil waselected Chairperson oftheIMC.
TheCouncil hadageneral exchange ofviews onthefunctioning oftheAgreement inlight
ofpastexperience under theArrangement Regarding Bovine Meat andtheUruguay Round outcome.
Parties agreed thatthefunctions ofthenewInternational Meat Council should takeintoaccount the
prioritynatureofworkintheCommitteeonAgricultureandtheCommitteeonSanitaryandPhytosanitary
Measures. TheCouncil decided nottore-establish theMeat Market Analysis Group (MMAG) and
toinclude initsagenda those items which were usually discussed intheMMAG.
TheCouncil agreed onrules ofprocedure (IMA/1) andtoholdoneannual regular meeting
inJuneofeachyear. Theformats forthequestionnaires ondomestic policies (IMA/2) andstatistical
information (IMA/3) wereadopted. Itwasagreed thatthestatistical information would besubmitted
twice ayear, butthisfrequency maybemodified bytheChairperson inconsultation withtheParties.
TheCouncil issued astanding invitation totheUnited Nation 'sEconomic Commission for
Europe (ECE), FAO, theInternational Trade Centre (ITC), OECD andUNCTAD toparticipate in
itsmeetings inanobserver capacity andagreed thatobserver governments would berequested toreply
tothestatistical andpolicy questionnaires onavoluntary basis.
Thereport ofthemeeting, including thediscussions onthemeatmarket situation andoutlook,
wascirculated asdocument IMA/4.