S/WPGR/26  
 
15 October 2015  
(15-5395)  Page: 1/2  
   
 
 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE WORKING PARTY ON GATS RULES 
TO THE COUNCIL FOR TRAD E IN SERVICES (2015) 
Since its Annual Report of 2014 to the Council for Trade in Services,1 the Working Party on GATS 
Rules (WPGR) held two formal meetings, respectively on 18 March and 6 June 2015.2 During the 
period covered by this report, the Working Party continued engaging in discussions on all three 
GATS Rules topics. However, prog ress was limited due notably to the overall context of the DDA 
negotiations.  
 1  NEGOTIATIONS ON EMERGENCY SA FEGUARD MEASURES (ARTICLE X) 
1.1.  In 2015, the Working Party continued its dedicated discussion on emergency safeguard 
provisions in regional trade agreements (RTAs), as initially proposed by the 'Friends of ESM'
3 in 
their Communication on "Emergency Safeguard Measures (ESM ) in Regional and Bilateral Trade 
Agreements: A Proposed Dedicated Discussion"  back in 2013.4  On substance, no new elements 
were fed into the discussion.  Members did not revert to the updated factual Note prepared by the 
Secretariat reviewing safeguard–type and safeguar d–related provisions for trade in services in 
some 122 RTAs notified to the WTO under GATS Article V:7.5  The proponents invited WTO 
Members to re-examine their 2007 proposal for an “Annex on Article X Emergency Safeguard 
Measures” (document JOB(07)/155) and reiterated their availability to hold informal consultations 
with interested Members in that regard.     
2  NEGOTIATIONS ON GOVERNMENT  PROCUREMENT (ARTICLE XIII) 
2.1.  As previously agreed by Members, the Wo rking Party discussed the final version of the WTO 
Working Paper entitled "The Relationship between Services Trade and Government Procurement 
Commitments: Insights from Relevant WTO Agreements and Recent RTAs"  prepared, in their 
personal capacity, by staff members from the Secretariat's TRIPS Division in charge of the GPA 
and the Trade in Services Division.6 
2.2.  Regarding future work in this area, the delegation of the European Union suggested analysing 
how Members treated foreign-owned or controlled established7 service suppliers with respect to 
government procurement procedures, as compared to their own 'domestic' service suppliers ‒ to 
identify good practices that could be drawn from national experiences (as well as possible sources 
of discrimination). Further to this exchange of information among Members, the EU delegation 
suggested requesting the Secretariat to further examine Members' practices in this regard as reflected notably in their regional trade agreements. Further discussions to define the contours of 
future work are expected to take place in forthcoming meetings.  
                                               
1 Document S/WPGR/25 dated 17 November 2014.  
2 The reports of these meetings are contained in documents S/WPGR/M/86 and S/WPGR/M/ 87, and 
should be read in conjun ction with this report.  
3 T h e  f ol l o wi n g n i n e  de l e g a t i o n s ,  a s  p r o p on e n t s  on  emergency safeguards in services, constitute the 
'Friends of ESM": Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam. 
4 Document JOB/SERV/163 dated 18 October 2013, Communication from Brunei Darussalam, 
Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Thailand and Viet Nam.  
5 Document S/WPGR/W/64 dated 4 September 2014. 
6 WTO Working Paper ERSD-2014-21, final version released in November 2014: 
https://www.wto.org/ english/res_e/reser_e/wpaps_e.htm . The views expressed in the Paper are the authors' 
personal responsibility and should not be attributed to the WTO or its Secretariat. 
7 I.e., for services supplied via foreign commercial presence, so-called 'mode 3'. S/WPGR/26 
 
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  3  NEGOTIATIONS ON SUBSIDIES (ARTICLE XV) 
3.1.  In January 2015, the Secretariat issued a revised version of its Background Note entitled 
"Subsidies for Services Sectors ‒ Information contained in WTO Trade Policy Reviews"  (based on 
information contained in WTO Secretariat Trade Policy Review reports).8 A couple of delegations 
made observations on the Note. More conceptual work would ideally be needed to better 
understand how subsidies are provided and what trade effects they might have.  
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8 Document S/WPGR/W/25/Add.7/Rev.1 dated 13 January 2015.