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S/C/W/460  
 
16 November  2023 
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Council for Trade in Services    
 
- DRAFT - 
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COUNCIL FOR TRADE IN SERVICES  
TO THE GENERAL COUNCIL (20 23) 
Since its Annual Report of 20 22 to the General Council1, the Council for Trade in Services held five 
formal meetings, on  8 December  2022, 9 March , two meetings on 12 June (one of which was 
dedicated to the review of Article II (MFN) exemptions) and 3  October 202 3.2  
During the period covered by this Report, the Council addressed the following matters.  
1  NOTIFICATIONS MADE TO THE COUNCIL PURSUA NT TO GATS ARTICLES  III:3 , V:7 AND 
VII:4  
1.1.  The Council took note, altogether, of the following notifications:  
a. Notifications pursuant to Article III:3 of the GATS  
Macao, China  (S/C/N/1112 ); 
Hong Kong, China  (S/C/N/1113 -S/C/N/1115 );  
Switzerland  (S/C/N/1121 -S/C/N/1123 ; 
S/C/N/1134 ); 
Ukraine   (S/C/N/1126 ; S/C/N/1132 );  
Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu,  
  Kinmen and Matsu  (S/C/N/1127 ; S/C/N /1140 );  
Russian Federation  (S/C/N/1128 -S/C/N/1131 );  
Mauritius   (S/C/N/1141 ).  
b. Notifications pursuant to Article V:7 of the GATS  
Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland,  
 United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Bahrain,  
 Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Oman, Qatar  
 and the State of Kuwait  (S/C/N/1111 ) 
Australia, New Zealand, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Tonga  (S/C/N/1052/Add.1 ) 
Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Japan,  
 Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines,  
 Singapore, Thailand and Viet Nam  (S/C/N/1117 ) 
United Kingdom, Liechtenstein and Norway  (S/C/N/1072/Add.1 ) 
United Kingdom and Iceland  (S/C/N/1072/Add.2  and  
Add.3) 
Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao PDR,  
 Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore,  
 Thailand and Viet Nam  (S/C/N/1125 ) 
Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan,  
 Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru,  
 Singapore and Viet Nam  (S/C/N/920/Add.2 , Add.3 and  
  Add.4) 
 
1 S/C/63 
2 Reports of these meetings are contained in S/C/M/ 151 to S/C/M/ 155, and should be read in 
conjunction with this repo rt. S/C/W/460  
 
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  Colombia and Israel  (S/C/N/1133 ) 
Chile and Hong Kong, China  (S/C/N/773/Add.1 ) 
Separate Customs Territory of Taiwan, Penghu,  
 Kinmen and Matsu  (S/C/N/544/Add.1 ) 
Republic of Korea and Indonesia  (S/C/N/1135 ); 
United Kingdom and Australia  (S/C/N/1136 );  
United Kingdom and New Zealand  (S/C/N/1137 );  
El Salvador  (S/C/N/544/Add.2 ); 
Montenegro and Türkiye  (S/C/N/1138 );  
India and Australia  (S/C/N/1139 ). 
 
The agreements notified in these documents were referred to the Committee on Regional 
Trade Agreements for consideration.  
c. Notifications pursuant to Article VII:4 of the GATS  
Hong Kong, China  (S/C/N/1 116); 
Switzerland  (S/C/N/1118 -S/C/N/1120 ; 
S/C/N/1124 ). 
1.2.  At the meeti ng held in March , the Council took note of the updated Secretariat Note containing 
a statistical account of the notifications made under relevant GATS provisions.3  
1.3.  The low number of Article III:3 notifications, particularly on the part of developed Members, 
was noted  at all meetings covered by this Report . 
2  IMPLEMENTATION MATTERS FROM MC12 MANDATES  
2.1.  Under this agenda item, the Council considered  two of the four MC12 implementation matters  
of relevance to the CTS , namely WTO reform and the pan demic response . The other two issues, the 
operationalisation of the LDC services Waiver and the e -commerce Work Programme, were 
deliberated  under  respective dedicated agenda items.  
2.1 WTO reform  
2.2.  With regard to WTO reform, a t the December  2022 meeting the Council addressed  the ideas 
Members had put forward on this issue .4 Request s that meetings of the Council and its subsidiary 
bodies be organised back -to-back to facilitate Capital -based participation, and that the Chairperson 
issue an annotated agenda for  future meeting of the Council  were met with  support.  
2.3.  Following consultations organised by the Chairperson in February5, at the March meeting, the 
Council agreed to task the Secretariat with mapping the practices of the CTS and its  most active  
subsidiary body, the Committee on Specific Commitments  (CSC) , in a similar manner to what had 
been done for the Council for Trade in Goo ds but taking due account of the specificities of the services 
context . Members  also took note of , and welcomed , the readiness of the Secretariat to resume its 
practice of organising training sessions for new delegate s. 
2.4.  The Secretariat Note mapping the CTS and CSC practices was considered at the June meeting.6 
Delegations put forward a number of  suggestions for imp roving the functioning of the CTS, and the 
Council agreed that the Secretariat would compile and circulate a list of these suggestions for further 
consideration.  
2.5.  At the October meeting, Members addressed the Secretariat compilation7 and considered a 
comm unication from the United Kingdom8 outlining proposals to improve the functioning of the CTS 
 
