customs requirements, including those relating to advertising matter and samples for use only in taking orders for merchandise. 5. No Member shall impose substantial penalties for minor breaches of customs regulations or procedural requirements. In particular, no penalty in respect of any omission or mistake in customs documentation which is easily rectifiable and obviously made without fraudulent intent or gross negligence shall be greater than necessary to serve merely as a warning. 6. The Members recognize that tariff descriptions based on distinctive regional or geographical names should not be used in such a manner as to discriminate against products of Member countries. Accordingly, the Members shall co-operate with each other directly and through the Organization with a view to eliminating at the earliest practicable date practices which are inconsistent with this principle. Article 37 1. The Members recognize that, in adopting and implementing laws and regulations relating to marks of origin, the difficulties and inconveniences which such measures may cause to the commerce and industry of exporting countries should be reduced to a minimum. 2. Each Member shall accord to the products of each other Member country treatment with regard to marking requirements no less favourable than the treatment accorded to like products of any third country. 3. Whenever it is administratively practicable to do so, Members should permit required marks of origin to be affixed at the time of importation. 4. The laws and regulations of Members relating to the marking of imported products shall be such as to permit compliance without seriously damaging the products or materially reducing their value or unreasonably increasing their cost. 5. The Members agree to work in co-operation through the Organization towards the early elimination of unnecessary marking requirements. The Organization may study and recommend to Members measures directed to this end, including the adoption of schedules of general categories of products, in respect of which marking requirements operate to restrict trade to an extent disproportionate to any proper purpose to be served, and which shall not in any case be required to be marked to indicate their origin. 6. As a general rule no special duty or penalty should be imposed by any Member for failure to comply with marking requirements prior to importation unless corrective marking is unreasonably de layed or deceptive marks have been affixed or the required marking has been intentionally omitted. 7. The Members shall co-operate with each other directly and through the Organization with a view to preventing the use of trade names in such manner as to misrepresent the true origin of a product, to the detriment of the distinctive regional or geographical names of products of a Member country which are protected by the legislation of such country. Each Member shall accord full and sympathetic consideration to such requests or representations as may be made by any other Member regarding the application of the undertaking set forth in the preceding sentence to names of products which have been communicated to it by the other Member. The Organization may recommend a conference of interested Members on this subject. Article 38 Publication and Administration of Trade Regulations 1. Laws, regulations, judicial decisions and administrative rulings of general application made effective by any Member, pertaining to the classification or the valuation of products for customs purposes, or to rates of duty, taxes or other charges, or to requirements, restrictions or prohibitions on imports or exports or on the transfer of payments therefor, or affecting their sale, distribution, transportation, insurance, warehousing, inspection, exhibition, processing, mixing or other use, shall be published promptly in such a manner as to enable governments and traders to become acquainted with them. Agreements affecting international trade policy which are in force between the government or governmental agency of any Member country and the government or governmental agency of any other country shall also be published. Copies of such laws, regulations, decisions, rulings and agreements shall be communicated promptly to the Organization. The provisions of this paragraph shall not require any Member to divulge confidential information the disclosure of 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. 2. No measure of general application taken by any Member effecting an advance in a rate of duty or other charge on imports under an established and uniform practice or imposing a new or more burdensome requirement, restriction or prohibition on imports, or on the transfer of payments therefor, shall be enforced before such measure has been officially made public. 3. (a) Each Member shall administer in a uniform, impartial and reasonable manner all its laws, regulations, decisions and rulings of the kind described in paragraph 1. Suitable facilities shall be afforded 795040°-48 for traders directly affected by any of those matters to consult with the appropriate governmental authorities. (b) Each Member shall maintain, or institute as soon as practicable, judicial, arbitral or administrative tribunals or procedures for the purpose, inter alia, of the prompt review and correction of administrative action relating to customs matters. Such tribunals or procedures shall be independent of the agencies entrusted with administrative enforcement and their decisions shall be implemented by, and shall govern the practice of, such agencies unless an appeal is lodged with a court or tribunal of superior jurisdiction within the time prescribed for appeals to be lodged by importers; Provided that the central administration of such agency may take steps to obtain a review of the matter in another proceeding if there is good cause to believe that the decision is inconsistent with established principles of law or the actual facts. (c) The provisions of sub-paragraph (b) shall not require the elimination or substitution of procedures in force in a Member country on the date of this Charter which in fact provide for an objective and impartial review of administrative action, even though such procedures are