RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  S/C/M/83 
29 June 2006 
 
 (06-3145) 
Council for Trade in Services  
  
 
REPORT OF THE MEETING HELD ON 22 JUNE 2006 
 
Note by the Secretariat
1 
  
1. On 22 June 2006, the Council for Trade in Services held a meeting chaired by 
Ambassador François ROUX (Belgium).  The agenda was contained in document WTO/AIR/2841.   
2. The Chairperson
 indicated that he intended to make a brief statement under "Other Business" 
regarding organizational matters in the c ontext of the second Air Transport Review. 
3. The Council adopted  the agenda, as modified. 
A. NOTIFICATIONS PURSUANT TO ARTICLE V:7 OF THE GATS 
4. The Chairperson  drew the Council's attention to two notifications made pursuant to 
Article V:7 (Economic Integration).  The first one was submitted by Honduras, Nicaragua and the 
United States and was contained in document S/C/N/ 366.  The second notification, from El Salvador, 
was contained in document S/C/N/367. 
5. The representative of Honduras , on behalf of Honduras and Ni caragua, informed Members 
that Honduras and Nicaragua had submitted, jointly with the United States, a notification concerning 
the Dominican Republic - Central America - United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR).  This agreement had come into force on 1
st April 2006 and aimed at promoting trade relations between 
these countries.  It would liberalize trade in ser vices between Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and 
the United States, in conformity with GATS Article V.  Her delegation intended to share more details 
on this agreement in the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements.  
6. The representative of El Salvador  said that her delegation had submitted a notification 
concerning a free trade agreement between Mexico a nd El Salvador, which had come into force in 
March 2001.  The agreement related to trade in servi ces.  Her delegation woul d discuss this agreement 
in more details in the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements. 
7. The representative of the United States  said that the United States looked forward to 
enhancing its trade relationships  through the implementation of the Dominican Republic - Central 
America - United States Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR).  This agreement entailed substantive market access across the entire service sector, subject to a few exceptions.  Her delegation would share further details in the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements. 
8. The Chairperson
 proposed that the Council take note  of these notifications, and that the 
agreements notified be referred to the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements for examination.   
9. The Council so agreed.  
                                                      
1 This document has been prepared under the Secret ariat's own responsibility and without prejudice to 
the positions of Members and to their rights and obligations under the WTO. S/C/M/83 
Page 2  
 
  B. N
EGOTIATIONS PURSUANT TO ARTICLE XXI 
10. Statements made under this agenda item are c ontained in an informal  document and will be 
circulated as an addendum to this report after th e conclusion of the Article XXI negotiations and the 
certification of any changes to the relevant schedule of commitments. 
C. OTHER BUSINESS  
11. The Chairperson  indicated that that he wished to ra ise some organizational matters regarding 
the second Air Transport Review under this agenda item.  He recalled that the second Review had 
formally started on 23 September 2005.  At the formal  CTS meeting of last February, delegations had 
agreed to a proposal made by his predecessor wh ereby:  (i) the Secretariat would produce the 
documentation by the end of June;  (ii) the first substantive meeting would take place in 
September/October;  and (iii) the Secretariat w ould propose an agenda for Members' discussion when 
the documentation was ready.  With respect to the status of documentation requested by Members, he 
understood from the Secretariat that, although a signif icant part would be circulated by the end of 
June, the final documents would be circulated by the end of September.  He invited the Secretariat to 
give further details regarding the state of  preparation of this documentation.   
12. A representative from the Secretariat  recalled that the Secretariat had been requested to 
produce the entire documentation for the Review by th e end of June.  However, the task had turned 
out to be more complex than expected and what would be actually available in coming weeks would 
be a very substantial background note dealing with "soft rights", or "support services", i.e. essentially 
everything that was not "commercial aviation".  Mo reover, the compilation of the documents prepared 
for the first Review, which had been requested by the Council, would also be made available shortly 
as a WTO publication.  Taken together, these 450 pages would certainly provide sufficient material 
for Members to start discussions in their first de dicated meeting.  Moreover, the Secretariat had 
already produced a large part of the documentation on "hard rights".  However, it had not yet been 
able to finalize the analysis of bilateral air servic es agreements.  This analytical work was based on a 
useful database produced by ICAO, which coded the main features of bilateral air services 
agreements.  Unfortunately, the release of the update d version of this database had been delayed and 
had only become available in May, which had affect ed the Secretariat's work.  He wished to draw 
attention to the fact that the Secretariat was also  developing an analytical tool that would allow 
Members to search amongst bilateral air services agreements by given features, such as level of openness, main types, passenger traffic covered, Memb ers involved, etc.  This kind of tool currently 
did not exist anywhere else.  The IT side of this analytical tool, however, had also taken longer than 
foreseen.  All that was currently available was, on th e one hand, data on the characteristics of bilateral 
agreements and, on the other hand, traffic data;  but the overall degree of openness of air services 
agreements had never been systematically assessed nor weighted by the size of the traffic they 
covered.  The analytical tool developed by the S ecretariat would allow Members to score the level of 
liberalization of selected bilateral air agreements.
2  The score would be the sum of the points given to 
the various market access elements of these agreemen ts.  For instance, with regard to tariffs, a dual 
approval clause, which was very restrictive, would score zero point, whereas, at the other extreme, free determination of tariffs woul d score nine points.  The same would go for freedoms, capacity, 
ownership and designation clauses.  The maximum score was fifty.  Maps would be generated by this 
tool, the most interesting of which would be prin ted, complemented by re levant trade and aviation 
data and be commented on;  they would be groupe d in a handbook, which would also contain all the 
documentation for the hard rights part of the Review. 
                                                     
 
2 At the meeting, the representative of the Secretariat made a brief demonstration of the main functions 
of this software.  S/C/M/83 
 Page 3 
 
 
  13. The Chairperson  thanked the Secretariat for this initia l presentation and said that, in the light 
of this information, he wished to propose the follo wing steps.  The first mee ting of the CTS dedicated 
to the Review would take place during the first half  of September, most probably during the week 
immediately following the Jeûne Genevois.  A r oom had been booked tentatively for Tuesday 
12 September.  Second, he was planning to hold in formal consultations during the month of July to 
discuss in particular the agenda for the Septembe r meeting.  Then, when the whole documentation 
was available, he would hold further consultations  on the organization of the Review in general. 
14. The representative of Brazil  said that his delegation was willing to see the material prepared 
by the Secretariat, but had mixed feelings with rega rd to issues related to scoring.  His delegation 
wished to register that Brazil would be in a better position to make the necessary comments on the 
scoring and the related methodology after seeing the full documentation. 
15. The representative of New Zealand  thanked the Chairman and the Secretariat for this update 
and said that her delegation agreed with the proposal made by the Chair for the Review. 
16. The Council took note  of the statements made. 
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