33. On behalf of GRRF, [the GRRF chair] recommended the establishment of the draft global technical regulation (gtr) on tyres into the Global Registry, on the basis of ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2013/63, as amended by ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2014/83 and WP.29‑164-04. He also recommended amending the final report on Phase I on the development of the gtr (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2013/122) as indicated in WP.29-164-04. He announced that France had indicated that it would not sponsor Phase II of the gtr.

The United States abstains due to the inability to quantify the benefits in terms of lives saved as required by US statutes caused by a current lack of resources to devote to the effort. All other Contracting Parties present vote in favor. The EU expresses its disappointment and stresses its belief that the effectiveness of the 1998 Agreement requires urgent attention.

The United States abstains due to the inability to quantify the benefits in terms of lives saved as required by US statutes caused by a current lack of resources to devote to the effort. All other Contracting Parties present vote in favor. The EU expresses its disappointment and stresses its belief that the effectiveness of the 1998 Agreement requires urgent attention.

105. Submitted for consideration and vote, the proposed draft UN GTR on tyres (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2013/63, ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2014/83, WP.29-164-04) was established in the UN Global Registry on 13 November 2014 by consensus vote of the following Contracting Parties present and voting: Australia, Canada, China, European Union (voting for Cyprus, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom), India, Japan, Norway, Republic of Korea, Russian Federation, South Africa and Turkey.

106. The technical report (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2013/122, WP.29-164-04) and the adopted proposal for the development of the UN GTR (ECE/TRANS/WP.29/AC.3/15) would be appended to the established UN GTR.

107. The United States of America voted to abstain on the UN GTR on tyres. The representative of the United States of America thanked France as sponsor, the United Kingdom for the chairmanship, and the tyre industry for the time and energy involved in the effort. He stated that the UN GTR offers a set of safety requirements that, in its entirety, no single country or region currently has and that, when implemented would truly increase vehicle safety worldwide. He further indicated that the United States of America abstained as it is not in a position to implement the UN GTR within a year due to resource constraints (according to the rules of the 1998 Agreement).

108. The representative of EU expressed his gratitude to the parties for their hard work to finalize the draft GTR on tyres and welcomed the positive vote by the Contracting Parties. He regretted that there had been one abstention and pointed out that the need for efficiency of the 1998 Agreement was more than urgent. The representative of ETRTO echoed a similar statement.

25. The Chair of GRRF recalled the purpose of ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2013/63 (Draft UN GTR on tyres), amended by ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRRF/2014/20 (adopted at the seventy-seventh session of GRRF), and ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2013/122 (the corresponding technical report).

26. The expert from France presented GRRF-78-18 introducing minor updates to ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2013/63 and ECE/TRANS/WP.29/2013/122. He added that the timeline for further development of the gtr had to be updated, taking into account the delay to adopt phase I. GRRF adopted GRRF-78-18 as amended by GRRF-78-47 and as reproduced in Annex III to this report. GRRF requested the secretariat to submit the proposal to WP.29 and AC.3 for consideration at their November 2014 sessions.

27. GRRF reviewed the ECE/TRANS/WP.29/GRRF/2014/20 containing the amendments defined at the seventy-seventh GRRF session. The Chair recalled that GRRF previously agreed that updates to the UN GTR on tyres would be proposed after its establishment in the global registry by AC.3 to keep it in line with the latest regulatory developments.

28. Finally, the expert from France advised GRRF that his country would not be able to sponsor phase 2 of the UN GTR on tyres once phase 1 was concluded.

100. The representative of the United Kingdom, Chair of the IWG on the UN GTR on Tyres, informed AC.3 that five questions were still unresolved. He confirmed that two Contracting Parties were still in the process of reviewing the text of the draft UN GTR. Referring to the final report on the development of the UN GTR (WP.29-160-09), he stated that, in the case of disagreement at the September 2013 session of GRRF, an optional test procedure should be included in addition to the two optional modules.

101. The representative of EU stated that a really long list of controversial provisions had been solved by March 2013 and, due to the five remaining unresolved questions, the UN GTR could not be adopted during the current session. He urged the Contracting Parties to make an effort to solve the pending issues at the September 2013 session of GRRF, thus allowing for voting on the draft UN GTR at the November 2013 session of AC.3.

102. The secretariat was requested to distribute WP.29-160-09 with an official symbol for consideration at the November 2013 session of AC.3.