RESTRICTEDWORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONS/C/M/27
2 June 1998
(98-2128)
Council for Trade in Services
REPORT OF THE MEETING HELD ON 11 MAY 1998
Note by the Secretariat
1. The Council for Trade in Services held a meeting on 11 May 1998.  The agenda for the
meeting is contained in WTO/AIR/834.  The Chairman proposed two points for consideration under
Other Business:  the extension of the time-frame for the ad hoc certification procedure of schedulesand a statement by the Chairman on the chairmanship of the Committee on Trade in Financial
Services.
A. THE EXCHANGE OF INFORMATION EXERCISE
2. The Chairman recalled that at the Singapore Ministerial Conference, WTO Ministers
endorsed a recommendation in  paragraph 47 of document S/C/3 calling upon the Council for Trade in
Services to develop an information exchange programme with the aim of facilitating the access of all
Members, in particular developing country Members, to information regarding laws, regulations and
administrative guidelines and policies affecting trade in services.  The recommendation also statedthat the structure of such an exercise should be simple and avoid any unnecessary burden on the
Members in general and developing country Members in particular.  At the last meeting of the
Council it was agreed that informal consultations were needed in order to reach agreement on the
modalities and timing for this exercise.
3. At two informal meetings held on 20 April and 7 May 1998, Members had been able to bring
forward the discussion on the exchange of information exercise and to reach agreement on some
aspects concerning the structure and content of this exchange.  On the basis of inputs by Members inthese discussions and an informal note by the Ch airman dated 29 April, the Chairman put forward a
proposal that Members engage in sectoral discus sions.  Some delegations, including Brazil, India,
Indonesia and Venezuela, said that they needed to receive instructions from capitals before being able
to agree with the Chairman's proposal.  Noting the reservations by these Members, the Council
agreed, on an ad referendum  basis, on the following points based on the proposal by the Chairman:
(a) A series of discussions would be held in the Council on specific services sectors.  At
each meeting a group of sectors would be discussed.  The focus of these discussions
would be on the manner in which the services in question are traded and regulated,
and they would be aimed at enabling Members to identify negotiating issues and
priorities.  The first discussion would take place at the next meeting of the Council tobe scheduled in June.  Although no specific deadline was set, it was agreed that the
Council should aim to complete the series of discussions as quickly as possible, in
principle before the end of the year.
(b) The list of sectors contained in document MTN.GNS/W/120 - the Services Sectoral
Classification List - would be used as the basis for the programme of discussions.The order of sectors as listed in MTN.GNS/W/120 would be followed, but with some
degree of flexibility.  Certain better known sectors that had been the subject of recentS/C/M/27
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negotiations, such as financial services, basic telecommunications, maritime transport
and accountancy, would be deferred until late in the process, when it would be
possible to decide how much further information on them was needed.  It was also
agreed that although the business services sector came first in the MTN.GNS/W/120
classification, it was desirable not to start with such a large and varied range of
services.  In order to facilitate the discussion different elements of the businessservices sector would be taken up separately in different meetings.
(c) The list of questions contained in the third paragraph of the Chairman's informal note
of 29 April 1998 would constitute a useful , but not exhaustive, framework for the
discussions.  These four questions, which delegations might use in addressing the
sector under discussion, were:
(i) What are the regulatory authorities, governmental and/or non-governmental?
(ii) Are there any special or common problems encountered as regards
transparency or the application of the most-favoured-nation principle?
(iii) What are the most prevalent types of restriction on market access or national
treatment?
(iv) Are there other types of regulation - for example in the areas of licensing,
technical standards or qualification requirements - which commonly restricttrade in the sector?
(d) The Secretariat would provide short background papers on the sectors to be discussed
at each meeting.  These would be based on readily available information and the
analysis of specific commitments.  They would contain data on the economic
importance of the service, the main ways in which it is traded and regulated,limitations commonly found in schedules and sources of further information.
(e) A tentative timetable was established in order to facilitate the preparation of
discussions, at least for the first few meetings.  Recalling that no sector was to be
excluded a priori, the Chairman suggested the following timetable for the first three
meetings:
June:  Distribution;  Construction and Engineering;  Postal, Courier and Audiovisual Services.
July:  Environmental Services;  Architectural Services;  Computer and Related Services;
Legal Services;  Land Transport Services (Road, Rail and Pipeline).
September:  Health and Education Services, Air Transport and Tourism. 
4. The Chairman stated that in making these proposals he had tried to follow reasonably closely
the order of document MTN.GNS/W/120, with the exceptions referred to above, and had taken into
account the capacity of the Secretariat to produce the background papers which had been requested.
He stressed that no priorities in terms of importa nce had been set.  He suggested that the timetable
could be reviewed at the end of the June meeting to see whether, in the light of the first experience,any changes were necessary.
5. Delegations agreed that the questions proposed by the Chairman were a useful framework,
but pointed out that they did not constitute a fixed framework for the discussion and that a good
degree of flexibility should be retained.S/C/M/27
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6. The representative of the United States proposed that the fourth mode of supply (movement
of natural persons) be discussed as a horizontal subject in one of the meetings of the Council.  The
Chairman indicated that this could be done at the September meeting.  Mode four, like the other
modes of supply, would also be addressed in the discussion on specific sectors.
