19. The representative of Switzerland said that the Council had decided last year to have items E and F as separate items, grouping together the relevant mandates, rather than as sub-items under the agenda items on the reviews of Articles 27.3(b) and 71.1 in order to avoid repetition. Nevertheless, he believed that the reason why they now appeared as separate agenda items was that they were considered to be implementation issues. He fully subscribed to the statement made by the European Communities that all implementation issues should be treated equally and that all of them were currently being dealt with at the TNC level to see how to proceed further with them and that substantive work was for the time-being halted. He said that his delegation was willing to proceed in this way subject to these understandings.
