WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  RESTRICTED 
S/WPGR/M/75 
4 October 2011  
 
(11-4803) 
Working Party on GATS Rules  
  
 
REPORT OF THE MEETING HELD ON 28 SEPTEMBER 2011 
 
Note by the Secretariat
1 
 
 
1. The meeting was chaired by Ms Tamsin Royson from New Zealand.  The agenda for the 
meeting, contained in document WTO/AIR/3801, was adopted. 
I. NEGOTIATIONS ON EMERGENCY SAFEGUARD MEASURES (ESM) UNDER 
ARTICLE X OF THE GATS  
2. The Chairperson reminded delegations of the technical work undertaken so far under her 
Chairmanship.  At the WPGR meeting of 24 March 2011, Members had for the first time further 
explored the question of statistical data in the ser vices safeguards' context.  At that meeting, the 
discussion had been introduced with two presentations by Secretariat experts:  one on the availability 
of disaggregated statistics on services trade flows that could be potentially relevant in the context of a 
safeguard mechanism;  the second on the statistics us ed for safeguards in the goods' sector under the 
WTO Safeguards Agreement.  In the ensuing de bate among delegates, a number of conceptual 
questions had resurfaced, including the definitions of  "domestic industry", "imports" in services trade, 
the "causal link" between a surge in the volume of services imports and serious injury of the domestic 
industry, etc.   
3. As some Members had indicated their interest in  further reflecting on those issues, it had been 
proposed – and agreed by Members at the meetin g of 22 June 2011 – that the Secretariat would 
prepare a "documentation guide" to assist Members in taking stock of the wealth of information 
contained in Members’ submissions , Secretariat Notes and meeting reports issued since 1995.  The 
guide would simply indicate the documents and the paragraph numbers where key ESM-related 
concepts had been addressed.  It would not a ttempt to summarize the substance on these issues 
contained in the submissions or in the reports of  discussions.  The Chairperson informed that the 
Secretariat was still working on the documentation guid e, which should be ready later this year.  She 
then opened the floor for comments.  
4. The representative of the Philippines, also on be half of the delegations of Brunei Darussalam, 
Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Thailand and Viet Nam thanked the Chairperson and the 
Secretariat for the proposal to prepare a documentation guide.  They felt such a guide could be a 
useful tool for Members to refer back to in the discussions, and to assist in identifying any remaining 
gaps and determining possible areas for future atten tion.  In addition to what had been agreed, the 
proponents advocated the guide to include also non- attributable summaries of the various concepts 
discussed.  This could help further clarify them and hi ghlight any outstanding gaps.  Finally, the 
proponents reiterated their readiness to pursue fu rther discussions on ESM-related statistics if 
Members so wished. 
                                                      
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/75 
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  5. The Chairperson repeated the reasons why it had been decided that the guide would 
essentially consist of a matrix listing the documents, and possibly the paragra ph numbers therein, in 
which key concepts had been discussed – and that it would not include a summary of those concepts.  
Firstly, the sheer length of the discussion rendered su ch inclusion impracticable.  Secondly, and more 
importantly, any attempt to summarize the substance of Members' positions, or the discussions in that 
respect, could entail an element of interpretation, which a number of delegations were opposed to at 
this stage.  Lastly, provided w ith the reference number of the doc ument and the relevant paragraphs 
therein, Members could easily refer back to and draw their own conclusions with respect to the 
substance of the concepts. 
6. At the request of the delegate of Thailand it was decided that, separately from the 
documentation guide, the Secretariat would circulate a compilation of existing informal notes 
summarising past discussions on the definition of key ESM-related concepts.2   
7. In the absence of further presentations or interventions on ESM-related matters, the 
Chairperson concluded that dele gations would revert to this topic at the next meeting. 
II. NEGOTIATIONS ON GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT UNDER ARTICLE XIII 
OF THE GATS 
8. Turning to government procurement, the Chai rperson reminded delegations of the informal 
meeting dedicated to sharing national experiences w ith the reform of domestic procurement systems 
and access to foreign procurement markets that was held on 20 September 2011.  The meeting had 
greatly benefited from the participation of GPA Me mbers and observers.  At that meeting, four 
delegations (namely Canada, the European Union,  the Republic of Korea, and Turkey) had given 
presentations on the opening of their domestic/inte rnal procurement markets and access of their 
suppliers to foreign procurement markets.  A num ber of interesting themes had emerged from the 
presentations and the ensuing discussion.         
9. Firstly, the presentations had made it clear that , despite some shortcomings of government 
procurement statistics (also highlighted in earlier discussions of this Working Party), it could be 
reasonably assessed that services formed a significant part of government procurement  in volume as 
well as in value terms.  In fact, services often out weighed goods in the overa ll value of procurement 
contracts.  This reinforced observations made in  earlier dedicated discussions that commitments on 
government procurement in services could add a furt her, commercially significant layer of market 
access to existing GATS specific commitments.    
10. Secondly, while citing both domestic and interna tional motivations to reform and open their 
procurement markets, speakers had highlighted the inherent benefits  of such reforms.  Making the 
best use of public money;  rendering domestic proc urement entities more efficient and cost-effective, 
thus generating added financial re venues;  demonstrating governme nt accountability to the public and 
to domestic suppliers;  and preventing the percepti on of corruption in procurement practices:  these 
had all been given as examples of such inherent benefits.   
11. Thirdly, concerning the relationship between do mestic procurement reform and international 
commitments, Members had described drivers at play, acting in two directions .  For some, accession 
to the GPA – or to some other agreement cove ring government procurement – had provided an 
external impetus for domestic reform.  For anothe r Member, it had been their own internal reform 
which had driven their approach to international procurement negotiations. 
                                                      
