RESTRICTED
WORLD TRADE S/CSC/W/3
4October 1996
ORGANIZATION
(96-4019)
Committee onSpecific Commitments
SCHEDULES OFCOMMITMENTS AND MFN EXEMPTION LISTS:
INTRODUCTION OFALOOSE-LEAF SYSTEM
AND USEOFELECTRONIC FORMATS -
ISSUES TOBECONSIDERED
Note bytheSecretariat
1. Atthefirstmeeting oftheCommittee onSpecific Commitments, theSecretariat wasrequested
toprepare apaper outlining therelevant issues involved inintroducing aloose-leaf binding system
forlistsofspecific commitments andMFN exemptions. Inaddition, theSecretariat wasasked toreview
thecurrent situation, aswellasfuture possibilities, withrespect todistributing thelistsinelectronic
format. Thisnote, which aimsatproviding information toMembers onbothsetsofissues, focuses
onhowtomake schedules ofcommitments andMFN exemption listseasier tohandle.
1. Introduction ofaloose-leaf system forservices commitments
2. Theschedules ofspecific commitments andthelistsofMFN exemptions, currently amounting
toapproximately 2,800 pages, arealready quite voluminous andcontinue togrow insize. More
significantly, services commitments are,andwillcontinue tobe,scattered indifferent publications.
Briefly, thesituation atpresent andforthenear-term isasfollows:
- Most schedules andMFN listsarepublished infivevolumes (28-30, 32and34)in
theLegal Instruments oftheUruguay Round series andintheSecond andThird
Protocols totheGATS (containing therevised commitments infinancial services and
movement ofpersons following thecompletion ofnegotiations in1995).
- Schedules ofcommitments ofnewly acceded countries suchasPapua NewGuinea and
Mongolia arepublished intherelevant Protocols ofAccession .
- Asaresult ofrecent andon-going sectoral negotiations, aconsiderable number ofnew
orimproved commitments arelikely tobeinscribed inMembers 'schedules and
subsequently published: thisisthecaseforcertain commitments made inthemaritime
negotiations which were suspended in1996; andnumerous further commitments,
aswellasrevisions ofexisting commitments, areexpected during 1997 asaresult of
thenegotiations inbasic telecommunications andfinancial services.
- Forthose commitments which entered intoforcein1995, modifications orwithdrawals
from schedules willbepossible asfrom 1998 according tothe(yettobeagreed)
negotiating procedures under Article XXI.S/CSC/W/3
Page 2
- Finally, Members areofcourse freeatanytime toinscribe neworimproved
commitments intheirschedules ortoremove MFN exemptions onaunilateral basis.
3. Given themultiplicity ofdocuments inwhich commitments arelocated, andthefactthatsome
ofthecommitments havebeenrevised orsupplemented sincetheiroriginal entryintoforce, itisalready
thecasethatparts oftheexisting system forthepublication ofservices commitments havebecome
out-dated. Acertain amount oftime-consuming effort maybenecessary tofindoutthestatus ofa
particular commitment, forexample infinancial services orunder movement ofpersons. Thisisthe
main reason whyMembers haveexpressed aninterest indiscussing theintroduction ofaloose-leaf
binding system which would make iteasier tointegrate neworimproved commitments aswellasmake
iteasier tohandle anymodifications orrectifications thatmayarise. Theadvantage ofsuchasystem
isthatitcanbekeptcontinuously uptodatewhen rectifications, modifications, withdrawals andnew
commitments aremade.
4. Inthisregard, Members might wishtotakenoteoftheexperience onthegoods side. In
1980, following theTokyo Round, theGATT Contracting Parties adopted aproposal bytheDirector-
General concerning theintroduction ofaloose-leaf system fortheschedules oftariff concessions.1
Itwasclearthatthethenexisting system hadbecome outdated withmore thanfortylegalinstruments
containing validtariffconcessions, oftenmaking itnecessary tocarry outextensive document searches
toascertain thestatus ofaparticular concession. Theloose-leaf system hassince undergone anumber
ofmodifications, notably theintroduction of,andchanges to,theInternational Convention onthe
Harmonized Commodity Description andCoding System bytheWorld Customs Organization.
