RESTRICTED  
  
S/C/M/114  
 
26 August 2013  
(13-4535)  Page: 1/16  
Council for Trade in Services    
 
 REPORT OF THE MEETING HELD ON 20 JUNE 2013 
NOTE BY THE SECRETARIAT1 
On 20 June 2013, the Council for Trade in Services held a meeting under the Chairmanship of 
Ambassador Al-Otaibi (Saudi Arabia). The agen da was contained in document WTO/AIR/4144. 
Upon taking the floor, many delegations congratulated Ambassador Al-Otaibi on his appointment 
as Chairman of the Council for Trade in Services. 
Under Other Business, the Chairman indicated that the Secretariat wished to make a brief 
statement concerning technical assistance in the field of trade in services statistics, and that he 
would ask a representative of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) to provide an oral update on recent developments in the ITU's work that might be of relevance to the Council's 
discussions. 
The representative of the United States said that he wished to add an item under Other Business, 
to keep the Council informed about discussions on de velopments in trade in services that had been 
held amongst a group of Members in late April. 
The representative of Australia said that her delegation also wished to add an item under Other 
Business, concerning the entry into force of the certified EU-25 schedule. 
The agenda was adopted, as modified. 
1  ITEM A - NOTIFICATIONS PURSUANT TO  ARTICLES III:3 AND V:7 OF THE GATS 
1.1.  Starting with the notifications made pursuant to GATS Article III:3 (transparency), the 
Chairman drew the Council's attention to the communications received, respectively, from South 
Africa, in document S/C/N/689, and Sweden, in document S/C/N/690. 
1.2.  The representative of Canada intervened to provide some answers to questions that had 
been raised at the previous meeting on her delegation's notification on telecommunications 
(document S/C/N/679). At the March meeting of the Council, her delegation had already provided 
some background to Canada's notification on the telecommunication sector. By way of additional details, she explained that all companies that operated telecommunications facilities or resell 
telecommunications services in Canada could be 100% foreign-owned, provided that mergers and 
acquisitions did not result in a company exceeding the 10% market share level measured by annual revenues.  There were currently three major Canadian telecommunications companies that exceeded the 10% market share level and rema ined, as such, subject to foreign ownership 
restrictions.  
1.3.  On the specific question of how video servic es were addressed in the legislation, the changes 
notified were addressing foreign ownership in telecommunications.  Broadcasting content and 
distribution were subject to Canada's Broadcasting Act (S.C. 1991, c. 11), which set out the 
Broadcasting Policy for Canada in section 3(1).  The changes notified had not affected any of Canada’s other applicable policies, like those relating to broadcasting content and distribution 
activities. 
                                               
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/C/M/114 
 
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  1.4.  The representative of Colombia drew Member s' attention to two legislative changes. The first 
concerned modifications of the Colombian labo r code, Law 3743 of 1950. This Law contained a 
proportionality requirement for the recruitment of foreigners in enterprises established in the Colombian territory. This measure provided that any employer with more than 10 workers had to 
employ Colombians in a share of at least 90% of  ordinary workers and at least 80% of skilled, 
specialized or management posts. Law 4029 of 2010 had removed this proportionality requirement from the Colombian labor code and, as a result, there no longer was any ceiling on the number of 
foreign workers allowed in an enterprise in Colombia.  The application of this reform had taken 
some time in view of the potential knock-on e ffects on the national labor market and had only 
become effective that year.   
1.5.  The second change was the improvement to Colombia's migration regime. On 24 April 2013, 
Decree 0834 had enacted a new migration regime that fully waived Decree 4000 of 1994 by 
further simplifying the visa system. Amongst the ke y changes introduced were the following three. 
First, now only 3 types of visas existed: business, temporary and resident. In the previous regime 
there had been 6 types of visas. Second, an en try and residency system had been set up which 
provided for temporary residency for foreign visito rs who entered Colombia's territory without the 
intention of establishing themselves permanently and who did not need a visa. Third, the new 
regime made it possible to apply for any visa, or apply for modifications to a visa, from within the 
national territory. Previously, work visas could only be applied for from outside the country and it was not possible to change from one visa class to another, such as, for instance, from a tourist to a business visa. Colombia was convinced that the new visa regime would facilitate the movement 
of persons into and out of the Colombian territory and offer major opportunities for trading good 
and services and foreign investment. Her delegati on would shortly formally notify the measures 
just presented.   
1.6.  The Chairman encouraged delegations to submit any technical questions and answers in 
writing. He said that the Council would take note of the notifications and comments made and 
might refer again to some of the issues as appropriate. 
1.7.  It was so agreed. 
1.8.  Turning to the notifications submitted pursuant to Article V:7, the Chairman drew 
delegations' attention to the communications received from Canada and Panama (in document 
S/C/N/691); Guatemala and Panama (S/C/N/692/Rev.1); the European Union (S/C/N/693); 
Ukraine (S/C/N/694); Malaysia and Australia (S/C/N /695) and Peru and Costa Rica (S/C/N/696).  
1.9.  He proposed that the Council take note of  the notifications made and refer the agreements 
newly notified to the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements for consideration. 
1.10.  It was so agreed. 
1.11.  The representative of Norway updated the Council on developments pursuant to her 
delegation's notification under GATS Articl e III:5, contained in document S/C/N/653. Her 
delegation had held an expert meeting that same day with Thailand regarding Norway's 
notification on the Thai foreign dominance regulation and wished to express its appreciation to the Thai delegation for its willingness to meet and its readiness to address the issues of concern in further detail. Norway was still awaiting some formal written responses to questions that it had 
circulated ahead of the December 2012 Council meeting, and understood that these were under 
way.   
1.12.  The representative of the European Union informed the Council that his delegation had also 
attended that morning's meeting and wished to echo Norway's comment in that regard. Her 
delegation was grateful that the meeting had been held and considered that it had been the ideal 
way to tackle the questions raised via Norway's notification. A fruitful exchange of views had taken 
place. 
1.13.  The Chairman proposed that the Council take note of the statements made. 
1.14.  It was so agreed. S/C/M/114 
 
