Proposal for a Council Decision on the conclusion, on behalf of the European Union, of the Protocol Amending the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization

The Doha Round of trade negotiations in the World Trade Organization (also called the Doha Development Agenda or "DDA") was launched in 2001 and covered a broad set of issues including agriculture, industrial goods, services, industrial subsidies and development issues. Negotiations on trade facilitation however only started later after July 2004, when the WTO General Council adopted the "WTO Doha Round Framework Package" including Annex D providing the negotiating framework for trade facilitation.

Once launched, negotiations on trade facilitation had a mandate to clarify and improve relevant aspects of several articles of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade of 1994 ("GATT 1994") with a view to further expediting the movement, release and clearance of goods, including goods in transit. Besides, the mandate states that "the negotiations shall further aim at provisions for effective cooperation between customs or any other appropriate authorities on trade facilitation and customs compliance issues". Finally, the mandate also states that results of the negotiations shall take fully into account the principle of special and differential treatment for developing and least-developed countries, including that the extent and the timing of entering into commitments shall be related to the implementation capacities of developing and least-developed Members.

At the 9th WTO Ministerial Conference (MC9) that took place on 3-6 December 2013, consensus was reached on a set of DDA issues, including on the Agreement on Trade Facilitation. In this context, the main outcome of MC9 was the Ministerial Decision on Trade Facilitation. The legal revision of the text of the Agreement was completed in the first half of 2014.

On 26 November 2014, the General Council adopted the Protocol amending the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization and opened it for acceptance by each WTO Member according with its internal procedures. The Protocol will enter into force in accordance with Article X.3 of the WTO Agreement, taking effect for the Members that have accepted the Protocol and upon acceptance by two thirds of the WTO Members.

The primary objectives of Agreement on Trade Facilitation are to simplify customs procedures and to ensure that trade flows as seamlessly and predictably as possible. Therefore, the Agreement covers matters that fall under the common commercial policy. The legal basis of this proposal is Article 207(4) in conjunction with Article 218(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU).

Article 218(6) of the TFEU provides that the Council, on a proposal from the Commission, shall adopt the decision concluding the Agreement after obtaining the consent of the European Parliament. With this proposal the Council is requested to conclude the Protocol Amending the Marrakesh Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization.

EUR-Lex: COM(2015)50: Follow the progress of this proposal through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2015:050:FIN

---