At the meeting on 19 July, Member States were asked to give their informal voting intentions on whether the draft Regulation (now rev.4 but little changed from rev.2) should be sent to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) for comment. A Qualified Majority (QM) in favour was not obtained, with the UK among five Member States abstaining.
As a result, a further meeting of the Standing Committee was held on 25 July to obtain the formal voting intentions of Member States. Again there was no QM in favour, with the UK abstaining. The draft Regulation will now be put to the Council under the procedure laid down in Council Regulation No 315/93, i.e. the Council has three months from the date of referral to act. If the Council does not adopt any measures within three months of the proposal being submitted to it, then the Commission will adopt the proposed measures, unless the Council has voted by a simple majority against such measures.