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  2  ITEM B - COMPLIANCE WITH GA TS NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS 
2.1.  The Chairman recalled that, as part of  the discussion on how to implement the MC8 
instruction to improve and strengthen the function ing of the regular bodies, the Council for Trade 
in Services had decided to focus on transparency, and specifically on the issue of compliance with 
notification requirements. Following a specific  request, at the March Council meeting the 
Secretariat had circulated a Note titled "Typology of measures notified pursuant to GATS Article 
III:3", contained in document S/C/W/351. Members had held an initial discussion of the Note at 
that meeting. A representative of the Secretariat had also given a useful and informative 
presentation on the issue of notifications in the TBT and SPS areas. The Council had then reverted 
to the various suggestions that Members had put forward on how to improve transparency with 
regard to services measures, as reflected in  the Note circulated in JOB/SERV/136.   
2.2.  Generally, Members had seemed agreeable to discussing several of the suggestions in that 
Note, and specifically those contained in paragraph 4a (i.e. identifying the challenges of notifying services measures and the possible solutions to address such challenges, including through sharing 
best practices with domestic procedures, while taking into account the resource constraints faced 
by Members, and especially developing countries and LDCs); paragraph 4b (i.e. identifying ways of notifying services measures without prejudging the legal interpretation of the term "significantly 
affect trade in services" in Article III:3); paragraph 4c (i.e. improving the quality and usefulness of 
the information being notified and considering practical means to facilitate delegations' task when notifying services measures, such as improving th e user-friendliness of the current notification 
form, making the form available on the WTO website, enabling the on-line submission of 
notifications); and paragraph 4e (i.e. tasking the Secretariat with producing updates of the 
statistical account of the notifications made on an annual basis). 
2.3.  Instead, there had been widespread sceptici sm with regard to the proposal in paragraph 4f, 
about encouraging the submission of notifications pursuant to GATS Article III:5, given that the 
possibility of notifying pursuant to this Article already existed. Finally, there had been definite 
opposition to the suggestion in paragraph 4d that  Members be required to confirm, on an annual 
basis, that they had notified all that needed to be notified.   
2.4.  Against this background, the Chairman sugge sted that Members start thinking about specific 
steps to advance the Council's work, and enco uraged delegations to put forward concrete 
proposals with regard to the four suggestions that seemed to meet with their favour. For instance, 
as concerned the suggestion that the Secretariat produce annual updates of the statistical account 
of the notifications made, he wondered if Members were agreeable to taking a formal decision to the effect that the Secretariat would produce such  an update at the beginning of every year. His 
was just a suggestion, and Members might have different ones, but they had a collective 
responsibility to advance the Council's work on improving transparency.  
2.5.  He also stressed that the four suggestions that he had mentioned as appearing to meet with 
Members' favour were not intended to straightjacket the discussion. To the contrary, they were 
without prejudice to any additional ideas that de legations might have brought, or might further 
like to bring to the table. Indeed, he recalled that the delegation of India had suggested that 
Members also address notifications pursuant to Article VII:4, for instance.  
2.6.  The representative of Switzerland reiterated  the statement made by his delegation on this 
item at the previous Council meeting. Looking at future work, he recalled the useful presentation 
made in March about platforms for electronic notifications in the TBT area. His delegation had 
suggested that the Council ask the Secretariat to look into whether a similar system could be set 
up for services notifications, from a technical and administrative point of view. As he had not detected any objections to his delegation's proposal back in March, he asked the Chairman to 
follow up on that suggestion.  
2.7.    The representative of Australia said that her delegation saw the value of improved 
adherence to the GATS notification obligations an d of increasing the transparency of measures 
affecting trade in services. The Secretariat Note demonstrated the benefits of better understanding 
Members' notification practices and highlighted a divergence in such practices which reflected the 
challenges all Members faced when notifying services measures. It had been interesting to see that Members had made the greatest number of Article III.3 notifications in the S/C/M/114 
 
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  telecommunications sector, followed by banking, insurance services, horizontal measures and 
professional services. This was possibly a reflection of the substantial regulatory changes undergone by these sectors since the entry into force of the GATS in the mid-1990s. It had also been interesting to see that the majority of notifications, around 95% of the total, involved mode 3 
and were at the central government level. Australia was committed to strengthening its own 
implementation of notification requirements under the GATS and had been working with its 
domestic agencies to improve identification of me asures that needed to be notified, including at 
the sub-national level. Australia would have at least one new notification to make at the following 
Council meeting.  
2.8.  In reply to Switzerland's suggestion, a representative of the Secretariat said that, if the 
Council so agreed, the Secretariat stood read to consult with its TBT colleagues to explore the 
feasibility of setting up an electronic format for services notifications and to report back to the 
Council at its following meetings. 
2.9.  It was so agreed. 
3  ITEM C - WORK PROGRAMME ON ELECTRONIC COMMERCE  3.1.  With regard to the excellent Workshop on Electronic commerce that had been held on 17 and 
18 June, the Chairman said that he hoped that all delegations had had the opportunity to attend 
the event. The Workshop, which had been organise d under the auspices of the Council and chaired 
by Ambassador Reiter of Sweden, had consisted of 3 panel sessions. The first session had provided 
an overview of main trade and telecom policy tr ends; the second session had showcased a number 
of business experiences; and the final session had addressed several cases studies on e-commerce 
regulation. 
3.2.  The Workshop had featured representatives from international and other trade-related 
organizations, the private sector, government mini stry and regulatory agencies. Deputy Director-
General Singh had provided opening remarks, and Ambassador Williams, Chairperson of the 
Committee on Trade and Development (CTD), had presented highlights of the e-commerce Workshop held by the CTD in April 2013. Substantively, a great deal and variety of useful 
information had been provided by the 16 panellists from developed and developing economies. 
Delegations could consult the presentations made and studies they described on the WTO website.  
3.3.  Ambassador Reiter would have liked to provide the Council with his feedback on the 
Workshop first-hand, but he was unfortunately out of Geneva. However, he had promised that he 
would be sharing with delegations a summing-up of  the event in an informal note, on his own 
responsibility. 
3.4.  All delegations who spoke thanked the Secretariat for the excellent work in putting together 
the programme and the logistics for the Workshop. 3.5.  The representative of the United States ex pressed his delegation's appreciation for the work 
and cooperative spirit of delegations in developing the programme for the Workshop. His 
delegation had found the presentations at the Wo rkshop to be very good. They had presented a 
very balanced view of the issues, had helped educate Members on the vibrant market developments in e-commerce, and had identified so me of the challenges that existed. The United 
States hoped to continue to work under the e-commerce Work Programme based on Members' 
input on the emerging trade issues in the e-commerce area. 
3.6.  The representative of Japan said that the Workshop had provided an excellent opportunity for 
Members to understand developments and share their views on e-commerce. Japan had 
participated in the event also with one panellist, who had explained the situation of the cloud 
computing business in Japan. Japan hoped that the Workshop had been beneficial to all participants, and was ready to continue working to tackle the challenges which surrounded e-
commerce.   
3.7.  The representative of Korea was from the Korea Information Society Development Institute, 
a policy think tank on ICT issues, and had been asked to give a commentary on the Workshop on 
e-commerce from the perspective of ICT expert . The Workshop had provided a very rare S/C/M/114 
 
