WORLD TRADE G/PSI/IE/3
G/L/120
ORGANIZATION 18October 1996
(96-4337)
Agreement onPreshipment Inspection
Independent Entity
REPORT OFTHE INDEPENDENT ENTITY TOTHE
COUNCIL FOR TRADE INGOODS
TheAgreement onPreshipment Inspection provides fortheestablishment ofanIndependent
Entity fortheadministration oftheindependent review procedures assetoutinArticle 4ofthe
Agreement. TheIndependent Entity (IE)wasestablished byDecision oftheGeneral Council of
13December1995(WT/L/125/Rev.1).ParagraphI.CoftheStructuresandFunctionsoftheIndependent
Entity (Annex IIofWT/L/125/Rev.1) provides that,
"theIEwillreport totheCouncil forTrade inGoods atleastonceayearbutmore frequently
ifnecessary."
Thereport below ispresented inaccordance withtheabove requirement.
1. TheDecision oftheGeneral Council of13December 1995 (WT/L/125/Rev.1) approved the
Agreement between theWTO, theInternational Chamber ofCommerce (ICC), andtheInternational
Federation ofInspection Agencies (IFIA) establishing theIndependent Entity foreseen inArticle 4(a)
oftheAgreement onPreshipment Inspection. Annex IoftheDecision contains theterms ofthe
Agreement between theWTO, theICC, andtheIFIA; Annex IIcontains theStructure andFunctions
oftheIndependent Entity; andAnnex IIIcontains theRules ofProcedure fortheOperation of
Independent Reviews.
2. Following theDecision oftheGeneral Council, theadministrative andprocedural requirements
necessary tocommence operations oftheIEwereputinplace inApril 1996. Specifically, theList
ofExperts forIndependent Reviews hadbeenfinalized anddistributed indocument G/PSI/IE/1, and
theinformation andapplication forms hadbeentranslated anddistributed globally totheaffiliates and
contacts ofICCandIFIA. Following thisconfirmation, WTO Members were notified thatasof1
May1996,theIEwouldbepreparedtoreceiveapplicationsrequestingindependentreviews(G/PSI/IE/2).
3. During thereporting period, theIEhasreceived norequests foranindependent review.