RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  S/FIN/M/56 
16 June 2008 
 (08-2806) 
Committee on Trade in Financial Services  
  
 
 
REPORT OF THE MEETING HELD ON 3 JUNE 2008 
 
Note by the Secretariat
1 
 
 
1. The Committee on Trade in Financial Services held a meeting on 3 June 2008, under the 
chairmanship of Mr. Paul Myler (Australia).  Th e agenda is contained in Airgram WTO/AIR/3196.   
A. A CCEPTANCE OF THE FIFTH PROTOCOL TO THE GENERAL AGREEMENT ON TRADE IN SERVICES 
EMBODYING THE RESULTS OF THE FINANCIAL SERVICES NEGOTIATIONS  
2. The Chairman  recalled that three WTO Members had yet to accept the Fifth Protocol:  Brazil, 
Jamaica, and the Philippines.  He invited these thre e Members to provide information on the status of 
their domestic processes.  
3. The representative of Brazil  said that the Fifth Protocol had passed the second reading in the 
upper House of the Brazilian Congress.  He explained that the Protocol had  not yet been adopted 
because of procedural matters.  However, it was no t possible to indicate at this stage when the 
Protocol would be fully accepted. 
4. The representative of the Philippines  said that the Fifth Protocol was still to be considered by 
the Philippines' Senate.  He reassured Members that this matter remained a priority for the Philippines' 
Executive Branch.  
5. The Chairman  thanked these two delegations for thei r updates, and encouraged the three 
Members concerned to accelerate their internal procedures for the acceptance of the Protocol.   
6. The Committee took note  of the statements made and decided  to revert to this agenda item at 
the next meeting. 
B. TECHNICAL ISSUES  
7. The Chairperson  recalled that there had been no discussion under this agenda item at the last 
meeting.  He remained convin ced that the Committee could have a positive role in supporting the 
Doha market access negotiations that were underw ay, primarily through a better exploration of 
technical issues and by providing an appropriate forum for dialogue between the trade community and 
the regulatory community.   
8. He reminded Members that he had proposed in  the past to start a process of informal 
consultations with a view to or ganizing a workshop on relevant tec hnical issues.  The overall idea was 
not to second-guess market access negotiations – bilate ral and plurilateral fora were more appropriate 
in that regard – but, rather, to help bridge the gap between regulators and trade negotiators. On the 
                                                      
1  This document has been prepared  under the Secretariat's own responsibility and without prejudice to 
the positions of Members and to their rights and obligations under the WTO.  S/FIN/M/56 
Page 2  
 
  basis of that approach, he had held a first round of  informal consultations with a representative group 
of Members in February 2008.  The consulta tions had addressed the issue of modes 1 and 2 
commitments from two different perspectives.   Firstly, Members had discussed whether a 
‘sophisticated consumer’ approach was a useful fi rst step in making cross-border commitments in 
financial services.  Members had explored differen ces that might exist between trade in insurance, 
banking and securities services with regard to ‘sophis ticated consumer’ policies and considered how 
such commitments could be scheduled from a t echnical point of view.  Second, Members had 
discussed what constraints might exist to make m odes 1 and 2 commitments in the absence of capital 
account convertibility, and what the possible approach es to this issue could be. Discussions had been 
based on a chair's room document circulated prior to the meeting.  
9. He clarified that no consensus had been reach ed on any of these topics during the discussions.  
Rather, it was a first exchange of views.  That  said, the feedback received was that Members 
appreciated the opportunity to discuss these tec hnical issues in a non-adversarial, collaborative 
manner.  He believed that Members found the Chair's note useful in outlining the main issues. There might be scope for further discussion of this topic.  It was his understanding that the incoming Chair's 
intention was to continue this informal roundtable process, which seemed to have started on the right 
foot, and deserved further attention of all Members.  He indicated that he had been working with the 
incoming Chair on a note on trade-related aspects of Is lamic finance.  Both of them hoped that this 
issue could be usefully addressed from multiple  perspectives, including the challenges faced by 
conventional banks seeking to enter predominantly-Isl amic markets, and also the challenges faced by 
Islamic financial service suppliers  in exporting their services to consumers resident in markets 
dominated by conventional banking.  Other topics th at some Members had informally suggested for 
future discussion are south-south trade in financia l services, the extension of deposit insurance to 
foreign bank branches, and the rationale for settin g minimum amounts of deposits for foreign banks 
engaged in retail business.  In closing, he stressed  that in his view it was incumbent on the Committee 
to become an efficient forum for promoting deba te and, thereby, knowle dge about the different 
aspects of trade in financial services.  
10. No Member took the floor under this agenda item.  
11. The Committee took note
 of the Chair's statement and decided  to revert to this agenda item at 
the next meeting.  
C. RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN FINANCIAL SERVICES TRADE  
12. The Chairman  reminded Members that, at the last meeting, a representative of UNCTAD had  
given an overview of the Expert Meeting on Trad e and Development Impli cations of Financial 
Services held on 20 and 21 September 2007.  
13.  No interventions were made under this agenda item.  
14. The Committee decided  to revert to this agenda item at the next meeting.   
D. DATE OF THE NEXT MEETING  
15. The Committee agreed  to hold its next meeting together w ith other services subsidiary bodies.  
The exact date would be announced in due course.   
E. OTHER BUSINESS  
16. There was no issue raised under this agenda item.   S/FIN/M/56 
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  F. APPOINTMENT OF THE CHAIRPERSON  
17. The Committee elected  Mr. Tom Goodwin, from the United Kingdom, as the new 
Chairperson of the Committee.  
18. The new Chairperson  said that he would continue the process of informal consultations 
started by his predecessor, which had support across the Membership.  
 
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