RESTRICTED
WORLD TRADE S/CSC/W/15
18March 1998
ORGANIZATION(98-1102)
Committee onSpecific Commitments
ANNOTATED AGENDA FOR THE FIFTH MEETING OF
THE COMMITTEE ONSPECIFIC COMMITMENTS
TheproposedagendaforthemeetingoftheCommitteeonSpecificCommitmentson4April1998
hasbeencirculated inWTO/AIR/805. TheChairman oftheCommittee hasalsoaddressed toMembers
aletter of3March 1998recalling themaintopics which havebeenunder discussion intheCommittee
andthestateofplayregarding them. Thisannotated agenda provides background information oneach
agenda item.
I. CLASSIFICATION ISSUES
A. Assessment oftheRelevance oftheAdoption ofCPCRevision 1forTrade Negotiating Purposes
1. Atitslastmeeting theCommittee hadasecond general discussion onclassification issues, but
nodetailed discussion hasyettaken place ontherevision oftheCPC nomenclature onthebasis of
document S/CSC/W/6 (general presentation), S/CSC/W/6/Add.1 to5(sectoral studies), S/CSC/7
(summary ofthemain changes) andS/CSC/W/9 (qualitative assessment).
2. Inaddition tothose documents theSecretariat hassince produced nineother documents in
response torequests made byMembers: S/CSC/W/6/Add.6 to13(sectoral studies onthevarious
businessservices),S/CSC/W/9/Add.1(qualitativeassessmentforthoseservices)andfinallyS/CSC/W/16
"Potential Impact oftheRevision 1ofCPContheSectoral Definitions usedintheSchedules". The
statement made bytherepresentatives oftheUNstatistical division andtheVoorburg Group atthe
lastmeeting oftheCommittee hasalsobeencirculated (S/CSC/W/13).
3. Onthebasis ofthisdocumentation, itissuggested toaddress firstanydetailed questions on
thesectors already studied. Then itisproposed thattheCommittee should discuss therelevance of
CPC/Rev.1 toitswork anddecide ifanyfurther action isrequired onit.
4. Itisrecalled thattheChairman stated inhisletter that"theonlyessential question iswhether
Members whochoose tousetheCPC asabasis forscheduling would wish toconvert from the
provisional totherevised CPC. However discussion sofarsuggests thatinterest inmaking sucha
conversion isnotstrong".
B. Treatment ofNewServices
5. TheCommittee hasalready hadtworelatively detailed debates onthisquestion inJuneand
October 1997 (thesecond timeonthebasis ofaninformal Chairman 'snote, JobNo.5719). Those
debates arereflected indocuments S/CSC/M/3, paragraphs 4to15andS/CSC/M/4 paragraphs 5to
16.TheChairman 'sletter recalls thattheconclusion ofthose debates wasthattheCommittee would
revert tothesubject atalaterdateonthebasis ofconcrete cases brought forward byMembers. To
datenosuchconcrete caseshavebeenbrought totheattention oftheSecretariat. Itissuggested therefore
./.S/CSC/W/15
Page2
nottodiscuss thisquestion unless Members haveadditional comments inthatrespect forinstance on
thedocument circulated asJobNo.5719.
C. "AdHoc" Sectoral Scheduling
6. TheSecretariat prepared forthelastmeeting abackground noteontheuseofspecial
classificationmethodsfortheschedulingofcommitmentsinthesectorsofairtransport,financialservices,
telecommunications andmaritime transport (S/CSC/W/11). Itissuggested thatdelegations consider
iffurther work isnecessary onthissubject.
II. PROCEDURAL AND COST IMPLICATIONS OFTHE DEVELOPMENT OF
ELECTRONICALLY AGGREGATED AND MAINTAINED SERVICES SCHEDULES
7. Atthelastmeeting oftheCommittee theSecretariat indicated thatitwasnotyetabletopresent
adraftformat forthefuture electronically maintained schedules ofcommitments duetotechnical and
legal difficulties inassigning dates tothecommitments. TheSecretariat hasprepared adocument
(S/CSC/W/14) explaining those difficulties andsuggesting asaprovisional solution nottoinclude dates
intheelectronic schedules.
III. SCHEDULING GUIDELINES
8 Atthetwolastmeetings theChairman invited delegations tosubmit inwriting anyviews on
scheduling difficulties thattheyhadencountered andwhattheyconsidered tobethemainshortcomings
ofthepresent scheduling guidelines. TheChairman recently renewed thisappeal inhisletterof3March
1997. Aninformal paper submitted bySwitzerland wascirculated on7October 1997 anddiscussed
briefly on10October 1997. Itissuggested thatthisCommittee willwishtodiscuss thispaper indetail,
together withanyother papers submitted bydelegations before themeeting.
IV. STATISTICS
4. Asthisquestion isnowaddressed regularly inthecontext oftheCouncil forTrade inServices
itissuggested thattheCommittee considers whether tomaintain thisitemonitsagenda forfuture
meetings.
__________