ARRANGEMENT REGARDING BOVINE MEAT PREAMBLE Convinced that increased international cooperation should be carried out in such a way as to contribute to the achievement of greater liberalization, stability and expansion in international trade in meat and live animals;Taking into account the need to avoid serious disturbances in international trade in bovine meat and live animals;Recognizing the importance of production and trade in bovine meat and live animals for the economies of many countries, especially for certain developed and developing countries;Mindful of their obligations to the principles and objectives of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (hereinafter referred to as 'General Agreement' or 'GATT') (1):Determined, in carrying out the aims of this Arrangement to implement the principles and objectives agreed upon in the Tokyo Declaration of Ministers, dated 11 September 1973 concerning the Multilateral Trade Negotiations, in particular as concerns special and more favourable treatment for developing countries;The participants in the present Arrangement have, through their representatives, agreed as follows:PART ONE GENERAL PROVISIONS Article IObjectivesThe objectives of this Arrangement shall be:(1) to promote the expansion, ever greater liberalization and stability of the international meat and livestock market by facilitating the progressive dismantling of obstacles and restrictions to world trade in bovine meat and live animals, including those which compartmentalize this trade, and by improving the international framework of world trade to the benefit of both consumer and producer, importer and exporter;(2) to eucourage greater international cooperation in all aspects affecting the trade in bovine meat and live animals with a view in particular to greater rationalization and more efficient distribution of resources in the international meat economy;(3) to secure additional benefits for the international trade of developing countries in bovine meat and live animals through an improvement in the possibilities for these countries to participate in the expansion of world trade in these products by means of inter alia:(a) promoting long-term stability of prices in the context of an expanding world market for bovine meat and live animals; and(b) promoting the maintenance and improvement of the earnings of developing countries that are exporters of bovine meat and live animals;the above with a view thus to deriving additional earnings, by means of securing long-term stability of markets for bovine meat and live animals;(4) to further expand trade on a competitive basis taking into account the traditional position of efficient producers.Article IIProduct CoverageThis Arrangement applies to bovine meat. For the purpose of this Arrangement, the term 'bovine meat' is considered to include:CCCN(a) Live bovine animals01.02(b) Meat and edible offals of bovine animals, fresh, chilled or frozenex 02.01(c) Meat and edible offals of bovine animals, salted, in brine, dried or smokedex 02.06(d) Other prepared or preserved meat or offal of bovine animalsex 16.02and any other product that may be added by the International Meat Council, as established under the terms of Article V of this Arrangement, in order to accomplish the objectives and provisions of this Arrangement.Article IIIInformation and Market Monitoring1. All participants agree to provide regularly and promptly to the Council, the information which will permit the Council to monitor and access the overall situation of the world market for meat and the situation of the world market for each specific meat.2. Participating developing countries shall furnish the information available to them. In order that these countries may improve their data collection mechanism, developed participants, and any developing participants able to do so, shall consider sympathetically any request to them for technical assistance.3. The information that the participants undertake to provide pursuant to paragraph 1 of this Article, according to the modalities that the Council shall establish, shall include data on past performance and current situation and an assessment of the outlook regarding production (including the evolution of the composition of herds), consumption, prices, stocks of and trade in the products referred to in Article II, and any other information deemed necessary by the Council, in particular on competing products. Participants shall also provide information on their domestic policies and trade measures including bilateral and plurilateral commitments in the bovine sector, and shall notify as early as possible any changes in such policies and measures that are likely to affect international trade in live bovine animals and meat. The provisions of this paragraph shall not require any participant to disclose confidential information which would impede law enforcement or otherwise be contrary to the public interest or would prejudice the legitimate commercial interests of particular enterprises, public or private.4. The secretariat of the Arrangement shall monitor variations in market data, in particular herd sizes, stocks, slaughterings and domestic and international prices, so as to permit early detection of the symptoms of any serious imbalance in the supply and demand situation. The secretariat shall keep the Council