The Chairperson drew the Committee's attention to document G/MA/SPEC/20 which contained the draft periodic report of this Committee. She noted that this report, which would be finalized in the light of the discussions at this meeting would be submitted to the Council for Trade in Goods for examination at its meeting of 2 May 2002. The report contained in its Annexes I and II tables summarizing factual information on the waivers under process submitted by the Members concerned. In this context, she requested the Committee to take note of the requests that had been presented by these Members concerning their respective waivers and of the reasons for doing so.

1.2 As could be noted in this document, the waivers were divided into two different groups: (1) the waivers granted in connection with the introduction of HS96 changes into the WTO schedules; and (2) the waivers related to the transposition of pre-Uruguay Round schedules into the Harmonized System (Nicaragua and Sri Lanka). All the waivers expired on 30 April 2002.

1.3 As far as the first group of waivers was concerned, She recalled that the Committee had agreed the previous year that no further extension of the waiver, on a collective basis, would be granted. However, that this would not preclude Members from requesting waivers on an individual basis. She noted from Annex I of the document G/MA/SPEC/20, that to date 13 Members had forwarded to the Secretariat requests for waivers in connection with the introduction of HS96 changes to their schedules of concessions. Factual information had been provided by these Members concerning their request and in most cases a draft decision had also already been circulated. In two cases (Argentina and Pakistan) the draft decisions were forthcoming.