RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONS/C/W/64
6 November 1998
(98-4390)
Council for Trade in Services
COOPERATION BETWEEN THE WTO AND
THE INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION
Note by the Secretariat
At its meeting on 14 October 1998 the Council requested the Secretariat to prepare a note on
the benefits to WTO Members, as perceived by the Secretariat, of a Cooperation Agreement between
the WTO and the ITU.  This note is provided in response to that request.
One of the main purposes of an agreement between the two organizations would be to provide
a formal basis for mutual support in the area of technical cooperation, and to coordinate and
rationalize, so far as possible, their activities in this field.  In this respect the greatest advantage of an
agreement, for the WTO Secretariat, would stem from the far greater resources available in the ITU
to carry out technical co-operation.  Whereas the entire staff of the ITU, and the expertise it has
developed over many years, are concentrated on telecommunications matters, the WTO has one
professional staff member employed almost wholly on telecoms:  four other members of the ServicesDivision are also involved occasionally, particularly in technical cooperation activities.  The Division
receives more requests for participation in seminars, workshops and conferences on telecoms, at the
national and international level, than on all other se rvice sectors combined, and in many events which
are not specifically limited to telecoms there is nevertheless a heavy emphasis on the subject. Our
budgetary and human resources are simply inadequate to meet this level of demand. The vast majorityof the missions carried out over the past three years have been made possible by the World Bank's
Information for Development Project (InfoDev) which financed the participation of WTO staff (and
of a small pool of consultants when WTO staff were not available). In this way over 20 missions were
carried out in the final year of the basic telecoms negotiations and a further 27 have been or shortly
will be conducted since then.  The current InfoDev project, which is assisting governments in draftingtelecoms commitments or in implementing the Refe rence Paper, will expire early in 1999.  Other
missions have been funded by WTO trust funds and in two instances budgetary constraints made it
necessary for the ITU to fund WTO participation in ITU regional seminars.  If through a cooperation
agreement it were possible to enlist the regular assistance of ITU staff in our own missions, pressure
on WTO staff and budgetary resources could be greatly alleviated.
The ITU already carries out extensive technical assistance related to telecommunications
sector reform.  It now has a mandate, stemming from the most recent World Telecommunications
Policy Forum, to inform its Members about the im plications of the GATS telecoms commitments and
the Reference Paper, including how to lay the gr oundwork for making commitments or to implement
existing ones. Regular cooperation within the fr amework of a cooperation agreement would help to
ensure that coherent and accurate advice is provided on the GATS and the implications of telecoms
commitments.  Whether or not an agreement is reached between the two organizations, the ITU will
continue to provide assistance to its members on these matters, which are directly related to its
primary responsibilities; it is in the interests of al l parties involved that this advice should be based on
the best possible understanding of  the Agreement and the views of WTO Members.
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