2 Such compilation could for example comprise the informal note from the WPGR Chairperson entitled 
"Summary of past discussions on the definition of do mestic industry" of 9 September 2009, contained in 
document JOB(09)/95.   S/WPGR/M/75 
 Page 3 
 
 
  12. Fourthly, the presentations had suggested th at a number of barriers hampering access to 
foreign services procurement markets were similar to those addressed under the GATS .  This was the 
case notably of the obligation to provide services from a local branch;  joint venture, local partnership 
and domestic content requirements;  nationality re quirements for natural persons and burdensome 
administrative procedures.  Thus, there seemed to be some services-specific  obstacles encountered 
both in commercial and public-procurement transactions.  
13. Lastly, speakers had cited similar barriers  faced by their service suppliers across foreign 
procurement markets.  Such barriers included est ablishment obligations, offsets and local content 
requirements, price preferences favouring the tenders of domestic firms over foreign ones, visa requirements, language difficulties, as well as the absence of effective dispute settlement 
mechanisms.  Many of those barriers appeared to be present, to some extent, across a number of 
markets.  In that case, collective solu tions could clearly be desirable.   
14. The Chairperson expressed her satisfaction with th e substantial input provided at the informal 
meeting of 20 September 2011.  Together with the outcomes of the dedicated discussions already 
held, Members had a wealth of information that they might want to further reflect upon.  She also 
encouraged more delegations to present their own national experiences with procurement reform and 
access to foreign markets.  Before starting to refl ect on how this work might be taken forward under 
the mantle of the Working Party, she asked for delegations' initial views regarding:  A) lessons learnt, 
so far, from the Working Party's discussions on the broader economic and developmental importance 
of government procurement in services;  B) themes  that had emerged from past sessions, which would 
be worth exploring further;  and C) any other topi cs that delegations wished to discuss, and also 
whether more Members wanted to share their national experiences on procurement reform and market 
access at this or any forthcoming meeting.  She then  opened the floor for delegations to comment.   
15. The representative of the European Union echoe d the Chairperson's positive assessment of the 
informal meeting of 20 September 2011.  The pr esentations and ensuing discussion had been very 
stimulating.  She encouraged more delegations, from GPA as well as non-GPA Members, to share 
their national experiences with the reform of domestic procurement systems and access to foreign 
procurement markets.  Such presentations could be held in forthcoming regular sessions of the 
Working Party as they did not necessarily require th e presence of GPA experts.  She then conveyed 
some of her delegation's take-home messages from the initial exchange of views at the informal 
meeting of 20 September 2011.   
16. Starting with the relationship between domest ic procurement reform and international 
commitments, it had been interesting to learn ab out the underlying considerations, with internal 
reform driving international commitments or conve rsely.  Irrespective thereof, however, optimizing 
the use of public money and improving the efficien cy of domestic procurement systems were the main 
motivations of domestic reform.  Quite often, do mestic reform went hand in hand with external 
opening, undertaking international commitments  and seeking access to foreign markets.   
17. Secondly, the discussion had corroborated the many similarities between barriers in 
commercial services trade and those in service procurem ent.  For instance in mode 3, joint venture or 
establishment requirements often applied to firms re gardless of whether they sought participating in 
tenders or in commercial services markets.  That could be an interesting area for further work.  A 
typology of market access obstacles by mode of supply could be developed to identify similar 
barriers, despite different denominations in ser vices and government procurement terminology.   
18. Another suggestion, already touched upon in the European Union's comments at the informal 
meeting, was to identify which services were the most relevant for international procurement 
transactions.  The EU's internal liberalization of  procurement was based on the distinction between 
'non-priority' and 'priority' services – the latter being defined as the most relevant ones for S/WPGR/M/75 
Page 4  
 
