Trade in Services
Australia secures new access for services exporters to the EU
Australian exporters of telecommunications, engineering and legal services will have new and more secure access to markets in the European Union (EU) following the completion of WTO-related negotiations associated with the EU’s enlargement from 12 to 25 nations. These gains follow the conclusion of negotiations with the European Communities (EC) under Article XXI of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS). The negotiations, which commenced in 2004, were made necessary by the accession of 13 new Member States to the European Union (EU), including Austria, Finland, Sweden, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovak Republic and Slovenia.
Following their accessions to the EU, some of the new EU Members had to modify – and in some cases lower – their existing services obligations to bring their regulatory regimes in line with the EC’s Uruguay Round commitments. Where new Member States had to lower their services commitments, compensation was negotiated with 18 WTO Members, including Australia, who notified they were affected by the modification or withdrawal of commitments.
Australia focused on ensuring that the interests of its service providers were protected. Australia is satisfied that the compensation package, by offering new opportunities in sectors that are important to Australian service providers, adequately addresses the imbalances caused by the lowering of some EU Member States’ GATS commitments.
The key elements of the compensation package included new and improved access to the EU market for engineering, integrated engineering and urban planning and landscape architecture services. This responds to our compensation request and will allow Australian services providers to establish a commercial presence in most EC Member States, without substantial limitation. The EC also agreed to early binding of its entire telecommunications offer for all 25 Member States. This removes limitations on foreign investment in the telecommunications sector in all but four Member States. In addition, the compensation package provides new or enhanced commitments in several other sectors, including public utilities, computer, advertising, and financial services.
The negotiations also demonstrate the workability of the previously-untried GATS Article XXI mechanism, which deals with the modification of schedules and permanent withdrawal of commitments.
The negotiations were finalised on 15 December with the certification of the EC’s consolidated GATS schedule.
For further information please contact:
Services Trade and Negotiations Section
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade
T: 02 6261 2048
F: 02 6261 1527
E: services.negotiations@dfat.gov.au