RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  TN/S/M/24 
30 May 2007 
 
 (07-2225) 
Council for Trade in Services 
Special Session  
 
 
 
REPORT OF THE MEETING HELD ON 27 APRIL 2007 
 
Note by the Secretariat1 
 
 
1. The Special Session of the Council for Trade in Services held a formal meeting on 
27 April 2007, chaired by Ambassador Fernando de Mateo of Mexico.  The agenda for the meeting, 
contained in document WTO/AIR/3004, was adopted. 
A. R EVIEW OF PROGRESS IN NEGOTIATIONS , INCLUDING PURSUANT TO PARAGRAPH 15 OF THE 
GUIDELINES FOR NEGOTIATIONS AND ORGANIZATION OF FUTURE WORK   
2. The Chair  recalled that since the C ouncil's last meeting in early March, Members had made 
some progress in the services negotiations.  In the last two weeks, Members had been engaging in 
intensive plurilateral and bilateral discussions.  In the Working Party on Domestic Regulation, hard 
work had produced a Draft Chairman’s text.  Othe r subsidiary bodies had met and carried out useful 
work.  He had held consultati ons on development issues in mid March, and had continued his 
‘enchilada’ consultations at the ambassadorial level.  These had shown an increasing focus on the 
important issues to be resolved.   
3. He noted that Members had managed, therefore,  to maintain the momentum gained at the 
resumption of negotiations earlier in the year.  In  other areas of the negotiations, progress had not 
been as rapid as many had hoped.  In the past  weeks, however, Members had seen an increased 
negotiating activity which gave cause for some optim ism.  The process in Geneva was beginning to 
move at full speed. 
4. He suggested that in assessing the way forward in the services negotiations, Members keep in 
mind certain important elements.  First of all, the key to success in these negotiations lay in an 
acceptable package of revised offers.  Members need ed to focus on this obj ective, especially since 
many continued to express grave doubts about the quality  of offers already on the table.  Second, the 
services negotiations were time and labour intensive, demanding le ngthy coordination in capitals.  
This made for long lead times in decision-making, meaning that work on offers had to be prepared 
early and thoroughly.  Third, it was clear that long lead times made any linkages with the negotiations 
in other sectors particularly difficult to manage.   
5. He invited Members to assess the current stat e of the services negotiations, and the best way 
to organize future work.  In particular, he asked:  how Members assessed the bilateral and plurilateral 
negotiations that had taken place during the last tw o weeks;  what outcomes they expected from the 
services negotiations; how the plurilateral process should evolve over the next few months;  what 
types of meetings needed to be convened, and when  they should be held; whether the structure of the 
clusters needed to be modified in any way.  
                                                      
