./.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONS/CSC/5
24 November 2000
(00-5025)
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON SPECIFIC COMMITMENTS
TO THE COUNCIL FOR TRADE IN SERVICES
1. The Committee on Specific Commitments has held five formal meetings between 1 January
and 31 October 2000.  The minutes of these meetings appear in documents S/CSC/M/13, 14, 15, 16,and 17.  The Committee’s work in this period of time focused on four items:  the procedures for the
certification of rectification or improvements to schedules of specific commitments;  the institution of
a system of electronically consolidated and updated schedules;  classification issues and the revision
of the scheduling guidelines.
I. PROCEDURES FOR THE CERTIFICATION OF RECTIFICATIONS OR
IMPROVEMENTS TO SCHEDULES OF SPECIFIC COMMITMENTS
2. Following consultations on the finalization of the procedures for the certification of
rectifications or improvements to schedules of specific commitments conducted by the Chairman, the
Committee recommended at its meeting of 11 and 12 April, the adoption of these procedures.
Subsequently, the procedures were adopted by the Council for Trade in Services at its meeting of14 April.  The text of the procedures and the decision taken by the Services Council on its adoption
appear respectively in documents S/L/84 and S/L/83.
II. ESTABLISHMENT OF A NON-BINDING ELECTRONIC COMPILATION OF
SCHEDULES OF COMMITMENTS
3. In 1999 the Committee approved the establishment of a system of electronically consolidated
and updated schedules of commitments without legal status.  On 4 March 2000 Members concluded
the process of verification of the electronic schedules and at the meeting held on 11 and 12 April2000, the Secretariat informed the Committee that the verified electronic schedules were ready for
inclusion in the cd-rom and that work was also under way on the preparation of the Internet version.
III. CLASSIFICATION
4. The Committee continued its work on classification issues on five services sectors:
environmental services;  energy services;  legal services;  postal and courier services and constructionservices.  These discussions were without prejudice to the inclusion of any other sector, whose
classification Members might want to revise and to the positions of Members as to the outcome of
exercise.  Discussion of the sectors took place in the informal mode, on the basis of proposals
submitted by Members, which focused on possible amendments to sectoral descriptions in the existing
GATS classification (document MTN.GNS/W/120).  Members also engaged in the discussion of across-sectoral issue relating to “production services”, on the basis of a paper prepared by the
Secretariat.  Regular accounts of the informal discussions on the sectors were given by the Chairman
to the formal Committee.S/CSC/5
Page 2
IV. REVISION OF THE SCHEDULING GUIDELINES
5. The Committee continued its work on the revision of the guidelines for the scheduling of
commitments in services (document MTN.GNS/W/164 and Add.1).  Members were able to bridge
gaps on several outstanding issues and at the meeting held on 4 October, the Committee considered a
single first draft of the revised scheduling guidelines.  By the October meeting, the Committee hadreached a common understanding on a great part of the text of the revised guidelines, while a small
number of issues and some technical corrections still remained to be addressed.
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