SEOM 1/47
HIGHLIGHTS OF
NINETEENTH MEETING OF THE COORDINATING COMMITTEE ON THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE ATIGA
(19th CCA MEETING)
28-30 October 2015, Ha Noi, Viet Nam
No / Issue / Major Decisions Made / SEOM is requested to: /Work Programme of the CCA for 2016
1 / Work Programe of the CCA for 2016 / § The Meeting deliberated and adopted the revised CCA Work Programme for 2016.
Realization of the ASEAN Economic Community by 2015
2 / AEC Scorecard / § The Meeting noted the updated AEC Scorecard Key Deliverables 2015 (Phase IV) relevant to the ATIGA with inputs provided by AMSs. The report of the CCA Meeting appears as ANNEX 1. / Note
ASEAN Trade in Goods Agreement (ATIGA)
3 / CLMV’s ATIGA Tariff Reduction Schedules and its Legal Enactment for 2015 and beyond / § Subsequent to the endorsement of Cambodia’s ATIGA TRSs in AHTN 2012 for 2012-2025 by the 29th AFTA Council, the Meeting noted the full implementation of the ATIGA TRSs in AHTN 2012.
§ Cambodia informed that since she had issued the LE for 2010-2015 for her ATIGA TRS in AHTN 2007, she would issue the new LE for 2015-2025 which would not be implemented retroactively for her revised ATIGA TRS in AHTN 2012 for 2012-2025 by mid-December 2015.
§ Lao PDR informed that her instrument of ratification for the implementation of her AHTN 2012 ATIGA TRS for 2016-2018 has been signed by the President of Lao PDR on 20 October 2015 and she would submit the instrument of ratification to the ASEAN Secretariat in due time and her ATIGA TRS in AHTN 2012 for 2016-2018 would be implemented in time by 1 January 2016. / Note
4 / Flexibility on seven per cent (7%) of tariff lines for CLMV / § Viet Nam’s list of 7% flexibility was endorsed by the AFTA Council on an ad-referendum basis. With this endorsement, the Meeting noted that CLMV’s lists of 7% flexibility products have been endorsed by the AFTA Council in line with Article 19.2(a)(iv) of the ATIGA. / Note
5 / Review on MFN Provision (Article 5) of the ATIGA / § The Meeting noted the outcome of the completed comparison exercise between the non-zero ATIGA tariff rates with those under various ASEAN+1 FTAs prepared by the ASEAN Secretariat.
§ The Meeting requested AMSs to crosscheck the comparison exercise between the non-zero ATIGA tariff rates with those under various ASEAN+1 FTAs prepared by the ASEAN Secretariat and to consult domestically on this issue for further discussion at the 20th CCA meeting.
§ The Meeting requested Singapore to outline possible areas, apart from tariffs, to be considered to apply automatic MFN for discussion at the next round. / Note
Alignment of Commitments under ATIGA and ASEAN+1 FTAs and Long Standing Issues
6 / Allignment of Commitments under ATIGA and ASEAN+1FTAs and Long Standing Issues / § The ASEAN Secretariat briefed the Meeting on the outcome of the stocktaking of discrepancies between the ATIGA’s commitments and those made under ASEAN+1 FTAs, such as on alcoholic, tobacco products, FOB value, petroleum and maize.
§ Indonesia and Malaysia (alcoholic beverages), Viet Nam (tobacco and petroleum products) and Thailand (maize) were requested to submit their feedbacks and/or work plans on the outcome of the stocktaking of discrepancies between the ATIGA’s commitments and those made under ASEAN+1 FTAs, such as on alcoholic, tobacco products, FOB value, petroleum and maize to the ASEAN Secretariat by 30 November 2015 for submission to the SEOM 1/47 in January 2016 for their consideration. / To provide recommendation
Elimination of Non-Tariff Barriers
7 / Updates on the newly introduced NTMs / § The Meeting noted that there was no submission of the notified NTMs since the last CCA meeting. The Meeting noted information provided by Indonesia on her new deregulations. / Note
8 / Implementation of Work Programme on NTMs for National and Regional Level / § The Meeting noted that there was no update on the Regional-level NTMs Work Programme while the activities related to the implementation of National Work Programme on NTM of ASEAN Member States have been provided by Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Lao PDR and Viet Nam. / Note
9 / Matrix of Actual Cases on NTMs/Trade Barriers / § The concerned Member States, both reporting and responding countries were requested to provide their comments on the 22 on-going cases by 30 November 2015 for further discussion at the 20th CCA meeting.
§ The Meeting requested the ASEAN Secretariat to add additional column to indicate the date which the case was first lodged so as to note the duration for which the case has been outstanding. / Note
10 / Pilot Projects/ case studies to examine how to reduce trade barriers / § The Meeting noted that Indonesia waited for a response from Singapore who would provide more detailed information as reflected in the matrix of Pilot case/case studies at the next meeting. Regarding case no.2 between Indonesia and Malaysia, the Meeting noted that Malaysia needed more time to undertake a domestic consultation and revert. / Note
11 / Elimination of Tariff Rate Quotas / § Viet Nam informed the Meeting that at present she had no further update on the elimination of Tariff Rate Quota (TRQ) for the remaining 3 products categories which are sugar, eggs and salt as they would be eliminated in accordance with her commitment under ATIGA. / Note
Rules of Origin
12 / Report of the 19th Sub-Committee on ATIGA Rules of Origin (19th SC-AROO) / § The Meeting noted the following issues discussed during the 18th Sub-Committee on ATIGA Rules of Origin (SC-AROO). The report of the SC-AROO Meeting appears as ANNEX 2.