3 JOB(09)/10/Rev. 13 
4 As reflected in JOB/SERV/ CTS/6 and Addendum 1 . These documents  provide  an account of Members' 
views on all MC12 mandates of relevance to the CTS.  
5 An account of the consultations is reflected in JOB/SERV/CTS/9 . 
6 S/C/W/433  
7 JOB/SERV/CTS/14/REV.1  
8 S/C/W/452  S/C/W/460  
 
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  and its subsidiary bodies. Delegations also shared additional suggestions for possible improvements. 
It was agreed that the Chairperson would prepare, under her o wn responsibility, a report 
summarising the reactions to the various proposals Members had put forward  and that a n informal 
CTS meeting will be convened around mid -November to discuss next steps on the way forward.  
2.2 Pandemic response  
2.6.  As for the pandemic response, at the December 2022 meeting  some Members shared 
information about national telehealth initiatives and the impact of COVID -19 on services exporters . 
2.7.  Following consultations organised by the Chairperson9, at the March meeting the Cou ncil 
agreed to organize a series of informal experience -sharing sessions modelled on a similar exercise  
conducted in the Committee on Market Access , addressing: 1 ) transport and logistics services; 
2) health services; 3) tourism services; and 4) ICT and di gitally delivered services. Members agreed 
on the understanding that the sessions would  have balanced representation, provide for the 
participation of external stakeholders and address the trade impact of COVID -19, both generally and 
specifically on LDCs, and the trade -facilitative measures introduced by Members to respond to the 
pandemic. The sessions would be organised during the services clusters of meetings.  
2.8.  At that meeting, and again at the June meeting, the Council addressed two communications 
by India on the "Role of telemedicine services in response to the pandemic"10 and "Building a pool 
of health professionals to respond effectively to pandemics/natural disasters".11 Several  delegations 
underscored the importance of the issues  raised in the  Indian  submissions and expressed support 
for engaging in dedicated discussions of those issues . Other delegations said that the informal 
experience -sharing session on health services already offered a n avenue for engagemen t and 
cautioned aga inst unnecessary duplications; they also questioned the relevance of the GATS and the 
WTO to some of the issues raised in the Indian submissions . 
2.9.  At the October meeting, Members expressed appreciation for the first CTS experience -sharing 
session on the imp act of COVID -19 on trade in transport and logistics services, held on 13 June, and 
took note that the second session, on health services, would be held the following day. Additionally, 
the Council addressed a communication from India on trade -related measu res taken in response to 
the COVID -19 pandemic.12 
3  OPERATIONALIZATION OF THE LDC SERVICES WAIVER  
3.1.  At the December 2022 meeting, the LDC Group  stated that it had some ideas on how to 
implement the paragraph of the MC12 Outcome Document relating to the Waiver and that it was 
working on a written submission . Following the Group's request that the Secretariat assist with the 
collection and compilation on LDC services export data, the Council agreed that the Secretariat  would 
prepare a methodological note on how L DC services trade statistics could be improved .  
3.2.  In March, Members addressed the methodological Note prepared by the Secretariat on how 
LDC services trade statistics could be improved .13 The Note's suggestion that the Secretariat 
organize a one -day hybrid workshop, to explore the contours of a data improvement project, met 
with the Council's agreement.   
3.3.  At the June meeting, t he LDC Group indicated  that it was actively working on its subm ission to 
implement the MC12 mandate on the Waiver but noted that this required  more information on the 
activities of LDC services suppliers and consumers in preference -providing Members' markets. To 
gather this material, the Group was developing a questio nnaire  targeted at LDC business 
associations , Regional Economic Commissions,  and Capitals . The Group also  encouraged  preference -
providing Members to seek information from their consumers of LDC services , with one Member 
specifically  calling on them  to prov ide bilateral data on LDC services imports . Members welcomed 
 
9 An account of the consultations is reflected in JOB/SERV/CTS/9 . 
10 S/C/W/426  
11 S/C/W/427  
12 JOB/SERV/CTS/15  
13 S/C/W/428  S/C/W/460  
 
