viii. With regards to the comments from Malaysia to change the term “boundary” with “territories” on the definition of ASEAN Automotive Products, the Meeting agreed to adopt the proposal of Malaysia subject to the legal scrubbing by LSAD.
Article 3 – General Provisions
ix. The Meeting noted that Malaysia earlier proposed to change the term “Designating Body/Regulatory Authority” in item 2 into “Designating Body or Regulatory Authority”. Malaysia has been made to understand that in some Member States such as Viet Nam, the “Regulatory Authority” and “Designating Body” are the same agency. Thus, the Meeting agreed to use the term “Designating Body/Regulatory Authority” throughout the MRA document. However, Malaysia is of the view that from the drafting perspective, the word “and” does not necessarily includes “or” but the word “or” includes “and”. As such, Malaysia proposed to introduce “or” instead of forward slash “/” and to read as “Designating Body or Regulatory Authority”.
x. Viet Nam explained that in her country, she has one body that performs the functions of a “Designating Body” and “Regulatory Authority” and has been the understanding in the MRA that why the draft MRA uses “Designating Body/Regulatory Authority”. Thailand further explained that using “or” will affect the context of the MRA noting there are functions of the Designating Body that is not applicable to Regulatory Authority which is different when these are perform by different bodies. The meeting also explored the possibility of clarifying this on the footnote of the MRA document; however the ASEAN Secretariat informed the Meeting on the suggestion of LSAD not to put a footnote on the MRA document but to include the information in the definitions, if necessary. The Meeting agreed to maintain the original text subject to the legal scrubbing and Malaysia’s discussion with her AGC. The Meeting also agreed to update the AMS on the outcome on this issue from LSAD and AGC for their consideration.
Article 4 – Scope and Coverage
xi. Brunei Darussalam sought clarification on whether the term “Annex” in item 4 below intends to mean all Annexes or only Annex 1. The Meeting clarified that “the Annex” in paragraph 4 of Article 4 refers to “Annex 1”.
xii. The Meeting clarified that from the comment from Brunei Darussalam on Article 4 item 2 quoted below, that the texts have already been moved to “Article 17”.
“The Annex shall be reviewed regularly and updated or revised by consensus by the AAC without recourse to the provision on amendments under this Arrangement.”
Article 5 – Institutional Arrangement
xiii. The Meeting agreed on the editorial comments from Brunei Darussalam.
Article 7 - Listing of Technical Service
xiv. Brunei Darussalam provided editorial comments and sought clarification on the phrase “which is deemed as the contestation period” because for Brunei Darussalam it seemed redundant. Brunei Darussalam also proposed to change the order of the sub-items under item 2 by moving paragraph c) to b).