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. TN/S/M/24 
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  6. The representative of Kenya
 noted that the negotiations were  at a critical stage following the 
renewed commitment by Members to conclude the DDA by the end of this year.  All Members had to 
work hard to ensure a balanced outcome both with in the services negotiations as well as in the overall 
negotiations.  She also noted that there had been  an intensified process of negotiations, both on 
bilateral and plurilateral basis, with a view to na rrowing the gaps between re quests and offers.  While 
appreciating this momentum, she pointed out that an y further progress in services was directly linked 
with progress in agriculture and NAMA.  In this connection, the submission of improved revised 
offers was very much dependent upon the agre ement on modalities in agriculture and NAMA.  
Nevertheless, her delegation was work ing towards ensuring the preparation of its offer in time so as to 
make a final submission once substantial progr ess was achieved in agriculture and NAMA.   
7. She recalled that the GATS was both a trade and investment agreement and hence an 
instrument of promoting economic growth and de velopment.  In this respect, the outcome of 
negotiations in services should enable Members to maximize the economic efficiency of the services sector so that it fully contributed to development goa ls of developing countries.  The basic principles 
as well as the flexibilities contained in the GA TS should not be undermined in the current 
negotiations.  This was important in order to ensure progressive a pproach and proper sequencing in 
liberalization of the services sector so as to avoid the consequences of market failures.  In addition, 
there was need for maximum flexibility in the desi gn and implementation of na tional policies aimed at 
building domestic capacity.  This would ensure that business opportunities were equitably shared 
among foreign and domestic enterprises.   
8. Development was a central element of the cu rrent negotiations and therefore the services 
negotiations should result in subs tantial developmental benefits that would help the increased 
participation of developing countries in trade in ser vices as envisaged in Article IV of the GATS.  In 
this connection, in order to attain the objectiv e of Article IV and the mandate provided under 
paragraph 15 of the Guidelines and Procedures for Negotiations in Services, there was a need to 
conduct an evaluation to ensure the interests of de veloping countries were ta ken on board in the final 
outcome on services.  Her delegation therefore expected commercially meaningful market access 
commitments to be undertaken in sectors and mod es of supply of export interest to developing 
countries.  Mode 4 was one of the areas where e nhanced commitments by Members could contribute 
significantly to the development dimension of th e services negotiations.  However, the offers 
submitted so far in Mode 4 were riddled with cond itions and restrictions that rendered the concessions 
made of limited value.  Both horizontal and sect oral approaches were therefore to be mutually 
supportive in raising and deepening the level of open ing in Mode 4.  Attention was to be given to, 
among other, labour intensive and knowledge-based services sectors, particularly professional and 
business services, such as construction and engineer ing services.  This would contribute towards 
addressing the current asymmetries in the commitments where Mode 4 remained the least liberalized.  
Furthermore, Kenya and other poor developing countries needed support to develop regulatory 
capacity for improving competitiveness of their domestic services sectors.   
9. On rule-making, her delegation welcomed the draft text on domestic regulation which was 
considered as an important basis to advance negotia tions in this area.  Her delegation looked forward 
to constructive engagement to ensure that the fina l outcome would fully take on board the concerns of 
all Members.  
10. Finally, she reiterated her delegation’s comm itments to the services negotiations and its 
support in bringing these negotiations  to a successful conclusion.   
11. The representative of Australia
 stated that the last two weeks had seen a helpful and intensive 
programme of bilateral and pl urilateral negotiations. His dele gation welcomed the spirit of 
transparency and engagement showed by negotiatin g partners in the process, and had seen some 
useful progress since the resumption of negotiations in January.  It now had a better understanding of  TN/S/M/24 
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  what flexibility was available on services from key trad ing partners.   While not yet convinced that the 
ambition it had seen was sufficient to provide a bala nce across the Doha package, it noted that the 
field of flexibility had expanded and that the process in which it engaged was he lpful in this regard.  
His delegation acknowledged that further servic es offers would come forward only following a 
breakthrough in agriculture and NAMA.  But, hopefu lly, Members were rapidly approaching the end 
game and needed to be positioned to put forward thei r best offers at the appropriate time.  It was a 
time not to retain anything in back pockets if Me mbers were indeed intending to conclude the round 
in 2007.  Australia was now positioned to very qui ckly put forward substantial improvements to its 
existing offer.  It was incumbent on services de mandeurs to maximize ambition across all areas of 
negotiations.  His delegation looked forward to fu rther high level engagement, bilaterally and 
plurilaterally, to clarify the nature of services cont ribution to a Doha breakthrough.  It believed that 
such breakthrough would require more than a date of submission of revised offers.  Some political 
contribution would be necessary.  Although the services negotiations had their own complexity, 
ultimately they would be subject to the same judgm ent made in other areas of negotiations, i.e. to 
deliver commercially meaningful market access opportunities.  Such opportunities would come from 
both significant new levels of binding in impor tant areas as well as liberalization and change to 
existing regimes.   
12. The representative of Uganda , speaking on behalf of the African Group, stated that Africa 
remained ready to engage constructively in th e services negotiations with a view to achieving a 
successful conclusion of this round.  This Gr oup emphasized the need to maintain the current 
flexibilities under the GATS and the need for African  countries to liberalize in line with their 
individual level of development.  It  would continue to urge Members to give special consideration to 
sectors and modes of supply of export interest to African countries.  This responded to the development dimension of the Doha Round.  While African countries were being asked for deeper 
market access commitments in some major sector s such as telecommunications, financial services and 
a broad range of business services, they expected th ese to be matched by substantial offers that 
addressed their interests.   
13. The African Group was of the vi ew that what was lacking in the GATS negotiations was the 
requisite political will to make commitments.  This w as most true in the sectors and modes of interest 
to developing countries, particularly in Mode 4.   This Group called for constructive and meaningful 
engagement in this regard.  It wished to see in tensification of discussions on S&D treatment that 
addressed the issues of concern and of interest to developing countries.  It wised to see its tabled 
proposals positively and constructively discussed by Members.   
14. For the African Group, Article IV was a key element of the GATS in as far as S&D treatment 
was concerned.  The importance of achieving the objectives of Article IV was recognized in its 
implications for and inter linkages with other el ements of the GATS such as Article XIX and the 
Guidelines and Procedures for Negotiations.  This  Group believed that constructive discussions on 
S&D should lead to the implementation of Article  IV and would encourage African countries to 
adequately advance their core interest in  the services negotiations on market access.   
15. The African Group took note of the progress made  in the negotiations on domestic regulation, 
as reflected in the text produced by the Chair of  the Working Party on Domestic Regulation (WPDR).  
While this Group recognized the efforts made by the Chair of the WPDR and his attempt to reconcile 
different positions, it thought that this document had not adequately addressed the Group’s concerns, 
especially those related to the development issue as presented by the proposal of the Group.  This 
Group called on its partners to look at the services negotiations as a whole and take into account the 
special concerns of African countries, the majority of which were LDCs.   
16. The African Group wished to stress the fact th at its main objective was to achieve the 
development dimension of the Doha Development Round in services.  It would focus on priority TN/S/M/24 
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  issues, particularly the S&D treatment proposals and Mode 4 liberalization as the major integral areas 
that should help this Group achieve development fr om the DDA.  This Group remained engaged in 
real negotiations with the aim to achieving its u ltimate objective of assuring development for all in a 
manner that was beneficial to all partners. 
17. The representative of Chinese Taipei
 recalled the view shared by Members that services was 
an integral part of the Doha Round, in partic ular, one of the three pillars of market access 
negotiations.  Members had to be well prepared so  as to match the advance in agriculture and NAMA 
when there was a breakthrough.  He thanked the Chair for his efforts and commended other delegations for their tireless endeavor throughout nume rous bilateral and plurilateral meetings.  He 
stressed that there was no magic wand for the services negotiations and that fruitful progress and 
result had to be built up sector by sector.  The high  level of engagement by Members over the past 
two weeks had been very encouraging.  His delegati on had been heartened by the fact that quite a few 
Members had indicated their intention to include fu rther improvements in their schedules.  It looked 
forward to positive outcomes after internal consulta tions had been conducted.  He urged Members to 
adopt a further liberalization schedule in certain  sectors and make a substantial reduction of MFN 
exemptions.  It was his delegation's expectation that  some Members would be able to further improve 
their commitments in some sectors.  On domestic re gulation, he noted that the draft presented by the 
Chair of the WPDR on 20 April was a timely an d workable document and could serve as a good basis 
for further discussion.  He stressed that domestic regulation was complementary to the market access 
negotiations.  It was important to make sure th at Members' measures did not constitute unnecessary 
barriers to trade in services.  Only then would th e outcome of the market access negotiations not be 
diluted.  His delegation attached great importance to services and remained engaged in achieving an 
ambitious and balanced conclusion to the services negotiations as soon as possible.   
18. The representative of the European Communities
 noted that after the Council’s meeting in 
March and the TNC on 20 April, Members were work ing in what could be characterized as a pre-
breakthrough context.  One important aspect of the overall work programme related to services.  His 
delegation was ready to contribute to this pro cess across the board and mo re specifically to the 
services component.  The question was how services wa s to be addressed in a breakthrough package.  
Some would claim that the tabling of significant improved services offers would be the element most 
similar to what Members were aiming at in agriculture and NAMA through the adoption of full 
modalities.  Yet revised offers would only come at a later stage after the breakthrough.  Therefore 
Member had to identify, beyond pr ocess, concrete and substantial elements, which could signal the 
level of ambition of the market access part of the services negotiations.  Those elements had to reflect 
the importance of services as one of the three market  access pillars of the DDA.  Like his delegation, 
those of many other Members needed to get signifi cant results in this area in order to achieve an 
overall balanced outcome.  From his delegation’s po int of view, this included new market access in 
key sectors.   
19. In order to develop a collective answer to the question of the services elements of the 
breakthrough, ambassadorial meetings  could be a useful forum.  It could bridge the work done by 
negotiators with the necessary work at ministerial level.  The importance of the matter made it 
necessary to ensure ministerial involvement at the right point in time and in parallel to ministers’ 
work on agriculture and NAMA.  He recalled the ke y sectors he had indicated, in which his delegation 
needed to see substantial results.  He emphasized  that his delegation was seeking new and improved 
commitments notably in the following list whic h was not exhaustive:  financial services, 
telecommunications, computer and related services, maritime transport, distribution, postal and 
courier services, construction, environmental services, energy services, and legal services.   
20. With regard to the services cluster, it was useful  to meet in plurilateral and bilateral settings.  
The plurilateral meetings were now held in a much more interactive mode.  The bilateral meetings had 
produced some encouraging opening, although the le vel of engagement varied  depending on partners.   TN/S/M/24 
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  There was now a good understanding of what was be ing sought in services.  However, a qualitative 
step was clearly needed for the services negotia tions as Members were yet far away from the 
improvements needed to reach a satisfactory outcome. 
21. The representative of Chile  noted that the work over the p ast two weeks had been intensive 
with numerous bilateral and plurila teral meetings taking place.  Chile , in addition to the bilateral 
process, had participated in 8 plurilateral meetings  as a requesting Member and another 6 plurilateral 
meetings as a requested Member.  Chile's assessmen t of the current state was positive.  On the one 
hand, it was necessary to restart the process interrupted in last July in order to update and reiterate the 
requests and interests of many Members.   Noting the readiness of requested Members to consider 
positively inclusion of new commitments in revised offers, Chile hoped that all of these would result 
in quality offers which would effectively contribute to the general progress of the round.   In services, 
the only parameter that would allow for assessment of  the real level of ambition was the offers.  In 
this respect, he recalled that Annex C of the Ho ng Kong Ministerial Declaration stated that the 
objective was "to achieve a progressively higher level of liberalization of trade in services".  It was necessary to intensify domestic work with regulat ors and sectoral agencies.  At the same time, 
Members had to continue to have meetings of am bassadors and head of de legations, which constituted 
good complement to the negotiation process.  He st ressed the essential role the services market access 
negotiations had together with other market access ne gotiations.  As to the way forward, he suggested 
that the next cluster proceed with caution, waiting for development in the other areas of negotiations.  
On the issue of breakthrough, he thought that a breakthrough in services would be the presentation of 
revised offers.  On domestic regulation, he noted that the text presented by the Chair of the WPDR 
was a good basis for the continuation of nego tiations under GATS Article VI:4, although his 
delegation wished to see a more ambitious text.  Hi s delegation would find a way to strengthen the 
text. 
22. The representative of the United States
 welcomed the positive interaction that had taken place 
among experts during the past two weeks, both in bi lateral meetings and in plurilateral discussions.  
He reiterated that there would be key part of ser vices market access component in the round.   Noting 
that Members had resumed the work in negotiations w ith much greater intensity, he stressed that all 
Members had to make much more effort, in terms of political results and necessary consultations back 
home, to make appropriate contributions in ser vices.  Acknowledging that there were a lot of 
sensitivities, he noted that co-sponsors and some reci pients of plurilateral requests had indicated ways 
to address these sensitivities through scheduling phase-in commitments and focusing on new sectoral 
commitments.  He hoped that the coming weeks and months would allow to Members to capture these 
positive signals in time for revised offers.  The Un ited States could not sell a Doha package at home 
unless it included a strong component of services libera lization along with liberalization in agriculture 
and industrial products.  With respect to services,  what was particularly important for the United 
States was liberalization in large new emerging ma rkets.  In order to deliver the development 
dimension of the Doha Round, the services markets we re to be opened for developing countries and 
by developing countries.  No country could expect  to compete successfully in international markets 
today unless it had a highly competitive services sector in its own economy.   While glad to see signals of improvement offered in the recent plurilatera l meetings, he noted that in most cases they did 
not come close to binding the current level of market access that existed in many countries.  The 
entire membership needed to make more progress.   This included closing the gap between offers and 
the existing market access, and achieving new libera lization, particularly in key sectors, such as 
financial services and telecommunications which we re important to the competitiveness of all 
economies.  Major limitations in services delivery n eeded to be removed, such as foreign equity 
limitations or limitation on the form of business.   He urged Members to continue to engage seriously 
and work with ministries and regulatory agencies b ack home.  He welcomed the Chair's efforts in 
informal meetings to give further impetus to the market access aspects of the services negotiations, 
while recognizing that the negotiating mode was a b ilateral one between Members.   His delegation TN/S/M/24 
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  also appreciated the draft on domestic regulation presented by the Chair of the WPDR, believing that 
it would facilitate engagement towards a pragmatic result in that area.   
23. Regarding the way forward, he supported the Chai r's continued consultations on the form of a 
breakthrough in services.   He agreed that simply o ffering a date for revised offers and repeating one's 
own position was not sufficient for a services breakt hrough.  He thought that further ambassadorial 
consultations complemented by op en-ended meetings would be useful  for the breakthrough.  It was 
also useful to hold special session at least once a month until the summer break, and another cluster 
was also needed before the summer break.   
24. The representative of Hong Kong, China
 noted that the services negotiations had returned to 
the usual mode of having fully-fledged two-week services cluster involving both market access and 
rule-making.  As a Member embracing the primacy  of a multilateral trading process,  Hong Kong, 
China had stepped up its efforts in preparing for this  cluster and had participated fully in this long-
awaited process.  It was encouraging to feel the gradual intensification of  the negotiating mood and 
the renewed determination to move towards a common goal.  The unseasonably warm weather of 
recent weeks underlined the fact that winter had tr uly past, and Members had indeed recharged for the 
active season.  Hong Kong, China was pleased to l earn that there was an emerging convergence of 
views at the TNC that Members should all work to c onclude the Doha Round by the close of this year.  
It was now the end game.  The immediate task facing all Members was to ensure that the services negotiations were taken forward in earnest so th at the essential elements would be in place to 
complement the imminent breakthrough in agricu lture and NAMA.  This was the time for real 
substance to pave the way for a breakthrough in servi ces.  He noted that the formal consultations the 
Chair had been holding since the full resumption had provided an effective forum for Members to 
understand each other's priorities in a more conc rete manner.  Being the coordinator of two 
plurilateral groups, namely MFN exemptions and logistics services, Hong Kong, China wished to 
share with Members its observations from a ser ies of bilateral and plurilateral meetings. 
25. Overall,  the meetings were useful for Member s to reflect on and review each others' offers 
tabled.  His delegation had seen timely and positive updates on Members plans for further 
improvements in the light of the latest negotiating d ynamics.  This was most encouraging.  However, 
it had been encountered on some occasions a lack  of visible progress for various reasons.  While 
further thoughts and discussions on the meaning of the services breakthrough were required before 
any consensus could be reached, Hong Kong, Ch ina strongly considered that the successful 
development of the disciplines on domestic regula tion was a must-have to be incorporated.  It 
appreciated the good efforts by the Chair of the WPDR in coming up with the draft for further 
discussion.  Any final package was to preserve an aim to achieve a robust set of disciplines in the 
GATS.   
26. Hong Kong, China looked to services for the greatest gain in the Doha Round, as it was 
predominately a services-based economy.  True to its belief in liberal trade and focus on services, its 
existing commitments and offers were anything but modest.   Hong Kong, China had already  made 
extensive commitments in some important sectors, such as financial services and telecommunications, 
and maintained no MFN exemptions or any forei gn equity caps or numerical quotas.  These were 
substantive undertakings not often matched.  Ev en then, Hong Kong, China would continue to 
contribute in the request-offer process, but it need ed Members' input, especially in the sectors and 
areas of priority to it, including new market a ccess opportunities in maritime transport services, 
logistics services, telecommunication services, financial services, audiovisual services, particularly 
with regard to foreign owners hip ceilings, and development of services rules, especially domestic 
regulation and removal of MFN exemptions, to get the job done in the coming up with the final 
package of commitments.  Hong Kong, China would fully support the continued engagement of high 
level officials in the negotation process.  This should be done sooner rather than later in order to give 
a further boost to the momentum and expedite the preparation and submission of the next round of  TN/S/M/24 
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  offers.  Noting some Members' position to take into account the development in agriculture and 
NAMA, Hong Kong, China considered that the revi sed offers needed to be  submitted reasonably soon 
after the breakthrough in agriculture and NAMA so th at these offers of high quality with meaningful 
substantial improvements could be worked out by Me mbers.  With positive engagement demonstrated 
in the past two weeks, Members had soon to put th eir words into action.  With the Chair's able 
leadership, Members, who were in the same boat, would find their way to the final destination.   
27. The representative of Uruguay  noted that his delegation had par ticipated in the third round of 
plurilateral meetings as well as some bilateral mee tings.  This exercise was useful in providing 
updated idea of collective level of ambition.  Urug uay had different positions with respect to the 
requests on various sectors and modes of supply.  In some sectors, ther e was still considerable 
technical work to be done before giving responsible  replies with regard to binding commitments.  In 
other cases, legislation might take years and it was difficult to give updated replies to requests.  In some sectors, Uruguay had already achieved high leve ls of market-opening.  Extensive commitments 
would depend on, to a greater degree, various balance to be reached in the negotiations.   Noting that a 
lot of work remained, his delegation was committed to do its best.   
28. On domestic regulation, he appreciated the text presented by the Chair of the WPDR, which 
would focus discussion.  He noted from the first readi ng that some concerns ha d been reflected in the 
text, but again, a lot of work remained.  He stress ed that clear and realistic disciplines should properly 
reflect Members' right to regulate and take into cons ideration different situations in various sectors.  
His capital would continue to carefully examine this te xt to ensure that the final result would be able 
to contribute to strengthening binding commitments.   
29. On the dates for future meetings, he supported the Chairmen's decision.  He noted that the 
success of the services negotiations could only be ac hieved with acceptable package of revised offers 
which required a lot of work and necessary coordinati on in capital.  He also noted that the services 
package was linked to success in other areas of negotiations.  
30. The representative of Thailand
, speaking of behalf of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, 
Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Th ailand and Vietnam, stated that this group of 
Members had pledged its commitments to the pos itive contribution of services to the overall Doha 
Round.  Members had observed its high level of enga gement at various plurila terals, bilaterals and 
services subsidiary meetings over the past two week s.  In the view of this group, the services 
negotiations, particularly in the area of market  access, were progressing well.  However, the 
breakthrough situation that Members were envisagin g was a large driving force for this group in its 
engagement.   
31. This group wished to share its assessment of the plurilateral and bilateral meetings.  They 
found the meetings useful in establishing much needed re-engagement, particularly among participants of the plurilateral negotiations.  Th is group appreciated the willingness of Members to 
address general concerns and specific questions and noted frank discussions and useful exchange of 
views on some important issues during the plurilate ral meetings.  Regrettably, there were a few 
instances where some of the concerns raised ha d been either only superficially addressed, or 
dismissed as having been debated in the past alre ady.  Nevertheless, overall, the meetings were 
positive and Members forthcoming.   
32. This group were gratified that some delegati ons had suddenly become interested in its 
economic integration efforts in Southeast Asia, a nd had lauded such efforts as positive steps towards 
trade liberalization in the region.  This group wi shed to underscore that the economic integration 
efforts in ASEAN should be viewed from the pers pective of its attempts for broader and greater 
regional integration stemming from the ASEAN 2020 Vision of an ASEAN Community.  It hoped TN/S/M/24 
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  that its trading partners in the WTO did not view  these efforts as a basis for demanding this group to 
multilateralize those gradual efforts in trade lib eralization in its part of the world.   
33. Nevertheless, this group remain ed committed to the process mandated by Ministers in Hong 
Kong and continued to actively consider the plurila teral requests, while mindful of the flexibilities 
under the GATS, particularly those of Article XIX:2. 
34. This group reiterated the importance it collectivel y attached to the mandates of paragraphs 4 
and 5 of Annex C of the Hong Kong Ministerial Decl aration.  Noting that it was now operating in an 
end-game mode, what was essential to this group were meaningful rules, namely disciplines on 
domestic regulation in order to strengthen the value and certainty of negotiated market access 
commitments; and, in a more specific case for this  group, rules on emergency safeguard measures in 
order to ensure smooth liberalization.  From this  group’s perspective, there would have to be a 
credible outcome in the rules negotiations al ongside the market access package.  This group 
commended the Chair of the WPDR for his draft text on Disciplines on Domestic Regulation presented at the meeting of the WPDR on 20 April 2007.   
35. This group also urged Members to put S&D treat ment and development issues at the heart of 
this renewed engagement with a view to making Doha truly a development round.  Having actively 
participated in the services negotia tions, this group wished to assu re Members that it was committed 
to the liberalization process.  Nevertheless, the assurance of all Members was needed to ensure 
balanced outcomes to the negotiations that would bene fit all.  Furthermore, the overall benefits that 
Members were going to reap from the Doha R ound would also depend on the progress of the 
negotiations on other fronts, notably in agriculture, NAMA and rules.    
36. The representative of Switzerland
 stated that the past two-week meetings had been 
constructive and useful.  His delegation had had an  intensive programme including about 20 bilateral 
meetings.  Discussions at these meetings had deepened  understanding of issues of particular interest.  
Plurilateral meetings were helpful in informa tion exchange. Many Member had provided clear 
indications of their possible progress.  The question- answer phase seemed to have finished and the 
negotiation had moved to the next step.  He remi nded Members that negotia tions were operating in 
the framework of the Hong Kong Declaration which provided clear guidelines and basis.  On the issue 
of breakthrough, he understood that it meant signi ficantly improved offers.  What mattered was the 
overall level of commitments.  It also meant improv ement in domestic regulation.  Since time was 
short, each Member was to table its revised offe r when the time came.  Switzerland was committed to 
continue its work in the coming weeks in order to r each an ambitious result.  It could go along with 
the Chair's proposal to have the next cluster in the summer.   
37. The representative of Morocco  echoed the statement made by Uganda on behalf of the 
African Group.  Welcoming the resumption of negotia tions, he reiterated his delegation's interest in 
the services negotiations.  He stressed that the obj ective of the services negotiations in this round was 
development in developing countries.  This was to be achieved through focusing on the issues of 
priority to developing countries, in particular, S&D treatment, flexibility in  the GATS as well as the 
sectors where developing countries had comparative adva ntage.   The interest of developing countries 
in negotiations had been demonstrated by their pa rticipation in negotiations  and the presentation of 
initial offers in 2005.  Through its offer, Morocco had replied to the requests made by about 12 
Members.  Since the Hong Kong Ministerial Confer ence, Morocco had received 7 additional requests, 
6 of which were plurilateral sectoral requests.  Moro cco had participated in the previous two rounds of 
plurilateral meetings with interest.  It had listened to explanations and clarifications provided by its 
trading partners concerning the collective requests.   The third round of plurilateral meetings was an 
occasion for demandeurs to assess the progress achieved or  likely to be achieved in the market access 
negotiations.  Morocco was co-sponsor of the pluril ateral request on Mode 4 which was of great  TN/S/M/24 
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  interest to the country.  The responses provided at the plurilateral meeting did not meet the 
expectation of the demandeur Members.   
38. After having examined requests received, the competent authority of Morocco had improved 
the initial offer which would be presented in a timely  fashion at the Special Session of the Council for 
Trade in Services.  Morocco was also examining pl urilateral requests in sectors of interest to its 
economy.  One of such sectors was off-shoring servi ces.  Morocco had the ambition to enhance the 
development of French-speaking and Spanish-speaki ng off-shoring services of valu e added,  thanks to 
its qualified and mobilizable human resources.  Moro cco expected to create 100,000 additional jobs in 
offshoring by 2015 and increase its GDP by USD 2 billion.  Considering the importance of off-
shoring to its economic development, Morocco reser ved the right to request its off-shoring export 
trading partners to bind its current practice and remo ve market access limitations on Modes 1 and 2.   
Morocco appreciated the efforts ma de by the Chair of the WPDR and the text he had presented on 
disciplines on domestic regulation.  Morocco would examine the text and come back with comments 
after having consultations with the part ners in the African Group.       
39. The representative of Korea  stated that a substantial outcome of the services negotiations was 
an essential component for achieving a DDA package, wh ich would ensure balance and benefit to all 
Members.  His delegation reaffirmed its commitment to deliver a meaningful outcome in services through expansion of the covera ge and improvement of the quality of the commitments.  His 
delegation viewed the services cluster over the last two weeks, including pl urilateral meetings, as a 
useful opportunity to take stock of the state of play and to pave the way for achieving a substantial 
outcome.  On market access, there had been fruitf ul plurilateral negotiations in over 20 sectors and 
modes of supply.  While Members were cautious at th is particular juncture, it was encouraging to note 
that progress had been made in domestic consultations and that in some areas there were indications of possibility of new and improved commitments.  During the cluster, Korea had had 7 bilateral 
negotiations which had provided a useful opportunity  to better understand each other's priorities and 
share experiences of overcoming constraints.  Korea attached equal importance to the progress in 
domestic regulation and other rules issues.  Member s had had a preliminary discussion on the Chair's 
text on domestic regulation.  Korea remained fu lly engaged in the ongoing discussions aimed at 
establishing disciplines on domestic regulation.   
40. As to how to proceed with the services negotiati ons, he noted that it was still uncertain when 
Members would be able to seek a breakthrough in agriculture and NAMA.  However, Members 
should not stay idle.  Instead, they should step up  their work toward a solid ground to ensure a 
substantial outcome when there was a breakthrou gh in negotiations.  It would make good sense to 
engage ambassadors and high level officials in capita l more actively in the services negotiations.  This 
could help enhance awareness of the services negotia tions and generate great political momentum to 
accelerate domestic consultations conducive to impr oving offers.  Bilateral and plurilateral market 
access discussions were to continue at both expe rt and higher level.   Based on these discussions, 
Korea would step up its domestic cons ultations and urge other Members to do the same to ensure that 
the next revised offers were of high quality.  On the next steps, Korea remained flexible as to the 
timing and form of meetings as long as these meeti ngs would facilitate progress and ensure maximum 
and substantive results in the services negotiations.   
41. The representative of Pakistan
 stated that her delegation ha d co-sponsored 4 and received 13 
plurilateral requests.  After having received these re quests last year, domestic consultations had been 
initiated again to ascertain stakeholders' concern.   Two studies had been commissioned.  The 
objective of the first study was to identify sectors and modes of current and potential export interest to Pakistan and regulatory barriers faced by Pakistani exporters so as to identify Pakistan's position on 
the elements being negotiated for possible disciplines vis-à-vis Pakistan's domestic regulatory requirements and future export interest.  The ot her study had been carried out to assess possible 
effects of being locked in current fully liberal regime in engineering, environmental and energy TN/S/M/24 
Page 10  
 
