RESTRICTED
WORLD TRADE S/NGMTS/11
14May1996
ORGANIZATION(96-1902)
Negotiating Group onMaritime Transport Services
NOTE ONTHE MEETING OF8MAY 1996
TheNegotiatingGrouponMaritimeTransportServiceshelditseleventhmeetingon8May1996.
TheAgenda ofthemeeting wascontained inAirgram WTO/AIR/315.
Under itemAoftheagenda, submission ofoffers anditemB,developments inbilateral
negotiations, theChairman began bytaking stock. AttheendoftheUruguay Round, 32Members
maintained commitments onmaritime transport services intheirfinalschedules. Since thecurrent
negotiations began, 5ofthese Members -Australia, Canada, Japan, theRepublic ofKorea andNew
Zealand -hadsubmitted conditional offers which improved upon their scheduled commitments.
Conditional offers hadalsosince beensubmitted by7other Members -Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Côte
d'Ivoire,theEuropeanCommunitiesandtheirMemberStates,NorwayandSwitzerland.Attheprevious
meeting, anumber ofNGMTS participants hadindicated theirintention totablenewcomprehensive
offers ortooffer improvements intheirscheduled commitments onaconditional basis.
TheEuropean Communities recognized thatthere wasconcern among Members about the
implications forthecurrent negotiations oftheoutcome ofthebasic telecommunications negotiations.
Itfelt,firstofall,thatasubstantial package hadbeenputtogether inthebasic telecommunications
negotiations andthatavaluable effort hadbeensaved. TheEuropean Communities remained as
supportive ofthecurrent negotiations asever. Furthermore, initsviewthenegotiating situation in
maritime transport wasdifferent fromthatintelecommunications andfinancial services: thechallenge
inmaritime wasnotsomuch toliberalize astobindtheexisting openness ofmosttraderegimes. The
keytosuccess would have tobeacoordinated effort tocreate acomparable level ofbinding
commitments. TheEuropean Communities 'initiative toprovide renewed impetus tothecurrent
negotiations waswelcomed andstrongly supported byAustralia, Canada, Indonesia, Japan, theRepublic
ofKorea andNorway. There waswidespread recognition oftheimportance ofthecurrent negotiations
forthemultilateral trading system, andthedamage thatfailure would dotothecredibility oftheGATS.
Cyprus andMexico promised tosubmit conditional offers inthenearfuture, while Australia,
Canada, Hong Kong, Indonesia andtheRepublic ofKorea indicated thattheywere considering
improvements intheirconditional offers/Uruguay Round commitments. Indonesia saidthatitsoffer,
which would include improvements onallthree pillars, should beseeninlightofArticle XIXofthe
GATSwhichprovideddevelopingcountryMemberswithappropriateflexibilityinmakingcommitments.
TheRepublic ofKorea saidthattheabsence ofoffers fromsome countries made itdifficult toovercome
domestic resistance tomaking further improvements initsalready comprehensive offer. Disappointment
wasagain widely expressed withtheabsence ofanofferfromonemajor participant. TheUnited States
saidthatitwasstillkeeping anopenmind andhaduseditsintensive round ofbilateral meetings to
communicate itsinterests andconcerns totrading partners. TheChairman encouraged participants
nottodelay making improvements which would inanycasebeconditional onagenuinely multilateral
outcome.
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Page2
Most participants expressed satisfaction withtheirbilateral meetings. Australia, Canada and
Norway indicated thattheirbilaterals hadrevealed thatmany countries wereintheprocess ofconsidering
thepossibility ofimprovements intheiroffers. Norway saidthatitwould liketoseethecurrent
negotiations leadtoawiderange ofbindings, withfurther liberalization infuture rounds ofnegotiations.
TheUnited States, however, saidthatithadbeenencouraged tohearinprevious meetings thatanumber
ofparticipants shared theUnited States viewthata"standstill" wasnotenough.
TheEuropean Communities andtheUnited States urged countries tofollow therevised version
ofthedraftschedule asclosely aspossible insubmitting theiroffers. Japan, however, feltthatthe
status oftherevised version should beclarified, andnoted thatitscomment, included inapaper
circulated during theMarch session, hadnotbeentaken intoaccount intherevised version. The
Chairman noted thathehadasked theSecretariat tocirculate therevised version, withtheinclusion
oftwoscheduling options formultimodal transport given intheAustralian discussion paper, onhis
owninitiative. Thepresent version, aswasindicated inthecovering note, wasintended asatechnical
aidtoparticipants andcould besubject tofurther discussion andamendment.
Under itemC,matters relating toparagraph 7oftheDecision onNegotiations onMaritime
Transport Services, Japan regretted theimplementation bytheUnited States, despite theobjections
ofmany countries, oflegislation which permitted theexport ofNorth Alaskan oilbutreserved its
transportation toUnited States ships. Itsaidthatthislegislation wasinconsistent withparagraph 7
oftheDecisiononNegotiationsonMaritimeTransportServicesandwiththebilateraltreatyoncommerce
andnavigation between Japan andtheUnited States. TheUnited States saidthattheissue hadbeen
covered fullyinearlier meetings. Thecomments received byitsCommerce Department prior tothe
enactment ofthelegislation hadnotincluded anyfrom foreign governments, andthePresident had
decided on28April 1996thatthelawwasinthenational interest. TheUnited States saidthatitwould
respond positively totheJapanese request forinformation onhowthelawwasbeing implemented.
Under itemD,datesoffuture meetings, theChairman noted thatthereremained someimportant
work tobedoneandpresented atimetable which consisted ofthree periods ofintensive work until
theendofJunedeadline. TheNGMTS willmeetintheweeks beginning 20May, 3Juneand24June.
Canada, European Communities, Hong Kong, NewZealand, Norway andtheUnited States supported
thetime-table suggested bytheChairman. [After themeeting, theChairman decided, inconsultation
withdelegations, thatthehighlevelmeeting, originally scheduled for23May1996, would beheld
instead on4June1996.]