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ON THIS PAGE: State of play News Negotiations process Negotiations on specific commitments Proposals Special Sessions Documents |
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SERVICES: NEGOTIATIONS Current negotiations The General Agreement on Trade in Services mandates WTO member governments to progressively liberalize trade in services through successive rounds of negotiations. Under the mandate of Article XIX, the latest round of negotiations began in January 2000. In March 2001 the Guidelines and Procedures for the Negotiations on Trade in Services were adopted by the Council for Trade in Services. At the Doha Ministerial Conference in November 2001 the services negotiations became part of the “single undertaking” under the Doha Development Agenda, whereby all subjects under the negotiations are to be concluded at the same time.
> The Doha mandate
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News on the negotiations back to top
Negotiations process back to top Negotiations in the Doha Round are being conducted essentially on two tracks:
Negotiations on specific commitments Negotiations to liberalize market
conditions for trade in services are conducted mainly through a
“request-offer” procedure. Members send requests directly to each other
indicating what improvements they are seeking for their services and service
suppliers; members specify in their initial offers how and to what extent
they are willing to take binding commitments in response to these requests.
The Doha Ministerial Declaration established the original timeframe of 30 June 2002 for the circulation of initial requests and 31 March 2003 for the submission of initial offers, with all negotiations to be concluded not later than 1 January 2005. In the aftermath of the failure of the Cancun Ministerial Meeting in September 2003, a new target date of May 2005 was set for the submission of revised offers. Subsequently, at the Hong Kong Ministerial Conference in December 2005, the target date of 31 July 2006 was established for second revised offers. However, given the lack of progress in other areas, the Doha Development Agenda negotiations were suspended from mid-July until January 2007. Negotiations have subsequently continued with no new timelines currently set. Initial offers As of end of June 2008, 71 initial offers had been submitted by WTO members. Initial offers that have been derestricted by the member concerned are publicly available in the TN/S/O document series. In addition, some members have made their initial offers, or summaries thereof, publicly available on their internet sites. Revised offers As of end of June 2008, 31 revised offers had been submitted by WTO members. Revised offers that have been derestricted by the member concerned are publicly available in the TN/S/O rev.1 document series.
Proposals for the negotiations back to top At the start of the negotiations, WTO
members tabled
proposals regarding both the structure and the contents of the
negotiations. These proposals highlight the main areas of interest for
individual members and/or groups of members. Often the proposals provide
background information and suggestions for improving trade conditions in a
particular sector. Currently, there are virtually no new proposals being
tabled as work has moved on to the request-offer process. Special Sessions back to top The Council for Trade in Services (meeting in “special session”) is the body responsible for overseeing the negotiations. All subsidiary bodies, such as the Working Party on Domestic Regulation and the Working Party on GATS Rules, report to the Council .
Current chairperson
of Special Sessions of the Council for Trade in
Services.
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