  services.  In addition, during the suspension period from July 2006 to January 2007, the consultation 
process with stakeholders had continued.  For mo st sectors, responses had been received in writing 
while in a few sectors the consultations were in th e final stages.   Based on these responses, Pakistan 
had been able to share with re questing and requested Members of plurilateral negotiations what it 
could offer in its revised offer.  Pakistan therefore had used the third round of plurilateral meetings in 
conveying what was doable for it so that the dema ndeurs of the services negotiations could move 
forward in agriculture and NAMA.  Her delegation had heard many positive statements.   Its positive 
approach was conditional on its demands being met in other areas of negotiations, particularly 
agriculture and NAMA.   
42. On Mode 4 with which much of Pakistan's inte rest lay, she referred to paragraph 4 of the 
Annex on Movement of Natural Pe rsons, which allowed Members to apply measures to regulate the 
entry of natural persons into, or their temporar y stay in, its territory, including those measures 
necessary to protect the integrity of, and to ensure  the orderly movement of  natural persons across 
borders.  Therefore, if a Mode 4 commitment on eith er contractual services suppliers or independent 
professionals (two categories sought by 16 Members in the plurilateral request) was made, it would 
come into effect only if: a) an employer provided a valid job contract in the receiving country; b) a 
visa was obtained from the receiving country; c) any ot her regulatory requirements were fulfilled.  To 
ensure orderly movement, this c ould be the employer undertaking to inform the authorities of the 
departure and arrival of temporary services providers.    
43. Pakistan also sought balanced domestic regul atory disciplines which would ensure domestic 
regulation was transparent and trade friendly, and that  services suppliers were not in fact locked out of 
the market in trying to comply with various requirements that had no ostensible purpose for 
maintaining the quality of a service.   
44. Lastly, Pakistan supported the processes initiated by  the Chair at the ambassadorial level.  It 
also supported the proposal for a services cluste r in the summer when something might have 
happened in agriculture and NAMA.   
45. The representative of Mexico
 noted that the current services cluster, including the plurilateral 
meetings, was useful.  One outcome of this clus ter was highlighting the importance to have high 
profile consultations in capital.  It was important to continue technical work, in particular with 
regulators.   To this end, sectoral discussion in plurilateral meetings had provided positive elements to 
keep this process alive.  She thanked the chair of  the WPDR for his efforts in presenting the text 
which would serve a good basis for the continuation of discussion to define clear and transparent 
disciplines.   Members also needed to continue  discussion on subsidies and contribute to reducing 
MFN exemptions.    
46. Mexico had actively participated in the plurila teral negotiations.  At the plurilateral meeting 
on audiovisual services, Members had had a frank exchange of views on the sensitivities in making 
more liberal commitments. Flexibility contai ned in the GATS enabled Members to establish 
compatibility between the internal concern on cultura l diversity and the beneficial objective of trade 
liberalization.  Plurilateral meetings were a us eful complement to bila teral negotiations where 
Members had deeper and more focu sed exchange of priorities and sensitivities.  Another important 
aspect of the process was the discussion at the amb assadorial level.  Technical work and political 
impetus were  the elements necessary for the br eakthrough Members were waiting for in services.   
47. The representative of Canada  noted that his delegation had ha d 7 bilateral meetings and had 
participated in most plurilateral meetings during th e past two weeks.   With respect to plurilateral 
meetings which were principal focus for Canada, it had coordinated three sessions: financial services, 
telecommunications, and architecture and engineer ing services.  In these meetings, co-sponsors had 
highlighted the particular priority they attached to these sectors, especially for financial services and  TN/S/M/24 
 Page 11 
 
 
  telecommunications which were important to the sense of ambition in the services negotiations.  
Overall, Canada welcomed the positive spirit of engagement in the cluster and the incremental 
progress revealed during the plurilateral sessions.  Mo st participants seemed to understand that work 
was entering a new phase.  One cause for concern,  however, was that in some cases the progress of 
domestic consultations on potential offe rs seemed to be lagging.   Members all needed to step up the 
pace of work to ensure that they could move as ambitiously as possible when  the time came.  One of 
the  issues for services was that Members did not k now when the time was going to come.  So they 
needed to work as efficiently as possible back home.   The WPDR had seen positive development in 
this cluster with the Chair's revised paper.  While  much work remained, this was a significant piece of 
the puzzle in services and it was good to have a basis for further work on the table.   
48. On the issue of breakthrough, Canada was not clear what it would look like in services.  But it 
was clear that Members needed to find a way to ar ticulate the trajectory to an ambitious outcome for 
services.  Without repeating its overall assessment of  the process, he stressed that Members had to 
close the gaps with respect to significant autonomous liberalization that had taken place since 1995, 
GATS-plus commitments in FTAs, and focus on commercial priority sectors as revealed by 
plurilateral meetings.  Canada looke d forward to discuss all these issu es in informal consultations as 
the process was moving forward to a breakthrough in services.   
49. On the work ahead, he noted that full cluste rs, particularly one containing plurilateral 
meetings, would require a lot of work , both in Geneva and in capital.  The earliest cluster would be in 
July.   He urged Members to st ay engaged on market access and on other important issues, such as 
domestic regulation, LDC Modalities, rules and how all these would be packaged.  In this regard, he 
thought that some time might be needed in the first two weeks of June, maybe in a format of a 
meeting of the Special Session of the CTS.  Ca nada would be reflecting on what it had heard on 
market access over the past two weeks and urged other Members to do the same.  Members would find the value in sharing their reflections at the informal meetings the Chair would be having.   
50. The representative of New Zealand
 noted that this service cluster had taken place at an 
important juncture, hopefully, the beginning of the end of the round.  His delegation had had some 
useful bilateral meetings and had participated in mo st plurilateral meetings.  It had also coordinated 
two plurilateral sessions.  In general, these meeti ngs were positive and worthw hile.  The objective of 
this cluster was to see how delegations had made use of the time after the suspension in terms of 
considering how to meet the collective requests.   He noted that many key trading partners had spent 
their time rather productively and that there were  some encouraging signals.  He hoped that the 
process kept going.  He also noted that the am bition for key sectors of the services negotiations 
remained high and that Members continued to look for new market access where current regimes 
already met the requests for binding.  The central ch allenge was how to define the parameters of the 
services contributions to the final package more clearly.  The services elements accompanying the 
breakthrough in agriculture and NAMA still needed to be  developed.  All delega tions had to be active, 
particularly those who had identified the services br eakthrough elements as a must-have, and had to 
work intensively in the next few weeks to clar ify aims for the process and substance of these 
elements, namely what they wanted or needed.  He agreed that simply setting a date for submission of 
revised offers was not enough in the context of breakthrough and that more substantive guidelines 
were needed.  The Chair's consultations were critic al part of the process to ensure that ambassadors 
were engaged in the negotiations .  His delegation would engage constructively.  On domestic 
regulation, he thanked the Chair of the WPDR for his hard work in delivering a paper which would 
focus future work.   
51. The representative of Colombia  stated that although her country accounted for only 0.11 % of 
world export of services in 2005 and 0.2 % of world import of services since 2000, its trade in services had being growing each year.  These figures would continue to rise, bearing in mind the 
country's current economic situation, its good prospect s, and its policy to promote exports.  This was TN/S/M/24 
Page 12  
 
