Transcript SERVICES NEGOTIATIONS

SERVICES NEGOTIATIONS
Said EL HACHIMI
World Trade Organization
SERVICES NEGOTIATIONS
The basics
What interest in trade in services; WTO GATS
The negotiations
What is it all about?
The gains for developing countries
Should we care?
SERVICES NEGOTIATIONS
The basics
What interest in trade in services; WTO GATS
THE BASICS
THE IMPORTANCE OF TRADE IN SERVICES IN
THE WORLD ECONOMY
• Services is the dominant economic activity in
virtually all countries of the world, regardless
of their level of development.
• Services tend to be an important source of
employment
•Given their infrastructural role, services such
as telecommunications, financial services
(including banking and insurance), business
services, construction and transport are
crucial in shaping overall economic
performance
THE BASICS : WTO General Agreement on
Trade in Services –GATS• Negotiated during the Uruguay round
• The first multilateral agreement on
services
GATS : Principles
• Main objective: progressive
liberalization through successive
rounds of negotiations as a means of
promoting growth and development.
• Applies to all services but there are exceptions
• Most-favoured nation treatment
• Commitments, including National Treatment
• Special treatment for developing countries
• Keeping control of national regulations
GATS : Four modes of supply
• Cross-border trade –Mode 1Only the service crosses the border
• Consumption abroad –Mode 2Consumer travels to the service supplier’s
territory
• Commercial presence –Mode 3Service supplier establishes a presence (FDI)
• Presence of natural persons–Mode 4Service supplier travels to the consumer’s
territory to supply the service
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SERVICES NEGOTIATIONS
The negotiations
What is it all about?
Key dates in services negotiations
• 1 January 1995: GATS enters into force
• February 1997: Agreement on basic
telecommunications
• December 1997: Agreement on financial
services
• 1 January 2000: The new negotiations begin
• January 2000: submission proposals begins
• July 2002: exchange of initial requests
begins
• March 2003: submission of initial offers
begins
• The July framework: new impetus
• The Hong Kong Ministerial
What is the new negotiation all
about?
• Negotiations started before the
Doha Ministerial- the built in
agenda• Objectives and principles
• Scope of the negotiations
• Modalities and procedures
• Special treatment for the LDC’s
What has been happening ?
• Doha and Cancun Ministerial
Conferences
• The July framework highlighted
the need for more offers
• Hong Kong refocus in terms of
objectives, approaches and
timelines –Annex C-
State of play of the negotiations
• Initial requests – little information
available
• Initial and revised offers : since
2003 > 70 and 30 revised
• The quality of the offers is similar
to the Uruguay Round sectoral
coverage
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Main Challenges
• Will new methodologies such as
plurilaterals work?
• Different stages in Members
engagement in the services
negotiations
• The rules clusters of the GATS
• Credit for Autonomous
liberalization
• Overall balance with Agricultural
and NAMA negotiations
SERVICES NEGOTIATIONS
The gains for developing countries
Should we care?
Specific Issues of Interest to
Developing Countries
• In total, more than 30 developing country Members
have voiced interest in at least one sector or mode of
supply under negotiation.
•Relevant sectors include professional services,
computer and related services, telecommunication
services, audiovisual services, construction and
related engineering services, distribution services,
energy services, environmental services, financial
services; tourism services and transport services
(including logistics).
•Movements of natural persons (under Mode 4) and,
more recently, the cross-border supply of services
(under Modes 1 and 2), have also attracted attention.
Possible Gains for Developing
Countries
• In
general, these gains have been found to dwarf
the benefits expected to flow from further trade
liberalization in goods.
•Developing countries stand to gain considerably
from liberalization of trade in services, both on the
part of their trading partners and in terms of their
own policy regimes.
Read more about the negotiations
on the WTO website:
• Developments in the Services negotiations
www.wto.org > trade topics > services > negotiations >
developments
• Proposals for the new negotiations
www.wto.org > trade topics > services > negotiations > proposals
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