  international procurement.  The representative of th e EU suggested that Members could try to identify 
such 'priority' services at the in ternational level (i.e., services that figured most prominently in 
international procurement flows), and investig ate the underlying reasons why those services were 
more internationally procured than others.  Finally, it would also be desirable to improve the statistics 
of international procurement flows.  On all these suggestions, her delegation was interested to hear 
other Members' views.             
19. The representative of China thanked the delegati ons of the European Union, Canada, Turkey 
and Korea for sharing their national experiences at  the informal meeting on 20 September 2011.  The 
latter had been well organized and informative.  He wondered whether those Members could provide 
further information on their government procurement regimes and practices, in particular some data 
on the participation of developing countries in their pr ocurement markets.  He also wished to point out 
the progress made in the revision of the current plurilateral Agreement on Government Procurement 
and seek Members' views on possible implicati ons for the ongoing discussions under the WPGR. 
20. The Chairperson thanked the European Un ion and China for their observations and 
suggestions on future work.  She agreed that a typology of market access barriers by mode of supply 
would be a very useful area for further work.  Barriers in services' commercial and procurement 
transactions often overlapped;  however, the termin ology used in both areas did not match up.  The 
other suggestions made – notably to examine the ser vices that were most relevant for international 
procurement, or to improve the statistical situ ation which, as China had suggested, could include 
special focus on the participation of developing coun tries in international procurement markets – also 
were very interesting ideas.  The Chairperson t ook note of all the proposals made and recommended 
to resume the exchange at the next WPGR meeting.    
III. NEGOTIATIONS ON SUBSIDIES UNDER ARTICLE XV OF THE GATS 
21. Turning to subsidies, the Chairperson began by recalling some milestones from the Working 
Party's recent discussions on this topic.  Follo wing the endorsement of the Work Programme on 
Information Exchange on Subsidies in February 20 10, Members had held a first dedicated discussion 
under the Information Exchange on 24 November 2010.  At that meeting, those delegations who had 
made submissions presented these.3  However, few questions were raised and no detailed comments 
made as to the content of the submissions, as Member s were still in the process of analysing them.  
Moreover, the great variety in the sectoral coverage  and level of detail of the submissions rendered 
such analysis more difficult.  Nevertheless, Members deemed this first session held under the 
Information Exchange to be a useful and important  step towards fulfilling the negotiating mandate of 
GATS Article XV.   
22. Since then, regrettably, no new submission or any additional information on Members' 
existing submissions had been received under the In formation Exchange.  Nor had Members reverted 
to a more systematic and analytical consideration of these submissions.  In that light, it could be 
argued that the Information Exchange had not actually been completed.           
23. The Chairperson recalled that delegations also had had several opportunities to comment on 
the Swiss proposal on export subsidies (re-circu lated in JOB/SERV/36 da ted 2 December 2010) and 
the Communication from the United States entitled "GATS Article XV: Questions for Members by the United States" (contained in document S/WPGR/W /59 of 28 May 2010).  However, Members had 
not, so far, discussed in detail the questions  raised in the latter Communication.   
                                                      
3 18 submissions had been received, counting the EU as one circulated in documents JOB/SERV/Add.1 
to 12.  Counting individual Member States of the EU, the submissions covered 44 WTO Members.  S/WPGR/M/75 
 Page 5 
 
 
  24. Subsequently, in January 2011, the delegations of  India, Chile and Mexico had circulated a 
Communication entailing a "Proposal for a Work Pr ogramme for the Development of Disciplines in 
Subsidies" (contained in document JOB/SERV/37 da ted 24 January 2011).  The proponents' objective 
had been to develop a roadmap for further discussions in order to fulfil the remaining part of the mandate of Article XV:  namely, to enter in to negotiations to develop "necessary multilateral 
disciplines" to avoid the trade-distortive effects that  subsidies may have in certain circumstances.  The 
proponents had stressed that their joint proposal was flexible in its nature and approach.  It merely 
stated that a negotiating mandate existed, without  prejudging the outcome of any negotiations.   
25. Since that time, Members had remained somewh at split between those favouring entering into 
negotiations to develop "necessary multilateral disci plines", and those who were opposed to devising 
any disciplines (and, consequently, to adopting an y work programme) in the absence of evidence of 
subsidy-related trade-distortive effects.  Others were  of the view that there was still useful conceptual 
and technical work that could be done short of entering into negotiations on new disciplines.  As 
noted in her contribution to the Easter report of the Chair of the Special Session of the Council for 
Trade in Services, a question remaining unresolved  was whether any such identification of trade-
distortive effects should be undertaken before Members embark upon either  further technical work or 
negotiations.   
26. At the formal meeting of 24 March 2011, the de legation of India had provided some examples 
of what it saw as practical commercial concerns.  The delegate of the United States had  offered to 
consult further with Members, either bilaterally or in small groups, to examine the questions raised in 
its Communication and try to make some headway, and to report the results  of these consultations 
back to this Working Party.  The Chairperson had c onsidered this to be an encouraging start from both 
quarters.  However, it was not for her to push in any particular direction, she merely was at Members' 
disposal to help find the best way forward.  Following this introduction, she opened the floor for 
Members' views.     
27. Only the representative of the United States took the floor.  He re-extended his delegation's 
offer to interested Members to consult on the qu estions contained in its submission (S/WPGR/W/59), 
inviting them to contact his delegation. 
28. The Chairperson thanked the representative of the United States for renewing its offer and 
encouraged Members to take it up.  She proposed that Members revert to these issues at the next 
meeting. 
IV. OTHER BUSINESS 
29. No topic was raised under this agenda item.  The Chairperson thus suggested that the 
Working Party adjourn the meeting.   
30. The meeting was adjourned. 
 
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