./.RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONS/C/W/70
23 November 1998
(98-4735)
Council for Trade in Services Original:  English
COMMUNICATION FROM THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
AND THEIR MEMBER STATES
WTO Programme on Electronic Commerce
The following communication has been received from the delegation of the
European Communities and their Member States with the request that it be circulated to the Members
of the Council for Trade in Services.
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1. This paper contains the views from the European Communities and their Member States on
the WTO work programme on electronic commerce to be developed by the WTO Council for Trade
in Services (CTS).
2. The WTO work programme on electronic commerce contains a comprehensive list of issues
related to services.  They generally focus on the application of existing GATS Articles to electronic
trade.  Overall, there are two main categories of issues :  clarification and analytical ones.  Thus,
some of the issues of the work programme refer to areas where codification of the common
understanding by WTO Members is needed for pure clarification purposes (for example, modes of
supply, MFN, transparency, market access, national treatment, access and use of public telecomstransport networks and services and classification).  On the contrary, other issues of the work
programme require a complete analysis in order to determine whether the current GATS Articles is
appropriate for the new electronic way of trading (e.g. domestic regulation, competition, custom
duties and privacy, morals and fraud).
3. The European Communities and their Member St ates believe that the Council for Trade in
Services should focus initially on clarification issues.  Especially since common understanding on
those basic principles would help to tackle, - in a second step -, the issues which will require a
detailed analysis of the current GATS Articles.
4. In order to rationalise the work during the nine remaining months of the work programme, the
European Communities and their Member States suggest the following time-schedule  for the
various Councils for Trade in Services :
(a) 14-15 December CTS
(i) scope (including modes of supply)
(ii) classification issuesS/C/W/70
Page 2
(b) February CTS
(i) transparency
(ii) MFN
(iii) domestic regulation, standards and recognition
(c) March CTS
(i) market access commitments on electronic supply of services
(ii) access to and use of public telecoms networks and services
(iii) national treatment
(iv) increasing participation of developing countries
31 March Interim Review by WTO General Council
(a) April CTS
(i) competition
(ii) protection of privacy and public morals and prevention of fraud (Art XIV)
(b) May CTS
(i) custom duties
5. The need for developing countries to increasingly participate in electronic commerce should
be considered not only as a specific item of the work programme, but also as a substantial part of each
and every issue to be considered by the Council for Trade in Services.  This should be consistent withthe specific discussions on electronic commerce and development which are taking place at the WTO
Committee for Trade and Development.
6. The Council for Trade in Services will report to the WTO General Council by 30 July 1999.
In order to facilitate that task, the European Communities and their Member States consider that each
Council for Trade in Services until July 1999 should aim to identify and  record in the relevant areas:
(i) any common agreement on how GATS principles apply to e-commerce; (ii) the areas where
electronic commerce may open new questions in relation to the current GATS Articles;  and
(iii) possible ways to address those questions.
7. In order to develop the discussions in an efficient manner despite the little time available, we
suggest setting-up an informal process  open for participation by all WTO Members.  This informal
debate would serve to streamline the analysis before each discussion at the various Councils for Trade
in Services.
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