RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/S/W/19 
31 March 2004 
 (04-1460) 
Council for Trade in Services 
Special Session Original:   English 
 
 
 
COMMUNICATION FROM BOLIVIA, BRAZIL, CHILE, CHINA, COLOMBIA, CUBA, 
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, ECUADOR, EGYPT, GUATEMALA, INDIA, INDONESIA, 
MEXICO, NICARAGUA, PAKISTAN, PERU, PHILIPPINES AND THAILAND 
 
Review of Progress as established in Para graph 15 of the Guidelines and Procedures  
for the Negotiations on Trade in Services (S/L/93)  
 
  The following communication, dated 29 March 2004, from the delegations of Bolivia, Brazil, 
Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, 
Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines and Tha iland is being circulated to the Members of the 
Council for Trade in Services. 
_______________ 
 
I. INTRODUCTION 
1. The delegations of Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, 
Ecuador, Egypt, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Me xico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines and 
Thailand present this contribution
1 for the consideration of all Member s.  Pursuant to paragraph 15 of 
the Guidelines and Procedures for the Negotiations on Trade in Services (S/L/93), this contribution is 
intended to initiate a discussion in the Council for Tr ade in Services in its Special Session about the 
extent to which Article IV of the GATS is being implemented in the on-going negotiations.  
2. The Doha Work Programme seeks to place the needs and interests of developing and least-
developed Members at the centre of the negotia tions.  Paragraph 2 of the Doha Ministerial 
Declaration states,“… The majority of WTO Members are developing countries.  We seek to place 
their needs and interests at the heart of th e Work Programme adopted in this Declaration… ”.  In this 
regard, the effective implementation of the objectives established in the Preamble, and Articles IV and XIX of the GATS namely to increase the particip ation of developing Members in world trade - 
through the negotiation of specific commitments - with a view towards promoting their economic 
growth and development, is necessary. 
3. We believe that a systematic and careful revi ew is required within the framework of the 
current negotiations to determine the extent to  which commercially meaningful market access and 
national treatment commitments have been offered to developing Members. The initial offers that 
have been presented by developed Members thus fa r, in our assessment, have not responded to the 
requests made and interests expressed by developing Members.  
4. In light of the above, this contribution attempts  to address the extent to which initial offers 
tabled by developed Members have  contributed to the operationaliza tion of the obligations established 
in Article IV of the GATS.  Consequently, it focuses on the question of whether initial offers 
                                                     
 
1 This proposal is not a legal text.  It is submitted solely for the purpose of negotiation and does not 
prejudge the position of any Member regarding the issues raised in it.  The proponents reserve their right to 
modify or complement the contents of this proposal at a later stage. TN/S/W/19 
Page 2  
 
presented by developed countries provide meaningful market access in sectors and modes of supply in 
which a number of developing Members have expressed  specific interest in obtaining meaningful 
market access commitments through their requests and proposals.  Although there are other sectors 
and modes of supply of present and potential interest for developing Members, the co-sponsors of this 
contribution, in the first phase of this collectiv e review exercise, have focused on an issue of 
significant relevance to many developing Members:  the movement of natural persons - Mode 4.  
5. The need to achieve effective liberalisation in this mode of service supply during the current 
services negotiation has been identified as a common in terest by many developing Members. To date, 
several negotiating proposals have been presented by Members, either individually or together with 
other Members, as well as individual requests presen ted to their trading partners seeking effective 
liberalisation in Mode 4.  However, initial offers have not met the needs identified and emphasized by 
developing Members throughout this process.  
 
