1 GATS & the Doha Agenda Negotiations on Services State of Play

2 Services Negotiations: Two Dimensions

3 Negotiating agenda: two dimensions Liberalization Improvement of specific commitments (MA and NT) Bilateral / Plurilateral Rule-Making - Domestic Regulation - Safeguards - Gov’t Procurement - Subsidies Multilateral

4 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

5 The Baseline: Existing Commitments

6 Baseline: Current pattern of commitments

7 Baseline: Sector pattern of commitments (Number of Members, March 2005)

8 Baseline: Closing 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 XIX:1)

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

10 INITIAL OFFERS: 72 Schedules (covering 96 Members*) REVISED OFFERS: 30 Schedules (covering 54 Members*) *Counting EC Members (EC 25) individually Submission of Offers: State of play

11 Offers: Sector by sector

12 Offers: More sectors

13 Sub-Sectors Committed: Before and After Offers (all Members)

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

15 Guidance from the Hong Kong Declaration

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

17 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) Negotiating Objectives Modes 1 - 3

18 - 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 Negotiating Objectives Mode 4

19 Laid out sector-by sector Reflect a compendium of articulated negotiating objectives... not those of a consensus, or of any particular Member Negotiating Objectives Sectoral Goals

20 Removal or substantial reduction of exemptions Clarification of remaining exemptions in terms of scope and duration Negotiating Objectives MFN Exemptions

21 Clarity, certainty, comparability & coherence (‘4Cs’) of commitments in line with Scheduling Guidelines Clarification of any remaining ENTs in concordance with Scheduling Guidelines Negotiating Objectives Scheduling of Commitments

22 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

23... and a sense of realism ? “You can’t always get what you want But if you try Sometimes you might find You can get what you need...” (The Rolling Stones)

24 Thank you for your attention!