Currently, theMembers oftheCommittee onMarket Access areconsidering adraftdecision onthe
EstablishmentofConsolidatedLoose-LeafSchedulesofTariffConcessions2withtheobjectiveofmaking
them binding instruments, replacing allprevious schedules andcontaining allnecessary information
inorder toreflect theexact situation foreachtariff concession.
5. Inthegoods area,therefore, theloose-leaf system ismoving towards consolidated schedules,
theideabeing toreplace allearlier schedules forallpurposes relating toaMember 'srights and
obligations under theWTO (except withrespect toInitial Negotiating Rights). Ontheservices side,
thequestion arises whether Members wishtoestablish acomparable consolidated system forlistsof
services commitments andMFN exemptions. Inorder toestablish aloose-leaf system, Members would
needtogiveconsideration toanumber ofbasicquestions, (apart fromprocedural andcostissues which
arenotdealtwithinthispaper), including thefollowing:
- Thekeyquestion probably relates tothestatus ofaloose-leaf system: should itreplace
orcomplement theexisting system ofpublishing commitments inseparate volumes?
Ifaloose-leaf version would becomplementary (e.g. usedmainly forinformation
purposes) andhavenolegal standing, Members would notreapthefullbenefits of
theloose-leaf system because theywould stillhavetoreferto(anincreasing) number
ofpublished volumes tobecertain ofthelegal status ofaparticular services
commitment.
- IfMembers decided toreplace theexisting system withloose-leaf schedules andMFN
lists,theywould ineffect becreating consolidated schedules, incorporating theUruguay
Round commitments andanysubsequent commitments thattheyhavemade. Theloose-
leafsystem would therefore replace allearlier schedules.
1BISD 27S/22.
2Seedocument G/MA/TAR/W/6 of11June 1996.S/CSC/W/3
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- Withaviewtoensuring maximum transparency ofaloose-leaf system, should provision
bemade intheschedule format toindicate thedateapplicable toeachcommitment,
inparticular forthepurpose ofArticle XXIprocedures?
- IfMembers consider thattheintroduction ofaloose-leaf system isdesirable, when
should suchasystem bemade available? Could Members envisage, forexample,
entering thenextround ofliberalization withalltheir commitments inscribed in
schedules inloose-leaf form?
2. Electronic formats
6. Presently, Members 'schedules ofcommitments andMFN exemption listsarestored on-line
ontheWTO Network andalsoexistondiskette intheformofWord Perfect 5.1files. Themainproblem
withthecurrent electronic system istheabsence ofanefficient search function andthefactthatretrieval
oftheinformation contained inthefilesneeds tobedonemanually which isslowandtime-consuming.
Theinformation inthefilescanatthecurrent timeberetrieved onlyinoneform -bycountry -and
isnotamenable toanyelaborate analysis. Efforts underway intheSecretariat toimprove thesituation
wereoutlined toMembers oftheCouncil forTrade inServices atthemeeting of4October 1995(see
document S/C/M/6).
7. Twoinitiatives inprogress intheSecretariat aimatmaking thecomputerized information more
easily accessible through asearch function, thusallowing moresophisticated analysis (e.g.organization
oftheinformation bysector, sub-sector ormode ofsupply).
- First, amultilingual CD/ROM isnearing completion containing theresults ofthe
Uruguay Round. Representing more than26,000 pages ofprinted text,theCD/ROM
willstore allschedules ofcommitments andMFN exemption lists(aswellasgoods
schedules andalllegaltexts) andallow forfulltextsearch, rapid access toinformation
andcountry-by-country andsector-by sector comparisons.
- Second, acomputerized services databaseisunder development intheTrade inServices
Division which aimsatpermitting dataretrieval andanalysis notonlyaoncountry-by-
country basis butalsoaccording tosector oractivity, mode ofsupply andtypeof
measure. Once operational, thedatabasewillbemade accessible through theWTO
network, asafirststep,toalldelegations aswellastherestoftheSecretariat.
8. Theon-going projects focus onthemore efficient retrieval ofexisting information. Inthe
longer term, however, Members maywishtoconsider howcomputerization could facilitate andimprove
thefuture entry ofcommitments intoMembers 'schedules andperhaps alsotheirverification. This
could entail moving fromthecurrent system ofMembers writing schedules using Word Perfect software
toasystembasedonastandardschedulingformatusing,forexample,atailor-madecomputerapplication
thattheWTO Secretariat could develop andmake available toMembers.