RESTRICTED  WORLD TRADE  
ORGANIZATION  S/C/M/93 
1 May 2009 
 
 (09-2133) 
Council for Trade in Services  
  
 
REPORT OF THE MEETING HELD ON 2 APRIL 2009 
 
Note by the Secretariat
1 
  
1. On 2 April 2009, the Council for Trade in Serv ices held a meeting under the chairmanship of 
Ambassador Alex Van Meeuwen (Belgium).  The agenda was contained in document 
WTO/AIR/3339. 
2. The representative of Australia
 said that, under "Other Busin ess", his delegation intended to 
raise the issue of the certification of the EC-25 schedule. 
3. The agenda was adopted , as modified. 
I. NOTIFICATIONS PURSUANT TO ARTICLES III:3 AND V:7 OF THE GATS 
4. The Chairperson  drew attention to notifications re ceived from Switzerland (S/C/N/474 to 
S/C/N/482),  Albania (S/C/N/485) and Thailand (S/C/N /486 to 489) pursuant to GATS Article III:3.    
5. The representative of the United States  thanked Switzerland, Albania and Thailand for their 
notifications under Article III:3 of the GATS.  Hi s delegation had a question on the communications 
from Thailand.  The United States noted that  the description of th e amendment to the 
Telecommunications Business Act was to encourage fo reign investment in certain types of telecom 
businesses, which was a positive development.  He recalled that during Thailand's last Trade Policy 
Review a number of delegations, including the Unite d States, had asked Thailand when it would file a 
new schedule of commitments to reflect the change s to the telecommunications law, as Thailand had 
committed to do in its schedule of commitments.  The United States noted that Thailand had stated 
during the last Trade Policy Review that the Thai  government was considering options to improve 
their commitments, and that the final decision woul d be made by the incoming administration.  The 
United States wished to know, based on the entry into force of the new law and the subsequent 
implementing legislation, when Tha iland planned to honour its pledge to revise its current schedule of 
commitments to reflect the amendments to its telecommunications regime. 
6. The representative of Thailand  said that the Thai government would review how it would 
improve its schedule of commitments in the broader context of the Doha Round.  He pointed out that 
in everyday business life, this improved liberalizat ion was accessible to foreign investors already, 
whether or not it was reflected in specific commitments. 
7. The Council took note  of the notifications and the statements made. 
8. The Chairperson  drew attention to notifications made pursuant to GATS Article V:7 
(Economic Integration):  (i) China and Hong Kong, China (S/C/N/264/Add.2);  (ii) China and Macao, 
                                                      
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/93 
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 China (S/C/N/265/Add.2);  (iii) Japan and the Philippines (S/C/N/470);  (iv) Costa Rica, the 
Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua and the United States (S/C/N/471);  (v) the United States and Oman (S/C/N/472);  (vi) Peru and the United States (S/C/N/473);  (vii) China and Singapore (S/C/N/ 483); and (viii) Australia and Chile (S/C/N/484). 
9. The Council took note
 of these notifications, and referred  the agreements notified to the 
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements for examination. 
II. COMPLIANCE WITH GATS NOTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS 
10. The Chairperson  recalled that this item had been placed on the agenda following a request 
made by delegations during inform al consultations held in Janua ry and February.  During these 
consultations, several delegations  had deplored the lack of compliance with GATS notification 
requirements and had suggested that the CTS reflect on how to remedy this situ ation.  Two documents 
were on the table.  First, in response to a requ est made by Members at their informal meeting on 
6 February 2009, the Secretariat had prepared a Note which provided a statistical account of the 
notifications made under relevant GATS provisi ons.  Second, Switzerland had circulated a 
communication on "Compliance with notificatio n requirements under the GATS", contained in 
document S/C/W/297. 
