45. Mr. S. Kiyotani, Director-General for Engineering Affairs of the Road Transport Bureau of Japan, gave a presentation on the importance of the future establishment of the IWVTA system and highlighted Japan’s contributions and activities on this subject including Japan’s initiatives, if agreed by WP.29, to review several technical regulations (WP.29-159-18). He underlined that the IWVTA system would be beneficial (i) for all governments in delivering transparent, robust and reliable processes for vehicle type approvals, (ii) for the industry in an efficient type approval procedure for vehicles and (iii) for consumers who benefit from lower vehicle prices. His presentation was well received by WP.29.

46. The representative of France, chairing the informal group on IWVTA, reported that good progress was made in this respect by the group during the meetings held in Paris prior to the WP.29 session. The representative of EU, chairing the IWVTA subgroup on the 1958 Agreement, presented a first draft proposal of the revised 1958 Agreement (WP.29-159-19). He recalled the main purpose of that revision and outlined the remaining issues for which the group members seek the advice of WP.29: (i) level of ambition with respect to the list of 50 action items previously endorsed by WP.29 as well as concerns and questions raised when discussing this list (one of these questions raised by the group is the legal status of the so-called placeholder specifying the administrative provisions for the type approval procedure), (ii) the possible reduction of the notification procedure by a Contracting Party from six months to three months and the possible need to change the condition of the formal adoption of a new Regulation or an amendment to an existing Regulation, (iii) the exchange of Type-approval data and the role of DETA in this process and (iv) the application of the Regulations annexed to the 1958 Agreement for self-certification purposes.

47. The representative of Japan expressed his preferences that (i) the amendments to the Agreement be as simple as possible to ease domestic procedures, (ii) the new provisions specified in the placeholder should not be part of the Agreement itself, but be referenced or annexed to the 1958 Agreement to simplify their future amendments and (iii) the possible revision of conditions for the formal adoption of a new Regulation or an amendment to an existing Regulation be considered taking into account some Asian countries’ opinion to change it from two-third to four-fifth majority of the Contracting Parties (CPs). On the latter, the representatives of India and the Republic of Korea expressed their support and stressed the need for further considerations. The representative of the Republic of Korea underlined the need to review the proposed provisions of the 1958 Agreement to allow the application of the UN Regulations annexed to the 1958 Agreement for self-certification purposes. He stated that his country can only adopt the technical provisions with the exception of other administrative procedures, including Conformity of Production (CoP), of the Regulations because of significant different procedures between self-certification and type-approval systems.

48. The Vice-Chair of WP.29 (Russian Federation) reminded the World Forum that 1998 Agreement was developed parallel to the 1958 Agreement and that the 1998 Agreement had only technical provisions to better cover the needs of countries applying self-certification procedures.

49. The secretariat reported on its exchange of views with OLA on possibly reducing the entry into force period of new Regulations or new amendments to existing Regulations by simplifying the first notification procedure after the adoption by WP.29/AC.1. The World Forum welcomed this initiative and requested the secretariat to further investigate with OLA the legal possibility to simplify the notification procedures.

50. The representative of the United Kingdom stressed the importance of retaining in the Agreement the overriding principle of the mutual recognition of the type approvals that helps and facilitates open markets between the Contracting Parties. This position was shared by the majority of the Contracting Parties to the Agreement.

51. The representative of Japan, chairing the IWVTA subgroup on the development of UN Regulation No. 0, informed WP.29 about the work progress made and announced the group’s intention to further develop, at its June 2013 meeting, the explanatory note on the flexible scheme for IWVTA. He added that the subgroup expected to consider the procedure on how to upgrade Regulation No. 0, to clarify the so-called IWVTA step 1 and to clarify the crucial question if a Contracting Party applying it would have to apply and recognize all individual Regulations listed in Regulation No. 0. He announced the subgroup’s intention to finalize a first proposal on Regulation No. 0 for consideration by WP.29 at its November 2013 session.

52. The World Forum acknowledged the progress made by the IWVTA subgroup. The Chair expected the informal group to submit the final draft revision of the 1958 Agreement for consideration at the November 2013 session on the basis of an official document. He underlined the need of the readiness by a Contracting Party to initiate the official procedure with OLA for the submission of the amendment to the 1958 Agreement. He invited the delegates from the Contracting Parties to the Agreement to be in the position, at the forthcoming session in June 2013, to give information on their national/regional procedures for the adoption and transposition of the revised Agreement, and on the time needed for the completion of this procedure.