SURVEILLANCE BODY SET UP ON STANDSTILL AND ROLLBACK.

Jan 31, 1987

SURVEILLANCE BODY SET UP ON STANDSTILL AND ROLLBACK.

GENEVA, JANUARY 29 (IFDA) – The Trade Negotiations Committee, the overall political body for the Uruguay round, has established a surveillance mechanism for surveillance of the Punta del Este commitments for standstill and rollback.

The Surveillance body is to be open to all GATT participants.

Any participant could bring to its attention, through the GATT Secretariat, any action or measures taken by itself or others, which are relevant to the commitment.

The GATT secretariat is obliged to promptly circulate such notifications to all participants, along with any explanations or information where the notification concerns actions of other participants.

The Surveillance Body is to examine the actions or measures complained of, in relation to the commitments undertaken, and is to transmit a record of its proceedings to the next meeting of the TNC, with a record also transmitted to the GNG for its information.

As regards the rollback, any participant may bring to the attention of other participants, through the GATT secretariat, any measures it is applying or applied by others, which should be the subject of the rollback commitment.

The concerned participants are required to consult in order to arrive at rollback undertakings. Timely notice of such consultations are to be sent to the secretariat for information of all participants, so that any affected participant may also take part in the consultations.

Participants maintaining measures that might be subject to the rollback commitment are required to inform the Surveillance Body by December 31, 1987 of the rollback undertakings resulting from the first round of consultations.

Any undertakings resulting from the consultations are to be notified to the Surveillance Body, which is required to monitor the implementation of these undertakings and report to the TNC, and also transmit the report to the GNG for its information.

The Surveillance Body is to meet at least three times a year. But following GATT practices, any contracting party might also request an urgent meeting, which request will be normally met.

The first meeting of the Surveillance body is set for the week beginning February 23. It already has complaints from Mexico, Canada and EEC over U.S. violations on account of the discriminatory tax on imported petroleum and petroleum products, as also a "user-fee" on all imports for processing of documents by customs.

The TNC itself will meet every six months to carry out, on the basis of the records and reports of the Surveillance Body, a periodic commitments, and of its impact on the Multilateral Trade Negotiations.