Plurilateral negotiations in services start

In Hong Kong, ministers agreed that the request/offer negotiations should be pursued not only bilaterally but also on a plurilateral basis.

The Declaration calls upon groups of Members presenting plurilateral requests to other Members to do so by 28 February 2006 or as soon as possible thereafter.

A plurilateral request would be focused on a specific sector or mode of supply.

Request/offer negotiations be they bilateral or plurilateral, are a process of direct engagement between Members. It starts with submission of requests and continues with private meetings between Members concerned.

Plurilateral requests will be addressed directly from the demandeurs to other Members to whom these are made. The Secretariat is not systematically informed of such requests or their content.

Neither the Secretariat nor the Chairman attend meetings between Members in the request/offer process. Exchanges in those meetings are strictly private, unless otherwise provided for by participants.

It is expected that a number of plurilateral requests will be submitted by 28 February (10-12 requests) focusing on sectors and modes of supply of primary interest to requesting Members. It is also expected that more requests will follow shortly thereafter.

It is not yet clear whether Members will agree to release the contents of such requests to the public. However, there seems to be considerable interest in making the process as transparent as possible.

Sectors and modes of supply in which plurilateral requests are likely to be submitted would include, but not limited to, telecommunications, distribution, environmental, financial, audio-visual, maritime, logistics, energy and mode 4.

Plurilateral meetings to discuss such requests will be organized by Members concerned during the next services cluster of meetings scheduled from 27 March – 7 April. As stipulated in the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration, Members will organize such meetings with a view to facilitating the participation of all Members, taking into account the limited capacity of developing countries and small delegations.