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  opportunity to hear from the private sector and governments on the commercial, technological and 
regulatory issues concerning e-commerce in both the developed and developing economies. It had been particularly interesting to hear how broadband technology (especially mobile broadband) had offered enormous commercial opportunities for smaller companies and enabled new 
entrepreneurial ventures, and how such opportunities had been available not only to developed 
economies but to developing economies as well.  
3.8.  The Workshop had also confirmed that the regulatory challenges concerning communications 
infrastructure, the policy task of fostering new innovation and the promotion of services that 
enhanced consumer welfare were rather similar around the world. This was mainly because of the inherently global nature of internet-based comm unication and economic activity. There was ample 
ground for WTO Members to get together, share their experiences and forge mutually agreeable 
disciplines. Without policy coordination and prescr ibing to common disciplines among Members, e-
commerce's full potential might not be realized. 
3.9.  He had also observed that the WTO discussions concerning e-commerce were at an initial 
stage, and that important issues underling the su stainability of digital economy within the WTO 
trading system were still unaddressed. Trade negotiators were confronted the huge task of dealing with the changes brought about by the internet to the world economy. In a situation in which 
nearly any good or service had a digital componen t and such products or services were provided 
through a combination of all 4 modes of supply and a mix of various service components, did the existing classification system and the four mode s of supply still matter? How should Members treat 
"data" when data was really a comb ination of digital binary codes?  
3.10.  Speaking of data, unlike the traditional economy where producers could be differentiated 
from consumers, the digital economy depended greatly on user/consumer-generated data, which companies in turn used for their commercial gain. Clearly, there were complicated property rights 
issues, such as users' control over their online data, issues surrounding the commercialization of 
personal data and others. It was hardly surprising, then, that privacy and the protection of personal information were emerging as the most important regulatory and philosophical issues in 
the digital economy. Could WTO disciplines handle these issues effectively when privacy/security 
policies were generally treated as exemptions to trade rules?  
3.11.  As an observer of the ICT industry in Ko rea, she had seen how Korea's unique political and 
historical experience had framed the current legal and institutional frameworks for the digital 
economy. He believed that other countries ha d also had very similar experiences. Such 
experiences and regulatory concerns had to be re spected. Regulators and governments needed to 
listen to the demands of the private sector, of both companies and consumers/users. At the same 
time, open debate and sharing of regulatory and policy experiences concerning the digital 
economy would help Members come up with disciplines that had a positive bearing for global e-commerce, without sacrificing individual Members' public policy concerns. It was important to keep 
in mind that, as all the speakers in the Worksh op had emphasized, ensuring openness was key to 
making the digital economy work for all. In that regard, the Workshop had been a very productive 
and educational experience, and the representative looked forward to other similar events in the 
WTO. 
3.12.  The representative of Canada concurred th at the Workshop had been very educational, had 
raised a lot of relevant issues and pointed to areas for further work. Canada was keen on further 
engagement in the e-commerce Work Programme, and work of relevance to SMEs would be 
especially welcome. The representative noted in particular the new business models that e-
commerce was making possible, as well as the opportunities for development that were of 
particular interest to Canada.   
3.13.  The representative of Chile highlighted the diversity in the Workshop's presentations and in 
their intensity when looking into the issues at stake. This had resulted in a very balanced activity, 
with speakers from countries as diverse as Bangladesh, India and the United States whom, although very different, all shared a common interest in further exploring the e-commerce market. 
Either directly or indirectly, all speakers had mentioned the importance of maintaining a free 
internet environment, as this had been the one el ement that had allowed all of them to develop, 
and do so rapidly.   S/C/M/114 
 
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  3.14.  The representative of the European Union said that the Workshop had addressed a vast 
diversity of subjects that had nicely complemented  each other. The EU had provided a speaker for 
the Workshop, who had given an informative presen tation about the European legal framework for 
e-commerce, and wished to thank the other spea kers who had presented their own experiences. 
The EU hoped that Members would continue discussing e-commerce in a similarly positive and 
efficient manner given the widespread willingness in  the WTO to reinvigorate the Work Programme 
on Electronic Commerce and in view of th e forthcoming consultations on the issue. 
3.15.  The representative of Chinese Taipei thanked Members for their efforts in supporting the 
Work Programme on Electronic Commerce and congratulated them on the fruitful outcome of the 
Workshop. Her delegation was pleased to see the re invigoration of the work on e-commerce in the 
WTO. E-commerce was a major element in global trade, and M-commerce and cloud services were 
amongst some of the fastest growing markets. In order to facilitate the development of e-
commerce, Members needed to focus their attention on building a consumer-friendly environment in terms of trade policy and regulatory issues. During the Workshop, Members had heard accounts 
of how e-commerce-related industries were evolvi ng and of the various issues and challenges 
associated with e-commerce, such as data protection and privacy, which required further cooperation between governments and greater partnership between the public and private sectors 
if they were to be overcome. 
3.16.  The representative of Australia said the Workshop had been very balanced and valuable. 
Trade negotiators had benefitted from the direct exposure to the perspectives of a wide range of 
businesses and from hearing many different questions and observations. The Workshop 
represented a useful, positive reinvigoration of the e-commerce Work Programme, and Australia 
would reflect a little further on what additional contribution it might make going forward.   
3.17.   The representative of Costa Rica said that the Workshop had been useful, not only to 
educate delegations about developments in e-commerce, but also for the opportunity to interact 
with and hear the experiences of the private sect or. A representative of Costa Rica had presented 
the challenges faced by developing countries, as well as the link of e-commerce with other sectors.  
Costa Rica would continue working in this area and hoped for further discussions in the WTO.   
3.18.   The representative of Egypt said that his delegation was particularly grateful that the 
Secretariat had been able to accommodate a panellist from Egypt at very short notice and that it 
had been important for Egypt to participate in th e Workshop both from the podium and the floor. 
The Workshop had allowed Members to better understand the developments and challenges with 
e-commerce. Egypt was committed to continue working on those issues. 
3.19.  The representative of India thanked the delegations of the United States and the co-
sponsors, and all Members, for making the Work shop a success. The event had helped improve 
Members' understanding of how e-commerce functioned, and it had been particularly useful to hear the perspectives of different stakeholders, including business representatives, regulators and 
policy makers. The Workshop represented an important contribution to the e-commerce Work 
Programme.  
3.20.  E-commerce was changing fundamentally the way business was being conducted, by 
providing greater access to global markets especially for SMEs, breaking down barriers of time and 
distance, lowering costs and environmental footprin ts, and providing greater choice to customers. 
His delegation had noted the importance of a ll modes of supply, including mode 4, for e-
commerce. In terms of constraints, from develo ping countries' point of view, the fundamental 
issues included internet access, both in terms of coverage and speed, payment issues, lack of 
basic infrastructure, such as stable electricity supply, logistics and lack of consumer awareness. Many developing countries were still in the process of establishing ground rules for e-commerce 
and creating an atmosphere of trust. In that co ntext, the presentation from Bangladesh had been 
particularly noteworthy.  
3.21.  As for any conclusions to be drawn from the Workshop, India believed that while there was 
near consensus on the benefits of e-commerce for all, each Member had to decide its own optimal 
strategy for the growth of e-commerce, dependin g upon its socio-economic profile, level of 
development and vision for the future.  S/C/M/114 
 
