ABSTRACT
The terms proposed there of ‘Reciprocal Preferential Trade Arrangements’ for those agreements to which the 2006 Decision applies and ‘Non-Reciprocal Preferential Trade Arrangements (NRPTAs)’ for those understandings to which the 2010 Decision pertains are to be used in the text which follows. The General Council Decision of 14 December 2010 on the Transparency Mechanism for Preferential Trade Arrangements omits a statement on the announcement of NRPTAs to the World Trade Organization – i.e., equivalent to the first sentence of the above section entitled ‘The Decision of 14 December 2006 on the Transparency Mechanism for Regional Trade Agreements’. The Committee on Trade and Development is to implement the Transparency Mechanism with regard to NRPTA. The Committee’s consideration of a NRPTA is to be concluded within one year of the date of its notification – which is the same length of time that the Decision of 14 December 2006 on the Transparency Mechanism for Regional Trade Agreements grants for the consideration of an RPTA.