  why Colombia hoped that this round would produce sat isfactory results, to enable it to have better 
market access.  The plurilateral request-offer approach had genera ted good results, which had enabled 
Members to focus negotiations on sectors of inte rest and have meetings to exchange useful 
information.  In addition, the bilateral negotiations w ould continue to be a useful tool.  On the date for 
the next cluster, her delegation was flexible.   Her delegation t ook note of the letter from the trade 
ministers of the United States, the European Comm unities, India and Brazil, which had expressed the 
intention to conclude the round by the end of 2007.   It also took note of the statement made by the 
Chairman of the TNC at the informal meeting on 20  April.  On the issue of breakthrough, as the 
negotiations were moving towards their final stages, it was important for Members to be prepared for 
presenting their offers.  Based on these offers, Member s would see to what extent their interests were 
met.  When there was agreement in agriculture and NAMA, Members would be able to set the date 
for the submission of new offers.   
52. Colombia had participated in 12 plurilateral m eetings and some other bilateral meetings over 
the past two weeks.  It had noticed positive signa ls that Members were committed to the process and 
that their capitals were working with a view to successfully concluding the negotiations.  However, 
Colombia had also seen with concern that some  Members were not sufficiently ready to make 
commitments, particularly on Mode 4 which was of great interest to Colombia.  Colombia was also 
interested in the negotiations on disciplines on domestic  regulation, hoping that they could reflect the 
principles contained in the GATS and help improve market access.   Colombia wished to see this 
concrete result achieved in the coming months.   
53. The representative of India
 noted that the intensive engagement over the last two weeks had 
been very useful in clarifying expectations and c onstraints.  He believed th at delegations now had a 
much clearer idea of what they could expect from their trading partners and the final outcome.  He 
also believed that these discussions had marked a tr ansition of the services negotiations from technical 
to political.  He stressed that the services negotiations  were only a subset of the negotiations Members 
were conducting under the single undertak ing.  It would be unrealistic to expect an outcome in service 
completely divorced from the outcome in other areas.   This raised the quest ion of sequencing.  If 
Members wished to conclude the negotiations by the end of the year, they needed to make concrete 
progress in various areas such as agriculture, NAMA, rules, etc, before the summer break.  A question 
that needed to be answered was how Members coul d build in concrete commitments in services at the 
same time, before the submission of the second revi sed offers which could be used in developing a 
broad equation of give-and-take acr oss various sectors.   Without su ch commitments, efforts remained 
incomplete.  Members collectively needed to appl y their minds to this issue if they were to 
successfully conclude the intensive negotiations in various areas over the next few weeks.    
54. With respect to India's expectations from the services negotiations, he noted that his 
delegation had received 14 plurilateral requests in va rious areas.  It had also joined 4 plurilateral 
requests, including 2 as coordinator.   India looked at these requests constructively and with an open 
mind.   He was sure that India's trading partners who had had bilaterals with India over the past two 
weeks would testify to this.  India's revised offer was ambitious and above its Uruguay Round 
commitments in a number of important areas.   India could make considerable improvements on this in the second revised offer.  But India's enthusiasm in  this regard would be c ontingent on the response 
it would receive on its very limited requests.  India wished to reiterate that unless it saw significant market access opening in the areas of its interest , it would not be in a position to commit to the 
ambitious requests made of India.    
55. Regarding disciplines on domestic regulation, he stressed that such disciplines were an 
essential complement to market access.  He noted  that liberal market access commitments were 
negated many a time by invoking dom estic regulation.  This could be prevented by ensuring that 
regulations in services were not restrictive and more burdensome than necessary, transparent and 
applied for the purpose for which they had been put in place.  Hence, disciplines on domestic  TN/S/M/24 
 Page 13 
 
 
  regulation were an integral part of the outcome of  the services negotiations.  Without an outcome in 
this area, negotiations would be incomplete.   He noted that the Chair of the WPDR had presented a 
draft of disciplines on domestic regulations.   India was disappointed at the text as many elements of 
its proposal on qualification requirements and procedur es had been either diluted or dropped.  But in 
line with the sentiment to conclude the round at an  early date, India had signaled its readiness to build 
upon the current text and have disciplines in place befo re the end of the round.  India recognized that 
there should be a balance between the right to regul ate and ensuring that domestic regulation did not 
negate market access.  Appropriate provisions on S& D treatment needed to be part of this dossier.  
India encouraged the Chair to continue his consulta tions in the next few weeks on the way in which 
an ambitious outcome in services could be bu ilt into the outcome in various areas.     
56. The representative of Brazil  stated that having a fully-fle dged services cluster had provided an 
important opportunity and had sent a positive signal of  commitment to move negotiations forward.  It 
was an important step to move towards a shared goal of concluding the round by the end of this year.  
In the view of Brazil, the plurilateral exercise ha d proved itself to be extremely useful, not only for 
experts coming to Geneva and having the opportunity to exchange points of view with counterparts 
from other Members.  The plurilateral exercise was also an input to the process of internal 
consultations.   Therefore, there was still life in the plurilateral process and it had more to contribute 
to the round.   Brazil had participated in 15 plurila teral meetings over the past two weeks, 14 of them 
as a requested Members, one as a requesting Memb er.  Brazil, along with other sponsors of the 
plurilateral request on services related to agriculture, felt that another meeting might not be needed on 
this issue.  But they all attached importance to wh at was contained in this request.   In addition to 
plurilateral meetings, Brazil had par ticipated in 4 bilateral meetings during the cluster.  The outcome 
of those meetings was mixed.  In some of them , there had been a genuine sense of dialogue and 
constructive engagement, with an exchange of info rmation and constructive examination of ways to 
move requests forward.   But in other meetings, th is kind of spirit had not prevailed and the process 
had been more like a unilateral one than a bilatera l one with the give-and-take process replaced by a 
take-and-take process.  Brazil was constantly told th at it had to give a clearer picture of what its 
possibilities were.  It would be helpful to Brazil if  demandeurs could get thei r act together, because 
Brazil received conflicting messages.  Some demandeu rs recognized the value of the Brazil's offers 
tabled as well as the value of the information Braz il had provided with regard to what Brazil was 
considering and the scope of moving forward.  Bu t for other demandeurs, what Brazil was doing was 
meaningless.  This was frustrating to Brazil.  
57. On the horizontal plane, he wished to make a fe w points.  The first issue was priority.  It was 
very difficult for requested Members to take home a situation where every plurilateral request was a 
priority.  Where everything was a priority, nothing w as a priority.  The plurilateral process had to be 
more focused by identifying what the real priori ties were.   Second, he noted a statement that 
Members should be binding their current market acce ss.  He thought this was a complicated proposal.  
No mandate was included in the Doha Agenda or  the Negotiation Guidelines or the Hong Kong 
Declaration, which could lead to such an interpre tation.  It had to be recognized as well that the 
current market access was a result of insufficiency or  absence of regulatory framework, particularly in 
developing countries.  The question was not to bind th e current market access, bu t to find a balance of 
rights and obligations at the end of the round across all sectors.   
58. Brazil was flexible as to the way forward, includ ing the dates for future meetings.  He trusted 
the Chair's judgment to schedule meetings in acco rdance with the overall progress in other areas and 
to decide when meetings would be useful to move the process forward.   
59. On the issue of what a breakthrough was to cont ain, he noted that there was guidance in the 
Hong Kong Declaration where Ministers were very speci fic in outlining the timing of different steps.  
Modalities in agriculture and NAMA were supposed to be agreed upon in April 2006 and Members 
were required to submit their initia l offers in agriculture and NAMA and their second revised offers in TN/S/M/24 
Page 14  
 
  services three months later.  It could be by accident that this sequencing had been established.  But he 
felt that there was no other way to move forward.   Brazil could appreciate that a breakthrough would 
have something in services.  However, there had to be some substance there, not just a question of 
procedures.   Brazil was ready to look at any suggestion constructively in this regard.   
60. Reiterating her delegation's commitments to this round, the representative of Dominican
 
Republic  stated that her delegation had actively particip ated in negotiations.  On the services market 
access negotiations, since its initial offer submitted tw o years ago, her government had been working 
hard on its revised offer in order to be able to present it in a timely way once there was a clearer 
scenario in other areas of negotiations.  Noting pr ogress made both bilaterally  and plurilaterally in 
services, her delegation considered that the services negotiations were proceeding at a satisfactory 
pace compared with other areas.  On the issue of ha ving a new cluster, she shared the view of Chile 
that Members should proceed with caution and have a prior assessment of level of progress achieved 
in other areas.  She noted that the Chair of the WPDR had presented a draft of disciplines on domestic 
regulation,  which was a good basis for negotiations.  She commended him for his great efforts in the 
work of the Working Party.   She suggested that in organizing the ne xt cluster, a balance was needed 
between time devoted to market access and time devot ed to domestic regulation.  She took note of 
informal consultations at the ambassadorial level, suggesting that the results of these consultations be 
shared with other Members in a regular and detailed way so that Members could evaluate the real progress made. 
61. The representative of Zambia
, speaking on behalf of the LDC Group,  stated that in the area of 
trade in services, it was a fact that most of the LDCs had liberalized essentially all sectors but had not 
been able to reap the full benefits of this liber alization process due to their various regulatory and 
capacity constraints.  It was in this regard th at LDCs found it necessary to have specific language on 
technical assistance and capacity building.  LDCs  should be exempted from application of the 
disciplines, as agreed upon at Hong Kong.  The LDC Group urged Members not to link the technical assistance component with compliance of the disciplines on domestic regulation.   
62. The LDCs were similarly concerned over the lack of progress in the implementation of the 
Hong Kong Ministerial on the development of a mech anism for granting special priority to the LDCs 
in line with the Modalities for the Special Treatment  for LDCs in Negotiations on Trade in Services 
adopted in 2003.  Despite the initiative taken by the LDC Group to put a proposal for discussion in the 
form of the mechanism for granting special priori ty, Members had not engaged in constructive and 
substantive discussions on this issue.  For LDCs, the full and effective implementation of the LDC 
Modalities remained a key area in the outcome of th e Doha round.  In this regard, the LDC Group was 
open to further discussions to ensure that th e process moved forward in this area.   
63. The representative of Ecuador
 stated that his delegation would have liked to participate in the 
negotiations over the past two weeks, but had had in ternal consultations and technical evaluations in 
capital and other commitments to fulfill.   However,  it wished to thank several delegations for their 
invitations.  Ecuador maintained its interest in Mo de 4 and financial services and would continue to 
endeavor to make progress in these areas.  He stressed that future negotiations would depend on 
commitments by developed countries, particularly in agriculture.  
64. The representative of Egypt  stated that his delegation's position in the services negotiations 
was well known to Members and had been voiced in va rious formal and informal occasions.  In this 
cluster, in line with its aim to continue its cons tructive engagement in th e plurilateral negotiations, 
Egypt had participated with capital-based delegation representing different services  sectors.   This 
clearly reflected the importance Egypt attached to the services negotiations.  Egypt had a positive 
assessment of this cluster.  It considered that  the plurilateral meetings  were constructive and 
informative in a way that they had encouraged Me mbers to exchange views and expertise in services 
sectors.  Noting that the services negotiations were labour and time-intensive, Egypt believed that it  TN/S/M/24 
 Page 15 
 
 
  was important to sustain momentum and further build on that with a view to preparing efficiently for a 
successful outcome of the services negotiations.  On the other hand, bearing in mind the overall 
progress in the Doha Round, Egypt thought that the valued added of this cluster was within what 
could be reasonably expected.  It recognized the lack of adequate progress on Mode 4.   
65. Egypt was in the process of undertaking several impact assessments on a number of services 
sectors,  believing that the results of such assessmen t would have positive implications.  He called on 
relevant international a nd regional organizations a nd donor countries to continue to assist Egypt and 
other developing countries both technically and fina ncially in undertaking such an assessment.   
66. On the way forward, he encouraged the Chai r to continue his considerable efforts in 
consulting with Members in various  formats in order to advance further the process along the lines of 
what the Chair had proposed.  Finally, he associated Egypt with the statement made by Uganda on 
behalf of the African Group. 
67. The representative of China  stated that in the past two week s, China had participated in all 
plurilateral negotiations and had bila teral talks with 5 Members.  As in all previous cases, its telecom 
experts had actively participated in the telecom negotiations at both the pl urilateral and bilateral 
levels. Besides telecom, the capital had also sent experts from 6 other sectors, including maritime 
transport, construction, and postal and courier services .  In China's view, the plurilateral sessions were 
useful, because, through frank exchange of informat ion, they enabled the participating Members to 
know more about each other’s situation of liberali zation and domestic regulation.  China was now 
clearer about where it stood in the services negotiations on market access.   
68. She reiterated that China had made commit ments in 100 sectors/sub-sectors. All the 
sectors/sub-sectors that were considered as the most important services to the development of an 
economy had been put into the schedule, such as financial services coveri ng banking, securities and 
insurance, construction and related engineering ser vices, telecommunications, legal services, transport 
in land, maritime and air modes, environmental services, distribution services covering commission agents, wholesale, retail and franchise, courier services, and computer-related services. In 54 
sectors/sub-sectors, China had committed to permit 100% foreign ownership.  In the 3 sectors/sub-
sectors where foreign majority owne rship was not permitted, foreign investors were allowed to hold 
equity shares between 33% in the securities sector to 50% in the life insurance.  With respect to 
national treatment, China had made full commitments in most sectors/sub-sectors.  In many sectors/sub-sectors widely viewed as important ones,  China’s commitments went far beyond those of 
the developed Members, its major services trading pa rtners.  China believed that such a situation 
would continue to exist even at the end of this  round of negotiations.  For the moment, China was 
assessing or was about to assess the impact of implementing its commitments in various sectors, since most of them went far beyond the status quo liberalization upon China’s accession.  A common feeling arising from the assessment exercise was that  services liberalization should be undertaken in a 
progressive manner and that China should be cautious in making commitments where China’s 
regulatory capacity had yet to be strengthened.  Du ring the past years, China has made contributions 
to the current round of services negotiations by offering new commitments or improvements to its existing commitments.  China was studying carefully  the plurilateral and b ilateral requests to see 
whether it could offer something in the next revised offer in light of the domestic needs and situations. 
69. She reiterated that China was extremely disappointed  at the offers tabled by its major services 
trading partners.  Some important aspects were stil l missing in their offers.  Take maritime transport 
as an example.  About 52 Members, including China,  had elaborated in a joint statement the important 
role that this sector played in international tr ade in goods and services.  Yet this sector was still 
missing in one key Member’s offer.  Meanwhile, there was no market access improvement for natural persons supplying certain services through Mode 4 either  due to no offer or due to unreasonably high TN/S/M/24 
Page 16  
 