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  3.22.  The Chairman proposed that the Council take  note of the statements made and revert to the 
issue at its next meeting. 
3.23.  It was so agreed. 
3.24.  The Chairman then recalled that the Mi nisterial Decision on the Work Programme on 
Electronic Commerce of 17 December 2011 instructed the General Council to periodically review 
progress with the Work Programme.  The next such  review was scheduled for July.  Therefore, in 
line with usual practice, he would be producing, under his own responsibility, a Chairman's Report 
to the General Council of the discussions the Council had had under the Work Programme since 
last December, in time for the General Council meeting scheduled for 24-25 July.  The report would be purely factual, reflecting the essence of Members' discussions, both at that meeting and back in March.   
3.25.  It was so agreed. 
4  ITEM D - OPERATIONALIZATION OF THE MC8 DECISION ON THE SERVICES WAIVER 
FOR LDCS 
4.1.  The Chairman recalled that, at the Council meeting held in March, the LDC Group had 
requested that an item be added to the agenda of the Council on the operationalization of the 
Ministerial Decision on the services Waiver for LDCs. The Waiver had been adopted by a Decision 
of the Ministerial Conference on 17 December 20 11, and enabled Member to notify and grant more 
favourable treatment to services and service supplie rs of LDCs with respect to the measures falling 
within the six categories of market access listed in Article XVI, or under other GATS provisions if approved by the Council for Trade in Services.  So  far, no Waiver preferences had been granted.  
4.2.   Speaking on behalf of LDCs, the representa tive of Nepal said that services had become an 
increasingly important economic sector over the past few decades. Services were was the fastest 
growing sector of the global economy, accounting for nearly 19% of world trade and contributing 
around 45% in global employment. The importance of trade in services for LDCs went beyond  pure 
economic significance, due to the catalytic role services played in achieving social and economic development objectives and as a means of addr essing poverty, enhancing welfare, improving 
universal availability and access to basic services, and in ensuring sustainable development, 
including its social dimension.  
4.3.  Despite the fast growth of this sector, the share of the LDCs in global trade in services was 
limited to just 0.5%. LDCs'  meaningful integration into world service trade required improved 
market access through the removal of all sorts of barriers, and enhancement of their trading 
capacity by addressing supply-site constraints.  
4.4.  With a view to enhancing the LDCs' share in world service trade and help them reap the 
benefits of services trade liberalization, the Eigh t Ministerial Conference had adopted a Decision on 
a "Services Waiver" in favour of LDCs. The Decision allowed developed and developing country Members to provide preferential treatment to serv ices and service suppliers of LDCs going beyond 
the MFN obligation contained in Article II of the GATS. The Waiver, which lasted initially for 15 
years from the date of adoption, released Members from their legal obligation to provide non-discriminatory treatment to all trading partners when granting trade preferences to LDCs.  
4.5.  However, one and a half years after the Deci sion, the Waiver still waited operationalization. 
In order to operationalize it, LDCs' trading partners would need to design and effectively 
implement a new trade preference schemes for services. While nothing stopped LDCs' partners from binding such preferences in the form of sch eduled commitments within the GATS, in practice 
preferences were likely to be unilateral in nature, as was currently the case for trade in goods.  In 
a similar vein, the scope and depth of the preferences might vary substantially depending on the preference-granting country.  
4.6.  Yet, to be commercially meaningful, trade preferences had to reflect the sectors and modes 
where the LDCs had existing or potential export  capacity. Ensuring that they matched LDCs' 
interests therefore required solid analytical work and effective consensus building. While services preferences might stimulate trade and investment, LDCs would only be able to realize their full S/C/M/114 
 
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  export potential if they were able to address domestic supply-side constraints and bottlenecks, 
such as the lack of infrastructure or weak regula tory regimes.  In sum, the extent to which the 
Waiver would actually lead to development results did not depend only on the provision of commercially meaningful preferences, but also on LDCs' ability to work on their supply-side 
constraints to effectively benefit from those preferences.   
4.7.  As Members moved towards MC9, LDCs had initiated homework on their part towards the 
operationalization of the Waiver Decision and had received technical support from some research 
institutions and think-tanks. LDCs had already submitted a concept note on the operationalization 
of Waiver as one of the components of the LD Cs package for Bali. The LDCs' work programme 
would, as a first step, identify potential modes and sectors of export interest to LDCs, focusing on the current and possible future LDC supply possibilities, as well as trade barriers affecting exports 
of services. Immediately after completing this quantitative and qualitative analysis, the LDC Group 
envisaged organizing a brainstorming session during  the summer, aiming at developing a joint LDC 
request to potential preference-granting countries, highlighting concrete options for commercially 
meaningful preferences to LDCs' services and service suppliers.  
4.8.  The LDC work programme also specified th e need for a signalling conference, wherein LDCs' 
trading partners could pronounce their preferen ce schemes for LDCs. Announcement of possible 
preferences from developed and developing partners could make a meaningful commercial 
difference for LDCs' services and service suppliers . Finally, LDCs remained committed to engaging 
with all Members for the objective of operationalizing the important Waiver Decision made in their favour. 
4.9.  All delegations who spoke thanked Nepal for the update it had provided on behalf of LDCs. 
4.10.   The representative of Australia said that her delegation supported the use of the services 
Waiver for LDCs and was keen to make progress on its operationalization. Her delegation certainly 
recognized the need for trade preferences for LDCs  to be commercially meaningful and evidence-
based, and welcomed analyses on the services sectors and modes where LDCs had existing or 
potential export capacities, to enable them to  identify areas where trade preferences would 
provide benefits. Australia encouraged continued dialogue between LDCs and potential preference-
granting Members to share ideas, to understand th e perspectives of all parties, and work through 
any concerns in a constructive way and in accordance with an agreed time-frame for operationalization.  To make progress, it was very  important to hear further from LDCs about how 
they saw the Waiver being applied and the re commended way forward, and to receive the 
collective request foreshadowed by Nepal. 
4.11.  The representative of Norway echoed the statement by Australia. As she had stated 
previously, her delegation was interested in a dialogue with the LDC group regarding the Waiver, 
which was a very important enabling mechanism to further LDC services trade. Having heard a bit from the LDC group about what kind of time-frame  they envisaged for the process ahead, she said 
that her delegation was mindful of the fact that this was quite ambitious.   
4.12.  The representative of Canada said that her delegation certainly encouraged LDCs to 
continue their work in identifying services areas of priority interest, and subsequently to engage 
with individual Members to discuss possible prefer ences that could be granted under the Waiver 
that could further the development and integration of LDCs into the global trading system.  The 
Waiver enabled individual Members, who chose to do so, to give preferences to LDC services and 
service suppliers. She agreed with the LDCs that implementation of the Waiver was going to occur 
on a unilateral basis, further to bilateral discussion s, but that there was an important transparency 
component at the multilateral level. Such discussions did take time, and as Norway had said, she cautioned in terms of the feasibility of doing ever ything very quickly. Members needed to take the 
time to properly operationalize the Waiver, and sh e encouraged LDCs to continue with their work 
expeditiously. 
4.13.  The representative of the European Union welcomed the LDCs' initiative to identify potential 
services sectors and modes of export interest to them, with the aim of developing concrete options 
for implementing the LDC services Waiver. It was important that a dialogue between the LDC 
group and developed and developing Members accompanied the reflection process. The EU understood that the LDC group planned to hold a signalling conference in the run-up or right at the S/C/M/114 
 
