GATS

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GATS the Doha Agenda Negotiations on Services
State of Play
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Services Negotiations Two Dimensions
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Negotiating agenda two dimensions
Liberalization Improvement of specific
commitments (MA and NT) Bilateral /
Plurilateral
Rule-Making - Domestic Regulation - Safeguards -
Govt Procurement - Subsidies Multilateral
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Starting point

• Actual regimes tend to be far more liberal in
  many countries than the existing commitments
• Widening gap between UR schedules and
• recent economic and sector reforms
• market access now negotiated under some FTAs

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• The Baseline
• Existing
• Commitments

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Baseline Current pattern of commitments

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BaselineSector pattern of commitments(Number
of Members, March 2005)
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BaselineClosing the gap?

• Actual regimes now more liberal in many
  countries than the existing commitments
• Widening gap between UR schedules and
• schedules of recently acceded countries
• access conditions negotiated under PTAs(?)
• Mandate achieving a progressively higher
• level of liberalization (Article XIX1)

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Milestones thus far ...

• Official starting date Jan 2000 (Art XIX)
• Initial offers March 2003
• Revised offers May 2005
• Plurilateral requests February 2006
• Next meeting November 2007
• A new deadline for revised offers?

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Submission of Offers State of play

• INITIAL OFFERS
• 72 Schedules (covering 96 Members)
• REVISED OFFERS
• 30 Schedules (covering 54 Members)
• Counting EC Members (EC 25) individually

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Offers Sector by sector
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Offers More sectors
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Sub-Sectors Committed Before and After Offers
(all Members)
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Offers to date

• Modest achievements
• (number of sectors and substance)
• Uneven participation by developing
• economies
• Little change in MFN Exemptions
• Little progress in rules negotiations

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• Guidance from
• the Hong Kong
• Declaration

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Hong Kong Declaration (WT/MIN(05)/DEC)

• LDCs not expected to undertake new commitments
• Implementation of LDC Modalities
• Timelines (28 Feb / 31 July / 31 Oct)
• Plurilateral request-offer negotiations
• Negotiating objectives (Modes/MFN
  exemptions/scheduling principles)
• but ...

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Negotiating Objectives Modes 1 - 3

• No commercial presence requirements (Mode 1)
• Commitments at existing levels of access
  (Modes 1 2)
• Removal or substantial reduction of ENTs
• (Modes 2 3)
• Higher foreign equity levels, more types of
  legal entity (Mode 3)

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Negotiating Objectives Mode 4

• - Commitments on
• Contractual service suppliers independent
  professionals, delinked from commercial presence
  
• Intracorporate Transferees Business Visitors
• - Removal or substantial reduction of ENTs
• - Indication of duration of stay and possibility
  of renewal

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Negotiating Objectives Sectoral Goals

• Laid out sector-by sector
• Reflect a compendium of articulated negotiating
  objectives... not those of
  a consensus, or of any particular Member

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Negotiating Objectives MFN Exemptions

• Removal or substantial reduction of exemptions
• Clarification of remaining exemptions in terms
  of scope and duration

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Negotiating Objectives Scheduling of Commitments

• Clarity, certainty, comparability coherence
  (4Cs) of commitments in line with Scheduling
  Guidelines
• Clarification of any remaining ENTs in
  concordance with Scheduling Guidelines

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Reasons for hope?

• Experience with previous trade rounds
• Too much at stake
• No credible alternative to WTO despite
  negotiation of FTAs
• Domestic liberalization moving ahead
• Vocal pro-liberalization constituencies in many
  countries

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... and a sense of realism ?

You cant always get what you wantBut if you
try Sometimes you might find You can get what
you need ... (The Rolling Stones)
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Thank you for your attention!