11. The representative of Switzerland  welcomed this agenda item and thanked the Secretariat for 
the statistical account provided to the membership following the Febr uary informal meeting.  He 
wished to shortly introduce the paper his delegation had tabled, starting with the reasons why Switzerland thought it could be useful to raise th is issue in the CTS and also why notification 
disciplines mattered.  In the complex world of services regulations, having a mechanism for being 
aware of new legislative acts being enforced by Members was highly relevant and useful.  The GATS 
contained explicit provisions for transparency disciplines which should be implemented as well as 
possible for everybody's benefit.  In the afterm ath of the economic crisis that the world was 
experiencing, everybody realised the importance of proper regulation.  In this context of enhanced 
focus on state regulation, Article III of the GATS w as getting higher relevance and it was even more 
important to ensure proper implementation.  Wh en new legislation was being made available to 
Members, it would help analysing the direction ta ken by Members' policies and discussing them.  The 
paper was not only about the rationale and the benef it of notification but also on other aspects.  As 
Switzerland had been asked a few times by Members how it organised notifications, his delegation 
felt that it could be useful, for interested Me mbers wishing to improve their own notification 
processes internally, to present the experience made by Switzerland, the way it worked and the way 
Switzerland had tried to do it previously.  The doc ument also contained conclusions and proposals, 
including forms used for the purpose of notifications a nd possibility to use the internet in order to help 
Members to notify more intensively. Members might also want to look at the wording of some GATS 
provisions if they considered that the text raised a challenge.  Coming to the Note by the Secretariat, 
the proposal referred to statistical accounts of notif ications which could be repeated in the future, 
especially if there was a progress.  In concludi ng, he hoped that the proposal presented by his 
delegation were interesting and that Members woul d find it useful to discuss them.  However, the 
main objective was to see more Members willing to review their stance regarding notifications and, 
hopefully, resulting in a higher number of notificati ons.  This would be a strong signal that GATS 
provisions were being implemented.  This was even more important at the time Members were struggling to get the DDA negotiations forward.  Switzerland believed that the two things were 
connected somehow.  Showing that his delegation was implementing GATS notifications was also a 
demonstration of commitment to the GATS and to  the WTO.  Switzerland expected a significant 
increase in the number of notifications by Members in the coming months. 
12. A representative of the Secretariat
 said that the informal Note in JOB(09)/10/Rev.1 was self-
explanatory to a very large extent.  The Note was di vided in two parts. The first part gave a complete  S/C/M/93 
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 account of all the notification requirements under th e GATS, and indicated in aggregate terms the 
extent to which they had been implemented.  The second part consisted of tables giving a statistical 
account of notifications pursuant to the three GATS provisions that were most frequently used, 
namely Article III:3 on transparency, Article V: 7 on economic integrati on and Article VII:4 on 
recognition.  Table 2 was an attempt to produce this in the most visually convenient way possible.   
13. The representative of China  said that transparency was the essential element of WTO 
disciplines.  The GATS contained a number of notification requirements, and as Switzerland had 
pointed out, well implemented notification disciplines could bring benefits in several respects.  China 
generally supported Switzerland's in itiative to improve notification work .  China agreed with some of 
the Swiss proposals, such as the user-friendly form  and asking the Secretariat to examine which 
measures should be subject to notification, and to provide information on a yearly basis.  His 
delegation was still considering the other proposals, and hoped to give more concrete reactions in 
future discussions.  As indicated in the Secret ariat's Note, China had seriously honoured the 
notification obligation since its accession to WTO.  Under the Transitional Review Mechanism, China 
had notified around 180 policy items affecting trade in services.  According to the Secretariat's 
Informal Note, the existing notification situation was l ess than satisfactory.  China noted with surprise 
that some Members which were demandeurs for th e transparency requirement had not made any 
notifications to the CTS for the past several years.  China hoped that this situation could be changed in 
the future. 
