WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONWT/GC/W/353
S/C/W/126
11 October 1999
(99-4263)
General Council Original:  English
PREPARATIONS FOR THE 1999 MINISTERIAL CONFERENCE
WTO Services Trade Negotiations
Communication from Australia
The following communication, dated 1 October 1999, has been received from the Permanent
Mission of Australia.
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1. The following are key elements on services for the Declaration of the third WTO Ministerial
Conference.
2. Ministers confirm the mandate already included in the text of the General Agreement on
Trade in Services, for a further round of services negotiations.
Objectives
3. The objective of negotiations, as stated in Article XIX of the GATS, shall be to achieve a
progressively higher level of liberalization of trade in services.  Such negotiations shall be directed to
the reduction or elimination of measures which serve to prevent, limit or constrain effective market
access.
4. The focus of the negotiations shall be on ways to achieve substantial, equitable and durable
gains in market access across the broad services sector, through increasing the general level of
specific commitments undertaken by Members.
Scope5. In order to achieve the maximum possible amount of liberalization and growth in services
trade, Ministers decide that the negotiations will cover all 12 services sector and all four modes of
supply.  As a matter of principle, no sector shall be excluded from the negotiations.
Developing countries6. In pursuing these objectives, Ministers note that the process of liberalization shall take due
account of national policy objectives and the level of development of individual Members.
7. In the negotiations, there shall be appropriate flexibility for developing-country Members, for
opening fewer sectors, liberalizing fewer types of transactions, and progressively extending market
access in line with their development situation.  The structure of the negotiations shall also reflect the
commitments to developing countries embodied in Article IV of the GATS. The negotiations onWT/GC/W/353
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modes of supply shall pay particular attention to the interests and concerns of developing countries in
relation to application of Mode 4, the movement of natural persons.
Autonomous liberalization8. Negotiating guidelines shall establish modalities for the treatment of liberalization undertaken
autonomously by Members since the conclusion of the Uruguay Round.
Transparency
9. Increases in the general level of specific commitm ents will be facilitated by ensuring that the
GATS schedules fully and clearly reflect the extent of Members' undertakings, and by emphasizing
the principle of transparency as a guiding rule in the negotiations.  The schedules themselves will besimplified and clarified to make them more easily understood, especially by business.
MFN exemptions
10. To increase transparency, Ministers commit themselves to reducing as quickly as possible the
scope and duration of all remaining MFN exemptions.
Safeguards, subsidies and government procurement
11. In relation to GATS rules, the mandated negotiations on safeguards, subsidies and
government procurement shall continue, but with strict time-limits set and with the intention of
determining whether practical, working rules in th ese fields can be applied to services trade.
12. In addition, they commission work on those aspects of GATS rules which are incomplete,
insofar as such work is necessary to give form and substance to market access commitments.
Negotiating approaches
13. Ministers commit to using all available negotiating techniques in order to achieve the
maximum possible trade liberalization in services, complementing the request-offer format of
negotiations with other procedures and modalities, to improve efficiency, to increase transparency and
to deliver a more substantive outcome.
Domestic regulations
14. Such work will commence with the rapid conclusion of the current review of GATS
Article VI.  That review, in turn, will be designed to ensure that domestic regulations imposed inservices clearly meet a necessity test (that is, that the regulations concerned are the least trade-
restrictive available) and that they help to fulfil a legitimate public policy objective.
Technological neutrality
15. Ministers reiterate the precept of technological neutrality which applies to commitments made
under the GATS.
Standstill
16. Ministers commit themselves to a standstill on introduction of new trade-restrictive measures
in the field of services for the duration of the negotiations.WT/GC/W/353
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Negotiating plan
17. Ministers agree to establish a services negoti ating body, which will work with existing bodies
and possibly with other sectoral groups, if necessary.  Decisions on establishment of any sectoralgroups will be taken before commencement of negotiations.
18. Setting a time-frame for completion of the serv ices negotiations will be important to ensure
that work is completed expeditiously.  That job will be facilitated by the setting of benchmarks for
progress in the negotiations.  They should include the following:
- By mid-2000:  final submission of negotiating proposals for further liberalization,
including both request-offer proposals and offers based on negotiating formulas.
- By end-2001:  negotiation and finalization of arrangements for further liberalization
of trade in services; submission of lists of commitments and concessions, consistent
with the agreed frameworks.  Review progress at the fourth WTO Ministerial
Conference.
- By end-2002:  completion of the negotiations, including finalization of legal texts and
submission of schedules of commitments.
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