[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 96 (Thursday, May 19, 1994)]
[Unknown Section]
[Page 0]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-12200]
[[Page Unknown]]
[Federal Register: May 19, 1994]
TN19MY94.058
[FR Doc. 94-12170 Filed 5-18-94; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4810-25-C
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OFFICE OF THE UNITED STATES TRADE REPRESENTATIVE
General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT); Accession:
Bulgaria, et al.
AGENCY: Office of the United States Trade Representative.
ACTION: Notice and request for comments.
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SUMMARY: Notice is hereby given that the Trade Policy Staff Committee
(TPSC) is requesting written public comments on the announced intention
of Bulgaria, Mongolia, Russia, and Ukraine to accede to the GATT.
Comments received will be considered by the Executive Branch in
developing the U.S. position and objectives for the bilateral and
multilateral negotiations that will determine these countries' terms of
accession to the General Agreement, and ultimately to the World Trade
Organization after the Agreement establishing that organization enters
into effect. Additional requests for public comment and advice on
accession negotiations with other countries will be published as their
negotiations develop.
DATES: Public comments on the GATT/WTO accessions of Bulgaria and
Mongolia are due by 12 noon, Friday, June 3, 1994. Public comments on
the GATT/WTO accessions of Russia and Ukraine are due by 12 noon,
Friday, June 17, 1994.
ADDRESSES: Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, 600 17th Street,
NW., Washington, DC 20506.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Cecilia Leahy Klein, Director for GATT Affairs (telephone: 202-395-
3063), Barbara Chattin, Director for Tariff Negotiations (telephone:
202-395-5097), or Catherine Novelli, Deputy Assistant U.S. Trade
Representative for Eastern Europe and Independent States (telephone:
202-395-3074), Office of the U.S. Trade Representative, 600 17th
Street, NW., Washington, DC 20506.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:
1. Written Comments
The Chairman of the Trade Policy Staff Committee invites written
public comments on the issues to be addressed in the course of
negotiations with Bulgaria, Mongolia, Russia, and Ukraine to determine
the terms of these countries' accession to the General Agreement and
potentially to the World Trade Organization. These terms will be
negotiated in bilateral meetings with their governments'
representatives and in meetings of their Working Parties, established
by the Contracting Parties to the GATT to conduct the negotiations.
Public comments were requested on the accession of Bulgaria to the GATT
in June 1990, but changes in Bulgaria's trade regime since that time
require that we request additional comments.
The Committee is seeking public comments on the possible effect on
U.S. trade of these countries' accession to the GATT/WTO, with
particular reference to any trade measures applied by these countries
that could be subject to the provisions of the General Agreement or the
WTO, including on: (1) Tariff levels or other import measures currently
applied by these countries to imports of specific interest to U.S.
exporters, (2) export restrictions and charges, (3) conditions in trade
in services, (4) trade-related investment measures, (5) protection of
intellectual property, (6) customs procedures in the areas of
valuation, licensing, application of standards and sanitary and
phytosanitary measures, (7) subsidies applied to domestic production
and exports that affect trade, (8) government procurement and on trade
in civil aircraft, and (9) the overall experiences of U.S. firms in
trading with these countries in recent years.
The Committee is seeking information on the structure and conduct
of these countries' trade policies, on barriers to trade with them, or
on any other measure that inhibits imports or artificially stimulates
exports to the detriment of U.S. trade interests that can be addressed
in the context of the obligations they will undertake with their
adherence to the General Agreement and later membership in the WTO.
All comments will be considered in developing the U.S. position and
objectives for the examination of the trade regimes of Bulgaria,
Mongolia, Russia, and Ukraine in the context of their GATT accession
and potential membership in the WTO, and for the bilateral negotiations
concerning both the substantive terms of the Protocol of Accession and
the establishment of schedules for market access in the areas of
agriculture, industrial goods, and services. Information on products or
practices subject to these negotiations should include, whenever
appropriate, the import or export tariff classification number used by
Bulgaria, Mongolia, Russia, and Ukraine for the product concerned.