14. The representative of Chile  thanked the Secretariat for th e informal Note presented in 
accordance with requests made at previous inform al sessions of the Council.  The statistical 
information supplied clearly indicated that there was a shortage of notifications with respect to several 
GATS provisions.  It was particularly obvious that th is was the case with respect to Articles III:3 and 
VII of the GATS.  He also recognised that his delegati on was to a certain extent at fault in this respect 
too and wanted to include the issue of notifications as part of the regular work of the Council in order 
to improve the situation.  The document subm itted by the Swiss delegation was good as it brought 
forward a series of specific proposals the purpose of  which was to help Memb ers to deal with the 
problem.  The proposal relating to the exchange of in formation, for example, could be very useful and 
it could also be dealt with at future meetings of the Council.  The issue of notifications was important 
not only in the CTS but also in other bodies of th e WTO.  A few weeks ago, the Chairman of the 
General Council had sent a letter to the various bod ies within the WTO dealing precisely with the 
issue of evaluating the mechanisms available to im prove the number of notifi cations under the various 
agreements.  The January informal meetings ha d coincided very happily with the process of 
strengthening the institution as Switzerland had said, a nd particularly to strengthen the GATS.  This 
played a very important role in a time of economic crisis, when it was essential to have a careful follow-up and monitoring of measures which Me mbers adopted.  The Chilean delegation was 
committed to this process and hoped that at futu re meetings of the Council these issues would 
continue to be dealt with.  Documents such as the S ecretariat's informal Note should be updated in the 
future which could lead to an exchange of information between Members.  In conclusion, Chile 
thanked the Chair for organizing the informal meet ings between January and February because they 
had been helpful in strengthening the regular work of the Council. 
15. The representative of Colombia
 thanked the Secretariat for the synopsis on the notifications 
carried out in accordance with the provisions of the GATS, as well as Switzerland for having 
submitted its document on compliance with notific ation requirements.  The Swiss communication 
contained some very interesting proposals, some of them procedural in nature and other more 
substantive.  Preliminarily, Colombia supported proc edural proposals, in particular the proposal about 
providing and registering forms electronically.  Colo mbia was also in favour of sharing experiences 
regarding Members' internal processes and how to solve difficulties.  The more substantive proposals 
in the Swiss communication, such as the meaning of  "which significantly affect trade in services, 
should continue to be discussed.  S/C/M/93 
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 16. The representative of Hong Kong, China
 indicated her delegation's support for the work under 
this item which was also part of the on-going an d larger initiative within the WTO.  Hong Kong, 
China thanked the Secretariat for the statistical upda te which provided a helpful reference.  Special 
thanks went to the Swiss delegation for their pa per which shared their experience with internal 
consultations because, with respect to notifica tions, services posed a complicated challenge for 
delegations in the sense that they required even more internal consultation and coordination within 
domestic constituencies.  Hong Kong, China took no te of the proposals under section 5 of the Swiss 
paper and supported many of the proposals, especially the procedural proposals for the purpose of increasing clarity and improving the effectiveness of the notification system.  Her delegation was also 
attracted by the proposals that needed more substantive discussions, for example mandating the 
Secretariat to produce a formal note and having an annual notification.   
17. The representative of Australia
 supported Switzerland's communication and endorsed the 
Swiss observation that well implemented notifica tion disciplines brought significant benefits to 
Members, including through legislative transparency.  There was, as Switzerland pointed out, scope to 
improve the manner in which notification obligations  were implemented and Australia was committed 
to strengthening its own implementation of notifica tion requirements under the GATS.  In particular, 
Australia was considering a review of the organization of internal processes with a view to streamlining and making them more efficient.  Hi s delegation would encourage other Members to do 
likewise. 
