WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  RESTRICTED 
S/WPGR/M/78 
24 August 2012 
 (12-4580) 
Working Party on GATS Rules  
  
 
REPORT OF THE MEETING HELD ON 25 JUNE 2012 
 
Note by the Secretariat
1 
 
 
1. The meeting was chaired by Ms Kyoko Hokugo from Japan.  The proposed agenda and the 
Chairperson's annotated agenda for the meeting were circulated in documents WTO/AIR/3961 and 
JOB/SERV/104 respectively.  The agenda was adopted. 
I. NEGOTIATIONS ON EMERGENCY SAFEGUARD MEASURES (ESM) UNDER 
ARTICLE X OF THE GATS  
2. The Chairperson noted that, as agreed by Members, the Documentation Guide  
(JOB/SERV/106) consisted of a matrix listing all docum ents issued since the start of the negotiations 
in 1995, where key ESM-related concepts had been discussed in some detail.  She recalled that the 
Guide  did not aim at summarizing any substance.  In stead, it identified the relevant section(s) or 
paragraph(s) where key concepts had been addressed .  The Chairperson invited a representative of the 
Secretariat to present the document. 
3. The Secretariat  representative explained that the Documentation Guide  was designed to offer 
representatives a structured overview of the various  concepts and options for a possible safeguard 
mechanism as they had been di scussed in the course of the negotiations, between July 1995 and 
June 2012.  The Documentation Guide  consisted of a table with refere nces to documents  (and relevant 
sections and paragraphs therein) where one or more  of the 17 "core elements" of an ESM had been 
addressed in some detail.  She gave two concrete ex amples (one related to the definitions of domestic 
industry and acquired rights, and one  on statistics) of how Members could use the document, stressing 
that the latter was not intended to summarize any substance but simply aimed at helping direct 
Members to the relevant documents.  While the Secr etariat had been trying to categorize issues as 
accurately as possible, the dividing lines between some  of the core elements were difficult to draw.  
She thus invited Members to review the documen t and send any observations to the Secretariat. 
4. The Chairperson thanked the Secretar iat and expressed the hope that the Documentation  
Guide  would provide a useful overview of the wealth a nd depth of issues raised by Members.  Given 
the transitory presence of many representatives, it may help the latter in getting up-to-speed on 
subjects that had been discussed for a long time.  Tu rning to future work, she reminded Members that 
in November 2011 the ESM-proponents, while standi ng ready to continue technical discussions, had 
called for a period of reflection.  She then opened the floor for Members' views on future work, and 
how to make the best use of the information contained in the Documentation Guide .  
5. The representative of the Philippines, on behalf  of the delegations of Brunei Darussalam, 
Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines,  Thailand and Viet Nam, thanked the Chair for 
the comprehensive account contained in her annot ated agenda (JOB/SERV/104).  He thanked the 
                                                      
