Proposed committee report to the General Council ahead of 13th Ministerial Conference

Members considered a submission from the LDC Group setting out a proposed report that the committee would submit to the General Council ahead of the WTO's 13th Ministerial Conference, due to take place in February 2024, describing the work of the CRO.

As drafted, the report could describe progress, lessons learned and best practices on use of preferential rules of origin from the point of view of LDCs, and possibly note areas of divergence with preference-giving members. The report would cover the different paragraphs of the 2015 Nairobi Ministerial Decision on Preferential Rules of Origin for Least Developed Countries by drawing and distilling from the previous and future LDC submissions.

A number of members commented on the draft report and suggested areas of future focus.  Several said the final report should reflect the views of the entire committee.

The Chair, Ms. Laura Gauer of Switzerland, concluded by proposing that members, in particular the LDC Group, send their inputs as soon as possible to the WTO Secretariat.  The Secretariat will then draft a first report that would also include a more descriptive part of the discussions. The Chair will then convene an informal meeting to give members an opportunity to have a discussion on the draft and to make comments to find agreement on the report so that it could ideally be adopted by the next formal committee meeting in October.

Draft Transparency Decision On Non-Preferential Rules Of Origin

Members considered a Draft Transparency Decision on Non-Preferential Rules of Origin which the Chair circulated to members in advance of the meeting.  The Draft Decision aims to update existing notification requirements and ensure that rules of origin are prepared and applied in an impartial, transparent, predictable, consistent and neutral manner by setting out a template for members to notify rules of origin that they use when applying most-favoured-nation tariff treatment to imported goods.

Broad support was expressed for the initiative. The CRO agreed that the Chair should continue consultations in order to finalize a text that could be proposed for adoption.

Improving the functioning of the Committee on Rules of Origin

Following discussions at the WTO's Goods Council about possible improvements to the functioning of WTO bodies, the Chair consulted with members on possible measures that could be taken to improve the work of the CRO.  Members agreed to immediately implement six steps to improve the functioning of the committee:

• organize introductory sessions;
• prepare a manual describing the main procedural and substantive aspects of the work of the committee;
• use of an annotated agenda ahead of formal meetings;
• circulation in writing of oral reports by the Chair or the Secretariat;
• use of hyperlinks for documents cited in documents circulated to members; and
• continuation of a hybrid virtual/in person format for committee meetings.

Members also agreed to start utilizing an e-Agenda in the context of the committee and to consider additional steps for improving the work of the CRO at its next formal meeting.

Other matters

The CRO agreed to correct and complement a list prepared by the Secretariat of measures affecting certificates of origin and proofs of origin taken by members to facilitate international trade in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

China, New Zealand and the United Kingdom outlined to members recent developments regarding their preferential rules of origin programmes for LDCs.

The WTO Secretariat updated the committee on the latest notifications of preferential rules of origin by members and preferential tariffs and preferential import statistics under preferential trade arrangements for LDCs.

Cambodia made a presentation of its submission outlining the challenges and opportunities faced by the Cambodian private sector in utilizing the EU's “Everything but Arms” (EBA) initiative as a graduating LDC.  The EU thanked Cambodia for its presentation and said it was ready to discuss the issues raised by Cambodia.

Senegal, on behalf of the LDC Group, made a presentation to introduce its recent submission reviewing the rates of utilization of the preferential trade arrangements of China and India.  The submission noted considerable amounts of LDC exports seem to enter China and India under non-preferential most favoured nation (MFN) tariff rates, meaning there are significant duty savings possible for the LDC beneficiaries. 

China and India thanked the LDC Group for the presentation and said more comprehensive data would show better utilization of the preferences by LDC beneficiaries.  They also underlined their readiness to work with the LDC Group in ensuring optimal use of preferential rules of origin by LDCs.

Election of the new committee Chair

At the end of the meeting, members elected Mr Elia Mtweve of Tanzania as the new committee Chair and thanked Ms Gauer for her work in chairing the committee over the past year.

Next meeting

The next meeting of the CRO will take place on 12 October 2023.