Self-certification Pilot Project:
§ Cambodia had participated in the 1st Self-certification Pilot Project while Myanmar expected to complete her domestic procedure to join the 1st Self-certification Pilot Project before the end of November 2015.
§ The Meeting noted the agreement of the PMSs of the 1st Self-certification Pilot Project for the Pilot Project implementation to be extended until 31st December 2016, given that the 29th AFTA Council agreed to extend the deadline to achieve the ASEAN-wide Self-certification to 2016.
§ The Meeting noted the possibility for SC-AROO to convene the workshop on Self-certification which will be funded by ACTI in the first quarter of 2016 or in conjunction with the 20th SC-AROO meeting.
§ The Meeting noted that the 19th SC-AROO had adopted the revised Key Milestones towards achieving ASEAN-wide Self-certification.
Proposed Amendment to the ATIGA OCP to allow acceptance of electronic ATIGA CO Form D:
§ The Meeting noted the Work Plan for the amendment of the ATIGA OCP to allow acceptance of e-CO Form D adopted by the 19th SC-AROO meeting.
§ AMSs were given a two-week time (10 November 2015) to revert on the revised proposed amendment of the ATIGA OCP. After which the said draft would be submitted to MLE for intersessional legal scrubbing and for an ad-referendum endorsement by the AFTA Council, through CCA and SEOM, to support the live implementation of the ASW as targeted on 31st December 2015 / Note
Trade facilitation
13 / ASEAN Trade Repository (ATR)/ National Trade Repository (NTR) / § Apart from the 4 NTRs established by Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia and Thailand, the Meeting noted that the Philippines’ NTR (PNTR) would be launched on 30 October 2015. Cambodia informed the Meeting that her NTR would be established before the November Summit.
§ The Meeting noted the URL of Singapore’s NTR at www.fta.gov.sg which would be established before the November Summit. Myanmar informed the Meeting that she targeted to launch her NTR before the end of 2015. Viet Nam informed the Meeting she was in the process to collect available sources of required information to provide to her NTR and ATR.
§ The Meeting noted information provided by ARISE expert that the ATR website has been transferred to the ASEAN Secretariat which could be accessed through http://atr.asean.org.
§ Noting the urgency and time constraint before the soft launch of the ATR and ASSIST during the ASEAN Business & Investment Summit (ABIS) on 21 November 2015 at the sidelines of the 27th ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the Meeting requested AMSs to expedite the establishment of their NTRs as well as to populate as much information as possible to guarantee a critical mass of information/web links between their NTRs and ATR as mandated by 29th AFTA Council. / Note
14 / Trade Statistic / § The Meeting discussed the approach on how to undertake an in-depth analysis on the low utilisation rate of Form D as suggested by the ASEAN Secretariat and agreed to further discuss this issue at the next meeting.
§ AMSs were requested to check and re-submit the revised trade data of Form D for 2014, possibly including MFN rates, to the ASEAN Secretariat to further discussion at the 20th CCA meeting.
§ The Meeting also agreed to discuss how to develop a guideline/criteria at the 20th CCA to ensure the quality and accuracy of the data which will be submitted to the ASEAN Secretariat for further analysis to Ministers. / Note
15 / ASEAN Solutions for Investments, Services and Trade (ASSIST) / § The Meeting noted that ASSIST website was established and accessible through http://assist.asean.org.
§ The Meeting noted the proposal from ARISE for the regional workshop to train the ASSIST focal points of each AMS on 3 or 4 December 2015. Noting that some AMSs would not be available on the proposed date, the Meeting agreed to discuss the date of the workshop intersessionally. / Note
Other matters
16 / Issue arising from the export of maize from Cambodia and Lao PDR to Thailand / § The Meeting noted an on-going discussion between Cambodia, Lao PDR and Thailand on the maize issue.
§ The Meeting noted Thailand’s effort to resolve this issue and encouraged the three Member States to exert more effort to find an amicable solution on this issue. / Note
17 / Non-paper on Promoting CLMV Export Potentials / § The Meeting requested AMSs to provide comments on the said non-paper one month before the next CCA Meeting. / Note
18 / AEC Blueprint 2025 / § The Meeting noted the AEC blueprint 2025 and Strategic Action Plan (SAP) and discussed possible inputs to the AEC 2025 Strategic Plan for strategic measures under trade in goods.
§ The Meeting agreed to treat the SAP with inputs from AMSs as a living document and requested AMSs to provide comments on the said document by 30 November 2015. / Note
19 / Proposals from AANZFTA / § The Meeting noted the proposal from AANZFTA Committee on Trade in Goods (AANZFTACTG) on: i) 170 PSR lines and ii) Chemical and Plastic Production process Rules under AANZFTA.
§ Noting that this is a policy issue which requires SEOM’s guidance on whether ATIGA PSRs should be as equal or more liberal than those under ASEAN+1 FTAs following the principle of ASEAN centrality, the Meeting tasked SC-AROO to discuss this matter to come up with a recommendation. / Note
List of Annexes:
1. Report of the 19th CCA
2. Report of 19th SC-AROO
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