S/C/N/685  
 
13 March 2013  
(13-1351)  Page: 1/2  
Council for Trade in Services  Original: English  
 
NOTIFICATION PURSUANT TO ARTICLE III:3 OF THE 
GENERAL AGREEMENT ON TRADE IN SERVICES 
 The following notification from the delegation  of the European Union, dated 12 March 2013, 
is being circulated to the Members of the Council for Trade in Services. 
  
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  The following notification is made pursuant to GATS Article III:3 and relates to measures adopted 
by the European Union in 2012. Given that th ere is no common understanding among WTO 
Members on when a measure "significantly affects trade in services" within the meaning of GATS Article III:3 and that the European Union cannot make a positive determination on this issue, it is 
therefore notifying measures that may be relevant to trade in services without prejudice to the 
interpretation of the phrase "significantly affect trade in services" in Article III:3.
 
 
 
1  MEMBER NOTIFYING 
EU 
 
2  NOTIFICATION UNDER ARTICLE Article III, paragraph 3, of the General Agreement on Trade in Services 
 
3  DATE OF ENTRY INTO FORCE 16/08/2012 
 
4  AGENCY RESPONSIBLE FOR ENFORCEMENT OF THE MEASURE Member States of the EU 
 
5  DESCRIPTION OF THE MEASURE 
a. Regulation (EU) No 648/2012 of the Euro pean Parliament and of the Council of 
04/07/2012 on OTC derivatives, central counterparties and trade repositories   
b. Brief summary of the content with a focus on potential effect on services trade: 
The so-called European Market Infrastructure Regulation (EMIR) ensures that information on all 
European derivative transactions will be reported to trade repositories and be accessible to 
supervisory authorities, including the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA), to give policy makers and supervisors a clear overview of what is going on in the markets. The Regulation 
also requires standard derivative contracts to be  cleared through Central Counterparties (CCPs) as 
well as margins for uncleared trades and establishes stringent organisational, business conduct and prudential requirements for these CCPs. Before the clearing obligation procedure can begin, central counterparties (CCPs) must be authorised - or recognised in case of a CCP from a third 
country - to clear under the new EMIR regime. This step is necessary to ensure that the CCPs used 
to comply with the clearing obligation are safe and sound. Once a CCP has been authorised under EMIR to clear a certain class of OTC derivatives, ESMA will, within six months, determine whether S/C/N/685 
 
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  the classes of OTC derivatives that the CCP is able to clear should be subject to the clearing 
obligation and, if so, will specify the date of en try into force of such obligation, including any 
phase-in.   
It is noted that third-country branches of EU clea ring members are considered to be established in 
the EU. Therefore, the relevant third country CCPs need to be recognized under EMIR in order to 
provide services to those branches. On the contrary, third country CCPs do not need to be 
recognized under EMIR to provide services to subs idiaries of EU firms incorporated in such third-
country. This recognition requirement applies to all types of CCPs. It covers CCPs providing clearing services for OTC derivatives, as well as  CCPs providing clearing services for exchange 
traded derivatives and securities transactions. 
 
6  MEMBERS SPECIFICALLY AFFECTED, IF ANY 
None 
 
7  TEXT AVAILABLE FROM 
 Enquiry point [ ] 
 WTO Secretariat [ ] 
 Other sources (address, fax and telephone of other body) [X];  
Official Journal of the European Union L 201, 27/07/2012; http://eur-lex.europa.eu  
 
 
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