ACCORDS COMMERCIAUX RÉGIONAUX

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For the Korea-Viet Nam Free Trade Agreement covering both goods and services, several members commended the efforts by both parties to share information and respond to members' queries.

Korea said the ambitious agreement had helped boost exports and vitalize bilateral economic relations. Trade between both countries had increased since the agreement entered into force in December 2015, and investment in both countries also grew significantly, laying the foundation to further liberalize trade and investment, Korea said. Viet Nam said the agreement had been a catalyst for trade between the two countries, and it believed that the agreement would be a building bloc in countering trade restrictions and removing barriers to trade.

The factual presentation as well as members' questions and replies on this agreement are available here.

Members also discussed the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (DCFTA) between the European Union and Ukraine, covering both goods and services. The Agreement entered into force on 23 April 2014 for the European Union and 1 January 2016 for Ukraine. Several members commended Ukraine's efforts to reform and modernize its rules and regulations. Russia, in its intervention, questioned the relationship between the agreement and other existing regional agreements, and its impact on trade relations with members outside of the agreement.

The EU recalled the broader economic and political context of the Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine. Apart from substantial liberalization of trade in goods and services, the agreement also contains rules on public procurement and intellectual property protection, the EU said. In addition, the agreement includes specific provisions to ensure coherence between trade and social and environmental policies.

Ukraine said that the agreement is the most powerful instrument to support its economy and to provide substantial liberalization in trade and investment. The agreement helps to remove tariff barriers and harmonize regulatory standards. Ukraine said it would soon finish the legal process of reforming its technical regulations and standards.

The factual presentation on this agreement as well as members' questions and replies are available here.

The committee went on to consider the Georgia-Russia Free Trade Agreement, which entered into force in 1994 and was notified to the WTO in 2001. Russia and Georgia informed members that the agreement, covering trade in goods, eliminated tariffs on almost all products. Although neither Russia nor Georgia were parties to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade when the agreement entered into force, the FTA is consistent with WTO rules, the parties said. They further noted that trade between both countries has grown exponentially in recent years, and Georgia has become a major trading partner with Russia.

The factual presentation on this agreement as well as members' questions and replies are available here.

Meanwhile, members continued discussions on the status of the Latin American Integration Association (LAIA) agreements. The LAIA submitted a communication in April 2017 to the Committee on Trade and Development, responding to questions previously posed by the EU in the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements. Members of the LAIA believe that the Committee on Trade and Development is the appropriate forum to review the agreement as the Enabling Clause allows developing countries to form regional trade agreements under special conditions. Several delegations thanked the LAIA for their efforts to share information, while noting that they wished to continue discussions on the LAIA agreements in the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements.

Reinvigorating committee work

The new chairperson of the Committee, Ambassador Walid Doudech of Tunisia, informed members that a total of 74 RTAs have not been notified to the WTO as of June 2017. As regards the preparation of the factual presentations under the remit of the CRTA, there are currently 29 RTAs involving WTO members for which a factual presentation has to be prepared, counting goods and services separately. The chair urged delegations to provide missing information as soon as possible.

The chair further indicated his intention to continue consultations with members on paragraph 28 of the 2015 Nairobi Declaration, which reaffirms the need to ensure that RTAs remain complementary to, not a substitute for, the multilateral trading system. Ministers instructed the committee in the Nairobi ministerial declaration  to discuss the systemic implication of RTAs for the multilateral trading system and their relationship to WTO rules. Several members expressed their interest in participating in these consultations.

Next meeting

The next meeting of the CTRA is scheduled for 20 September 2017.

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