  qualification requirements in the case of any offer.   What was more worrying was that, at present, 
China could hardly see any hope for improveme nts at the plurilateral or bilateral sessions. 
70. On domestic regulation, China was disappointed at  the positions of some of its major services 
trading partners.  Those Members requested China to assume obligations that went beyond the GATS 
requirements.  However, they were reluctant to  assume those obligations in the negotiations on 
domestic regulation, even though they  were in a better position to do so given their development level 
and regulatory capacity.  China found this hard to understand, because it noticed that in various WTO 
agreements, developed Members assumed “shall” obligations while developing members assumed 
“best endevour” obligations and LDCS assumed the least obligations.   
71. China wished to express its appreciation to the Chair of the WPDR for his full devotion to the 
negotiation and his hard efforts in coming up with th e draft text.  China welcomed the draft text and 
would work on the basis of it.   
72. On the question of the services elements in  the “breakthrough”, China was still holding 
domestic consultations.   
73. The representative of Japan
 stated that his delegation shared the general assessment of the 
cluster by many delegations.  His delegation note d with appreciation that a number of developing 
Members had brought their capital experts.  This had enhanced the quality of pl urilateral and bilateral 
negotiations.  He encouraged these Members to continue  to do so in the future.  Regarding the issue of 
breakthrough, he echoed the statement made by the European Communities.  On future meetings, his 
delegation shared the view expressed by Canada. 
74. The representative of Norway  stated that his delegation had participated in a dozen bilateral 
meetings.  Most of them had been very useful  in complementing the plurilateral process.  On 
plurilateral meetings, he noted that they had been relatively well attended and proved to be useful in 
focusing on what Members might be able to include in their revised offers.  While there was a clearer 
picture now than before the cluster, there remained  a lot of work.  If Members were to conclude the 
Doha Round by the end of the year, they would also need progress in services by the summer break.  
The key focus on services should be how Members could best contribute to a breakthrough.   
75. In Norway's view, various avenues needed to  be explored simultaneously to ensure a 
continuous high level attention on services.  Fi rstly, the ongoing "Ench ilada meetings" at the 
ambassadorial level should play a key role in getti ng closer to the contours of a possible deal on 
services.  A more thorough horizontal assessment was welcome as to what was the state of play in services and what could be possible to achieve in order to match the ambition in agriculture and 
NAMA (in the form of full modalities).  Norway would trust the Chair's judgment and ongoing 
consultations on whether this was to be done through addressing all plurilateral requests or by having 
more focused discussion on sectors and modes that seem ed to be hindering progress.  In any event, 
Norway's premise for engaging actively in these ne gotiations remained that there be no a priori 
exclusion of sectors.  It would be very unfortuna te if Members missed the opportunity to harvest the 
potential of an increased level of bindings in  the GATS which Members' work so far had 
demonstrated.  He reiterated Norway's priorities in the services negotiations: maritime transport, 
energy, telecommunications and financial services. 
76. Secondly, it would be important at least tentatively to set a date for a Special Session 
sometime in June to take stock.  Some indication of timelines was needed.  Members had to play it by 
ear what exactly should be discu ssed and when and in what format.  The continuous high level 
attention to be given to services was to be assu red through the on-going "enchiladas" both at 
ambassadorial level or senior official level.  All essen tial elements were in play.  That meant that even 
though the main focus might have to be on mark et access in order to keep services on par with  TN/S/M/24 
 Page 17 
 
 
  agriculture and NAMA, Members also had to addres s domestic regulation, rules, S&D treatment and 
the LDC Modalities as part of the end game.   
77. The question was how to handle all these elemen ts in order for services to contribute to a 
breakthrough in the round.  There were no hard and fast answers to such a question, but a 
breakthrough was to provide a solid  basis for an end game, which included all sectors and elements of 
essential interest to participants.  Norway noted wi th interest the ideas put forward by the European 
Communities, assuming that the convergence proces s among the major players would provide more 
clarity on how to handle services during the coming months.  Norway would actively engage on all fronts in the critical weeks and months to come.   
78. The representative of Antigua and Barbuda
 stated that CARICOM delegations' substantive 
views on progress in negotiations, as reflected in their statement made at the meeting in March, 
remained relevant.  He underscored that a successful  outcome had to reflect as meaningful results in 
agriculture and NAMA as in services.  On market ac cess, CARICOM delegations continued to attach 
importance to the objective of progressive libera lization which could prom ote economic growth and 
development in their countries.  As set out in pa ragraph 3 of the Guidelines and Procedures for the 
Negotiations on Trade in Services adopted by the Spec ial Session of the Council for Trade in Services 
on 28 March 2001, CARICOM de legations believed that liberalization process should take place with 
due respect for national policy objectives, the leve l of development and the size of economies of 
individual Members, both in overall and in individual sectors.  They attached particular importance to 
due consideration being given to the needs of sma ll and medium sized services suppliers, particularly 
those of developing countries.  In the area of domestic regulation, he no ted that negotiations had 
reached a stage of having a consolidated draft text which was an important step in advancing the work 
in this area in line with Annex C of the Hong K ong Declaration.  CARICOM countries continued to 
be committed to participating actively in this area,  as they had done in the past.   They remained 
committed to an outcome in services that prom oted their own growth and development. 
79. The representative of Singapore  urged Members, especially th e major ones, to work towards 
an early breakthrough in agriculture and NAMA.  This would facilitate progress in the services 
negotiations.  He shared the overall assessment of the services cluster and noted that there had been 
good engagement.  Apart from discussions on expecta tions and constraints, there had also been some 
indications on possible offers.   While these indica tions were useful, more work remained.  Until the 
next time experts met, Members would need to un dertake domestic consultations with respect to 
filling in gaps identified during the plurilateral me etings, taking into account sensitivities.   Members 
needed to reflect on revised offers as there woul d not be much time, even when a breakthrough took 
place in agriculture and NAMA. 
80. For Singapore, services was an integral part  of the final DDA package.  Singapore was 
looking forward to good offers in a number of ar eas, including telecommunications, construction 
services, distribution services, computed and related services, energy services, logistics services, and 
cross-border supply.  Building on its substan tive commitments made during the Uruguay Round, 
Singapore had submitted good initial and revised offers  with new and improved entries across a range 
of sectors.  As a further contribution to this round , Singapore would look into further improvements in 
offers.  It had indicated some of its possible offers during plurilateral meetings.  However, its scope of 
offers would depend on commensurate offers of its tr ading partners in sectors of interest to Singapore 
and other DDA issues, such as NAMA.   
81. On process, he trusted the Chair's judgment with re spect to the timing of the next cluster.  He 
reiterated that the pace and ambition in services w ould depend on a breakthrough in agriculture and 
NAMA.  TN/S/M/24 
Page 18  
 
  82. The Chair
 noted that all Members attached impor tance to a good outcome in the services 
negotiations and that the assessment of the meetings  held over the past two weeks was positive.  He 
stressed that a lot of work re mained to be done from now until th e end of the negotiations.  Noting 
different views on the issue of breakthrough, he sugg ested that Members continue discussions in this 
regard.   He also suggested that Members continue co nsultations in various form ats.   On the timing of 
future meetings, he suggested that the Secretaria t book rooms for the end of May or the beginning of 
June so that Members could hold a one-day meeting of the Special Session of the Council for Trade in Services to assess the state of play.  He further s uggested that rooms be booked for the last two weeks 
of June or the first two weeks of July for a new services clusters.  He himself would continue to hold 
informal consultations.   
83. It was so agreed
.  
B. PROPOSALS RELATING TO THE NEGOTIATIONS UNDER ARTICLE XIX  OF THE GATS 
84. The Chair  noted that Switzerland had recently circulated a proposal relating to the 
negotiations entitled "Temporary Admission of Insta llers and Maintainers under the GATS: A Case 
for Mode 4 Commitments", contained in document TN /S/W/61.  He invited the Swiss delegation to 
present its proposal. 
85. The representative of the Switzerland  stated that Mode 4 was a major element of the services 
negotiations and the Doha Development Agenda.  His delegation was pleased to present a proposal 
(TN/S/W/61) on Mode 4, which was entitled: "Tem porary Admission of Installers and Maintainers 
under the GATS: A Case for Mode 4 Commitments".  This was an issue delinked from Mode 3, in 
line with the mandate of the Hong Kong Declaration and previous discussions in the Council.  To 
explain installers and maintainers, he gave an ex ample.  A power plant wa s being constructed in a 
country, which included a number of equipments to  be built by another country.  The contract 
involved was of high value, covering not only th e sale of machines, but also the installation, 
maintenance and emergency repair of the machin es.  These activities would be performed by the 
machine builder or directly under its responsibility.   In Mode 4 terms, when the machines were ready 
to install, a team of people would have to come w ith the machines to install them on site.   Whenever 
maintenance had to be done, a team of maintainer s would have to come into the country to do the 
work.  The same for emergency repair.  The immigration authority normally would allow an 
expedited entry for these people.   The same situa tion would occur in other sectors such as mining, the 
textile industry, chemical plants and other industri es.  The present regime in most jurisdictions was 
liberal and open for this kind of situation.  His de legation's submission was to take advantage of this 
situation as a basis to improve substantially Mo de 4 commitments.  What was involved in such 
situations were B-to-B contracts and B-to-B tran sactions, mostly with big companies as operators.  
The contract and the provision of services in such business were linked to a clearly identifiable piece 
of machinery.  Therefore, the entry of those people involved could easily be controlled by the immigration authority. 
86. With regard to the issue of sectoral classifica tion, business viewed installers and maintainers 
as a category of its own.  They were viewed as services suppliers by their partners.  In most instances, the immigration authority dealt with these people in the same manner whatever  their activities, types 
of projects, work to be performed, or the industr y involved.   However, in W/120, there was no sub-
sector covering installation, maintenance and repair in a consistent manner.  This was not even the 
case as far as industrial machinery and equipment was c oncerned.  In fact, installers and maintainers 
could belong to various CPC classes or sub-classes,  depending on each individual case.  They might 
be classified as computer services, because sophis ticated machinery had a significant computer 
component to be dealt with by installers and main tainers.  In principle, such a group would fall under 
CPC 884 or 885.  More generally, it might fall under CPC 88.  But other CPC entries could also be relevant.  For this reason, his delegation proposed that Members unde rtake a commitment on installers  TN/S/M/24 
 Page 19 
 