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  the announcement that the workshop on LDC services trade data would be organised during the 
October services cluster.  
3.4.  At the meeting held on 3 October, the LDC Group updated the Council on its in tended written 
communication, indicating that it had set up the online questionnaire to obtain additional insights 
from LDC service suppliers. Members looked forward to the workshop on improving LDC services 
trade data to be held on 5 October . 
3.5.  The importan ce of implementing the Waiver and  of increasing the participation of LDCs in world 
services trade was stressed by various  delegations at all the  meetings  covered by this Report . 
4  WORK PROGRAMME ON ELECTRONIC COMMERCE  
4.1.  At the December 20222 meeting, Members discussed the work the CTS could undertake 
pursuant to the MC12 Decision to reinvigorate the Work Programme on Electronic Commerce. All 
delegations expressed support for the dedicated, horizontal discussions in the Ge neral Council, with 
many s eeing  the CTS play a complementary role focused on services -specific aspects. Some  
delegations underscored the usefulness of the information shared by Members on their domestic 
experiences, and the Council agreed to task the Secre tariat with compiling this information.  
4.2.  In March , Members addressed the Secretariat  compilation of  the experiences Members had 
shared in the CTS since a Chairman's Note in February 2021 ,14 noting the variety of information 
contributed. Further information  on recent domestic developments related to electronic commerce 
was contributed by various delegations both at the March and June 2022 meetings of the Council.  
4.3.  At the October meeting, the Council addressed a communication by the African Group relating 
to technology transfer and resilience building.15 Various delegations supported the communication, 
emphasis ing the crucial relationship between e -commerce and technology transfer. Other 
delegations underscored that technology dissemination  depende d on multiple factors, such as 
intellectual property rights frameworks, infrastructure, and trade openness, indicating a need for a 
horizontal approach. It was also noted that  the communication had already been discussed in detail 
in the dedicated discussi ons in the General Council . At the meeting, a couple of delegations also 
shared information about their capacity -building efforts for developing countries in the digital sphere.  
5  REVIEW OF MFN EXEMPTIONS  
5.1.  The Council formally started its fifth review of Article II (MFN) exemptions at its December 
2022 meeting, when organisational issues were discussed. Members agreed that the process would 
follow past practice  and be  conducted in a dedicated meeting, to be held in June 2023 , which would 
be organised by sector based on a question -and-answer process . Questions, to be submitted by 
March 2023, would be consolidated by the Secretariat  in a single document,  and answers should be 
circulated in writing before the de dicated meeting.  The Secretariat was requested  to issue a 
procedural note for the review .16  
5.2.  The Council held the meeting dedicated to the fifth review of MFN exemptions on 12  June, at 
which it examined, as per the mandate in paragraph 3 of the relevant GA TS Annex, all exemptions 
granted for a period of more than 5 years.  
5.3.  For the purpose of the review, the Secretariat circulated three background documents: two 
updated compilations of MFN exemptions, one organised by sector17, and one organised by 
Member18, and a document providing updated statistical information on the number of MFN 
exemptions listed.19 As had been agreed , the questions raised were consolidated in a compilation20; 
the document  included questions submitted by Australia; Hong Kong, China; Japan; the Republic of 
Korea, and Switzerland. In advance of the meeting , the Council had received written answers from 
 
14 S/C/W/425  
15 S/C/W/450  
16 JOB/SERV/CTS/7  
17 JOB/SERV/29/Rev.2  
18 JOB/SERV/30/Rev.2  
19 JOB/SERV/31/Rev.2  
20 S/C/W/431  and S/C/W/431/Corr.1  S/C/W/460  
 
