How the GATS is Administered

4.2 Subsidiary Bodies

The Council for Trade in Services has instituted four subsidiary bodies to deal with individual sectors or technical issues and/or to conduct negotiations in rule-making areas not finally concluded during the Uruguay Round.

The Committee on Trade in Financial Services discusses trade and regulatory developments in financial services and reviews the application of the GATS to this sector. As part of its monitoring function, the Committee receives periodic updates from the few Members that have not yet ratified the Fifth Protocol. (The Protocol is intended to ensure implementation of the results of the negotiations on financial services which were extended, among some 70 Members, until December 1997.)

The Working Party on Domestic Regulation is mandated, pursuant to Article VI:4, to develop disciplines in the area of domestic regulation. The Working Party was set up in April 1999 to replace, equipped with a broader mandate, the Working Party on Professional Services. In May 1997, the latter had passed (voluntary) Guidelines for Mutual Recognition Agreements or Arrangements in the Accountancy Sector (S/WPPS/W/12/Rev.1, (7 pages, 57KB)) and, in December 1998, the Council for Trade in Services adopted the Disciplines on Domestic Regulation in the Accountancy Sector (S/L/64, (6 pages, 45KB)). The Accountancy Disciplines currently apply on a best-endeavors basis; in the context of the current services round they are to be formally integrated into the GATS.

The Working Party on GATS Rules has three negotiating mandates: Emergency Safeguard Measures (Article X); Government Procurement (Article  XIII); and Subsidies (Article XV). Of these, only the negotiations on Emergency Safeguards were initially subject to a deadline specified in the Agreement; it has since been extended repeatedly and has finally been replaced by an open-ended Council Decision. The Guidelines and Procedures for the Services Negotiations (S/L/93, (2 pages, 32KB)) provide that Members “shall aim to complete” the negotiations in the two other areas (government procurement and subsidies) and those under Article VI:4 prior to the conclusion of the negotiations on specific commitments in the new round.

In March 2001, the Committee on Specific Commitments concluded its revision of the Guidelines for the Scheduling of Specific Commitments, which were subsequently adopted by the Council for Trade in Services (S/L/92, (40 pages, 178KB)). The Guidelines, initially developed at an advanced stage of the Uruguay Round, are intended to provide technical advice for the scheduling of commitments and, thus, enhance the comparability and consistency of schedules; they are a non-binding document. Further, the Committee has discussed classification issues — with a focus on legal services, postal and courier services, construction, environmental services, and energy services — and other, predominantly technical matters relating to the scheduling of commitments and the completion of schedules at the end of the current negotiations.