 
  and maintainers in the horizontal section rather than in the sectoral section.  By so doing, 
commitments would be applied to any sector that was contained in the sectoral section of the schedule 
and that was relevant to installation and mainte nance.  This would not need sectoral Mode 4 
commitments.   
87. On how to make such a commitment, he referre d to document JOB(03)/195, which was so far 
the only available list of Mode 4 categories.  His de legation was flexible as to which heading could be 
used by individual Members for a possible commitment on installers and maintainers.  What mattered 
was: (1) an appropriate definition of installers and maintainers covering all aspects of this group of 
persons; (2) the conditions for entry were to be flexib le enough so as to guarantee an expedited entry.   
88. Switzerland had made its own offer on installers  and maintainers.  Other Members had also 
inscribed their own definition of installers and mainta iners in their schedules or offers.  This had been 
done either as a category itself or under a broader head ing of another category, but with its own liberal 
conditions of entry applicable specifically to in stallers and maintainers. Some Members had gone 
further by inscribing a broader definition, not lim ited to installers and maintainers of machinery 
industry.   Switzerland welcomed the merits of  Canada's proposal on after-sales and after-lease 
services suppliers.  Commitments made along those lin es met the expectation of the proposal in terms 
of the conditions of entry and the scope.  
89. Switzerland's proposal could be used as a common ground on which Members could work to 
improve their Mode 4 commitments in a commercially meaningful way, and lead to win-win benefits 
for the industry.   
90. The representative of Mexico  thanked Switzerland for its efforts in putting forward the 
proposal.  Her capital was holding consultations on it .  After the consultati ons, her delegation might 
confirm under which category it would consider insta llers and maintainers.  Her delegation had great 
interest in significant commitments under Mode  4 and would follow up with the proposal.  His 
delegation was seeking Mode 4 commitments not just  for skilled workers, but also for semi-skilled 
and unskilled workers. 
91. The representative of Pakistan  stated that her delegation had already made commitments on 
services sales persons in its initial offer, specially  mentioning installers, repairers and maintenance 
personnel and supervisors possessing specialized know ledge, which was broader than the Switzerland 
proposal.  Pakistan was offering a period of stay up to one year for these people while the Switzerland 
proposal was seeking commitment for a period of stay up to 90 days.  Pakistan had already fulfilled 
the proposal.   
92. The representative of India  stated that his delegation's Mode 4 revised offer was very liberal,  
covering installers and maintainers.  His delega tion would further examine the Switzerland proposal.  
93. The representative of the European Communities  stated that the Switzerland proposal was an 
important contribution to the ongoing negotiations on Mode 4.  His delegation would take a systemic 
approach to the proposal, as there was free moveme nt of labour between the European Communities 
and Switzerland.  His delegation shared the view  of facilitating temporary movement of natural 
persons supplying services linked to installation, maintenance and repa ir of equipments, even in the 
situation where there was no commercial presence to supply such services.  While sharing the 
economic interest behind the Switzerland proposal, his delegation did not think that there was a need 
for a new category of Mode 4 suppliers.   Since th ey were service suppliers delinked from commercial 
presence, Members could consider undertaking Mode 4 commitments under contractual service 
suppliers which were known to Memb ers.  He referred to two nego tiation proposals on Mode 4 tabled 
before, one from the European Communities and Cana da, the other from developing countries.  He 
also noted that contractual services suppliers were the core of the collective request on Mode 4.  His TN/S/M/24 
Page 20  
 
  delegation looked forward to further clarifications on technical issues with Switzerland at the bilateral 
level.  
94. The representative of Colombia
 noted that developed countries, like developing countries, 
also had difficulty in expediting entry procedures for services suppliers.  The category proposed by 
Switzerland could be a sub-category of contractual se rvices suppliers.  It would be better to keep the 
traditional categories on which Members were seeking Mode 4 commitments.  
95. The representative of Canada  stated that his delegation had been promoting the area addressed 
by the Switzerland proposal.  He noted that Canada's offer on after-sales and after-lease services suppliers fell under the category of business vis itors, including services such as installation of 
software, which were not restricted to a juridical person in Canada, not subj ect to the labour market 
test and work permit requirements.  This co mmitment reflected the real needs of business 
communities, being complementary to both trade in goods and trade in services.   He encouraged Members to give careful considerations to this aspect  of Mode 4 commitments in their revised offers.  
96. The representative of China
 stated that her delegation shared the views expressed in the 
Switzerland proposal in terms of the need for a cate gory of installers and ma intainers and the way to 
schedule such category.  She noted that the proposal had clearly outlined the situation where installers 
and maintainers were supplying services.  She agr eed with the proposal that  machine builders should 
be in a position to decider how the services were to be delivered given short notice involved in such 
activities.  She also echoed the statement by Canada encouraging Members to give careful consideration to this proposal  
97. The representative of South Africa
 stated that it was difficult for his delegation to accept this 
proposal, both politically and economically.  South A frica was characterized by  a major skill shortage, 
particularly in highly-skilled sectors.  South Africa had adopted a legislation called "Skill 
Development Act", which was crafted precisely to a ddress the situation described in the proposal.  If 
an enterprise in South African bought a piece of m achinery from Switzerland, the maintenance to be 
undertaken by the machine builder, as part of the c ontract, would be problematic.  That enterprise 
would have run into problems of getting work permits from the immigration authority.   Moreover, it 
would have to take measures to ensure that the maintenance skills would be  developed locally and 
that the maintenance work would be done by Sout h Africans.   South Africa's existing Mode 4 
commitments had adequately addressed the needs of  its enterprises in terms of installation and 
maintenance.  South Africa was not able to  expand its exiting Mode 4 commitments.   
98. Echoing the statement made by South Africa, the representative of Trinidad and Tobago  
stated that her delegation had difficulty in accepti ng the proposal as her country was in the same 
situation as South Africa had outlined.  She looked at  the proposal from the point of view of local 
agencies and the domestic market.  In her country, local companies had agency agreements to sell 
equipment and machinery.  In many cases, they had invested considerable time, efforts and capital in 
both building the brand locally and training local staff in maintenance of equipments.  Local 
companies could generate some revenue from ongoing maintenance of equipments.  Recently, quite a 
few local companies had had experience where inte rnational companies extended their operation and 
cut out local companies from maintenance of equipm ents.  Local companies thus lost investment as 
well as their skilled staff.  She called for certain protection of local companies. 
99. The representative of Switzerland  stated that his delegation's proposal was aimed at serving as 
a common ground for scheduling.  Members could adapt it to its local specific ities.  To the extent 
there were local requirements affecting this part of market, he suggested that Members try to inscribe 
in the schedule the corresponding limitations.  By doing so, Members would increase transparency 
and provide some binding commitments on market access.  On the issue of classification, the proposal was aimed at ensuring appropriate entry conditions and clear definition of personnel.  His delegation  TN/S/M/24 
 Page 21 
 
 
  was flexible as to which category be taken.  Wh ile the proposal was using document JOB(03)/195, his 
delegation was open to other ways of scheduling.   He noted that some commitments had been 
undertaken under other headings, either business vi sitors or contractual services suppliers.  He 
stressed that what was important w as to ensure that no additional stri ngent conditions on installers and 
maintainers were entered in the schedule by puttin g this category under other headings, given the 
urgency of their work, the high skill needed and the special contractual relationship involved.  
Moreover, the definition of this category was to be  correct.  Another advantage of the proposed way 
of scheduling for this category was that all the sect ors in the schedule were covered.  Otherwise, 
commitments would be limited to some particular sub-sectors, since there was no single CPC reference which was fully correspondi ng to the activities undertaken by installers and maintainers.  
There were several sub-sectors whic h could be related to installation,  maintenance and repair, most of 
them in CPC 8, or CPC 84, or CPC 88, or CPC 884-885.   
100. The Chair
 suggested that the Council take note of the statements made and revert to this item 
at its next meeting. 
101. It was so agreed .  
C. I MPLEMENTATION OF THE MODALITIES FOR THE SPECIAL TREATMENT FOR LDC S IN THE 
TRADE IN SERVICES NEGOTIATIONS  
102. The Chair  stated that Annex C of the Hong Kong Declaration required Members to pursue 
full and effective implementation of the LDC Modalities with a view to the beneficial and meaningful 
integration of LDCs into the multilateral trade syst em.  He had held informal consultations on this 
topic (as well as on S&D treatment provisions) on 19 March 2007.  Although those consultations 
demonstrated that Members had yet to narrow a wide gap between them, the European Communities 
undertook to submit a revised proposal to fac ilitate negotiations on the LDC Modalities.   
103. The representative of the Zambia  reiterated the statements her delegation made previously 
under this item.  The LDC Group was concerned about  the lack of effective engagement by other 
Members.  While appreciating the efforts made by the European Communities and the United States 
in having bilateral discussions with the Group, the Group wished to see more discussions on 
substantive issues.   She requested that the ite m be kept on the agenda, hoping that Members would 
give due attention that the issue deserved.    
104. The representative of the Bangladesh  echoed the statement made by Zambia.  He  stressed 
that GATS Article IV:3 stated that special priority was to be given to the LDCs to provide effective 
market access to LDCs services suppliers in view  of their special economic situation and their 
development, trade and financial needs.  Th e LDC Modalities in 2003 had expanded the idea of 
special priority and had referred to an appropriate mechanism to implement special priority.  In Hong 
Kong in 2005, Ministers had gone one step further by setting out a deadline for crafting a mechanism 
through which special priority could be effected .  Unfortunately, the suspension of the negotiation 
process had shut the door on this possibility.  On the basis of the mandate, the LDC Group had 
submitted an Understanding in Marc h 2006.   Four other Members led by the European Communities 
had submitted a counter proposal to this submission.   The LDC Group had stated many times that the 
EC proposal was addressing paragra ph 9(e) of Annex C of the Hong Kong Declaration, which was a 
review mechanism, not a special priority mechanis m as mentioned in paragr aph 9 (a) of Annex C.  
The LDC Group was interested in a special priority  mechanism, and review was part of it not a 
substitute to it.  The Group had had bilateral ta lks with the European Communities and the United 
States, but the gap remained.  The Group urged Members to honour their commitments they had 
made.  Remaining engaged, the Group looked forward to the Chair's leadership to bridge the gap 
between the LDCs and other partners.     TN/S/M/24 
Page 22  
 
  105. The representative of the European Communities
 stated that his delegation remained 
committed to discussing this issue with the LDC Group in order to find a successful outcome.  His delegation had made a contribution in this regard .  The discussion his delegation had held with the 
LDC Group helped clarify the respective positions.  His delegation hoped that  it would be able to 
report on the progress on this issue soon.  Remaining within the parameters of the GATS and the LDC 
Modalities,  his delegation would intens ify dialogues with the LDC Group.  
106. The Chair
 suggested that he continue to hold cons ultations, and that the Council take note of 
the statements made and revert to this item at its next meeting.   
107. It was so agreed . 
D. C ONSIDERATION OF PROPOSALS ON S&D  TREATMENT PROVISIONS  
108. The Chair  said that, in accordance with the H ong Kong Declaration, the Council was to 
complete expeditiously a consideration of propo sals on S&D treatment provisions, with a view to 
making clear recommendations for a decision to be ad opted by the General Council.  He recalled that 
at the informal consultations on 19 March, Member s had discussed for the first time a refined African 
Group proposal originally submitted in July 2006 .  The refined text proposed a reviewing process 
before the conclusion of the round as a way to cont ribute to the implementation of GATS Article IV.  
He noted that the text was generally welcom ed, although there were some differences between 
Members on some elements. 
109. The representative of Kenya , speaking on behalf of the African Group, noted that Members 
had had a useful exchange of views at the informal m eeting on 19 March.  He also noted that some of 
the principles proposed by the Group were acceptabl e to Members.  The Group would try to increase 
the degree of precision of the proposals as requested by  some Members.  He suggested that the Chair 
hold informal consultations on this issue before the next cluster.       
110. The Chair  confirmed that he would con tinue to hold consultations on this issue.  He suggested 
that the Council take note of the statement made a nd revert to this item at its next meeting.   
111. It was so agreed .   
E. ASSESSMENT OF TRADE IN SERVICES  
112. The Chair  recalled that on 30 March 2007 Wo rld Bank representatives had given a 
presentation in the WTO of a study entitled "Services Trade & Development: The Experience of Zambia".  Following the presentation, several de legations had commented very positively on the 
study, highlighting the soundness of the methodology a nd its relevance to this standing agenda item.  
They had requested that the World Bank make a brie f presentation of the study to the Special Session. 
He then invited the representative of  the World Bank to present the study. 
113. The representative of the World Bank
 stated that this study had been conducted based on 
collaboration between the World Bank, the Zambia gove rnment and lots of stakeholders in Zambia.  
The study was presented not only as a set of established facts, but also as a contribution to the debate 
on what role services trade could play in development and how best the reform of services trade could 
be managed.  The study was critical, but every critic ism that was directed at other institutions could 
also be directed at the World Bank.  He invited de legations to take this pr esentation as a constructive 
dialogue.  
114. The study found that services trade was profoundly  relevant for the development agenda of 
LDCs.  What was in danger was that international negotiations and internati onal organizations were  TN/S/M/24 
 Page 23 
 