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  Ministerial conference in Bali where developed an d developing Members could indicate their plans 
to grant preference to LDCs. In order to be effect ive, such a signalling conference would need to 
be thoroughly prepared. It wo uld therefore be helpful if LDC Members could indicate their 
preferences well ahead of the conference and pr opose a concrete timeline of the different steps 
they envisaged for operationalizing the services Waiver, including an early determination of the 
date for the conference. 
4.14.  The representative of the United States echoed previous statements in terms of interest in 
seeing the quantitative and qualitative analyses th at had and were being done to assist LDCs in 
identifying services sectors and modes of supply of export interest to them. He also shared the sentiment that establishing a dialogue with other Members would be a very important step to coming up with a meaningful outcome on the issue. 
4.15.  The representative of Japan also indicated an interest in the analyses that LDCs were going 
to undertake over the summer. She underscored the importance of an effective dialogue, both to 
learn about the needs and the interests of LDCs in terms of modes and services sectors and to 
better understand the position of the preference-g ranting countries. This was crucial to prepare 
the signalling conference and for the eventual meaningful granting of preferences under the 
Waiver. 
4.16.  The representative of India supported the statement made by Nepal on behalf of the LDC 
group and looked forward to working in a constructive manner to move the Waiver forward.   
4.17.  The representative of China also supported the statement made by Nepal. The LDC services 
Waiver mechanism had been one of the most im portant achievements of MC8 and provided a 
powerful instrument to help LDCs increase their export capacity. China was supportive of Members' 
active consultations on this topic, with the aim of finding a concrete way to implement the Waiver mechanism. Chine agreed with the suggestion that  LDC Members identify their preferences based 
on a careful analysis of economic data. For four years in a row China had been the largest importer 
of LDC goods, and it was willing to make similar efforts in the services area by importing more 
services from capable LDC service suppliers. China would also conduct relevant studies on how to 
promote the early and concrete operationalization of the Waiver. 
4.18.  The representative of Korea welcomed the LDCs' concept paper as a part of the broader LDC 
package for MC9. Korea supported the effective and commercially meaningful implementation of 
the LDC services Waiver, and was anticipating the po tential priorities that LDCs would identify and 
the joint request they would put forward based on those priorities. Korea hoped that LDCs and all 
other Members had some sense of urgency in addre ssing the services Waiver issue, in light the 
time constraints before the Bali Ministerial, and stood ready to take part constructively in further 
discussions. 
4.19.  Noting the important role that services played in economic growth and development, the 
representative of New Zealand said that her delegation was certainly supportive of LDCs’ efforts to 
expand their services trade and grow their share in world exports. Her delegations recognised the 
enabling nature of Waiver, and had accepted it on that basis, but had faced some challenges in trying to conceptualise how it could be operationalized in practice, particularly given New Zealand's particular circumstances as a small and already fairly open economy. 
4.20.  New Zealand looked forward to learning mo re from the foreshadowed qualitative research 
on LDCs sectoral and modal priorities and the barr iers they faced. The representative reinforced 
previous comments about the need for further clarit y around the timing and nature of the intended 
forward process, and particularly the timing for LDCs’ research, requests and signalling 
conference, and how participation in those processes was envisaged. She also echoed Australia’s comments about the need for on-going dialogue between LDCs and potential preference-granters 
on progress and expectations. 
4.21.  The representative of Brazil welcomed the fact that LDCs were making attainable progress 
in their work towards the implementation of the services Waiver, endorsed their efforts to this 
effect and looked forward to further information as they made headway in that respect. Brazil fully 
supported robust and meaningful deliverables on LDCs for Bali, which might accommodate a 
workable outcome in terms of the operationalization of the Waiver. Brazil was particularly S/C/M/114 
 