not fully or formally independent of the agencies entrusted with administrative enforcement. Any Member employing such procedures shall, upon request, furnish the Organization with full information thereon in order that the Organization may determine whether such procedures conform to the requirements of this subparagraph. Article 39 Information, Statistics and Trade Terminology 1. The Members shall communicate to the Organization, or to such agency as may be designated for the purpose by the Organization, as promptly and in as much detail as is reasonably practicable: (a) statistics of their external trade in goods (imports, exports and, where applicable, re-exports, transit and trans-shipment and goods in warehouse or in bond); (b) statistics of governmental revenue from import and export duties and other taxes on goods moving in international trade and, in so far as readily ascertainable, of subsidy payments affecting such trade. 2. So far as possible, the statistics referred to in paragraph 1 shall be related to tariff classifications and shall be in such form as to reveal the operation of any restrictions on importation or exportation which are based on or regulated in any manner by quantity or value or amounts of exchange made available. 3. The Members shall publish regularly and as promptly as possible the statistics referred to in paragraph 1. 4. The Members shall give careful consideration to any recommendations which the Organization may make to them with a view to improving the statistical information furnished under paragraph 1. 5. The Members shall make available to the Organization, at its request and in so far as is reasonably practicable, such other statistical information as the Organization may deem necessary to enable it to fulfil its functions, provided that such information is not being furnished to other inter-governmental organizations from which the Organization can obtain it. 6. The Organization shall act as a centre for the collection, exchange and publication of statistical information of the kind referred to in paragraph 1. The Organization, in collaboration with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, and with any other organization deemed appropriate, may engage in studies with a view to improving the methods of collecting, analyzing and publishing economic statistics and may promote the international comparability of such statistics, including the possible international adoption of standard tariff and commodity classifications. 7. The Organization, in co-operation with the other organizations referred to in paragraph 6, may also study the question of adopting standards, nomenclatures, terms and forms to be used in international trade and in the official documents and statistics of Members relating thereto, and may recommend the general acceptance by Members of such standards, nomenclatures, terms and forms. SECTION F-SPECIAL PROVISIONS Article 40 Emergency Action on Imports of Particular Products 1. (a) If, as a result of unforeseen developments and of the effect of the obligations incurred by a Member under or pursuant to this Chapter, including tariff concessions, any product is being imported into the territory of that Member in such relatively increased quantities and under such conditions as to cause or threaten serious injury to domestic producers in that territory of like or directly competitive products, the Member shall be free, in respect of such product, and to the extent and for such time as may be necessary to prevent or remedy such injury, to suspend the obligation in whole or in part or to withdraw or modify the concession. (b) If any product which is the subject of a concession with respect to a preference is being imported into the territory of a Member in the circumstances set forth in sub-paragraph (a), so as to cause or Article 44 Customs Unions and Free-Trade Areas 1. Members recognize the desirability of increasing freedom of trade by the development, through voluntary agreements, of closer integration between the economies of the countries parties to such agreements. They also recognize that the purpose of a customs union or free-trade area should be to facilitate trade between the parties and not to raise barriers to the trade of other Member countries with such parties. 2. Accordingly, the provisions of this Chapter shall not prevent, as between the territories of Members, the formation of a customs union or of a free-trade area or the adoption of an interim agreement necessary for the formation of a customs union or of a free-trade area; Provided that: (a) with respect to a customs union, or an interim agreement leading to the formation of a customs union, the duties and other regulations of commerce imposed at the institution of any such union or interim agreement in respect of trade with Member countries not parties to such union or agreement shall not on the whole be higher or more restrictive than the general incidence of the duties and regulations of commerce applicable in the constituent territories prior to the formation of such union or the adoption of such interim agreement, as the case may be; (b) with respect to a free-trade area, or an interim agreement leading to the formation of a free-trade area, the duties and other regulations of commerce maintained in each of the constituent territories and applicable at the formation of such freetrade area or the adoption of such interim agreement to the trade of Member countries not included in such area or not parties to such agreement shall not be higher or more restrictive than the corresponding duties and other regulations of commerce existing in the same constituent territories prior to the formation of the free-trade area, or interim agreement, as the case may be; and (c) any interim agreement referred to in sub-paragraphs (a) or (b) shall include a plan and schedule for the formation of such a customs union or of such a free-trade area within a reasonable length of time. 3. (a) Any Member deciding to enter into a customs union or freetrade area, or an interim agreement leading to the formation of such a union or area, shall promptly notify the Organization and shall make available to it such information regarding the proposed union or |