PRESS RELEASE
PRESS/299
28 June 2002
(02-3643)
SERVICES NEGOTIATIONS
DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF WTO AN D CHAIRMAN OF WTO SERVICES
NEGOTIATIONS REJECT MISGUIDED CLAIMS THAT PUBLIC
SERVICES ARE UNDER THREAT
Mike Moore, Director-General of the World Trade Organization and Ambassador Alejandro Jara of
Chile, Chairman of the Special Session of the WTO Services Council, underscored today that WTOnegotiations to liberalize trade in services were no threat to Government services and that such
sectors of the services economy were in fact excluded from the negotiations.
Speaking ahead of an important series of meetings on services to be held next month, the two
WTO officials stressed that encouraging competition through liberalization holds potential for great
economic benefit particularly in developing countries.  But they made it clear that everygovernment has the right to exclude public services — including health, education and water
distribution — from the negotiations and that it is for governments to decide which service sectors
they wish to liberalize and which they do not.
“These negotiations are taking place within the legal framework of the General Agreement on
Trade in Services and the negotiating guidelines adopted by Member Governments in March 2001.The GATS explicitly excludes government services from its scope and there is no question of
changing those rules.  The negotiating guidelines explicitly stress that each Member Government
has the right to choose the sectors it wishes to liberalize. Government services supplied on a non-commercial basis by each of the 144 WTO Member Governments are explicitly excluded from the
scope of the negotiations.  This is a principle to which all Member Governments attach great
importance and which none has sought to reopen,” said Ambassador Jara.
Director-General Moore said that in the coming days governments will make their first requests for
market opening and that it was po ssible some governments could ask others to open public service
sectors to foreign competition. But, he explained, that such requests do not constitute agreements
to include such sectors as part of their commitments.
“People can and will ask for the moon during the request stage of the negotiations. That doesn’t
mean they’ll get it. Decisions in the WTO are taken on the basis of a concensus of all member
governments. Governments cannot be forced to undertake opening of their public services,”Mr. Moore said.PRESS/299
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The Director-General added that the liberalization of governmental segments of sectors such as
health and education has never come up in the discussions between governments.  Even theliberalization of the commercial segments of such sectors has received little attention in the
negotiations, he said. The focus of the negotiations has been on other services sectors.
“What is important about these negotiations,” he said, “is that they offer vast potential for raising
living standards globally but especially in developi ng countries, many of which stand to benefit the
most from further opening of services markets.  In fact, 25 developing countries earn more thanhalf of their total export income from services.”
As the negotiations enter the important stage of bilateral bargaining over market access, Chairman
Jara stressed the need for public underst anding based on clarity and objectivity.
“Each negotiating Government has the unequivocal right to choose which services it wishes to
open to foreign competition and under which conditions and the right to regulate the supply of
service in line with national policy objectives.  And even for those services provided by
governments on a commercial basis, there is nothing in the WTO rules which requires that they beprivatized or liberalized,” he said.
ENDS