. /. WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION   
S/WPGR/22 
10 November 2011 
 (11-5809) 
  
 
 
 
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE WORKING PARTY ON GATS RULES  
TO THE COUNCIL FOR TRADE IN SERVICES (2011) 
 
 1. Since the Annual Report of 2010 to the Council for Trade in Services (S/WPGR/20), the 
Working Party on GATS Rules (WPGR) held fi ve formal meetings (on 24 November 2010, 
14 February, 24 March, 22 June and 28 September 2011) and several  open-ended informal meetings.
1 
2. During the period covered by this report, the Wo rking Party continued to engage in focussed 
discussions on all three GATS Rules subjects, in line with Annex C of the 2005 Hong Kong Ministerial Declaration.  Following the call at the General Council meeting of December 2010 for 
renewed engagement across all areas of the Doha  Development Agenda (DDA), the Working Party 
undertook an intensified phase of de liberations during the first quarter of 2011.  The WPGR Chair 
submitted a Progress Report to the Special Session of th e Council for Trade in Services, contained in 
document S/WPGR/21 of 14 April 2011.  Follo wing the April 2011 "Easter package", Members 
confirmed their readiness to pursue their work on a ll three GATS Rules subjects.  Details on the work 
undertaken on each of them are provided below.  
I. NEGOTIATIONS ON EMERGENCY SAFEGUARD MEASURES (ARTICLE X) 
3. On emergency safeguard measures (ESM), at  the March 2011 meeting, Members delved 
further into the question of statistics for possible use in emergency safeguard actions in the services’ 
field.  The discussion was introduced by two pr esentations by Secretariat experts:  one on the 
availability, at the international level, of disaggreg ated statistics on services tr ade flows that could be 
potentially relevant in the safeguards context;  the second on the types of statistics used in safeguards 
investigations in the goods sector under the WTO Sa feguards Agreement.  It was hoped that those two 
presentations could provide a possible gateway for subsequent contributions by Members on their 
national experiences in the compilation and use of services statistics, and on how current statistical 
deficiencies might be overcome.  During the period  reviewed by this report, however, no further 
presentation on ESM-related matters, in cluding statistics, was announced.  
4. In the debate on ESM-relevant statistics, a numbe r of conceptual questions resurfaced, such as 
the definition of "domestic industry", indicators and criteria for the determination of serious injury, 
and the "causal link" between a su rge in the volume of services imports and serious injury of the 
domestic industry.  It was agreed that the Secret ariat would prepare a documentation guide to assist 
delegations in making use of the wealth of in formation contained in Members’ submissions, 
Secretariat Notes and meeting reports issued since the inception of this Working Party in 1995.  The 
documentation guide would be ready by the end of 2011.  
II. NEGOTIATIONS ON GOVERNMENT PROCUREMENT (ARTICLE XIII) 
5. Since the latter part of 2010, the Working Part y has pursued a series of  dedicated discussions 
on the broader economic and deve lopmental importance of government procurement in services, 
                                                      
1 The reports of the formal meetings are contained in documents S/WPGR/M/71 to 75 and should be 
read in conjunction with this report.   S/WPGR/22 
Page 2  
 
  based on a proposal by the European Union (RD/SERV/23).
2  During the period covered by this 
report, the Working Party held three dedicated discussions:  on the economic importance of government procurement in services in develo ped and developing countries (introduced by a 
presentation from an academic expert);  on services aspects of the Plurilateral Agreement on Government Procurement (GPA) and the latter's impact on international procurement markets 
(preceded by a presentation by a Secretariat GPA expert);  and on sharing national experiences 
regarding the reform and opening  of domestic procurement systems, as well as access to foreign 
procurement markets.
3  At the latter session, four delegati ons gave presentations on the opening of 
their domestic/internal procurement markets and access of  their suppliers to foreign markets.  Further 
such presentations were deemed to be useful.   
6. Several initial suggestions for future work  were made at the WPGR meeting of 
28 September 2011:  notably to develop a compar ative typology of market access barriers in 
commercial and procurement services transactions, by  modes of supply;  examine the services that 
were most relevant for international procurement;  an d improve the statistical situation, including data 
on the participation of developing countries in  international procurement markets.   
III. NEGOTIATIONS ON SUBSIDIES (ARTICLE XV) 
7. In the area of subsidies, the Working Part held one dedicated discussion on the information 
provided by Members concerning their subsid y programmes under the Information Exchange 
mandated by Article XV of the GATS.  The objective was to identify systemic issues that could be relevant for the negotiations on necessary multilateral disciplines.
4  While that session contributed to 
Members' understanding of how s ubsidies functioned and their potential trade effects, delegations 
acknowledged that more work needed to be done .  Discussions also continued on Switzerland's 
proposal for disciplines on export subsidies (JOB/S ERV/36) and on the Communication by the United 
States with questions for Members on concrete examples of trade-distortive effects (S/WPGR/W/59).   
8. Regarding the possible way forward, some Me mbers favoured entering into negotiations to 
develop necessary multilateral disciplines to avoid trade-distortive effects of subsidies.  A 
communication from India, Chile and Mexico propo sed developing a roadmap for future discussions 
to that end (JOB/SERV/37 of 24 January 2011).  Other Members argued that, in the absence of concrete evidence of trade-distortive effects, Me mbers should refrain from entering into negotiations 
to devise any disciplines.  Others were of the view that there was still useful conceptual and technical 
work that could be done short of starting negotiations  on new disciplines.  Over all, there appeared to 
be broad agreement on the desirability of obtaining  more and better information on the potential or 
actual trade-distortive effects of subsidies.  One unresolved question was whether any such 
identification of trade-distortive effects should be undertaken before Members embarked upon further 
technical work or negotiations. 
__________  
                                                      
2 The EU's proposal, dated 24 September 2010, proposes a range of topics on the economic importance 
of government procurement in services in developed and developing countries, for discussion over several 
months.   
3 The three WPGR dedicated sessions were held, respectively, during the formal meetings of 
24 November 2010 (S/WPGR/M/71) and 14 February 2011 (S/WPGR/M/72), and at the informal meeting of 
20 September 2011 (report to be issued).    
4 WPGR meeting of 24 November 2010, see S/ WPGR/M/71.  Since the launch of the Work 
Programme, 18 submissions covering 44 WTO Memb ers have been received, circulated in 
JOB/SERV/1/Add.1-12.