In
July 2000, the following services meetings took place:
5
July
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7
July
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11
July
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12
July
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13
July
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14
July
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Council
for Trade in Services
Review of MFN exemptions
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GATS
Rules working party
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Specific
Commitments
committee
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Domestic
Regulations working party
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Financial
Services Committee
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Council
for Trade in Services — Special session
(continued)
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Council
for Trade in Services — Special session
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Council
for Trade in Services
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Council
for Trade in Services — Review of
Most-Favoured-Nation (MFN) exemptions
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This
was the second Services Council session on the review of
MFN exemptions. The first such session took place on 29
May 2000. The exercise, which took the shape of a
question-and-answer exchange, provided additional
information on Members' exemptions. The exercise will be
continued in October, mainly to address the question of
the “determination of the date of any further
review”.
Members
also agreed to look at other issues arising from the
review, such as the procedures to be followed for
amending MFN exemptions, in the Services Council meeting
in October 2000.
Working
Party on GATS Rules
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The
working party is responsible for the negotiations of
services rules on safeguards, subsidies and government
procurement.
On
safeguards, the Members have
concentrated so far on an ASEAN concept paper containing
elements of possible rules on emergency safeguard
measures for trade in services as well as on a list of
key questions prepared by the Chairman of the working
party. At this meeting, ASEAN announced it was revising
its paper and would present the new version to the
working party in the Autumn.
Members
have until 15 December 2000 to negotiate rules on
safeguards.
On
subsidies, the European Communities (EC)
presented an informal paper outlining its internal policy
in the field of subsidies or state aid, particularly for
services. At the same time, members agreed that the
Chairman would draft by the end of July a check-list of
issues which the working party should look at to help
structure its debate at future meetings. This check-list
will include issues such as: definition of a subsidy,
existing evidence of trade-distorting subsidies, to what
extent WTO rules already discipline subsidies in services
(for example, WTO rules on national treatment and on
MFN), and the role of subsidies in relation to
development.
On
government procurement, the EC put
forward an informal paper highlighting possible areas of
discussion. The EC proposes to focus on the application
of non-discrimination and transparency principles to
government procurement of services.
Committee
on Specific Commitments
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For
the purpose of negotiation and commitment making,
services must be classified. The WTO currently uses a
list
which dates from the Uruguay Round of negotiations.
Members are looking at the need to create new
classifications for new services (for example, some
environmental services and energy services) or the need
to reclassify certain existing services. The committee is
also revising the scheduling guidelines which will be
used during the market access services negotiations.
Working
Party on Domestic Regulations Back
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Several
Members informed the working party on their consultations
with domestic professional organizations regarding the
applicability of the accountancy disciplines to other
professions. In general, these organizations think the
disciplines are useful and relevant and could apply, with
some changes for each profession, to them.
The
Members went on to discuss concepts relating to the
development of regulatory disciplines based on a draft
Secretariat Check-list of issues currently under
discussion, focusing primarily on the concepts of
necessity and transparency.
Committee
on Financial Services
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The
Committee examined the status of acceptance of the Fifth
Protocol on Financial Services. Nine members are yet to
accept the Protocol.
Members
discussed, based on a proposal by Australia, the
desirability of initiating work in relation to prudential
regulation. Some Members suggested that regulatory issues
in general, including prudential measures, could be taken
up to enhance understanding of relevant issues. A
proposal that the Committee seek more information on
regulatory work from international organizations such as
the International Association of Insurance Supervisors,
the Basel Committee of Banking Regulators and the
International and the International Organization of
Securities Commission, was also discussed. The Committee
decided to conduct informal consultations on how to
proceed on this issue before the next meeting in October.
Special
session of the Services Council on negotiations Back
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Members
first addressed the establishment of guidelines for
negotiations. They discussed a paper prepared by the
Secretariat on possible elements for inclusion in the
guidelines. The EC also presented an informal paper
containing drafting elements for the guidelines.
The
Council then discussed the assessment of trade in
services and agreed to a seminar, to be held in the
autumn, on the collection of statistics on services.
Under
the agenda item “Other matters relating to the
negotiations”, the United States presented a paper
on the framework
for negotiation.
The Council also discussed two papers, by the delegations
of Australia and the EC, on the use of
"clusters" techniques in the negotiations.
Finally,
under the agenda item “Tourism Services”, the
Council continued to discuss a proposal by the Dominican
Republic, El Salvador and Honduras of a GATS Annex on
Tourism. The Secretary General of the World Tourism
Organization, Mr. Francesco Frangialli, called for the
recognition of the specificity of tourism services and
for the creation of an annex on tourism services. Members
discussed the organizational arrangements and content of
a proposed symposium on tourism services.
The
Chairpersons of the subsidiary bodies reported orally to
the Special Session on the progress of work in their
respective committees and working parties.
Council
for Trade in Services
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The
Council continued its discussion of the review of the
Understanding on accounting rates in basic
telecommunications. A report by the International
Telecommunications Union (ITU) on their work on reforming
the accounting rates system helped to inform Members'
discussions.
Members
then addressed the issue of notifications under Article V
of the GATS on Economic integration agreements, and
discussed, inter alia, ways of improving their
timeliness.
Finally,
the delegation of Brazil submitted a revised schedule of
commitments in basic telecommunications. Due to the late
submission, the Council agreed to revert to this matter
at its next meeting.
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