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  a number of delegations21; several other delegations provided answers at t he meeting, most of 
which w ere then circulated in written format.  
5.4.  Pursuant to the mandate in paragraph 4(b) of the relevant GATS Annex that the Council 
determine "the date of any further review", at its June dedicated meeting the Council agreed to 
discuss  the date of its next review no later than  2028.  
5.5.  The Council pursued its review discussions under an  agenda  item at its regular meeting in 
October. In advance of the meeting, the Council had received additional written responses .22 At its 
meeting, it also took note of the compilation of questions that had not been answe red the Secretariat 
had been asked to prepare .23 Some additional answers were also provided orally at the meeting, 
and additional questions were submitted by India.24  
6  MEASURING THE SUSTAINAB ILITY OF TOURISM – PILOT STUDIES FROM THE UNWTO  
6.1.  Further to a request of Costa Rica, at the March meeting the World Tourism Organization 
(UNWTO) presented its initiative for a new statistical framework for Measuring the Sustainability of 
Tourism with the aim of setting international standards for measuri ng the economic, environmental, 
and social aspects of tourism.  UNWTO has recently published pilot studies on several countries, 
including Costa Rica, bringing together relevant stakeholders and testing the policy relevance and 
feasibility of its statistic al framework.  
7  UPDATE OF THE SECRETARIAT BACKGROUND NOTE ON MODE 4  
7.1.  The Council addressed this agenda item, upon India's request, at all meetings covered by this 
Report. India reiterated its request that the Secretariat update the Background Notes on mode  4 
along with Notes on the  other three modes of supply. India's sugge stion was echoed by several 
delegation s at the December  meeting and by one delegation at the other meetings covered by this 
Report . India also support ed the proposal for the preparation  of a Note by the Secretariat on 
intermodal linkages , which, however,  should not replace the separate modal Notes . While affirming 
that a Note on intermodal linkages would  be useful  and could also address each mode of supply, one 
Member was of the view  that updating the  stand -alone  Note on mode 4 had no  added value . 
8  CYBERSECU RITY  MEASURES OF CHINA AND VIET NAM  
8.1.  At the request of Japan and the United States, at all the meetings covered by this Report the 
Council addressed various cybersecurity measures adopted and under development by China and 
Viet Nam, respectively. The two requesting delegations shared their concerns about various aspects 
of those measures , which they alleged could be inconsistent with  China and Viet Nam's WTO 
obligations,  and sought additional information and clarity on the same . Their concerns  were echoed 
by a number of other Members .  
8.2.  In reply, China said that its measures had been drafted in a transparent and WTO -consistent 
manner, taking into account national conditions and international practices, as well as stakeholders' 
comm ents. China  emphasised  the measures were not intended to hinder cross -border data flows . 
Viet Nam noted that its legislative process was open , transparent  and had given due consideration 
to stakeholders' remarks and  that its measures were compatible with its international commitments , 
non-discriminatory, clear, and proportionate to its security concerns . 
 
21 The Seychelles ( S/C/W/432 ) and Liechtenstein ( S/C/W/434 ) were included on the Counci l's agenda, 
whereas  Mauritius ( S/C/W/435 ); Türkiye ( S/C/W/436 ); Australia ( S/C/W/437 ); the  Philippine s (S/C/W/438 ); 
Honduras ( S/C/W/439 ); Chile ( S/C/W/440 ); the United Kingdom ( S/C/W/441 ); Canada ( S/C/W/442 ); 
Argentina ( S/C/W/443 ); Singapore ( S/C/W/444 ); and  Tunisia ( S/C/W/445 ) were issued before the me eting but 
after the circulation of the agenda . 
22 Canada ( S/C/W/442/Rev.1 ); Nicaragua ( S/C/W/446 ); The Dominican Republic ( S/C/W/447 ); Colombia 
(S/C/W/448 ); Peru ( S/C/W/449 ); the European Union ( S/C/W/451 ).  
23 S/C/W/453  
24 S/C/W/455  S/C/W/460  
 
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  9  5G-RELATED MEASURES OF AUSTRALIA  
9.1  At the request of China, the Council addressed 5G -related measures of Australia at all the 
meetings covered by this Report. China expressed its concerns about the measures under discussion , 
which it alleged run counter to Australia's WTO obligations.  
9.2  In reply, Australia stressed that its 5G-related measures were  country -agnostic, transpare nt, 
risk-based, non -discriminatory and fully WTO-consistent.  
10  MEASURES OF THE UNITED STATES  
10.1  At the request of China, the Council addressed various US measures  at all the meetings 
covered by this Report. China expressed  its concern s about the US measures, which it alleged  were 
inconsistent with the United States' WTO obligations .  
10.2  The United States stated that the actions  cited had been taken  to protect its national security .  
11  MEASURES OF INDIA RELATED TO CERTAIN APPLICATIONS  
11.1  At the request of China, the Council addressed Indian measures on certain  Chinese  applications 
at all the meetings covered by this report . China voiced  its concerns about the measures in question , 
which it alleged were  inconsistent with India' s WTO obligations .  
11.2  India replied that its measures were fully compliant with  its WTO obligations  and that they had 
been introduced to ensure the protection of privacy, data security and national security .  
12  WORK OF THE SUBSIDIARY BODIES  
12.1.  The activities of the subsidiary bodies in 20 23 are reflected in their respective reports, which 
are annexed to this  report, as follows:  
 Annex I  Report of the Committee on Trade in Financial Services (S/FIN/ XX) 
 Annex II  Report of the Committee on Specific Commitments (S/CSC/ XX) 
 Annex III  Report of the Working Party on Domestic Regulation (S/WPDR/ XX) 
 Annex IV  Report of the Working Party on GATS Rules (S/W PGR/XX). 
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