RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/S/W/23 
29 September 2004 
 (04-4093) 
Council for Trade in Services  
Special Session Original:   English 
 
 
 
COMMUNICATION FROM BRAZIL, COLOMBIA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC,  
EL SALVADOR, INDIA, INDONESIA, NICARAGUA,  
THE PHILIPPINES AND THAILAND 
 
Review of Progress in Negotiations, In cluding Pursuant to Paragraph 15  
of the Guidelines for Negotiations  
  
Tourism Services 
 
 
The following communication, dated 27 Septem ber 2004, from the delegations of Brazil, 
Colombia, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Indi a, Indonesia, Nicaragua, the Philippines and 
Thailand is being circulated to the Memb ers of the Council for Trade in Services. 
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I. INTRODUCTION 
1. Pursuant to paragraph 15 of the Guidelines a nd Procedures for the Negotiations on Trade in 
Services (S/L/93), this contribution is intended to  continue discussions in the Council for Trade in 
Services in its Special Session about the extent  to which Article IV of the GATS is being 
implemented in the on-going negotiations.  
2. The Doha Work Programme seeks to place the needs and interests of developing and least-
developed Members at the centre of the negotia tions.  Paragraph 2 of the Doha Ministerial 
Declaration states,“… The majority of WTO Members are developing countries.  We seek to place 
their needs and interests at the heart of th e Work Programme adopted in this Declaration… ”.  In this 
regard, the effective implementation of the objectives established in the Preamble, and Articles IV and 
XIX of the GATS namely to increase the participation of developing Members in world trade - through the negotiation of specific commitments - with a view towards promoting their economic 
growth and development, is necessary. 
3. In light of the above, this contribution attempts  to address the extent to which initial offers 
tabled by developed members pertaining to “Touris m and Travel Related Services” have contributed 
to the operationalisation of the obligations establishe d in Article IV of the GATS.  Consequently, it 
focuses on the question of whether these initial offers  provide meaningful improvement in this sector 
where a number of developing country Members have expressed specific interests through their proposals and initial requests.   
4. Tourism represents significant interests for many developing country Members as an 
important contributor to their economic development.  Many de veloping countries have made TN/S/W/23 
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 proposals relating to the Tourism sector, and several of them have followed these proposals with 
specific request to trading partners.
1  The issues they have raised are, inter alia,  as follows:  
(a) Facilitation of movement of natural pe rsons supplying services in tourism and 
recognition of their qualifications 
(b) Elimination of economic needs tests in all sub-sectors and modes of supply 
(c) Elimination of requirement for commercial establishment or presence 
(d) Elimination of nationality or residency requirement 
(e) Elimination of anti-competitive practices and unfair competition 
(f) Access to technology distribution channels and information network 
(g) Undertake broader and more in dept h commitment on all modes of supply 
II. ASSESSMENT OF PROGRESS ON COMMON ELEMENTS IDENTIFIED IN 
NEGOTIATING PROPOSALS AND REQUESTS MADE BY DEVELOPING MEMBERS 
5. To date, the interest expressed by developi ng country Members through negotiating proposals 
and requests allow them to identify common elemen ts to address the main issues of concern in 
tourism.  The following elements included in various communications presented by developing 
country Members could be used as criteria to asses s the extent of commercially meaningful market 
access and national treatment commitments being offered, and thus ensure the effective 
implementation of paragraph 15 of the Guidelines. 
(a) Facilitation of movement of natural persons supplying services in Tourism and 
recognition of their qualifications : As was indicated in an earlier communication by a 
group of developing countries pursuant to paragraph 15 of the Guidelines and 
Procedures for the Negotiations on Trade in  Services, liberalization in mode 4 has 
been identified as a common interest by many developing countries.
 2  Initial offers 
relating to mode 4 were shown to fall s hort of the needs identified by developing 
countries during the current services negotiations.  Mode 4 has also been the most 
conservative mode in all the commitments relating to tourism services.  Almost all 
the initial offers scheduled “unbound” or “unbound except in the horizontal 
commitment”.  The commitments in the horizontal sections are very restrictive and confined mainly to the ICT (Intra Corpor ate Transferees) and Business Visitors.  
Only a few initial offers introduced additional categories into their horizontal commitments, and there is almost no speci fic improvement under the Tourism sector.  
Other elements for improving mode 4 commitments that are not reflected in the initial 
offers include: de-linking mode 4 commitments  to mode 3; removing the restrictions 
and requirements attached to previ ous commitments; and simplifying the 
                                                     
 
1  Communication from Colombia to the Council for Trade in Services Special Session (S/CSS/W/122), 
Communication from Costa Rica to the Council for Trade in Servi ces Special Session (S/CSS/W/128), 
Communication from Cuba to the Council for Trade in Services Special Session (TN/S/W/1), Communication 
from MERCOSUR to the Council for Trade in Services  Special Session (S/CSS/W/ 125), Communication from 
the Dominican Republic to the Council for Trade in Services (S/C/W/149). 
2 Communication from Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, 
Egypt, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines and Thailand to the Council 
for Trade in Services (TN/S/W/19).  TN/S/W/23 
 Page 3 
 
 
 cumbersome and non-transparent administrative procedures and regulations for work 
permits and visas. 
(b) Elimination of anti-competitive practices and unfair competition :  This element is 
expressed in almost all the proposals from developing country Members.  Anti-competitive practices can take many forms, such as the exclusive use or abuse of 
Global Distribution System (GDS) and Computer Reservation System (CRS), de-
racking, and price-fixing through monopoly of access.   
(c) Elimination of requirements for commercial establishment or presence : Those 
limitations appear frequently under mode 1 and mode 4, which substantially weaken 
the commitments.  In the initial offers, only a few Members removed some of the 
limitations, but those limitations still exist in many areas. 
(d) Elimination of nationality or residency requirement : These limitations appear 
frequently under mode 3 and mode 4, whic h substantially weaken the commitments 
under these modes.  Among the initial offers, only a few Members removed some of the limitations, but those limitations still exist in many sectors. 
III. CONCLUSIONS 
6. After reviewing the initial offers presented to da te by developed countri es, in our assessment, 
those offers are still far from containing improveme nts and elements that concern the developing 
countries.  Many initial offers still bear the above mentioned limitations, and quite a few did not make 
any improvement in the sector of Tourism. 
 
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