II. ASSESSMENT OF PROGRESS ON COMMON ELEMENTS IDENTIFIED IN 
NEGOTIATING PROPOSALS AND REQUESTS MADE BY DEVELOPING 
MEMBERS  
6.  To date, the interest expressed by deve loping Members through negotiating proposals and 
requests allow them to identify common elements to address the main issues of concern.  These 
common elements inter alia  relate to ideas for improving mode 4 commitments, either by undertaking 
new market access commitments or by increasing the effectiveness of existing ones by eliminating the 
restrictions.   The elements included in vari ous communications presented by developing Members 
could be used as criteria to assess the extent of commercially meaningful market access and national 
treatment commitments being offered, and thus ensu re the effective implementation of paragraph 15 
of the guidelines.  The elements are:  
(a) Expansion of Commitments in ca tegories de-linked to Mode 3 : Developing Members 
have requested to expand the scope of co mmitments by covering a wider range of 
service provider categories and occupations in order to balance the asymmetrical 
absence of commitments for categories of personnel de-linked from the commercial 
presence. In addition, the requests seek to expand market access beyond categories 
such as Intra Corporate Transferees (ICTs)  and Business Visitors to include other 
categories such as Contractual Service Suppliers (CSS) and Independent Service 
Providers (ISP)
2.  Only a few initial offers introduce additional categories into their 
horizontal commitments3.  However, these new categories offered are related to 
personnel linked to commercial pr esence and do not cover diffe rent levels of skills.   
(b) Attached Restrictions : Developing Members have requested the elimination of a 
variety of restrictive conditions that are attached to the mode 4 commitments, which 
further erode the value of existing commitm ents.  In addition, requests seek to 
establish clear and objective criteria for some of the conditions attached to the mode 4 
commitments.  The existing attached conditions include inter alia  restrictions on the 
duration of stay, pre-employment conditions  and other requirements, economic needs, 
labour market and management needs t ests, quantitative restrictions through 
numerical quotas, discriminatory tax tr eatment, requirements for work permits, 
residency and citizenship requirements, recognition of professional qualifications, 
wage parity, and others.  Only a few of th e initial offers have removed some of the 
                                                      
2 Communication from India S/CSS/W/12, Negotiating Proposal from a Group of Developing 
Members, TN/S/W/14. 
3 Informal Note by the Secretariat “Categories of Natural Persons Subject to Commitments under 
Mode 4” Job(03)/195.  TN/S/W/19 
 Page 3 
 
 
restrictions and requirements attached to previous commitments, while the majority 
of initial offers remain silent on this aspect. 
(c) Work Permits and Visas Procedures : One of the main restrictions that exist in 
Mode 4 commitments is that they remain subject to cumbersome and non-transparent administrative procedures and regulations.  Consequently, developing Members have 
requested the need to addr ess this concern by means of establishing transparent and 
objective criteria either as an add itional commitment under Article XVIII or by 
introducing a Service Provider Visa. In addition, developing Members have 
expressed interest in further discussing th e application and processing for visas and 
work permits procedures under the Working Party on Domestic Regulation.  Initial 
offers made thus far remain silent on this issue as well.  
(d) Predictability of Commitments : Developing Members have asked for clarifications 
regarding existing categories and for th e introduction of common understanding on 
different service provider categories.   Having common understanding would 
contribute to increase the predictability and tr ansparency of commitments in Mode 4.  
The objective is not to achieve perfect ha rmonization of categories in the domestic 
regimes of all Members, but use of certain common categories of interest to all Members. The informal note presented by the WTO Secretariat titled "Categories of natural persons subject to Commitments under Mode 4"
4 presents an interesting 
review of the categories of natural pers ons applied in the horizontal section of 
existing schedules and initial offers.  It may be noted in this regard that few Members 
have offered to add definitions to a cate gory in their schedule of commitments.   
III. CONCLUSIONS   
6. After analysing the initial offers presented by developed Members, in our assessment, most of 
these offers do not show any real improvement to  the existing commitments in Mode 4.  Some 
Members have not introduced any improvement to the existing commitments; others have only 
introduced some minor changes aimed at clarifyi ng and only in a few cases expanding the scope of 
commitments.  Basically commitme nts continue to be limited to categories of personnel related to 
commercial presence despite the expressed interest of developing Members for commitments in categories de-linked from commercial presence as well.  
7. While it is recognised that this is the first set  of offers presented, many developing Members 
have expressed disappointment at the level of ambiti on shown in this particular  area, which is crucial 
to effectively implement the objectives of Article IV of the GATS.  Devel oping Members in general 
have comparative advantages only in a narrow range of services activities.  The primary mode for most of these relates to Mode 4.  The liberalisati on of this mode of supply would, therefore, provide 
effective market access to service providers from deve loping Members and contribute significantly to 
the implementation of Article IV of the GATS.  
 
 
__________ 
                                                     
 
4 Ibid.