CONFIDENTIAL
Rules of Origin
16. There was some discussion on how this question should be
handled with a number of delegations favouring the early establish-
ment of a sub-group of customs experts.
Di Martino (BEC) was,
however, firm on what the C considered the sub-group should do.
They could not agree to harmonisation of rules of origin if that
implied that the Community should change its own rules. They would
apply their own rules and could not modify them. The most the
Community could agree to in this was for the experts to take note of
examples where differing rules worried certain countries but the
experts should make no recommendations in this regard. He added that
the donor countries should request certificates of origin furnished by
the competent authorities of the exporting countries for all goods
claiming preference.
17. There was then some discussion of when the expert sub-group
should meet and how its terms of reference should be drawn up. It
was agreed that the Working Party of the Trade Committee should consider
the terms of reference at the same time as they prepared the summary of
conclusions on safeguards; and that the expert sub-group should aim to
begin its mecting on Tuesday, 4 March.
Working Hypotheses
18. There was a complete reluctance on the part of the Group to
respond to an invitation by Monk (Canada) to give some indication
of the sort of working hypotheses their governments were working to in
drawing up their lists. Monk did, however, volunteer himself that
the Canadians were thinking of
(a) Beneficiaries: a list which appeared to include all
potential claimants;
(b) Depth of cut: initially a "substantial cut across the board,"
falling short of duty free entry, with few or no exceptions,
and with the possibility of further cuts subsequently very
much along the lines of the ideas floated previously by the
Swiss;
CONFIDENTIAL
/(c)