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  encouraged by the insight that integration into services trade would occur not only through 
removal of barriers but also by boosting supply capacity and addressing domestic bottlenecks.   
4.22.  The representative of Costa Rica also welcomed and supported the LDC proposal. The aim 
was to come up with substantive outcomes for LDCs in Bali, particularly bearing in mind the 
importance of services for integration into the global economy. The operationalization of the 
Waiver was especially relevant and should yield important results for LDCs. 
4.23.  The representative of Cuba reiterated his delegation's support for the endeavours to 
operationalize the Waiver and hoped to be able to continue making progress on the issue. 4.24.  The representative of Mexico was grateful for the information provided by LDCs and would 
welcome future updates on any progress being made and work under way with other 
organizations. It was very important to identify sectors and modes of interest to LDCs to enable 
Members to effectively implement the Waiver. 
4.25.  The Chairman said that the Council would ta ke note of the statements made and revert to 
this item at its next meeting. 
4.26.  It was so agreed. 
5  ITEM E - OTHER BUSINESS 
5.1.  The Chairman said that, as agreed at the beginning of the meeting, the Secretariat would 
provide Members with a report on technical assistance in the field of trade in services statistics.  5.2.  A representative of the Secretariat indica ted that he would first provide some background 
information on technical assistance on trade in services statistics and explain why the Task Force 
on Statistics of International Trade in Services ("Task Force") had come to the conclusion that it 
was necessary to coordinate its technical assistan ce activities. Second, he would review what had 
been achieved in that context in the previous co uple of years, and how it had been decided to 
create a central repository of information on the technical assistance activities in the field of trade 
in services statistics. He would then share some  information on the results of the small survey 
conducted to gather more information about developments at the national level and on the e-learning course that the WTO Secretariat was join tly developing with UNCT AD. Finally, he would 
outline the foreseen work on the coordination of trade in services statistics technical assistance. 
His presentation was drawn from a report prepared on the basis of discussions within the Task Force which was available on the WTO's webpage. 
5.3.  By way of background information, the representative explained that the Manual on Statistics 
of International Trade in Services, first released in 2002, was the conceptual instrument that 
compilers should use for data collection and compilation of trade in services data. It had been developed by the Task Force, which was also mandated to coordinate technical assistance for the 
implementation of the Manual. The Task Force' s work was supported by the 2005 Hong Kong 
Ministerial Declaration, which referred to trade in service statistics capacity building, and the 2010 United Nations Statistical Commission, which referred to the need to work on developing capacity 
in developing economies. 
5.4.  The Secretariat had developed a training mo dule on the issue 10 years previously that was 
freely available on the WTO website, but all member s of the Task Force had been involved in some 
technical assistance activities, either as organisers or resource persons. Some technical assistance 
was also provided by consultants, often financed by aid agencies. However, within the Task Force 
the feeling was that technical assistance had not been very well coordinated and efforts had at times been duplicated. In recent years the International Trade Center, UNCTAD and the WTO had 
agreed to work more closely, both on the trade in services data work and on technical assistance 
activities. 
5.5.  In November 2011, the Task Force had agreed on the need to better coordinate trade in 
services statistics technical assistance activities amongst its members and beyond. In that context, 
the WTO Secretariat had been asked to act as coordinator, with the aim of improving transparency, avoiding duplication, maintaining a list of experts and consultants, reviewing S/C/M/114 
 
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  existing material to identify possible synergie s and improvements and exploring new ways of 
providing technical assistance, such as e-learning, where some work had already started between the Secretariat and UNCTAD. 
5.6.  Since then, the Secretariat had made regular reports to the Task Force and other bodies. It 
had also compiled and kept up to date a list of all activities since 2004 that the Task Force 
members were aware of (available on the WTO website), which showed that over the previous couple of years the number of activities had drastically increased. It had coordinated with partner 
agencies, to develop some complementarity between regional events (in particular if two or more 
events was taking place in the same region). Further, the Secretariat had drawn up a list of experts/consultants, which was available on demand. Finally, it had analysed links with related Balance of Payments activities, and gathered info rmation on some bilateral activities that were 
taking place (such as statistical twinning projects  between countries that had, respectively, more 
and less advanced statistical systems for compiling trade in services statistics). 
5.7.  The Secretariat had additionally set up a webpage to present its coordination work and to 
provide a centralized information point on statistics technical assistance activities. The webpage 
included a table showing all the services trade capacity building activities that had taken place or were foreseen, a link to the WTO training module on measuring trade in services, and a contact 
email address for further information (SERVSTATSTA@wt o.org). As of that day, it also included the 
short report on the Secretariat's coordination task. 
5.8.  The WTO, OECD and Eurostat had gathered  information from OECD countries on technical 
assistance activities in the field of trade in services statistics through a questionnaire conducted in 
2012. The answers had shown that over half of OE CD countries had been involved in activities 
through resource persons; for some of these activities there had not been any previous information; 7 activities had been on trade in se rvices specifically and 9 had dealt more broadly 
with Balance of Payments statistics. Those OECD countries that had responded to the survey had 
indicated that, although they had found the experience positive, resources were an issue. 
5.9.  At the end of 2012, the Secretariat had co nducted a survey for developing economies to 
complement the information gathered through the OECD questionnaire. The representative 
expressed the Secretariat's gratitude to the 24 economies who had responded to the survey, of 
which 22 were from Members or Observers. Out of those who had responded, 80% had already 
benefited from some regional or national trade in services statistics-related activities (9 economies 
had reported on foreseen events, most of which had taken place in the first half of 2013). Only a 
handful of economies had reported on bilateral activities, such as amongst Latin American countries and South Africa’s study visits to Australia or a planned one to Malaysia. Ten economies 
had reported they had benefited from the work of  consultants through projects of the IMF, the 
ASEAN/EU statistics project, or the Commonwealth secretariat. 
5.10.  The WTO and UNCTAD secretariats had also collaborated on developing an e-learning 
project on services trade statistics, to support the work of the Task Force. The course, which would 
be launched in mid-2013, aimed to benefit both learners and agencies as training providers, improve the way in which technical assistance was provided and optimise resources, for example by making the course a prerequisite for more targeted face-to-face events. To ensure its 
sustainability, the course was bound into a broa der strategy of capacity-building and technical 
assistance.  
5.11.  The course was intended as a tool for newcomers or recent staff working in the field of 
services trade statistics. It proposed to target the acquisition of knowledge on basic concepts and 
definitions, the identification of good practices to be used for data collection and compilation and serve as the preparation for advance training courses, seminars and workshops on the same 
matter, at the national, regional or international levels.  
5.12.  Finally, in terms of future work on the coor dination of technical assistance on services trade 
statistics, the plan was: to continue gathering information and improving transparency to avoid 
duplication of technical assistance activities; maintain an up-to-date list of experts and 
consultants; analyse training material and streamline relevant activities; secure funding and 
resources to ensure sustainability; launch the e- learning project by mid-2013; and hold a trade in 
services statistics seminar in 2014 in Geneva. S/C/M/114 
 
