General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS)
Current State of Negotiations – January 2008
WTO Services Negotiations
The Services Council Special Session met on 23 January to discuss a draft services text to be tabled following the expected February release of the revised agriculture and NAMA texts. At the meeting, a group of like-minded Members (led by the US/EC but including Australia, Korea, Japan, Canada, Chinese Taipei, Norway, Switzerland and New Zealand) co-sponsored a text calling for a new date for revised services offers. The revised text also called for a broad political commitment ensuring that revised offers would bind existing market openness, as well as deliver new market access commitments. The Chair of the services negotiations (Mexican Ambassador, de Mateo) will continue his consultations to develop a consensus services text in advance of the next round of formal services negotiations scheduled for mid-late February.
To commemorate the 10th anniversary of the entry into force of the GATS Fourth Protocol on Basic Telecommunications, services negotiators will hold a symposium in Geneva on 20-21 February. The symposium will review economic, commercial and regulatory developments in the telecommunications sector over the past decade. The symposium is expected to be open to the general public.
Australia has also held its first round of consultations with the EC regarding the compensation package resulting from enlarged European Union (EU) membership to accommodate Bulgaria and Romania.