Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 9 • Number 4 • 9th February 2005
Services ‘Cluster’ Underway At WTO
A three-week ‘cluster’ of services talks is underway at the WTO; it is scheduled to run from 7-25 February.
GATS Rules Working Party discusses subsidies, govt procurement
The 7 February meeting of the Working Party on General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) Rules discussed services subsidies, government procurement of services, and an emergency safeguard mechanism (ESM) for services trade.
The talks about services subsidies focused on procedural issues. The US led discussions with a paper on how to increase the exchange of information on services subsidies. It advocated dealing with the difficulties inherent to the definition of services subsidies on a sector-by-sector basis, starting with tourism. This drew criticism from a number of countries that want to remain free to move forward on services subsidies in sectors which may not be favoured by the US, and also on the grounds that tourism is not among the most distorted of services sub-sectors.
The main issue in talks on government procurement of services remains the scope of the current negotiating mandate for services. The impasse is that while most developing country Members — including Argentina, Brazil and Mexico — regard the negotiating mandate on services as excluding government procurement, many developed countries — including the EU — disagree. Discussions about government procurement focused on countries’ reactions to the EU’s revised compilation of requests for market-opening presented to WTO Members on 25 January (see BRIDGES Weekly, 2 February 2005).
Brazil requested that an expert paper on the ESM for trade in services prepared for the 9th UNCTAD Commission on Trade in Goods, Services and Commodities (as yet unavailable) be circulated to Members at the next discussions on services safeguards, scheduled for 14-18 March.
Technical discussions in Domestic Regulation Working Party
Discussions in the 8 February meeting of the Working Party on Domestic Regulation focused around a Swiss paper on technical standards and a document presented jointly by India, Thailand, Pakistan and Chile on qualifications, requirements and procedures. The latter triggered debate on disciplines on domestic regulation.
The meeting was not concluded and will continue on 18 February. It is likely that the US will put forward a paper on transparency issues.
Upcoming issues in the services talks
Representatives from leading US, European and Japanese financial service providers are holding a seminar in Geneva on 10 February on the benefits of financial services liberalization for developing countries. The week beginning 14 February will see the beginning of bilateral discussions on services. The final week of the services cluster will have a special session to discuss Mode 4 of the General Agreement on Trade in Services, i.e., the transnational movement of individual providers of services.
ICTSD will provide coverage of the services cluster in forthcoming issues of BRIDGES Weekly.
ICTSD reporting; "U.S. Industry Sees Progress in Mode 4 As Key to Success in Overall WTO Talks," WTO REPORTER, 4 February 2005.