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  5.13.  As agreed at the beginning of the meeting, the Chairman offered the floor to the 
representative of the International Telecommunicati on Union (ITU) to provide an update on recent 
developments in the ITU's work that might be of relevance to the Council's discussions. He also recalled that, as had been decided at the previous meeting, two communications from the ITU had 
been circulated on 22 March, in document JOB/SERV/145 and 146. 
5.14.  The representative of the International Telecommunication Union was pleased to have the 
opportunity to present the outcome of the World Conference on International Telecommunications 
(WCIT), held on 3-14 December 2012 in Dubai, and the revised International Telecommunication 
Regulations (ITRs), an ITU international treaty that had not been revised since its first adoption in Melbourne in 1988.  
5.15.  WCIT was attended by 1,581 delegates representing 152 Member States and 37 observer 
organizations, with a significant increased participation from the developing world compared to 
1988. Many Member State delegations included private sector and civil society representatives. Plenary meetings were webcast to the public in the 6 UN languages.  
5.16.  WCIT-12 revised the ITRs in their entirety and also adopted five new resolutions. The new 
ITRs were signed onsite by 89 of the 144 countries  present in Dubai and authorized to sign. The 
final acts of the new ITRs, as well as the list of signatories, were publically available at the WCIT 
website. A copy of the new ITRs and a presentation prepared by ITU Secretariat had been 
circulated to WTO Members for information in JOB/SERV/145 and 146, respectively. 
5.17.  The representative then went through the new ITRs article by article.  5.18.  First, the Preamble, which contained the affirmation of Member States’ commitment to 
implement the Treaty in a manner that respected and upheld their human rights obligations, and 
the right of access of Member States to the international telecommunication services. As provisions of the ITU Convention and Constitution took precedence over the ITRs, Member States 
reserved their right to cut off private telecommunications and suspend international 
telecommunication services. 
5.19.  Article 1 covered the scope of the ITRs. As the ITR text was aligned with the ITU Convention 
and Constitution, it applied to authorized operating agencies. Article 1.1 contained a clear message 
from the Membership that the ITRs should not address content. 
5.20.  Article 2, definitions, was updated to brin g the ITR definitions into alignment with the ITU 
Convention and Constitution. 
5.21.  Article 3 covered several key issues, such as quality of service. It was revised to ensure the 
right to communicate at good technical quality and the coordination of countries' infrastructure to prevent the misuse of international telecommunication numbering resources, as well as to 
encourage the implementation of Calling Line Identification information and regional 
telecommunication traffic exchange points. These provisions were not only intended to improve 
service quality but also to help bring down the cost of services for consumers. 
5.22.  Article 4, which covered international telecommunication services, contained new provisions 
to improve transparency and accuracy in mobile roaming charges, and to promote competition in 
the provision of mobile roaming services. This would help to ensure transparency of end-user prices for international mobile services; satisfactory quality; greater cooperation and competition 
to avoid ‘bill shocks’; and the avoidance and mitigation of inadvertent roaming charges in border 
zones. 
5.23.  Article 5 gave improved access to emergency services, which would translate directly into 
saved lives.  
5.24.  New Articles 6 and 7 would help to brin g greater security by promoting international 
cooperation to ensure the security and robustness of international telecommunication networks, 
and measures – not based on content-filtering – that would help combat unsolicited bulk electronic 
communications, or spam. S/C/M/114 
 
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  5.25.  Article 8, which covered charging and accounting, was intended to encourage investment in 
international telecommunication networks and promote competitive wholesale pricing for traffic carried. This was one of the most important articles in the revised ITRs and the representative was confident that it would play a very important role in furthering broadband rollout around the world. 
5.26.  Article 9, which covered suspension of services, remained unchanged. 
5.27.  Article 10, which covered the dissemination of information, included new text to give 
Member States more flexibility in managing this aspect according to national needs.  
5.28.  New Article 11 would help improve energy efficiency and reduce e-waste, and new 
Article 12 would help bring the benefits of ICTs to the 650 million people worldwide who were living with some ki nd of disability. 
5.29.  Articles 13 and 14 covered special arrangemen ts and the entry into force of the Treaty. The 
Treaty would come into force on 1 January 2015. 
5.30.  The Final Acts also contained five new Re solutions, which did not require any ratification, 
acceptance or approval process, and were not inherently binding for Member States. They were 
nonetheless important texts and would themselves help bring improved access to ICTs. Three in 
particular should be noted. First, the resolution on ‘special measures for landlocked developing countries and small island developing states for access to international optical fibre networks’, 
which would help bring services to some of the most underserved people on the planet. Second, 
the resolution on the use of ‘globally harmonized national numbers for access to emergency services’, which contribute to saving lives in emergency situations. Third, the resolution on ‘fostering an enabling environment for the greate r growth of the Internet’, which would help 
develop broadband and the multi-stakeholder model of the internet. 
5.31.  The ITU Secretariat believed that the revised ITRs provided a framework for the accelerated 
growth of ICTs at the national and international level, in particular by bringing internet access to 
the two-thirds of the world’s population which was still offline, by driving investment in broadband 
rollout and ensuring the continuing promotion of digital inclusion for all. It expected that, on reflection, many more countries would accede, as had been the case after Melbourne 1988.  
5.32.  The European Council had recently made public a non-paper (DS 1335/13) on the outcome 
of WCIT, which concluded that ‘there remain[e d] no obvious reasons why there might be any 
conflict between the new Treaty and the [EU] "acquis communautaire"’. 
5.33.  WCIT had brought unprecedented public attention to the different and important 
perspectives that governed global communications. It had showed that there was not one single 
world view but several, and those views needed to be accommodated and brought to convergence. As an institution, the ITU had successfully been  an influential, but neutral, global convener 
throughout its long history, and would continue to perform this role. 
5.34.  The representative of Switzerland thanked the ITU representative for the detailed 
presentation. He thought that many Members would be interested in the information provided and 
asked if the WTO Secretariat could circulate electronically to delegations the links to the ITU 
website and the text of the ITRs, as well as other relevant documents. 
5.35.  The Chairman said that the Secretariat would circulate relevant information electronically to 
all delegations.  5.36.  Turning to other items of Other Business, the representative of the United States reported 
that a group of Members had met during the last week of April to discuss the Trade in Services 
Agreement (TISA). During those meetings the grou p had developed the contours of a text for a 
trade in services agreement and had reviewed a num ber of issue-specific proposals put forward by 
some Members. The group was exploring new approaches aimed at advancing the liberalization of 
trade in services and, with Members completing the necessary domestic consultations and 
procedures, the group had now entered full negotiating mode. The group continued to encourage other WTO Members who shared their objectives for the liberalization for trade in services to take part in their effort. S/C/M/114 
 