7. The representative of the European Communitie s suggested that, considering that the review
of the GATS Annex on Air Transport Services was due shortly, it would have been desirable to dividethe paper on Air Transport Services in two sections  dealing respectively with the subjects covered by
the GATS and those excluded.
8. On the question of whether the discussions should take place in formal or informal Council
meetings, delegations agreed that it was important to have a record of the discussion as well as
allowing for the flexibility of an informal settin g.  As a solution some delegations suggested that
meetings could start and end in formal mode a nd switch to informal mode for the substantive
discussion.  A Chairman's summary of the informal  meeting would provide a record of the informal
discussion.  Observers, including international organizations and acceding countries, would be
allowed to stay during the informal sessions.
9. Members also discussed other two issues raised in the Chairman's informal note of 29 April:
bilateral exchanges of information and use of questionnaires.  Regarding  bilateral exchanges of
information, Members agreed to be ready to respond to requests for information from other Members
concerning their services regimes, and that the information exchanged could be circulated to otherMembers, for the sake of transparency.  It would not be required to make generally available any
confidential information, such as commercial secrets.  Regarding the use of questionnaires, it was
agreed that a detailed questionnaire on the regulation of service sectors would not be developed as itwould be excessively burdensome and unlikely to produce useful information within a reasonabletime-scale.  As the information exchange proceeds, Members might consider whether it would be
useful to develop a very short and general questionnaire.  However, the sectoral discussions on the
basis of the structure suggested by the Chairman should fulfil most of the objectives of such a
questionnaire.
B. SUBMISSION OF SCHEDULE OF COMMITMENTS IN BASIC TELECOMMUNICATIONS BY ANTIGUA
AND BARBUDA
10. The Chairman informed participants that upon the request of the Government of Antigua and
Barbuda the consideration of this item had been deferred to a future meeting.
C. STATUS OF ACCEPTANCES OF THE FOURTH PROTOCOL – STATEMENT BY THE CHAIRMAN
11. The Chairman recalled that on 19 December 1997, the Council for Trade in Services adopted
a Decision to extend the deadline for acceptance of the Fourth Protocol on Basic Telecommunications
until 31 July 1998.  While the Protocol had entered into force on 5 February 1998, there were still12 Members who had annexed schedules to the Protocol and had not yet accepted it.  He urged those
Members to make every effort to conclude their ratification procedures and accept the Protocol as
soon as possible.
12. The representative of the European Commun ities informed the Council that Belgium had
completed the internal ratification procedures and that it would be accepting the Protocol shortly.  Therepresentative of the Philippines said that a general election was being held in her country and that
following the installation of the new Congre ss the fourth protocol would be ratified.
D. COOPERATION BETWEEN THE INTERNATIONAL TELECOMMUNICATION UNION AND THE WTO
13. The Chairman recalled that at the last meeting of the Council on 26 February 1998, a
discussion took place on a proposed Cooperation Agreement between the ITU and the WTO.S/C/M/27
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Members expressed themselves in favour of exploring the possibility of such an agreement and agreed
that such cooperation would be desirable particularly if it was kept simple and addressed matters like
technical cooperation and exchange of information between the two Organizations.  At an informal
meeting of the Council held on 20 April 1998 it was agreed that the WTO Secretariat should pursue
further contacts with the Secretariat of the ITU to  clarify the specific elements of what the ITU
Secretariat would propose for inclusion in a possible cooperation agreement.  On the basis of suchinformation, further discussions would take place in the Council with a view to giving the WTO
Secretariat more detailed guidance as to how to proceed.
E. OTHER BUSINESS
14. The Chairman raised two points relating to the ad hoc certification procedure of schedules
and the chairmanship of the financial services committee.
15. Regarding the certification of schedules he recalled that since the conclusion of the Uruguay
Round, an ad hoc certification procedure had been applied for the purpose of introducing changes or
adding new commitments to Members' schedules.  This ad hoc procedure had been applied pending
the adoption of a formal set of procedures under Article XXI (Modification of Schedules) which
contained a section on certification.  According to the ad hoc procedure Members were invited to raise
objections to any such changes within a period of 30 days.  However, several delegations suggested
that the 30-day period was too short for the exam ination of services schedules.  The Chairman
therefore suggested that the Council agree to amend the ad hoc procedure and extend the time-frame
for raising objections to 90 days instead of 30.  He pointed out that this procedure would be
superseded by a more formal one, following the adoption by the Council of the Article XXI
procedures.
16. Regarding the chairmanship of the Financial Services Committee the Chairman  informed
participants that the Chairman of the Financial Services Committee, Mr. Okubo, was leaving Geneva
to take up duties in Tokyo.  He said that he would contact delegations shortly in order to arrange
informal consultations on the Chairmanship of the Committee.  Delegations thanked Mr. Okubo for
all his efforts and success as Chairman of the Financial Services Committee and wished him well in
his new appointment.
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