Bridges Weekly Trade News Digest • Volume 9 • Number 16 • 11th May 2005

Services: Members Discuss Mode 4-Related Visa Procedures

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The special session of the Council for Trade in Services reconvened on 27 April to continue discussions on a number of negotiating proposals and statements that had been made to its last meeting in February.

Although the meeting had been slated to focus on the earlier submissions, Members devoted most of their attention to two new papers. The first was an informal room document submitted by Colombia, Peru and the Philippines on regulatory issues affecting services supplied through Mode 4, which governs the so-called ‘movement of natural persons.’ The second was a Swiss submission on its experience with commitments in education services.

The informal Mode 4 paper sought to provide concrete suggestions on how to address the problems posed by visa measures to would-be service providers. These problems were first identified by Colombia in its submission to the Working Party on Domestic Regulation (WPDR; S/WPDR/W/29), in which it argued that visa-related administrative procedures could constitute an effective obstacle to doing business. Among the approaches suggested by the three sponsors of the room document are consistency in the application of criteria and time frames when processing visas, the possibility of streamlined or more expeditious processing if the applicant is able to comply with additional documentary requirements, and improved transparency with respect to visa and entry permit requirements and procedures.

As a way of responding to earlier contentions from certain developed country Members that visa measures are outside the scope of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), the room document set out a legal analysis of the GATS Annex on the temporary movement of natural persons, arguing that it provides for a qualified inclusion of visa measures under the GATS. The developing countries contend in their document that visa measures are excluded from coverage of the GATS only if their application does not ‘nullify or impair’ benefits arising from specific liberalisation commitments undertaken by a Member. To the extent that they nullify or impair these expected benefits, as they would if they render doing business impossible, visa measures are covered by the GATS and the ongoing services negotiations.

Although Members had very little time to review the Mode 4 document, many developing countries expressed support for the paper and the legal interpretation it offered. Notably, sources report that developed country delegates did not identity flaws in the document’s legal analysis during the meeting. Nonetheless, delegates expect that the informal paper will give rise to spirited debate during the next ‘cluster’ of services meetings, scheduled for 20 June - 1 July.

ICTSD reporting.