18. The representative of Korea
 appreciated the Secretariat's wo rk to produce an informal Note 
presenting an overview of notifications under the GA TS.  Such statistical account provided a good 
basis for the monitoring work in the CTS and needed  to be updated on an annual basis.  Korea was 
keen to find ways to ensure the effective impl ementation of the current notification requirements 
under the GATS, and welcomed the Swiss proposal  regarding compliance with GATS notification 
requirements.  His delegation agreed with the n eed to promote understanding on what exactly should 
be notified, most particularly on the exact meanin g of the sentence "significantly affect trade in 
services" in Article III:3 of the GATS.  In this re gard, Korea supported the proposal to mandate the 
WTO Secretariat to produce an informal note containing an illustrative list of typical measures which were subject to notification under the GATS.  As for the organization of notifications in national 
administrations, Korea was currently considering how its internal notification process could be improved to fully comply with its obligations throug h, for instance, clarifying which ministry had the 
responsibility to notify WTO relevant measures.  In  this regard, the Swiss example could be a good 
reference for Korea.  His delegation welcomed any other suggestions or ideas on this issue, based on 
Members' experiences.  Korea was cautious about th e suggestion that sectoral services agreements not 
covered by Article V of the GATS be subject to notification requirements, because it might create a 
new burden on Members.  Finally, his delegation s upported the Chilean proposal that this item needed 
to be included in future meetings of the CTS. 
19. The representative of Japan
 thanked the Secretariat for the useful Note and welcomed the 
Swiss paper which included exha ustive and concrete proposals for the implementation of the 
notification requirements. Japan believed that Memb ers had to implement notification requirements in 
an effective way without undue burden.  Japan w as very interested in Switzerland's proposal in 
paragraph 27 and believed th at making a list of typical measures which significantly affected trade in 
services was very useful. 
20. The representative of the United States  thanked the Secretariat for its paper as well as 
Switzerland for its communication and appreciated th e explanation of its notification process.  His 
delegation thought that it was worth exploring furthe r the question of possible deficits regarding the 
volume of notifications.  In looking at some of th e notifications, the United States was not sure they 
would fall within the requirements to notify.  So, it was necessary to reflect further on this conclusion 
by Switzerland.  The United States would be inclin ed to support measures that were designed to  S/C/M/93 
 Page 5 
 
 
 facilitate Members' notifications.  These could in clude some form of downloadable forms or on-line 
submissions.  However, his delegation wished to caution against creating any more burdensome 
reporting requirements.  He agreed with some of the suggestions made by Colombia regarding the 
exchange of information on experiences or difficulties in filing notifications. 
21. The representative of th e European Communities  thanked the Secretariat and Switzerland for 
their respective papers.  The European Communities found interesting the ideas contained in the 
Swiss paper relating to how to improve the communi cation of notifications, in particular the use of 
electronic means.  Switzerland had underlined in its paper that there seemed to be no precise 
understanding as to what exactly should be notified, most particularly regarding the exact meaning of 
the expression "significantly affect trade in services".  Since the WTO was a member-driven 
organisation, his delegation was of the view that  Members should themselves contribute to a better 
understanding of typical measures, which were subject  to notification.  His delegation considered it 
would not be appropriate to request Members to confirm, e.g. on an annual basis, whether they had 
notified all what they considered they had to no tify. The notification process should remain a system 
under which each Member shared information with  the membership under its own responsibility, 
without being requested to confirm annua lly whether it had fulfilled its duty.  
22. The representative of Canada  thanked both the Secretariat and Switzerland for their efforts to 
advance discussions on this issue.  For Canada, it w as useful to consider the question of whether or 
not there was a compliance problem from three separate angles.  The first angle was the degree to which Members had been negatively affected by the levels of notifications to date.  A second angle 
would be to determine if Member s were having problems meeting their notification obligations and if 
so, to explore ways to address this.  Third was the appropriate level of notif ication to ensure that 
Members met the transparency objectives of this ex ercise.  As the CTS moved forward on this topic, 
Canada would suggest that Members maintained a firm eye on the objectives of notifications and the 
extent to which Members conducted their obligations such that they could derive meaningful value-
added information from the process.  In their discussions , delegations should strive to ensure that their 
efforts to pursue transparency were  more than just about the number of notifications that could be 
made.  Keeping this type of focus would help to en sure that notifications of particular relevance to 
trade in services would remain accessible to Members and the WTO, and would mitigate the risk that 
they could be lost in a deluge of notifications  which could be much like finding a needle in a 
haystack.  Concerning the Swiss paper, Canada  supported the web-based functionality for the 
notification forms and the publication on national web- sites, where possible.  Canada also supported 
opportunities to develop an illustrative list of th e types of measures that could be subject to 
notifications. 