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  5.37.  The representative of Korea thanked the Un ited States for the update and the transparency 
efforts, which were essential in the WTO. As a TISA participant, Korea had been fully engaged in 
the negotiations and was satisfied with the discu ssions and developments made until then. Korea 
supported further liberalization of the trade in services, considering the positive effects it could 
bring to Members in terms of economic growth an d job creation at both the global and national 
levels. Along those lines, Korea had been making various continued efforts to enhance the competitiveness of its domestic services industry, which still remained at relatively low levels in 
the world market, and believed that its participation in the TISA initiative could contribute to this 
end. Similarly, Korea was strongly supportive of one of the key common objectives among the TISA participants, which centred on the belief that through the multilateralization of a GATS-compatible outcome, the TISA would contribute to strengthening the multilateral trading system. 
TISA participants were all committed to keeping the door to TISA open to any WTO Member who 
shared their common objectives.  
5.38.  The representative of Costa Rica said that his delegation was pleased to participate in the 
TISA initiative to continue liberalizing trade in services. He urged other Members who shared the 
same objectives to join the group's efforts, which assisted and supported the multilateral trading 
system. 
5.39.  The representative of Chile stressed the importance of trade in services not only for 
developed economies, but also for economies that were still developing, as was the case for Chile. 
This had been made patently clear through the findings of various international organizations, 
including the WTO, and in this regard he reiterated his delegation's deep seated commitment to the multilateral trading system and the rules-ba sed WTO system. It was against that background 
that Chile was pleased to participate in the TISA discussions. The group's initiative was very much 
connected to the multilateral trading system and sought to feed into multilateral negotiations, 
which were in a weakened state at that time. Once  again, he appealed broadly to all interested 
Members to join in the initiative, in the notion that their participation would be very welcome. 
5.40.  The representative of Switzerland said that his delegation supported any initiative that 
sought, on a contractual and reciprocal basis, to promote services trade and for that reason fully 
supported the statement made by the United States. He said that all the TISA participants had finalized their internal procedures, which enabled them to move onto the next phase of negotiations. Echoing all previous speakers, Switzerland assured all delegations who shared the 
group's objectives that they were welcome to ta ke part in the initiative. Amongst the group's 
objectives was the achievement of a multilateral outcome as part of the negotiations. 
5.41.  The representative of Egypt said that his delegation welcomed any efforts aimed at 
liberalizing trade in services, but wished to highlight two elements. First, would parallel negotiating 
initiatives not undermine the efforts made in the WTO at the multilateral level? What was the 
signal sent by an initiative that focused only on one area of negotiations? Second, what was the 
future of the Special Session of the CTS? Would it be revitalized at any point or were Members 
heading for a new phase where no WTO negotiations would be resumed? 
5.42.  The representative of India thanked the United States and the other TISA participants for 
the update, but echoed the concerns raised by Egypt. India had in the past also raised questions 
and expressed concerns about the group's initiative, particularly on its impact on multilateralism and the goal of inclusiveness in accordance with the Ministerial mandate. Those questions and 
concerns were still unaddressed, and India's position on the issue was unchanged. His delegation 
encouraged and invited the TISA participants to negotiate within the WTO, in the CTS Special 
Session, in a transparent and inclusive manner in accordance with the guidance given by Ministers.   
5.43.  The representative of Australia supported the statements by the United States and other 
TISA participants. Following exploratory discussions,  Australia was pleased to now be participating 
in the negotiation of the TISA. The agreement was aimed at broad participation. It would be consistent with the GATS, support the multilateral trading system and make a positive contribution 
to that system. She echoed the call by previous speakers for other Members who shared the objectives of the TISA agreement to join in.   
5.44.  The representative of Canada also supported the statements by the United States and other 
members of the TISA. Canada saw the TISA negoti ations as complementary to making progress 
multilaterally in services. Most Members were already doing this through their own bilateral and 
regional processes and Canada did not view these as diverging options; they all worked towards S/C/M/114 
 
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  the same objective, namely liberalization of serv ices trade that could be brought back into the 
WTO. Canada was in favour of any initiative that sought to move forward on services liberalization 
between Members wishing to do so. 
5.45.  The representative of the European Union also supported the statement made by the United 
States and other TISA participants. The EU was very  happy to see the interest shown by Members, 
even when they were being critical. He stressed that the TISA initiative was open to all parties that 
shared the groups' objectives to create an ambi tious agreement that built on the GATS, was open 
to other Members and would be multi-lateralized at a later stage. 
5.46.  The representative of South Africa was grat eful for the information provided, but, recalling 
his delegation's earlier comments, supported India's statement. 
5.47.  The representative of Brazil added his voice to previous speakers in expressing his 
delegation's apprehension with the nature and cons equences of the on-going plurilateral services 
negotiations. He noted that the standards and benchmarks being floated and the shared aspiration by members of the initiative for a so-called “highest common denominator” had the potential to 
ultimately undercut the intrinsic balance containe d in the GATS, by disregarding the Agreement's 
development guidelines for negotiations, such as progressive liberalization and the right to regulate. This raised the costs of participation for developing countries to unrealistic levels, and 
those costs could hardly be matched by whatever concessions were made in other negotiating 
areas.  
5.48.  For those same reasons, the plurilateral initiative also made the prospects for the 
reinvigoration of the negotiating function of the WTO look gloomy. The revival of the WTO's 
negotiating arm had appeared to be a commonly cherished goal during the selection process for 
the new Director-General. The pursuit of services negotiations outside of the WTO was particularly 
regrettable at a time when the Membership seemed to have come out of the electoral process more optimistic and unified and when negotiations were at full steam in the run-up to the Bali Ministerial.  
5.49.  As the plurilateral initiative was bound to set a risky precedent for the multilateral trading 
system, Brazil only hoped that it did not exte nd beyond its immediate goals by encouraging a 
proliferation of selective, stand-alone plurilateral initiatives in areas promising substantial benefits 
and negligible costs for only a handful of Members, at the expense of multilateralism, inclusiveness 
and transparency. There seemed to be a narrative out there supporting all this and Brazil would 
remain watchful. 
5.50.  The representative of New Zealand joined other speakers in supporting the US statement. 
Her delegation was also very supportive of any initiative, in any forum, which sought to progress 
services trade liberalization. The representative was very encouraged by the rate of progress in 
the group's recent discussions, and also by the in terest which had been shown by Members, both 
in their questions posed to the Council and as reflected in the number of new Members who had 
come on board with the TISA initiative since discussions had started. New Zealand remained open 
to further interaction with any interested Member. By way of initial response to some of the observations made by Brazil, she said that the objectives of the group were certainly not inconsistent with some of the mandates and principles underpinning other negotiations under the DDA, including the right to regulate and progressive liberalization.   
5.51.  The representative of Argentina stressed the concerns generated by plurilateral initiatives 
outside of the WTO and, for the sake of brevity, supported the statements by Egypt, South Africa 
and Brazil. 
5.52.  The Chairman said that the Council would take note of the statements made. 
5.53.  Turning to the last item of Other Business,  the representative of Australia said that her 
delegation would welcome an update from the European Union regarding its progress on the entry 
into force of its certified EC25 schedule. Members would recall that it had been more than four years since Australia had first raised its concerns. The delay on the part of the EU posed both systemic and commercial concerns for Australia, and she urged the European Union and its Member States to expedite the entry into fo rce of their amended schedule of commitments. S/C/M/114 
 
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  5.54.  The representatives of India and Cana da supported the statement by Australia and 
encouraged the EU to provide an update and to expedite finalization of the issue. 
5.55.  The representative of the European Union said that, to that day, 20 EU Member States had 
concluded their ratification of the consolidated schedule. One more Member State had finalized its 
internal procedures and was swiftly moving to the last step of ratification. The EU stood ready to engage informally with affected Members to keep them up-to-date on the pending ratifications.   
5.56.  The Chairman said that the Council took note of the statements made. 
5.57.  The meeting was adjourned. 
__________