WTO: 2006 NEWS ITEMS
10 March 2006
COUNCIL FOR TRADE IN GOODS
Goods Council agrees on chairpersons of subsidiary bodies
The Council for Trade in Goods, on 10 March 2006, agreed on a slate of chairpersons of its subsidiary bodies for this year.
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The new chairpersons are:
Committee on Agriculture: Mr. Christian Häberli (Switzerland)
Committee on Anti-Dumping Practices: Mrs. Victoria Campeanu (Romania)
Committee on Customs Valuation: Ms. Diana Reaich (New Zealand)
Committee on Import Licensing: Mr. Evelio Alvarado Romero (Guatemala)
Committee on Market Access: Dr. Mohammad Saeed (Pakistan)
Committee on Rules of Origin: Ms. Vera Thorstensen
(Brazil)
Committee on Safeguards: Mr. Seung-ho Kim (Korea)
Committee on Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures: Mr. Juan Antonio
Dorantes Sánchez (Mexico)
Committee on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures: Mr. Keiya Iida
(Japan)
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade: Mr. Margers Krams (Latvia)
Committee on Trade-Related Investment Measures: Mr. Alexis Massot
(France)
Working Party on State Trading Enterprises: Mr. Benjamin Katjipuka
(Namibia)
ITA Committee: Mr. Martin Pospisil (Czech Republic)
The Council elected by acclamation Ambassador Yonov Frederick Agah (Nigeria)
as its new chairman. Amb. Agah and many delegations paid tribute to the
leadership of the outgoing chairman, Ambassador Vesa Tapani Himanen
(Finland), during the past year.
On textiles, Turkey, stressing it was not targeting any country, tabled
terms of reference for a work programme it has proposed that the Council
undertake in the textiles and clothing sector. It stressed that millions of
people in the sector all over the world were losing jobs, and that many
members, especially the LDCs, are being affected by falling textile exports.
A number of delegations expressed support for Turkey's proposal.
China welcomed what it saw as new flexibility from Turkey but again objected
to the proposed work programme. It reiterated its systemic concern that the
textiles should not be treated differently from other sectors. Some
delegations shared China's concern about again treating textiles as a
special sector.
The Council agreed to revert to this item at a future meeting.
The United States reiterated its request a waiver for its African Growth and
Opportunity Act (AGOA) and the extension of waivers for its two other trade
preference programmes: the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBRERA)
and the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA). The Chairman noted that after
consultations, he had tabled draft decisions on the US request for
consideration of members.
China said that after careful study of US answers to its questions about
these schemes, it had concluded that they benefit US producers of yarns and
fabrics. It proposed adding to the waiver decisions an assurance that the US
will modify the rules of origin requirements of these schemes to allow other
countries to supply yarns and fabrics to the beneficiary countries.
Many beneficiaries underlined the economic importance of these US programmes
and urged the immediate approval of the waivers. They included Benin (on
behalf of the African Group), Ecuador, Lesotho, Uganda, Nigeria, Senegal,
Peru, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, Bolivia, Jamaica, Trinidad and
Tobago, Mauritius, Colombia, Swaziland, Nicaragua, Barbados, Dominican
Republic, El Salvador, Kenya, Côte d'Ivoire and Panama.
Brazil, Korea, Sri Lanka and India shared China's concerns but would not
block consensus for the approval of the US request. Pakistan supported
China's proposal. Paraguay rejected the waiver decisions. It said it has
been discriminated against by these programmes, and called for compensation.
The US said that it could not agree to China's proposal as the provision
questioned by China and other members was set in US law. It pledged to
consult with any member regarding these programmes, as provided for in the draft
waiver decisions.
The Chairman urged members with concerns on these waiver request to discuss
them directly with the US. He added that he would inform his successor of
what he saw as a clear need for further consultations on this agenda item.
On bananas, the European Communities suggested that the Council revert to
its request for the extension of the waiver for the tariff rate quota for
bananas of ACP (Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific) origin after the
completion of the monitoring and review process on its new banana regime.
Ecuador, Honduras, Colombia, Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua expressed
concern about the EC' request, stressing that in their view, this scheme was
inconsistent with the most-favoured-nation principle.
Under a separate agenda item, Colombia expressed serious concern over what
it said was substantial damage to its banana exports to the 10 new EU states
after the EU enlargement. It expressed deep regret over the way in which the
EC had failed to engage with Colombia on this issue. It said that if by 1
July 2006 the EC still has not given compensation, Colombia will withdraw
concessions. Honduras, Panama, Ecuador and Nicaragua shared Colombia's
concerns.
The EC said it would immediately forward Colombia's concerns to Brussels.
On other matters, the Council agreed to forward the following to the
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements: the Free Trade Agreement between
Mexico and Nicaragua; the Closer Economic Partnership Agreement between
Thailand and New Zealand: and the Free Trade Agreement between the United
States and Morocco.
Regarding the review of the operation of the Agreement on Trade-Related
Investment Measures, Brazil reiterated a joint proposal with India for a WTO
Secretariat study on TRIMs, pointing to two positive developments in Hong
Kong in this area: the mandate (paragraph 39) for the DG to consult further
on implementation issues; and granting additional flexibility on TRIMs to
LDCs. It said that these two developments showed that the existing Agreement
was inadequate to deal with the needs of developing countries. Argentina,
India and China supported the proposal.
The Chairman noted that the positions on this item were still the same. The
Council agreed to revert to this item at a future meeting.
Under “Other Business”, Pakistan announced it was withdrawing its request,
submitted in 2003, for a waiver on its TRIMs measures. It said that with
economic difficulty, it had been able to delete some 85 schemes, and that it
intended to remove the remaining 16 TRIMs in the automobile sector.