[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