S/CSS/W/7
Page 1

World Trade
Organization / RESTRICTED
S/CSS/W/7
4 October 2000
(00-4061)
Council for Trade in Services
Special Session / Original: English

COMMUNICATION FROM MAURITIUS ON BEHALF OF

THE AFRICAN GROUP

Negotiating Guidelines and Procedures

The attached communication has been received from the delegation of Mauritius on behalf of the African Group with the request that it be circulated to Members of the Council for Trade in Services.

______

Introduction

1.During the Uruguay Round, negotiators were successful in ensuring that the structure of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) is supportive of developmental objectives. Members should reaffirm these objectives as well as the structure and approach contained in the Agreement.

2.The Agreement:

(i)recognises the priority of development objectives;

(ii)recognises the primacy of national policy objectives, laws and regulation; and

(iii)goes further than “special and differential treatment” contained in GATT PartIV in that it strengthens the relationship between commitments undertaken and advances in levels of development.

3.Article IV on Increasing Participation of Developing Countries and Article XIX:2 on Negotiating of Specific Commitments provide flexibility in liberalizing trade in services for opening fewer sectors, liberalising fewer types of transaction, progressively extending market access in line with their development situation, and the possibility of attaching conditions to market access commitments. In addition, Least Developed Countries are to be given special priority taking into account the serious difficulty they face in accepting negotiated specific commitments as a result of their special economic situation and their development, trade and financial needs.

  1. Developed countries are also called upon to facilitate the participation of developing countries in trade in services through negotiated specific commitments to strengthen the domestic services capacity, efficiency and competitiveness of developing countries. This may be achieved through enhanced access to technology, distribution channels, market information, and the liberalization of markets in sectors and modes of supply of export interest to developing countries.
  1. In this context, developed countries should agree to take measures for encouraging the import of services from developing countries. Various measures can be envisaged, including:

(i)reserving a specified portion of services import for government use from developing countries; and

(ii)relaxing entry conditions for service providers from developing countries.

  1. The foregoing should be viewed in the context of existing imbalances and vast differences in the supply capacities between developed and developing countries, as well as the efforts of developing countries to participate in service liberalisation negotiations in which they have made extensive concessions without receiving benefits in return.
  1. As we engage in new negotiations, the challenge is to ensure that the mandated services negotiations advance in ways that re-balance outcomes to the benefit of all Members. This requires, amongst other things:

(i)implementing the provisions of Article XIX:3 which provide for an overall and sectoral assessment of trade in services in meeting the objectives set out in the Agreement, for the purposes of establishing future negotiating guidelines;

(ii)ensuring a satisfactory and timely conclusion to negotiations on an Emergency Safeguard Measure, as stipulated in Article X, to build confidence, encourage countries to assume greater market access commitments, and ensure flexibility for developing countries;

(iii)establishing negotiating modalities to identify sectors and modes of supply of interest to developing countries, and particularly the least developed among them;

(iv)considering a negotiating menu that allows service-poor countries the scope to acquire meaningful concessions and trade-offs in areas of interest to them; and

(iv) providing accurate information and data.

  1. In the context of deep, structural inequalities amongst Members, including in the distribution of shares of international trade in services, the GATS provides that in exchange for liberalization in the service sector, developing countries can claim credit by seeking improved access in other sectors of export interest.
  1. The fact that commitments on market access and national treatment are subjects of concessions, provided under a positive list, is of great importance to developing countries as it allows members to determine, in terms of their own national development strategy and policy, the individual service sector or transaction that they are willing to open up at a given time, under specific conditions and limitations.
  1. In adopting this approach during the Uruguay Round, Members were farsighted in recognising that, if liberalization and reform processes are to be sustainable and to contribute positively to promoting development, they must be sequenced judiciously and must proceed at an appropriate pace. For the African Group, the policy space that this provides is vital.

Elements for Negotiating Guidelines and Procedures

11.Pursuant to the Preamble, Articles IV and XIX, negotiations based on these provisions shall aim to achieve progressively higher levels of liberalisation of trade in services through successive rounds of negotiations. Guidelines and procedures for negotiations should be agreed to before market access negotiations commence. The African Group proposes that:

(i)negotiations should be based on requests and offers, and may be supplemented by other approaches, if agreed by Members;

(ii)special attention should be given to sectors and modes of supply of interest to developing countries;

(iii)special treatment should be granted to LDCs as stipulated under paragraph 3, Article IV;

(iv)for the purposes of establishing guidelines and procedures, an assessment of trade in services in both overall terms and on a sectoral basis should be satisfactorily completed;

(v)the starting point for negotiations should be the commitments made at the end of the Uruguay Round;

(vi)recognition and credit should be given for autonomous liberalisation. In this context, the African Group calls on the WTO and UNCTAD Secretariats to begin work on defining the concepts of: ‘autonomous liberalisation’ ‘recognition’, ‘credit’, ‘binding’, as well as transparency/notification requirements of autonomous liberalisation undertaken;

(vii)in parallel, rule-making work in Domestic Regulation and Rules (emergency safeguards, government procurement and subsidies) should be pursued;

(viii)regional integration schemes among developing countries will continue to be accommodated under Article V; and

(ix)negotiations should take account of the results of reviews conducted by the Council of Trade in Services of Article II Exemptions and the Annex on Air Transport Services.

10.Some Members have indicated their wish for an ambitious work programme in the GATS negotiations. For the African Group, progress in the negotiations should take account of existing capacity constraints both in Geneva and in our capitals. The preparatory process is complex, taking place in different bodies concurrently. This poses difficulties for the African Group and other developing countries. This problem should be addressed.

  1. The 26 May 2000 Road Map provides a timeframe (March 2001) for completion of this phase of preparations and stocktaking to which all Members have agreed. There is no need, at this time, to establish additional deadlines. At an appropriate time, the establishment of further deadlines would require an overall assessment of the progress and dynamics in other processes, including negotiations and reviews.
  1. During the negotiations, developing countries should not be expected to undertake further obligations for liberalisation in trade in services, beyond those of interest to them.
  1. This submission is without prejudice to the particular positions of individual Members of the African Group. African Members of the WTO reserve their right to further elaborate on these issues, or any other, in future, either individually or as a Group.

______