 
  becoming irrelevant.  It was a real challenge to ad apt them to respond more to the needs of LDCs so 
that LDCs could take advantage of the benefits th at could come from more constructive engagement. 
This presentation would make five poi nts.  Services trade mattered for Zambia's development.  But to 
date Zambia had reaped few benefits from services liberalization.  The central reason was that there had been deep flaws in the reform  process and deep inadequacies in th e external trading environment, 
which the GATS barely address.  Finally, the study s uggested a strategy both for trade reform and for 
international negotiations. 
115. On the first point: why services mattered.  Tw o-thirds of Zambia's output originated in 
services sectors.  Productivity and income in servic es had a crucial and direct bearing on the welfare 
of ordinary Zambians.  Services sectors affected the performance of firms, farms and the ability to 
engage in trade.   Zambian firms ranked inade quate access to services as one of the most debilitating 
barriers.  As many as 82% of the firms in Zambia felt that the costs of finance prevented them from 
taking advantage of business opportunities.  Of 42 co untries that had been studied by the World Bank, 
Zambia had the second highest indirect costs.  And these costs were mostly attributable to access to 
services.  These indirect costs were the reason why prices were high in Zambia and why its ability to 
compete internationally had been undermined. If  Zambian firms had a ccess to services like 
telecommunications and financial services at the same level as South African firms, they would be up 
to 13% more productive.  Farms suffered because of in adequate access to transport and finance.  The 
high cost eroded Zambia's ability to compete interna tionally.   Zambia was at the bottom in term of 
the share of export in GDP.   The biggest single reaso n was the high cost of transport, communication, 
finance and a range of business services.  
116. Services trade mattered, because services trade in a country like Zambia encompassed cross 
border trade in road and air transport in a landlocked country.  It also included tourism which represented a large part of GDP and had been by far the most dynamic sector in Zambia's economy.  It meant foreign investment in banking, communica tion and distribution, and the international 
movement of doctors and nurses in a country where one  of four adults were HIV positive.  Many of 
these services were intensive in skills and capital, but Zambia was not well endowed with capital and 
skills.  Its market was shrunken si nce Zambia was a small country and segmented from its neighbours 
by barriers.  This dissuaded investment, because inve stors had less capacities to extract the fixed costs 
of telecommunication or the risk from insurance over a larger market.  While, in principle, there were 
many gains to reap from trade, what happened in practice was disappointing.  The results from past 
openness had been at best mixed.  In mobile te lephony which had been opened to competition, the 
number of lines, as in most African countries, had in creased dramatically – in the case of Zambia by 
300,000.  In tourism, which had been opened to fore ign investment (e.g. Sun International), foreign 
investment had increased, which had been creating j obs and leading to the development of certain 
regions.  In insurance, premiums had declined.  
117. Across a range of sectors, Zambia was as open as it could be.  Zambia's foreign banks today 
accounted for two-thirds of total assets, loans and de posits.   But credit to the private sector was only 
8%, lower than it was in 1990 and lower than that in most Sub-Saharan African countries.  Zambia 
had the courage to let its national airline be liquida ted.  International air transport had increased by 
7%, but domestic transport had declined by 5%.  Zambia had very poor access to telecommunications, 
health, education, and a range of other services.  Access was also extremely unequal – for example, 5,000 people in Zambia held 90% of loans.  Money was borrowed at an interest rate up to 20%, much 
higher than what small and medium-sized firms could borrow.  Nearly 80% of the fixed lines in 
telecommunications were located in Lusaka and th e Copperbelt, where only 30% of the population 
lived.  Although tourism had grown in Zambia, neighbouring countries had seen a much faster growth.  Moreover, tourism was extremely unequal  in Zambia, where 90% of tourist activities and 
85% of employment were concentrated around Vict oria Falls and Livingstone.  This picture of 
extremely unequal access was depressing.  People a nd institutions like the World Bank and the IMF 
were forced to ask why.   TN/S/M/24 
Page 24  
 
  118. There were deep flaws which were relevant  to the GATS, because a lot of issues which 
mattered to Zambia were barely addressed by the GA TS.   Zambia had placed either too little or to 
much faith in the market.   In some cases, even without fixing regulatory institutions, one might get gains just by liberalization, for example in telecomm unications and transport.  But in Zambia, barriers 
remained in these sectors.  The barriers included the prohibitive licence fee which led to a de facto 
monopoly in the international gateway.   This effectively undermined competition in other areas.  This 
measure did not fall under the scope of any GATS discipline.  In Zambia, like in most of the Sub-Saharan African countries, transport costs were about ten times higher than tariffs, but Zambia 
continued to deny the Fifth Freedom rights of air tran sport to other countries, even if it did not have a 
national airline to protect.  This hurt tourism and hor ticulture.  Even if Zambia unilaterally liberalized 
air transport, it might need its partners to do the same.   Up to 74 licenses were required in tourism 
and could take a year to obtain at a significant cost.  These licenses had shut out investors from entering the Zambian market.  These examples shown th at that a lot of issues crucial to LDCs were 
not being addressed in this round of negotiations.   
119. Apart from having held back the areas where th ere were obvious gains, the opposite happened 
in those areas where regulatory reform was needed to  get benefits from liberalization.  Zambia had 
completely liberalized financial services, for both commercial presence and cross-border supply. 
Zambia was arguably more open in financial servi ces than the United States.  Although eleven new 
licenses had been issued from 1991 to 1994, ten ba nkruptcies had occurred from 1995 to 2001 in the 
banking sector, which had cost Zambia 7% of GDP.  This also had long-term consequences.   Today, 
it was stability rather than access that  became the key issue in Zambia's  financial regulation.  Zambia's 
regulation was also inappropriate.  Legitimate c oncerns about terrorism, dr ugs, and money laundering, 
led to stringent new rules for banks.  "Know Your Customer" rules created burdensome documentation requirements, for example the need to  produce utility bills.  But 90 % of the Zambian 
population did not even have property rights.  Both regulatory weakness and inappropriateness 
contributed to undermining the benefits of libera lization.  The tax system discriminated against 
services.  Goods exporters were exempted from value a dded tax and subject to a corporate tax of 15%.   
But the rate for services exporters was 35%.  Some foreign investors such as Sun International were 
subject to a lower negotiated corpor ate tax rates of 15 %.  Tourism in Livingstone was exempted from 
value added tax, while the rest of the country had to pay huge taxes. 
120. It was a mistake to place infinite faith in ma rket, liberalization and the private sector to 
improve access to services, just because the experien ce with public monopolies was disappointing.  In 
a country like Zambia, liberalization and competition were necessary conditions but not sufficient.  
Complementary policies were needed, because li beralization was associated with accentuated 
inequalities.  There was a serious danger of rever ting to state capitalism.  What was needed in 
liberalization were complementary policies to ensu re that the poor could share the benefits of 
openness.  In this regard, the World Bank had done  remarkable work in the telecommunication sector 
by developing instruments such as universal access funds which were competitively allocated to all 
providers based on their ability to meet access goals.  This example shown that it was possible to conduct liberalization with the poor benefiting from competition.  The problem was that beyond telecommunications, there was no other good model as to how such complementary policies might be 
designed. 
121. The real danger of not addressing the distributio n issue was that liberalization might not be 
sustainable.  Zambia had put off indefinitely its pl an to privatise an inefficient telecom company, an 
inefficient electricity company and a loss-making national insurer.  And at the same time, there was a plan to revive a national airline and a national re insurance company.  If people believed that market 
and the private sector could deliver improved level of access, it was incumbent on them to 
demonstrate that there existed policies which could en sure that the benefits of liberalization would not 
be concentrated in the urban rich and large firms.  
  TN/S/M/24 
 Page 25 
 
 
  122. What did all these mean for international enga gement?  The LDCs’ objectives in the services 
negotiations included retaining flexibility in ma king commitments, securing commitments in sectors 
and modes of export interest, and obtaining assistan ce to develop trade capacity.  Nothing had been 
achieved with regard to the movement of unskilled people and assistance.  The flexibility had to be 
wisely exercised, because there was a danger of thro wing the baby out with the bath water.  The 
liberalization agenda was still relevant and commi tments could still lend credibility to reform, but 
there was a need for complementary action.  Besi des, other elements which were preventing good 
policies from being adopted remained strong, for ex ample, the incumbent in telecommunications, the 
donor political economy, inappropriate international standards, poor policies in transport. These 
political economy problems could be addressed thr ough international engagement.  There was a 
possibility of reciprocal liberalization, mobilizi ng external assistance, and a deeper integration. 
Zambia, like many other countries in Africa and arou nd the world, was engaged in multiple fora, such 
the WTO, the COMESA, the SADC as well as in b ilateral negotiations with the European Union or 
the United States.  The question was how Zamb ia would take advantage of these fora.   
123. Three natural bundles were emerging.   The key be nefit for Zambia to engage in the WTO or 
EPA negotiations was an aid for trade services agenda.  This needed not to be a one-sided agreement. 
In such arrangement, Zambia would choose to unde rtake reforms to eliminate various barriers to 
competition, and to enhance the independence of regulatory authorities and develop mechanisms to 
widen access to services.  At the same time, other countries would commit to eliminate policies adversely affecting Zambia, such as restrictions on competition in international aviation, exemptions 
from competition law for export carte ls.  There was also a need for technical a ssistance to strengthen 
the capacity of regulatory institutions.  How assistan ce could be effectively used was a challenge.  
Ministries of commerce within the WTO membersh ip could play a central role and mutually 
supporting role in this regard.  Th ey could mobilize aid for regulator y reform.  Universal access could 
give them standing domestically and make them mo re powerful in advocating for reform.  This would 
then help them articulate the demand for aid abroad more effectively.  This mutually supporting role 
required coordination across ministries, which was something just beginning to happen in countries, 
including Zambia. 
 
124. On migration, while nothing had happened in th e WTO with regard to the movement of the 
unskilled, something could be l earned from other agreements whic h helped produce some benefits, 
such as the agreement between the Caribbean and Ca nada, Ecuador and Spain, Pakistan, Philippines,  
Sri Lanka and Korea.  There were gains from c ooperation.   Zambia was facing challenges of 
obtaining greater freedom for the movement of th e unskilled and ensuring the temporariness of the 
movement of natural persons.  This could not  be accomplished under the GATS, which sought to 
induce only host countries to make commitments to a llow entry on an MFN basis.  Instead, this might 
be accomplished more effectively at bilateral le vel with Zambia to undertake to screen and to 
facilitate return.  The host country would commit to  repatriate skilled worker s after a certain duration 
of time.  This mechanism of reciprocal obligations  was to deal with social and political problems in 
host countries and brain drain in source countries.  Today, the US Department of Homeland Security 
was deeply opposed to commitments on Mode 4.  But it might be reassured by the cooperation of 
source countries in screening, verifying certificates,  and checking backgrounds.  This might be built 
into the GATS structure in the form of mutual recognition agreements.   
125. Many regional agreements had wasted a lot of time in copying the GATS and NAFTA and 
creating an illusion of progress.  In a range of regional agreements, there was only notional 
liberalization beyond the level of GATS commitmen ts or actual market access.  Intellectual and 
political capital had been diverted away from c ooperation on regulation and infrastructure.  For 
Zambia, the East African Submarine Cable System , cooperation on regional transport, or regional 
cooperation on regulation would be very beneficial.   There was also great scope for cooperation on 
competition policy.  TN/S/M/24 
Page 26  
 
  126. To sum up, services trade was profoundly relevant to the development of LDCs.  But 
international negotiations and inte rnational organizations were in danger of becoming irrelevant.  If 
this was really a "development round", Members ha d to address credibly and effectively assistance, 
transport and temporary migration.  
 
