RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  S/CSC/M/44 
4 September 2007 
 (07-3730) 
Committee on Specific Commitments  
  
 
REPORT OF THE MEETING HELD ON 7 JUNE 2007 
 
Note by the Secretariat
1 
  
1. The Committee on Specific Commitments (CSC) held  a meeting on 7 June 2007.  The agenda 
for the meeting is contained in WTO/AIR/3025.  As  no issues were raised under Other Business, the 
agenda was adopted
 as proposed in the airgram. 
A. R ELATIONSHIP BETWEEN OLD AND NEW COMMITMENTS  
2. The Chairman  recalled that the question of the most  desirable relationship between old and 
new commitments had been discussed at numerous o ccasions.  The deliberations had been sparked by 
a room document from the delegation of Canada, fi rst presented at the April 2006 meeting of the 
Committee.  In order to structure the discussion at th is meeting, he had highlighted some of the points 
that delegations had addressed in his annotated ag enda, JOB (07)/75.  Generally, it appeared that 
Members agreed that there should be no rollback s at the end of the negotiations, and that any 
rollbacks contained in current offers should be remove d.  As there was nevertheless a possibility that 
some rollbacks might still be found in draft final o ffers at the end of the negotiations, there were two 
basic options for treating such entries in draf t schedules: one option was to decide that new 
commitments should override old commitments, with th e practical effect of sanctioning any persisting 
rollbacks in new commitments.  This option provid ed for legal certainty and user-friendliness of the 
schedules, since all legally valid commitments woul d be contained in the final DDA schedules.  The 
second option was to allow for recourse to old commitm ents in case of rollback s.  The Chairman was 
of the view that Members should first decide on the course of action they wanted to take, and reflect 
afterwards on the appropriate language to be adopted.   
3. The representative of Hong Kong, China  stated that in order to ensure legal certainty, the 
Protocol incorporating the existing schedules shoul d explicitly stipulate that pre-existing schedules 
were sources of interpretation for the new schedules.  
4. In response to a question by Ho ng Kong, China, the Chairman  explained that the expectation 
of a very low number of questionable commitments at the end of the negotiations, as expressed in paragraph 4 of his annotated agenda, was based on delegations' universal recognition in this 
Committee that such entries had to be avoided.   
5. The representative of New Zealand
 reiterated that it was desirable that at the end of the 
negotiations, all commitments be c ontained in one consolidated schedule, but that commitments in 
that schedule should not provide for less favourable treatment than commitments made earlier.  Therefore, language along the lines of the second elem ent of Canada's proposal would be appropriate.  
                                                     
 
1 This document has been prepared under the Secret ariat's own responsibility and without prejudice to 
the positions of Members and to their rights and obligations under the WTO. S/CSC/M/44 
Page 2  
 