1 This document has been prepared under the Secret ariat's own responsibility and without prejudice to 
the positions of Members and to their rights and obligations under the WTO.  S/WPGR/M/78 
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  Secretariat for the Documentation Guide , acknowledging that documenting the more than a hundred 
submissions, communications and minutes of meetings of the past 17 years had taken a lot of time and 
effort.  The ESM-proponents believed that the Guide , together with the List of Documents 
(JOB/SERV/89) and the Compilation of Summary  Notes (JOB/SERV/90), would serve as a good 
basis for future discussions.  The proponents reaffi rmed their understanding that they were "living 
documents" that would be periodically updated to refl ect developments in the negotiations.  Finally, 
without prejudice to their review of the Documentation Guide  and possible subsequent submissions, 
he noted that the previous submissions of the "Fri ends of ESM" had formed an important part of the 
discussions of the Working Party on ESM, and still  served as a foundation for possible future work.  
As before, the proponents stood ready to discuss any further thoughts from Members. 
6. The representative of the United States echoe d the ESM-proponents' wish that the Guide  
become a living document.  He asked whether the Secretariat could consider  producing this document 
in a searchable and sortable format, so th at Members could identify issues more easily ‒ especially if 
the document was expanded over time. 
7. The representative of the Secretariat thanked the representative of the United States for his 
useful suggestion, and stated the Secretariat's r eadiness to look into the matter.  In the meantime, 
Members could use the standard 'sear ch' functions available in Word. 
8. The Chairperson thanked the sp eakers for their comments and suggested reverting to this 
subject at the next meeting.   
II. NEGOTIATIONS ON GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT UNDER ARTICLE XIII 
OF THE GATS 
9. Turning to government procurement, the Chai rperson recalled that, in the course of 2009, 
informal discussions had focused on the procedural rules contained in the proposal by the European 
Union for a GATS Annex on Government Procurem ent (S/WPGR/W/54).  Clarification had been 
provided by the EU on various occasions on how th e existing format of GATS schedules could be 
used to undertake commitments on government proc urement.  Subsequently, since the latter part 
of 2010, Members had engaged in a series of de dicated discussions on the broader economic and 
developmental relevance of government procurement in services, so as to better explain the potential 
benefits of undertaking commitments in this area.  Those discussions were based on a proposal by the 
European Union contained in room document RD/SERV/23.   
10. Flowing from these discussions, three initial sugges tions for future work had been made:  (i) 
to elaborate a typology of market access obstacles , by mode of supply, to investigate the many 
similarities, despite differing terminologies, betw een barriers in commercial services trade and in 
services procurement;  (ii) to identify a number of services relevant for international procurement transactions (in analogy to the EU's distinction be tween 'non-priority' and 'priority' services, the latter 
being defined as the most relevant for procur ement within the EU’s internal market and 
internationally);  and (iii) to improve the statis tical situation by collecting data on international 
procurement transactions, with a special focus on th e participation of developing countries.  At the 
time, Members seemed to be willing to discuss thes e initial proposals further.  Members had had some 
time to reflect on these – and possibly other – sugges tions on how to concretely move work forward 
on government procurement.  Before opening the fl oor to Members' views, she once again reminded 
and encouraged delegations ‒ from both GPA and non-GPA Members ‒ to take the opportunity to 
share with this Working Party their national expe riences with the reform of domestic procurement 
systems and access to foreign procurement markets.   Such presentations could be offered in any 
forthcoming regular session of the Working Party.   S/WPGR/M/78 
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  11. The representative of the European Union reiterate d his delegation's interest in pursuing work 
on government procurement.  Among the suggestions fo r future work highlighted by the Chairperson, 
his delegation was particularly interested in examin ing barriers that were common to procurement and 
commercial services trade in sectors that were most relevant in services procurement.  He wished to 
raise this matter further with the Secretaria t to see if the latter might provide some input. 
12. The representative of Canada asked the EU representative to clarify his delegation's 
suggestion.  Members seemed better placed than the S ecretariat to provide such information.  Perhaps 
Members could share information about difficulties experienced by their service suppliers when 
trying to access foreign procurement markets.   
13. The representative of the European Union clarifie d that, at this stage, his delegation simply 
wished to seek an opinion from the Secretariat on the possibility to carry out analytical work on 
barriers common to procurement and commercial services' trade in sectors most relevant for international procurement. 
14. A representative of the Secretariat explained that  this proposal was new to them.  One starting 
point could be, as had been done in the area of subs idies, to look into the Trade Policy Reviews.  If 
agreeable to Members and possibly after discussion w ith the delegation of the European Union, the 
Secretariat could look into potentially available information sources ‒ including WTO Trade Policy 
Reviews – and report back to Members. 
15. The representative of the United States stated th at his delegation needed to further reflect on 
the EU delegation's suggestion and refer it to their GPA experts for further discussion.  He supported 