23. The Chairman
 thanked delegations for their contributi ons.  He suggested that the Council take 
note of the statements made and revert  to this item at its next meeting. 
III. OTHER BUSINESS 
24. The representative of Australia  remained concerned that there was still no clarity as to when 
the certified EC-25 schedule would enter into fo rce following the conclusion of the Article XXI 
process on 18 December 2006.  Australia called on th e EC to expedite, and conclude as soon as 
possible, its domestic approval procedure, and w ould welcome an update from the EC on progress to 
date. 
25. The representative of Brazil  expressed its full support to the statement made by the delegation 
of Australia. 
26. The representative of Colombia  said his delegation would welcome an update from the EC of 
the information that they had provided so far.   Colombia wished to know how, within the S/C/M/93 
Page 6  
 
 Communities and within Member States, the proce ss of national ratificati on had taken place, and 
whether there was a step forward in the pr ocedure which could be taken more quickly. 
27. The representative of Hong Kong, China
 joined Australia and others for the expedite 
processing of the EC-25 enlargement exercise.  Her delegation would like to have a quick processing agreement which would provide legal certainty a nd the materialization of the commercial value, 
especially as a larger exercise was now on-going. 
28. The representative of Japan
 shared the concern expressed by other Members on this issue. 
29. The representative of China  echoed the previous speakers and also expected the EC to 
expedite their internal procedure. 
30. The representative of the European Communities  said that, as it was specified in the 
notification document as well as in the different ag reements with affected Members, the consolidated 
schedule following the enlargement of the Communiti es to 25 Member States, should enter into force 
following the internal decision making process of th e European Communities and its Member States, 
as appropriate.  Following the signature of the rele vant agreements with affected Members and the 
completion of the WTO certification procedure in December 2006, the European Commission had 
formally proposed the conclusion of the agreement to the EC Council, by means of a proposal for a 
Council decision. Subsequently, by amending the original proposal of the Commission, the EC Council had decided to require the na tional ratification of the relevant  agreements by the EC Member 
States and had also called for the consultation of the European Parliament.  The entry into force of the 
new schedule was dependent on the outcome of those proceedings.  So far, 14 EU Members States out 
of the 25 States concerned had completed their na tional ratification procedures.  Those Members 
were:  Austria, Germany, Denmark, Hungary, Gr eece, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, 
Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom.  Once those internal proceedings were 
completed, the EC would notify to the WTO the entr y into force of their schedule.  The Community, 
of course, encouraged its Members to conclude as soon as possible . 
31. The Council took note
 of these statements. 
IV. APPOINTMENT OF THE NEW CHAIRPERSON 
32. The Chairperson  said that, based on the consensus reach ed in the General Council, he was 
pleased to pass on the chairmanship of the Counc il to Ambassador Yonov Frederick Agah, from 
Nigeria.  He was confident that with his experi ence and wisdom, Ambassador Agah would guide the 
future work of the Council skilfully and efficiently .  As the outgoing chairperson of the Council, he 
had enjoyed working with all Members and had appr eciated their cooperative and constructive spirit 
in fulfilling the mandate of the Council.  He also th anked the outgoing chairs of the subsidiary bodies, 
as well as the Secretariat for their co-operation and efforts in supporting his work.  He proposed that 
the Council elect Ambassador Agah by acclamation as the new Chairperson of the Council for Trade 
in Services.   
33. The Council elected  Ambassador Agah by acclamation. 
34. The Chairperson thanked the outgoing chairperson for his kind words, and also Members for 
their trust.  He expressed his confidence that, like his predecessor, he would enjoy their support and 
cooperation.  He assured Members that his contract  with them would be to do his best, with the 
Secretariat's assistance, to move forward smoothly and fruitfully.   
35. The meeting was adjourned . 
__________