HANDBOOK ON ACCESSION TO THE WTO: CHAPTER 4

The accession process — the procedures and how they have been applied

 

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4.4 Provision of factual Information on the applicant’s trade regime

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The first stage is for applicants to present factual data on their trade regime. All WTO documents must be submitted in one of the WTO official languages: English, French and Spanish. Once circulated, these are translated into the two other official languages of the organization.

 

Applicant’s Memorandum on its trade regime and supporting data  back to top

The basic document is the Memorandum which the applicant submits on its trade regime. This should provide a full summary of its foreign trade regime set out according to the Outline Format attached to WTO document WT/ACC/1. The Memorandum should be supplemented by information requested in the Annexes to WTO document WT/ACC/1 (see Table 1 below). The full texts of the documents referred to in this Table are reproduced in Annex 6.

Table 1
Memorandum and its Annexes

Type of Information

Information required

WTO Document Reference
General  Memorandum  WT/ACC/1, Attachment
Statistics and Publications WT/ACC/1, Annex 1
List of Laws and Legal Acts WT/ACC/1, Paragraph 9 and Annex 2
Trade in Goods Import Licensing Procedures Questionnaire WT/ACC/1, Annex 3
Customs Valuation Questionnaire WT/ACC/1, Annex 4
TBT Questionnaire WT/ACC/1, Annex 5
State Trading Questionnaire WT/ACC/1, Annex 6
Trade in services Services Sectoral Classification List WT/ACC/1, Annex 7
Foreign Trade Agreements List of Foreign Trade Agreements WT/ACC/1, Annex 8.

Memorandum

The Memorandum is arranged under the following seven main headings:

  • Introduction
     
  • Economy, Economic Policies and Foreign Trade
     
  • Framework for Making and Enforcing Policies Affecting Foreign Trade in Goods and Services
     
  • Policies Affecting Trade in Goods
     
  • TRIPS Regime
     
  • Trade-Related Services Regime
     
  • Institutional Base for Trade and Economic Relations with Third Countries.

A list of the subjects covered by each of these headings as set out in the Attachment to WTO document WT/ACC/1 is to be found in Annex 6.

Supporting Data

Experience gained in early accessions led accession Working Parties to develop a number of documents requesting applicants to supply further factual information (see Table 2 below). The texts of these four documents are reproduced in Annex 7.

Table 275
Supplementary Factual Information

Type of Information

Information required

WTO Document Reference
Trade in Goods TBT and SPS Checklists WT/ACC/8
Domestic Support and Export Subsidies in Agriculture WT/ACC/4
Trade in services Trade in Services Questionnaire WT/ACC/5
TRIPS TRIPS Checklist WT/ACC/9

Presentation of the Memorandum

The preparation of the Memorandum dealing with all the above subjects requires a considerable investment of resources from the applicant. The timing of the submission has varied considerably from accession to accession. In one case, the applicant submitted this document together with its request for accession76 but in another, the Memorandum was submitted over nine years after the application to accede.77 The average for the ten most recent accessions was two years, seven months.

The Memorandum on the applicant’s foreign trade regime is the foundation on which the Working Party constructs its Report. The presentation of a comprehensive and accurate document greatly facilitates the subsequent stages of the accession process.78

The procedures suggest that the Secretariat may check the consistency of the Memorandum with the Outline Format in WTO document WT/ACC/1. In some cases where the memoranda presented were not fully consistent with the Outline Format, Working Parties started considering information on several main sections of the Memorandum that were correct. In other cases, applicants were asked to substantiate their memoranda with additional factual information before the Working Party examination could be started.79

 

Written questions and answers  back to top

The procedures suggest80 that following the circulation of the Memorandum, interested WTO Members are invited to submit questions in writing with a view to clarifying the operation of the applicant’s foreign trade regime. Members may pose questions with regard to topics not listed in the outline format and this has happened in a few instances. Answers to these questions should be provided by the applicant in writing and arranged by topics in accordance with the structure of the Memorandum. Only one round of written questions and replies was considered necessary in the great majority of cases before the first meeting of the Working Party.

 

Notes:

75. The full text of the documents referred to is reproduced in Annex 7. back to text
76. Estonia. back to text
77. Nepal. back to text
78. WTO document WT/ACC/10, p 9. back to text
79. For example, Viet Nam, WTO documents WT/ACC/VNM/3 and Corr. 1, Add. 1 and 2; Saudi Arabia, WTO documents WT/ACC/SAU/4 and Add. 1 and WT/ACC/SAU/5. back to text
80. WTO document WT/ACC/1, para 10. back to text

  

  

 

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