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The Working
Party, chaired by Ms. Margaret Liang of Singapore, will examine the
waiver request in light of relevant WTO provisions and report back to
the Goods Council. Under WTO rules, the Goods Council has a period of
90 days to consider the waiver request, at the end of which it shall
submit a report to the Ministerial Conference.
The
ACP countries and the EC are seeking a waiver from the WTO's
most-favoured-nation clause because their agreement provides for EC
preferential treatment for goods originating in ACP countries. The ACP-EC
Agreement supersedes the Fourth Lomé Convention.
During
the meeting, the Goods Council agreed to grant the following waiver
extensions and submit them to the General Council for approval:
-
Extension
until 1 July 2003 of a waiver granted to the Dominican Republic
from the Customs Valuation Agreement for using minimum import
prices to some 30 products.
-
Extension
until 31 December 2006 of a waiver granted to Cuba from a GATT
provision requiring WTO members that are not members of the
International Monetary Fund to sign a special exchange agreement
with the WTO.
On
another matter, the Slovak Republic again urged the Council to adopt a
decision disapproving what it described as unilateral measures by
Poland on imports of margarine and butter from the Slovak Republic.
Poland said its action was in response to the Slovak Republic's
safeguard measure on imports of sugar from Poland, and that it
conformed with the provisions of the Safeguards Agreement.
Several
members suggested this case be discussed in the Safeguards Committee.
The Council Chairman, Ambassador Istvan Major of Hungary, said he
would consult with interested parties on how to move this case
forward.
The
Chairman reported that consultations were continuing on requests by
seven members (Argentina, Colombia, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, the
Philippines, Romania and Thailand) for a second extension of their
transition period for implementing the provisions of the WTO Agreement
on Trade-Related Investment Measures (TRIMs). He proposed, and the
Council agreed, to convene on short notice a meeting to consider the
results of these consultations. |
