1st Meeting of the Supervisory Committee of Preferential Trade Agreement among D-8 Member States ( 22 March 2012, Istanbul- Turkey)

The Committee noted with satisfaction that Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan and Turkey, have submitted their respective revised offer lists. The Committee expressed the hope that Iran would submit its revised offer list at an early date.

Participants exchanged views on various aspects of the issue under discussion, and highlighted the following issues:

• The need for transposition of Harmonized System (HS) Code 2007 to HS Code 2012;
• The need for the adoption of new HS Codes (2012) – to be facilitated through the services of the Secretariat; and also to be included in the draft agenda of the second meeting of the Committee;
• It was proposed that each country shall undertake the transposition to HS Code 2012 for its own revised offer list; it was further agreed that the concessions in the revised lists would remain unchanged.
• It was proposed that, if needed, an extraordinary meeting of the Committee might be convened to address this particular issue;
• The Committee agreed that the tentative cut-off date for the first installment of tariff reduction shall be 15 August 2012. The contracting parties shall notify the Secretariat before 30 April 2012 their confirmation regarding the cut-off date. The date of implementation will be announced officially and communicated by the Secretariat.
• The Committee noted the proposal of Pakistan to establish a subcommittee of experts with the following terms of reference:
  1. To identify Para-tariffs and non-tariff barriers employed by the contracting parties;
  2. To undertake mapping of sanitary and phytosanitary conditions and standards prevalent in the contracting parties,
  3. To propose a Road-map for harmonization of standards and sanitary and phytosanitary conditions;
  4. To explore the possibility of mutual recognition agreement amongst the contracting parties.
• The Committee noted Malaysia’s concern that the Agreement may not be effectively implemented without appropriately addressing the issue of D-8 PTA Rules of Origin for some products.
• Following exchange of views on the establishment of the “Arbitration Panel” (Article 26), Turkey expressed readiness to prepare the initial draft on the composition and procedure of the Panel, within two months, to be distributed, by the Secretariat, among the member countries.
• Turkey was elected as the chairperson of the Supervisory Committee for the next 2 years.
• Nigeria and Turkey proposed to host the second meeting of Supervisory Committee – the date of which will be determined and communicated through diplomatic channels.

2nd Meeting of the Supervisory Committee of the Preferential Trade Agreement Among D-8 Member States (29 March 2013 Ankara–Turkey)

These are the following important outcomes during the Meeting:

– The cut-off date of the first installment of tariff reduction

The Meeting agreed to set a new cut-off date as 1st August 2013 for the implementation of first installment, by the Contracting Parties.

-Exchange of views on the transposition of Harmonized System (HS)Code 2007 to HS Code 2012

The Meeting concluded that all Contracting Parties are requested to submit to the Secretariat their offer lists, on transposed HS Code 2012 format, before 1st August 2013.

-Discussion on the draft “Dispute Settlement” Document

An ad hoc Working Group was established by the Supervisory Committee to discuss and subsequently draft a Disputer Settlement Protocol to have a simple facilitative mechanism. The Working Group further agreed to continue their work intersessionally.

-At the 1st Trade Ministers Council Meeting (24-25 June 2013, Abuja – Nigeria), Member States endorsed 1 November 2013 as the new cut-off date for the implementation of first installment of tariff reductions, by the Contracting Parties. In addition, it was agreed that Member States should submit their Revised Offer Lists (transposed to HS Code 2012) to the Secretariat. As of to date, Indonesia, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey have submitted their lists.

3rd Meeting of the Supervisory Committee of the Preferential Trade Agreement Among D-8 Member States (09-10 April 2014 Ankara–Turkey)

-The Meeting decided that the ad-hoc Working Group should continue its discussion on the consolidated draft Dispute Settlement document with the objective to finalize it, latest during the Senior Officials Meeting, which will be held before the Second Trade Ministers’ Council Meeting.

At the 2nd meeting of the D-8 Trade Ministers Council and the 4th Meeting of the Supervisory Committee in Islamabad on 16-17 February 2016 Member States agreed on the following:

• Implementation date of PTA agreed on 1st July 2016
• Members to complete their internal procedure before 01 July 2016
• Members to expedite gazette notification of the D-8 Preferential Trade Agreement at the national level
• Member States to consider expanding Revised Offer Lists so that private sector finds incentive in trading
• Holding Special Session of the Supervisory Committee under the chairmanship of Pakistan in May 2016 in Istanbul to finalize draft Dispute Settlement document and discuss Bangladesh’s proposal regarding 30% local value addition criterion for LDCs
• Submission by Bangladesh a concept paper in support of their proposal for 30% local value addition criterion for LDCs by mid-March 2016
• Holding of Customs working group meeting in Pakistan to discuss and expedite Rules of Origin issues; and
• 3rd Trade Ministers’ Council (TMC) and 5th Supervisory Committee (SC) meeting in 2017 in Malaysia