. /.  RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  S/WPDR/W/43 
29 October 2010 
 (10-5737) 
Working Party on Domestic Regulation  
  
 
- DRAFT - 
 
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE WORKING PARTY ON DOMESTIC REGULATION  
TO THE COUNCIL FOR TRADE IN SERVICES (2010) 
  
1. Since the Annual Report of 2009
1, the Working Party on Domestic Regulation (WPDR) held 
six formal meetings and several informal meetings.2 
2. In the period covered by this report, the Wo rking Party continued with its work on the 
development of a draft text of regulatory disciplines pursuant to GATS Article VI:4, as mandated by 
the Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration.  Technical di scussions were undertaken on all  chapters of the 
Chairman's revised draft text of possible regulator y disciplines, as contained in the Room Document 
dated 20 March 2009. 
3. At the meeting of 9 October 2009, the focus was on the possible disciplines contained in the 
chapter on "Technical Standards".  In this rega rd, two proposals for additional disciplines were 
received.  The Chairman of the Working Party also  provided an account of the informal consultations 
which had taken place before the meeting, noting that further discussion on "Definitions" appeared 
necessary.   
4. The meeting of 11 November 2009 was devoted to a technical discussion of four chapters of 
the revised draft text namely that of: "Licensing Requirements"; "Licensing Procedures"; "Qualification Requirements"; and "Qualifica tion Procedures". A group of Members proposed 
merging chapters V-VIII of the revised draft text  into two chapters on Licensing Requirements and 
Qualification Requirements, and Licensing Procedures and Qualification Procedures, respectively.  Preliminary reactions at the meeting were generall y in favour of such an approach though certain 
concerns were expressed with rega rd to its potential effect on the overall architecture and substance of 
the disciplines.  
5. During the formal meeting of 2 February 2010,  technical discussions continued in informal 
mode with a focus on the "Development" chapter of th e revised draft text.   A revised version of the 
proposal on streamlining the chapters on Licensing and Qualification Require ments and Procedures 
was submitted.  Preliminary discussi ons were also held on text pro posals on appropriate language for 
paragraph 2 of the draft text. To assist Members to address outstanding issues, the Chairperson announced her intention to produce an Annotated Text which would reflect all proposals and text-
related views expressed over the last year.   The Secr etariat was also requested to provide an overview 
                                                     
 
1  S/WPDR/12, 2 October 2009. 
2 The reports of the meetings are contained in documents S/WPDR/M/42-46, and should be read in 
conjunction with this report.  For the meeting of 11 No vember 2009, all substantive discussions were conducted 
in informal mode, the summary of which can be found in the Chair's informal summary of the meeting dated 
20 November 2009. S/WPDR/W/43 
Page 2  
 
  of cases, in which flexibility provisions that are c ontained in WTO agreements have been addressed in 
dispute settlement procedures. 
3   
6. At the meeting of 27 April 2010, Members commented on the Annotated Text which had 
been circulated by the Chairper son. The Annotated Text reflected for each paragraph of the 
Chairman's March 2009 draft text, subsequent la nguage proposals and text-related comments by 
Members, as well as comments and suggestions by  the Chairperson. The Annotated Text was 
generally considered to provide a balanced and useful  input to the negotiating process.  With regard to 
future work, there was broad agreem ent that the efforts of the Worki ng Party should focus in the near 
term on cross-cutting technical issues.  
7. At the meeting of 1 July 2010, issues aris ing from the "Transparency" chapter of the 
Chairman's draft of March 2009, as well as the gene ral obligations containe d in paragraph 11 were 
discussed.  Based on the work plan presented by th e Chairman during the informal meeting of 16 
June, the Working Party agreed to conduct future discussions on a thematic basis, which would also 
allow for a discussion of cross-cutting issues.  Memb ers expressed openness to a proposal to organise 
a workshop on best regulatory practices at one of  the upcoming clusters and the Chairman was 
requested to consult on the parameters and timing of such an event 
8. At the meeting of 27 September 2010, the Ch airman expressed concern with the wide 
divergence between delegations concerning the ambition of domestic regulation disciplines.   He also 
noted that the decision to work on horizontal disci plines was not made to the exclusion of work on 
particular sectors, or specific regulatory problems, and encouraged Members to keep this possibility in 
mind.  During the meeting, delegations engage d in a detailed exchange on the various draft 
obligations on licensing and qualification requirement s and procedures, together with their relevant 
definitions.  As in the past, the proposal by a gr oup of Members to streamline chapters V-VIII of the 
Chairman's was received constructively, though se veral delegations noted inherent differences 
between licensing and qualification matters, and quest ioned whether all provisions lent themselves to 
harmonization.  Members supported the idea of or ganizing a workshop on regulatory practices.  In 
this regard, the Chairman indicated that he woul d be conducting further consultations on the precise 
objectives and format for the event, with a view to providing a clearer outline of the workshop.  
 
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3 The Secretariat circulated a No te with the requested content as  JOB/SERV/8 on 31 May 2010.  
Discussions of the Note was undertaken in informal mode at a subsequent meeting.