RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONS/CSS/W/14
29 November 2000
(00-5134)
Council for Trade in Services
Special SessionOriginal:  English
COMMUNICATION FROM KOREA
Proposals on the Negotiating Guidelines and Procedures
The attached communication has been received from the delegation of Korea with the request
that it be circulated to Members of the Council for Trade in Services.
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I. INTRODUCTION
1. Korea submits this paper in accordance with paragraph 2(c) of the "Roadmap" document,
which was agreed upon at the Council for Trade in Services Special Session on May 26, 2000. This
paper proposes elements which could be included in the negotiation guideline, as well as the approachthat could be taken for the negotiations.
II. PROPOSED ELEMENTS FOR THE NEGOTIATION GUIDELINE
A. O
BJECTIVES
2. The preamble and Article XIX of the GATS establish as a central objective of the
negotiations on services the achievement of a progressively higher level of liberalization through the
reduction or elimination of trade barriers and the promotion of the interests of all participating
countries on a mutually advantageous basis and the securing of an overall balance of rights andobligations, while giving due respect to national policy objectives.
3. Korea fully subscribes to these objectives, and believes that further liberalization and a
removal of barriers in the services sector worldwide will contribute more to overall economic growth,
significant increase in trade in services and foreign investment and the enhancement of productivity in
the manufacturing sector, as is presented in the paper, "Korea's Liberalization of Trade in Servicesand its Impacts" which was circulated at the Council on Trade in Services in October 2000.
B. S
COPE OF THE NEGOTIATIONS
4. In order to achieve these goals, Korea believes it is essential that no service sectors be
excluded a priori, and that all sectors and all modes of services supplies be covered in the
negotiations.
5. The MFN Exemptions should be subject to negotiations according to the "Annex on Article II
Exemptions." Negotiations should also take into account the results of the ongoing reviews of the
"Annex on Air Transport Services" and the "U nderstanding on Accounting Rates," which are
conducted by the Council of Trade in ServicesS/CSS/W/14
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6. The negotiations on Maritime Transport Services, which have been suspended since June
1996, should be resumed according to the "Decision on Maritime Transport Services" (S/L/24), which
was adopted by the Negotiation Group on Maritime Transport Services (NGMTS) and the Council for
Trade in Services. Korea believes that the negotiations  should be comprehensive in scope and that the
starting point of the negotiations should be ba sed on the aforementioned Decision. Furthermore, the
resumed negotiations should proceed based on the progress made prior to the negotiations’
suspension. Korea proposes that the Council for Trad e in Services review the legal status of the
schedules of specific commitments and any developments that were made in the maritime transport
sector since the suspension of the negotiations.
7. Korea believes that Members can take the opportunity for the technical review of existing
provisions of the GATS in order to improve the clarity and legal consistency of the text, without
altering the basic structure of the GATS.
C. NEGOTIATING MODALITIES
8. The negotiations on specific commitments will be mainly based on the request/offer method,
supplemented by other approaches, such as cluster, model schedule or formula approaches as needed
for particular purposes and as agreed upon by Members. They will be conducted through bilateral,
plurilateral or multilateral approaches, directed towards increasing the general level of commitmentundertaken by Members.
9. Article XIX requires that the negotiating guidelines establish modalities for the treatment of
liberalization undertaken autonomously by Members since previous negotiations. A clear
acknowledgement of the credit of such initiatives by WTO members provides countries with a strong
incentive to engage in and sustain autonomous liberalization, and ensure that much needed policyreforms are not unnecessarily postponed in anticipation of reciprocal trade concessions in the future.
10. The credit of the autonomous liberalization can be given according to the modalities to be
developed during the negotiations. The credit, howeve r, should be recognized in a way so as to
contribute to the further opening of other trading partners, in order to convey real benefit to the further
liberalization of the multilateral trading system.
11. Korea believes that the starting point for the negotiations on specific commitments should be
the current schedules. The modalities to be developed during the negotiations should be applied to the
current schedules of specific commitments, in order to accord credit for autonomous liberalization.
D. T
IME-FRAME OF THE NEGOTIATIONS
12. The timetable for the initial phase of negotiations, up to March 2001, has been laid down in
the Road-map. The timetable thereafter, including that  for tabling the initial request and offer, should
be determined in light of the progress made with the WTO's other built-in agenda and Members'ongoing efforts to launch a New Round.
E. W
ORK OF THE SUBSIDIARY BODIES
13. In order to provide a more complete framewor k of rules on trade in services, Members should
accelerate the work of the subsidiary bodies.
− Korea believes that the work on the revision of the classification list and scheduling guideline
by the Committee of Specific Commitments should be completed, at the latest, before any
meaningful (substantial) negotiations on specific commitments commence.S/CSS/W/14
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− Korea also believes that the work on rule making in the areas of safeguard measures,
subsidies, government procurement and domestic regulations by the Working Party on GATSRules and the Working Party on the Domestic Regulations, should be completed before the
negotiations are completed.
F. F
LEXIBILITY FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES AND SPECIAL AND DIFFERENTIAL TREATMENT
FOR LEAST DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
14. Korea fully subscribes to paragraphs 2 and 3 of Article XIX and to Article IV, which provide
flexibility for developing countries and special and differential treatment of least developed countries.
We believe that the modalities for the negotiations should be developed in a way so that the gradual
liberalization, differing levels of participation in plurilateral and multilateral initiatives, flexible time
frames, and use of phase-in and transitional periods of developing countries and least developing
countries are reflected, as appropriate.
III. PROPOSAL FOR THE NEGOTIATIONS
15. Current services activities are expanding, consisting of a large number of heterogeneous sub-
sectors. They are also becoming so closely inter-related that restrictions on the supply of certain
services can seriously affect the supply of other services. These characteristic are most apparent in
infrastructure services, such as finance, distribution, maritime transport, construction, andtelecommunications services. Such services are vital--indeed indispensable--to the supply of other
services, and the commitments in infrastructure services render the specific commitments made in
other services more commercially meaningful.
16. In this regard, Korea places high priority during negotiations on infrastructure services and
proposes to other members to give more attention and consideration on the liberalization of theseinfrastructure services on a global basis.
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