Members consider five regional trade agreements

WTO members considered five regional trade agreements (RTAs) at the 22 September meeting of the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements. The Chair of the Committee, Ambassador Taeho Lee of the Republic of Korea, called on members to step up efforts to provide outstanding data and comments for factual presentations of RTAs and to consider how the Committee’s work could be improved as part of efforts to reform the WTO.

The RTAs mentioned above are:

The Committee considered the trade in services aspect of the Free Trade Agreement between the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) member states and Singapore, which entered into force on 1 September 2013. The trade in goods aspect of the Agreement will be considered by the Committee on Trade and Development.

The Trade Agreement between Switzerland and the United Kingdom entered into force on 1 January 2021. It largely replicates legal instruments which governed relations in trade in goods under the EU-Switzerland agreements.

The Association Agreement between the United Kingdom and Tunisia also entered into force on 1 January 2021. The Agreement maintains tariff preferences provided between the parties under the EU-Tunisia Association Agreement. 

The Free Trade Agreement between the United Kingdom and the Republic of Korea entered into force on 1 January 2021. Under the Agreement, the parties continued their implementation of the tariff elimination negotiated under the EU-Korea agreement. 

Finally, the Committee considered the Free Trade Agreement between the Republic of Korea and the Republics of Central America. The Agreement entered into force for Honduras, Nicaragua and Korea on 1 October 2019, for Korea and Costa Rica on 1 November 2019 and for Korea and Panama on 1 March 2021. 

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