  6. The representative of Japan
 expressed the view that the relationship of old and new 
commitments was of crucial importance, and stated  that all efforts should be made to eradicate 
rollbacks as much as possible.  
7. The Chairman  asked delegations to take note of the statements made and suggested that the 
Committee revert to the discussion at the next meeting. 
8. It was so agreed . 
B. CLASSIFICATION ISSUES  
9. The Chairman  recalled that the representative of the European Communities had introduced a 
submission on an "Understanding on the scope of coverage of CPC 84 - Computer and Related 
Services" by a group of Members (S/CSC/W/51) at  the informal meeting in January 2007.   
10. The representative of the European Communities  requested that the statement made at the 
informal meeting on 26 January 2006 be reflected in  the report of this meeting.  She also welcomed 
New Zealand and Singapore to the list of sponsors of the communication.2  At the informal meeting 
on 26 January 2006, the representative of the European Communities  introduced an "Understanding 
on the scope of coverage of CPC 84 - Comput er and Related Services", document S/CSC/W/51.3  
Computer and related services ("CRS") were key to  Members' overall economic development as they 
provided the underlying platform for numerous other important services.  It was also one of the sectors in which WTO Members had made particularly many commitments.  Under the CPC Provisional, computer services were part of Section 8, Business Services, and encompassed the following activities at three digit-level: 841 - cons ultancy services, 842 - software implementation 
services, 843 - data processing services, 844 - data base services, 845 - maintenance and repair 
services, and 849 - other computer services.  Over the last ten years following unprecedented 
developments in information technologies, a nu mber of so-called evolved computer services had 
started to emerge, e.g. data mining or web-site  hosting.  In order to increase the clarity of 
commitments already made under CPC 84, the functional scope of CPC 84 required clarification, underlining that evolved computer services were combinations of services classified under different 
subheadings of CPC Chapter 84.  In this respect , in October 2002, the European Communities had 
submitted a proposal on an Understa nding on the scope of CPC 84, which had been well received by 
Members and industry.  Since, the Understanding ha d been subject to extensive discussion, resulting 
now in a broad agreement on a refined text by interested WTO Members.  
11. On the content of the Understanding, he stressed that it did not modify the scope of CPC 84 or 
existing commitments.  It merely stated in clearer terms what was covered, notably by listing some 60 
different functions, the provision or combination of which constituted CRS within the scope of 
CPC 84.  The Understanding also clarified the bor der between CRS and telecommunications or other 
services, by clearly distinguishing between the enabling CRS which were used as underlying 
infrastructure and the enabled services.  Accordingl y, enabled services were covered by commitments 
in the relevant services sectors.  The clarifications aimed to give more confidence to WTO Members 
to make commitments in the sector, and provide indu stry with more clarity on the scope of existing 
commitments.  Of course, WTO Members remained  free to attach the Understanding to their 
schedules, should they decide that this would increase their level of comfort and the clarity of their commitments.  He noted that the Understanding w as not part of the collective request on CRS, but 
                                                     
 
2 On 6 March 2007, the delegation of New Zealand was added to the list of sponsors, see document 
S/CSC/W/51/Add.1; on 30 April, the delegation of Singapore was added, see document S/CSC/W/51/Add.2. 
3 Communication of 24 January 2007 from Albania, Australia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, the 
European Communities, Hong Kong China, Japan, Mexi co, Norway, Peru, the Separate Customs Territory of 
Taiwan, Penghu, Kinmen and Matsu,  Turkey and the United States.  S/CSC/M/44 
 Page 3 
 
 
  only a technical clarification on the scope of the sector.  Co-sponsors and recipients of the collective 
requests were both supportive of the Understanding.   
12. The representative of Israel  asked for her delegation to be added to the list of sponsors of the 
communication  S/CSC/W/51.4   
13. The Chairman  stated that he had not planned to take up the issue of classification of 
distribution services at this meeting.  At the last me eting, one delegation with a strong interest in this 
subject had indicated that it was examining the CPC to see if and how any additional CPC codes 
might best be allocated to various distribution sub-sectors.  In this regard, CPC 7542, concerning 
retail or wholesale sales of telecommunications terminal equipment was mentioned as an example.  It might therefore be worthwhile letting this delega tion conclude its work and come up with a new 
proposal.  He suggested that Members take note of the statements made and that the Committee revert 
to the agenda item of Classification Issues at the next meeting. 
14. It was so agreed
. 
C. SCHEDULING ISSUES  
15. No delegation spoke under the agenda item "Scheduling Issues".  
D. OTHER BUSINESS  
16. No issues were taken up under "Other Business". 
E. APPOINTMENT OF CHAIRPERSON  
17. The Chairman  indicated that, after consultations, th e outgoing Chairperson of the Council for 
Trade in Services had put forward to delegations, on 14 March, a list of names.  Accordingly, he 
proposed that the Committee elect Mr Martin Posp íšil, from the Czech Republic, as its new Chairman. 
Mr Pospíšil was elected by acclamation.     
__________ 
                                                      
4  Israel was added to the list of sponsors on 12 June 2007, see S/CSC/W/51/Add.3.