Canada's suggestion that this input should come from Members.  He suggested reverting to the 
question at the next meeting once his delegation w ould have discussed it further internally and with 
the EU delegation.  
16. The representative of New Zealand indicated that her delegation would also be interested in 
seeing a more detailed proposal from the EU ahead of  the next meeting on what it envisaged the 
Secretariat to do.  She emphasized that this Working Party had not yet had a discussion on the 
services considered "most relevant" to international pr ocurement.  The EU's list had been elaborated 
for its own internal use. 
17. The representative of Pakistan also sought a be tter understanding of what  the EU delegation's 
proposal entailed.   
18. The Chairperson thanked delegations for th eir comments, and acknowledged that more 
discussion was needed.  She suggested that Members reve rt to this topic at the next meeting.      
III. NEGOTIATIONS ON SUBSIDIES UNDER ARTICLE XV OF THE GATS 
19. Turning to subsidies, the Chairperson recalled that discussions had been at an impasse for 
some time.  Whereas one group of Members favoured entering into negotiations to develop necessary 
multilateral disciplines to avoid trade-distortive eff ects of subsidies, another group had argued that 
Members should refrain from entering into negot iations to devise any disciplines until concrete 
evidence of trade-distortive effects had been established.  A third group had held the view that there 
was still useful conceptual and tec hnical work that could be done s hort of starting negotiations on new 
disciplines.   
20. At the time, there had appeared to be broad agreement on the desirability of obtaining more 
and better information on the potential or actual trade- distortive effects of subsidies.  However, since 
then, she felt that the appetite to further explor e this topic had progressively faded.  She asked S/WPGR/M/78 
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  Members whether, and how, they wanted to move th is item forward, to what extent they were willing 
to engage anew in conceptual work on subsidies, and what useful technical work could be conducted. 
21. In that context, the Chairperson drew delega tions' attention to the Background Note of the 
Secretariat entitled "Subsidies for Services Sectors ‒ Information contained in WTO Trade Policy 
Reviews" last updated in March 2007 (S/WPGR/W/ 25/Add.5).  She suggested that the Note be 
updated to include information from the 87 Trade Po licy Reviews conducted since the last revision.  
She then opened the floor to Members for suggestio ns on the way ahead and a possible update of the 
Secretariat's Note.    
22.  The representative of Canada supported th e Chairperson's suggestion to update the 
Secretariat Note.   
23. The representative of Japan also supported such update as it could contribute to identifying 
trade-distortive effects ‒ which in turn was essential for ne gotiations on multilateral disciplines to 
avoid such trade-distortive effects. 
24. The representative of Hong Kong, China stressed  the importance for the Working Party to 
continue discussions and technical work on subsidies.   Like previous speakers, he supported an update 
of the Note. 
25. The representative of Australia observed that  the 2007 Secretariat Note was helpful in 
providing an overview of the various subsidies menti oned in the Trade Policy Reviews.  However, it 
did not provide any details of the extent to which those subsidies were distorting trade.  Her delegation welcomed an update from the Secretariat,  but Members needed to reflect on what to do 
with that information.  The Chair's Annotated Agenda (JOB/SERV/104) identified the real issue, 
namely the need to seek concrete evidence of tr ade-distortive effects.  The Work Programme on 
Information Exchange on Subsidies in 2010-20 11 provided information on Members' subsidy 
programmes, but gave no clear picture of trade-distor tive effects, if any.  Her delegation expected to 
receive this information from Members who had id entified problems with s ubsidy programs, and was 
open to suggestions on how to take this discussion forward. 
26. The representatives of the European Union, India, Switzerland, Chile, Pakistan and Oman 
also supported an update of the Note. 
27. The representative of United States recalle d his delegation's concern that document 
S/WPGR/W/25 and its Addendums be not over-interpret ed.  Indeed the latter merely catalogued some 
programs labelled as "subsidies".  The Secretariat could not be expected to determine what the 
Secretariat or individual Members had meant when  they used the word "subsidy" in Trade Policy 
Reviews.  Likewise the absence of the term "subsi dy" in a Trade Policy Report entailed no indication 
of whether the measures described might, in fact, in volve subsidies.  In this sense, the Note was both 
over- and under-inclusive.  That said, his delegatio n supported revising the Note, but only to the 
extent that such update contained a clear statem ent that it was both:  (a) without prejudice to 
negotiations in the WPGR, and (b) that the Secretar iat had made no effort to determine whether there 
was a common understanding of the meaning of the term "subsidy" as used in the various Trade 
Policy Reports.  He echoed the dele gate of Australia about the need  to determine actual economic 
effects of subsidies. 
28. The representative of China supported an update of the Note.  He also expressed the view that 
there was still useful conceptual and techni cal work that could be done on subsidies.  S/WPGR/M/78 
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  29. Given the absence of any objections, the Chairp erson concluded that the Secretariat would 
update its 2007 Background No te taking into account the comments made by several delegations, and 
that Members would revert to this item at the next meeting. 
IV. OTHER BUSINESS 
30. No topic was raised under this agenda item.  The Chairperson thus suggested that the 
Working Party adjourn the meeting.   
31. The meeting was adjourned. 
 
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