RESOLUTION ECO 1/94

ACCELERATION OF THE SUPPRESSION OF OBSTACLES TO INTERNATIONAL WINE TRADE

THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY,

BASED ON the proposal of Commission III “Vitiuinicultural Economies ”,

IN VIEW OF the reports and the papers presented at the 73rd session at San Francisco, August 29 - September 3, 1993 on the theme, “Knowledge of the Markets —Stratégies of International Firms ”,

DECLARES that there still exist numerous obstacles of uarious types constituting hindrances to free trade of vitiuinicultural products at the international level:

• measures of a technical character,
• measures of a fiscal character, when they are discriminatory,
• measures of an administrative character,

Added to which are Custom provisions, quotas or monopoly,

NOTES the G.A.T.T. Agreement signed in Marrakech, April 1994,

EMPHASIZES that gains in business productivity in the vitiuinicultural sector rest, to a large extent; on international harmonization of régulations, permitting them to reduce costs, and to further improve the quality of the product through more efficient methods of production and pré­ sentation,

RECOMMENDS the Member States to take special notice in their national régulations of labelling standards —mandatory and optional information —established by the OIV,

RECOMMENDS that the member states respecting the G.A. T. T. agreement already mentioned, accelerate the dismantling of tariff and non-tariff barriers which act as obstacles to the interna­ tional trade of vitiuinicultural products,

WISHES that the Member States adhéré to the principle of reasonable equilibrium in matters of export and import policy, without préjudice of the right of each Member State to freely establish its own fiscal provisions,

ASKS the uarious Groups of Experts to intensify, within their areas of compétence, their work aiming at the harmonization of régulations and at standardization of methods and practices, in order to propose to the Member States a collection of measures capable of improving the situ­ ation.