Persons submitting written comments on Bulgarian or Mongolian
accession should provide a statement, in twenty copies, by noon,
Friday, June 3, 1994, and on Russian or Ukrainian accession by noon,
Friday, June 17, 1994, to Carolyn Frank, TPSC Secretary, Office of the
U.S. Trade Representative, Room 414, 600 17th Street NW., Washington,
DC 20506. Non-confidential information received will be available for
public inspection by appointment, in the USTR Reading Room, 600 17th
Street NW., room 101, Washington, DC, Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to
12 noon and 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. For an appointment call Brenda Webb on
202-395-6186. Business confidential information will be subject to the
requirements of 15 CFR 2003.6. Any business confidential material must
be clearly marked as such on the cover letter or page and each
succeeding page, and must be accompanied by a non-confidential summary
thereof.
2. Background
The GATT Contracting Parties have established Working Parties to
examine the requests by Bulgaria, Mongolia, Russia, and Ukraine to
accede to the General Agreement pursuant to Article XXXIII of that
Agreement. The Working Parties for the accessions of Bulgaria and
Mongolia are well advanced in their work, while those for Russia and
the Ukraine were only recently established and have not yet met. These
Working Parties, composed of interested GATT members, examine applicant
countries' foreign trade regimes during the course of several meetings
and ultimately submit to the GATT Council recommendations that may
include a draft Protocol of Accession and a schedule of tariff and
nontariff concessions. There is no established timetable for the
accession process. The United States will be a major participant in
these deliberations, and will engage in bilateral negotiations with all
four countries to develop the terms of each country's accession to the
General Agreement and to the WTO. These terms will be contained in a
Protocol package that will include Protocol commitments and schedules
addressing market access issues in agriculture and in non-agricultural
goods. The Protocol package could also include a schedule of
commitments in services and additional commitments on internal supports
and export subsidies in agriculture required by WTO provisions.
The Protocol of Accession that each country negotiates with the
GATT Contracting Parties will set forth the agreed terms of membership
in the GATT and the WTO, based on the relationship of the foreign trade
regime of each country to the Articles of the General Agreement and the
WTO. Aspects of the foreign trade regime that are normally examined in
such negotiations include: application of most-favored-nation treatment
and national treatment to imports from other GATT contracting parties,
licensing requirements, quantitative trade restrictions, subsidy
practices as they affect trade, non-tariff charges and taxes, customs
valuation and classification procedures, transparency in trade
regulation and administration, and state trading practices and
monopolies. The Working Party will want to receive information from
each of the four countries concerning trade in services, intellectual
property protection, trade-related investment measures, agricultural
supports and subsidies, and sanitary and phytosanitary requirements.
In addition, as part of the accession process, each of these
countries will conduct bilateral negotiations with interested GATT
members to formulate schedules of tariff and non-tariff concessions in
agriculture, goods, and services that will become part of the terms of
GATT/WTO accession contained in the Protocol package. These concessions
will consist of agreement by the acceding countries to bind against
increase the tariff and non-tariff terms of market access applied to
certain imports. Such concessions restrict their ability to block trade
though non-tariff means or to increase the tariff rate applied to those
items without offering appropriate compensatory tariff concessions on
other items. The rates of duty and other conditions of market access
for agriculture, goods, and services negotiated bilaterally, as well as
all the other protections of GATT Articles and the WTO, will apply to
the trade of all other GATT contracting parties and WTO members with
whom these countries have GATT/WTO relations after accession or with
whom they have other Most-Favored-Nation agreements.
As a member of the GATT/WTO, Bulgaria, Mongolia, Russia, and
Ukraine will enjoy a multilateral guarantee of unconditional most-
favored-nation treatment from countries with which they have GATT
relations that is more comprehensive than that available through
bilateral agreements. The bindings on tariffs and certain nontariff
measures maintained in the schedules of other members of the GATT and
the WTO that have formal GATT/WTO relations with these four countries
will be extended to their exports as obligations, first under the GATT,
and potentially under the WTO. They will also have recourse to GATT/WTO
procedures to protect themselves from unfair or unreasonable trade
actions by these countries.
In return for these benefits, each country acceding to GATT/WTO
will be expected to grant similar benefits to the trade of other GATT/
WTO members, to conduct its trade policies in accordance with the rules
set out in the General Agreement and the WTO, and to establish its own
schedules of tariff and non-tariff commitments and concessions.
Authority: 15 CFR 2002.2
Frederick L. Montgomery,
Chairman, Trade Policy Staff Committee.
[FR Doc. 94-12200 Filed 5-18-94; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3190-01-M