127. Referring to some descriptions in the presentation (e.g. 5,000 people held  90% of loans, high 
licensing fee in the transport sector, a fully liberali zed financial sector), the representative of Pakistan   
asked what the total population of Zambia was, how  its infrastructure could be described, and what 
role international financial institutions played in advising Zambia.  Commenting on the exclamation 
"who is going to be protecting Zambians",  she sugg ested that a number of elements had to be taken 
into consideration including policy-making with r espect to consumers, producers, the protection 
forum, people of other areas, aspirations of the government, and macro-economic indicators. 
128. The representative of China  noted that at least one lesson learned from the presentation was 
that services was very important in economic develo pment and that Members had to carefully handle 
the issue of liberalization and regulation in order to  reap expected benefits from liberalization.  In 
particular, Members had to take measures to ensu re that a broad population of the society could 
benefit from liberalization.  She wished to ask one question and make one comment.  In asking the 
question, she referred to one slide which stated: “ Zambia should engage with donors to induce them 
to commit to address competition restricting policies that adversely affect Zambia, e.g. restrictions on competition in international aviation, exemptions  from their competition law for export cartels and 
highly restrictive immigration regimes.”  She ask ed whether there was much chance that Zambia 
could get such a commitment.  She wished then to make a comment on another slide which stated: 
"Zambia should negotiate bilateral temporary migr ation agreements with countries like the UK with 
reciprocal obligations: Zambia screens, and agr ees to facilitate return; and the host undertakes to 
repatriate skilled workers at the end of an agreed period".  She noted that in Mode 4 negotiations, the 
issue of "temporary versus permanent migration"  prevented Members from offering commitments on 
Mode 4.  The agreement suggested in the presenta tion might be considered in the WTO context to 
assist Members in reaching agreements on Mode 4 liberalization. 
129. The representative of New Zealand
 noted that this was an excellent study.  On the 
methodology of the study, she wished to know whethe r it could also be applied to other countries and 
whether there was something other agencies coul d adapt for their own assessment exercises.  
130. The representative of Nigeria  wished to make observations on the issue of regulatory 
weakness and inappropriateness of policies.  He noted that the presentation pointed out that the 
requirement of "knowing your customer" in banking services was inappropriate given the situation in 
Zambia.  However, the domestic regulator was facing a policy dilemma where two international 
instruments to which a country was signatory had conflicting requirements.  This requirement might 
be one of the core principles of banking superv ision stipulated by the Basel Committee on Banking 
Supervision, while this requirement might be too burdensome for liberalization in the WTO.  He 
asked what the solution was where domestic regul ators were facing two c onflicting requirements of 
international bodies.  
131. The representative of Egypt  thought that this study was one of the most impressive studies 
that his delegation had ever seen.  Referring to th e question raised by New Zealand on methodology, 
he wished to know whether the representative of th e World Bank had thought of preparing a paper on 
the methodology undertaken in this study explaining what kind of information was needed, from 
where it could be obtained, what the most releva nt consequences would be, how the framework would 
be developed, and how it would fit in  regulations and policies.   He as ked if there was a template that 
could be applied by other countries to  undertake their own assessment studies.  TN/S/M/24 
 Page 27 
 
 
  132. The representative of the United States  noted that development of the services sector, 
especially in developing countries had long suffered from lack of comprehensive analysis, given the 
important role of services in developing country economies and the linkage between various services 
sectors and development.  This study was an importa nt contribution not only for Zambia but also for 
the studies of development in general.  The United States wished to thank Zambia for requesting the 
study and making their agencies and institutions av ailable for the researchers and being willing to 
serve as the case study for all countries.  
133. The representative of Bangladesh  noted that Zambia had fully liberalized its financial sector 
but had not been able to reap benefits.  This le d to the proposition that liberalization was necessary but 
not sufficient.  He thought that Zambia might follow the example of the micro-banking system 
launched by the Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh.  Under this system six million 
villagers had taken loans, of whom 97% were wo men.  Poverty was being alleviated and women 
being empowered.  This was a good example and could be easily replicated in Zambia, because it did not take too much money to alleviate poverty and could give micro-enterprise loans to the poor of 
Zambia. 
134. The representative of Switzerland
 noted cross-border trade in financial services in Zambia 
was quite liberal and that its regime was very op en.  Obviously, Zambia was ahead of many countries 
in this regard.  He asked whether there was an y impact of an open regime on the capital account, 
based on the study.  He noted that there were so me concerns about possible impact of trade in 
financial services on the capital account, or on the ab ility to manage the capital account, though trade 
was in the current account.  He also asked whethe r one might assume that there were no quantitative 
market access restrictions and no discriminati on based on nationality in Za mbia's financial sector. 
135. The representative of Trinidad and Tobago  echoed the statements made by New Zealand and 
Egypt with regard to developing the methodology into  a wider prospective, which could be used by 
small economies.  She sought from the representative of the World Bank more details on what aspects 
to be taken into consideration in coming up with st rategies or policies, keeping in mind the regulatory 
framework. 
136. The representative of the World Bank  echoed the feelings of many delegates and expressed 
his gratitude to Zambia.  It was rare for a country to  be able to have its policies subject to scrutiny in 
the way that the Zambian government had done in a spirit of openness and cooperation.  In 
responding to Pakistan's comments, he said that a large part of the cr iticism was directed at 
international financial institutions, basically the Wo rld Bank and the IMF, because a lot of advice had 
come from these institutions. The study had tried hard to be open and critical about this.  For example, 
there was a box in the book about privatisation, which said that the macro economic problem in Zambia was the main driver of privatisation.  The World Bank itself acknowledged that a lot of  
privatisation was premature without adequate re gulatory preparedness and without educating people 
about the consequences of it.  One of the big pr oblems for tourism in Zamb ia was the weakness of 
complementary services:  transport, communication, and finance.  But this fact was different from 
trade barriers, such as those in air transport.  It was even more difficult to question as far as 
infrastructure was concerned.  It was not easy to ask questions like whether Zambia needed to build 
routes to tourists parks or routes to connect its remote farmers.  The question on how much those 
problems originated from the inadequacy of infr astructure or regulatory barriers was a good one. But 
even with regard to the in adequacy of infrastructure, one also had to ask about the investment climate.  
In many countries like in Zambia, problems in services sectors were not isolated, which often 
reflected broader problems of the whole economy, such as the governance problem, the macro economic problem.  For example, in financial servi ces, one of the main reasons for the problems of 
unequal access and high interest rates was the huge fiscal deficit.  Since the government borrowed 
hugely, the interest rates became so high that it was very hard for the private sector to borrow. TN/S/M/24 
Page 28  
 
  137.  On the questions raised by the Chinese delegation, he said that Zambia alone would not be 
able to make any difference.  This was why it was important to raise these issues in an institution like 
the WTO.  This round excluded some of the key ar eas extremely relevant to the poorest countries.  
These countries could not sell their products abroad due  to high transport costs rather than trade 
barriers.  Unfortunately, Members were not going to negotiate transport.  There would be gains from 
migration for these countries, but there was no progress in this regard.  There was a danger that the 
WTO as well as the GATS was becoming irrelevant, because commercially business was losing interest, and because from a development prospec tive, nobody believed that it was capable of 
delivering outcomes that would make a difference to developing countries.   
138. Responding to the question on methodology raised by New Zealand, Egypt, Trinidad and 
Tobago, he believed that what the study found in Za mbia was relevant, not just for LDCs, but also for 
other developing countries.  The conclusion of th e study did have general relevance. He himself 
would try to do some work on methodology.  But he stressed that while methodology might be generalized, there was a danger that studies become the goal and lose meaning.  Studies were often done without curiosity, passion and a real desire to  discover.  In undertaking a study, one had to 
demonstrate that it would lead to specific work on the ground and that there would be certain 
downstream benefits to the country.  Only if the study had downstream credibility would it be worth 
doing.   
139. On the point made by Nigeria about regulator y inappropriateness, he admitted that it was a 
huge dilemma for all developing countries. For ex ample, an Indian state bank would have to 
implement "know your customer" requirements if it wanted to open a branch abroad, otherwise it 
would be denied of access.  In a country like India,  there were actually two economies, one having its 
global champions, and the another without doctors, teachers and banks.  Adopting high international 
standards might make an India international champion, but would worsen the domestic access 
problem, because the high financial standards woul d shut out rural consumers and the high medical 
standards would make medical services too expensiv e, like in Zambia.   High standards meant high 
cost of training.   The accountancy training to the British ACC requirements cost $7,000, while in 
Kenya, the cost for the local accountancy training was $1,500.  Harmonization of standards was a real 
problem, especially for a country which was tempted to participate in international trade.   Since standards had to be the same domestically and abroad, domestic consumers might be effectively excluded from a lot of services.  
140. He agreed with Bangladesh that Zambia coul d learn from Bangladesh, for example in terms 
of bundling telecom and finance.  The Zambia n central bank was under pressure to create the 
regulation for micro-finance.  But it was difficult to create such regulation in a sector which was 
healthy and flourishing.  There was a regulatory issu e.  Even if such a regulation was created in 
Zambia,  the micro-finance system would serve only 50,000 people, less than 0.5% of the population.  
Nevertheless, the exchange between Bangla desh and Zambia would be valuable.  
141. On the questions raised by Switzerland, he said that Zambia had not seen serious fluctuation 
of its capital account and maintained no quotas in financ ial services.    In a country like India where 
the interest rates were very high due to govern ment borrowing, the private sector could not borrow 
from abroad because the capital ac count was closed.  In Zambia where the capital account was 
completely open and two-thirds of the assets in th e banking sector were owned by foreign banks, the 
big business and the rich borrowed abroad at dollar inte rest rates which were one fifth of the interest 
rates the poor Zambians paid.   Since the financia l sector, an influential sector, had access to the 
foreign capital market, the pressure for domestic reform had been diluted.  
142. The representative of the European Communities
 stated that his delegation welcomed the 
study and the presentation.  His delegation attached  great importance to the objective of increasing the 
participation of LDCs in interna tional negotiations.  This study could play a strong role in meeting  TN/S/M/24 
 Page 29 
 
 
  this objective.  Such study was also relevant to other developing countries as well as LDCs.   He noted 
that the study not only focused on the management of Zambia's domestic reform, but also addressed 
the cost of deeper regional integration.   He noted  that the study had referred to the EPAs between his 
delegation and Zambia, between hi s delegation and the East and Southern Africa, covering several 
issues, including the issue of migration.  His delega tion was trying to look at different ways to address 
these issues beyond the trade agreements.  Hoping that  this study would be put in a more dynamic 
context, his delegation wished to hear more from Za mbia and the authors of the study with regard to 
the impact of the study on Zambia's participati on in international nego tiations and on its own 
development process in services.   
143. The representative of the Secretariat  thanked the representative of the World Bank for his 
presentation.  The Secretariat would be following up with him in terms of the paper on methodology 
so that other institutions and government could benefit from it for further researches.  
144. The Chair  suggested that the Council take note of the statements made and revert to this item 
at its next meeting. 
145. It was so agreed.  
F. WORK OF THE SUBSIDIARY BODIES – REPORTS BY THE CHAIRPERSONS  
146. The Chair of the Working Party on Domestic Regulation reported that since the last meeting 
of the Special Session, the Working Party had held a formal meeting on 20 April 2007.  He had also 
conducted broad consultati ons with Members on a possible draft text of regulatory disciplines 
pursuant to Article VI:4 of the GATS.  During these consultations, draft texts on the various elements 
of Article VI:4 had been circulated.  As result of these consultations, he had been asked to prepare a 
first work-in-progress holistic draft of possible Article VI:4 disciplines, which had been presented to 
the meeting of the Working Party on 20 April.  In pr esenting the draft, he had emphasised that while it 
attempted to bridge differences among Members' ne gotiating positions, it did not represent a point of 
arrival in the negotiations.  Further work on each in dividual element of the draft was still to be done.  
This draft was to provide Members with a common basis for the negotiations in the coming weeks and 
months.  The draft had been well received.  Memb ers had engaged in a preliminary but constructive 
discussion.  It was a widely shared view that th is draft might constitute a basis for further text 
negotiations on the disciplines.  Some Members thought  that the draft did not match their levels of 
ambition, but they said that they would negotiate on the basis of it.  Considering that the draft had been circulated only a few days before the meetin g, the comments made were still of general nature 
and preliminary.  The Working Party would meet again in informal mode on 10 May 2007 to address 
the specific elements in the draft.  While much wo rk on the text of the disciplines still lay ahead, the 
meeting of 20 April was as a very positive step forw ard in the negotiations.  He was optimistic that 
the Working Party was on the right track to conc lude these negotiations as part of the overall Round
.   
147. The Chair of the Working Party on GATS Rules  reported that the Working Party had held a 
formal meeting on 19 April, which had followed up on a number of consulta tions as well as two open-
ended informal meetings on 25 January and 8 March .  On government procurement, the Working 
Party had discussed issues relating to the lat est proposal from the European Communities, which 
suggested the development of a set of disciplines in  this area through an Annex to the GATS.  At the 
meeting, proponents had enumerated the benefits th ey had seen in elaborating such rules, but the 
discussion had been limited.  On subsidies, discussi ons had focused on two recent contributions:  an 
informal communication from Hong Kong China a nd Mexico on non-actionable subsidies and a 
background Note from the Secretariat on informa tion on services subsidies contained in WTO Trade 
Policy Reviews.  Delegations ha d been encouraged to pursue in formal exchanges on definitional 
issues in the light of the contribution from Hong Kong, China and Mexico, and to further reflect on 
possible ways to use the Secretariat compilation as  a stepping stone for efforts on the information TN/S/M/24 
Page 30  
 
  exchange.  The Chair had also reported to the Work ing Party on the consultations with regard to the 
obstacles to the information exchange mandated in Article XV.  On emergency safeguard measures, 
discussions had centred on a room document fr om Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, 
Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.  The document, which had also been 
discussed at the informal meeting of 8 March, sugg ested legal text for rules on emergency safeguard 
measures.  While some delegations  had welcomed the efforts of pr oponents, a number of others had 
reiterated their serious concerns over this more  recent proposal.  While noting that relevant 
delegations would continue to  consult informally on this topic, he ad mitted that at this point in time he 
did not see significant divergences on issues of impor tance narrowed.  Such key issues included, 
among others: the link to market access and the question of the application of any ESM to 
commitments already in force, or such  feasibility issues as modal application. 
G. OUTLINE OF THE CHAIRMAN 'S REPORT TO THE TRADE NEGOTIATIONS COMMITTEE  
148. The Chair  stated that he would report to the TNC based on what had been discussed at this 
meeting. 
149. It was so agreed . 
H. OTHER BUSINESS  
150. The Chair  suggested that the Council take note of all the statements made before he adjourned 
the meeting. 
151. It was so agreed . 
 
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