S

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  The voice of the European Service Industries
for International Trade Negotiations in Services
 

• Séminaire sur les commerce des services
• Organisé par IsDB
• Casablanca, 15 18 juin 2009
• STATE OF PLAY OF THE WTO NEGOTIATIONS" 
• Pascal Kerneis - Managing Director
• ESF (European Services Forum) 

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State of play of the GATS Negotiations (1)

• DDA Launched in Nov. 2001 in Doha Qatar
• 400 Initial requests (EU 109 in 2002, 103
  Revised R. in 2005)
• Failure of Cancun Ministerial in 2003
• Hong Kong WTO Ministerial Declaration in Dec.
  2005
• Call for more revised offers
• Allow plurilateral approach in Annex C
• Missed deadlines
• a) Revised Offers 31 July 2006
• b) Draft Final Offers 31 October 2006
• ? 69 Initial offers and 29 Improved Offers
• (as of today June 2009)

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State of play of the GATS Negotiations (2)

• But Suspension of the negotiations on 24 July
  2006
• Soft revival of the negotiations in Geneva on 16
  November 2006.
• Continuation of the work in Geneva among the
  Friends of Services, notably through the 22
  Collective Requests in the Plurilateral Process,
  involving /- 30 countries (EU1)
• Formal  Full Fledge  negotiations on 27 January
  2007 after WEF
• Chairmens Texts proposals on Ag, NAMA,
  Services 02/2008

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State of play of the GATS Negotiations (3)

• WTO Mini-Ministerial meeting in July 2008 in
  Geneva
• Signalling Conference on Services with
  encouraging progress.
• 31 countries participated (EU1), including 7 IDB
  Members (Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia,
  Morocco, Pakistan, Turkey)
• but Failure because of US-India on SSM, 80
  done, but Never went up to the end.
• Nov 08 US Elections, 04/09 New USTR Ron Kirk,
  US Trade Policy Review,
• 05/09 Indian Elections, New Trade Minister Anand
  Sharma (Reformist?)
• G20, OECD, G8, WTO Normal Ministerial in
  Nov-Dec 09 - DDA Conclusion?

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• PARTICIPATION OF IDB MEMBERS TO THE GATS
  NEGOTIATIONS

A. GATS Initial Offers 13 countries (out of 56)

1. Bahrain (GCC)
2. Brunei (ASEAN)
3. Egypt (EuroMed)
4. Indonesia (ASEAN)
5. Jordan (EuroMed)
6. Gabon (EPA West)
7. Malaysia (ASEAN)

1. Morocco (EuroMed)
2. Pakistan
3. Qatar (GCC)
4. Senegal (EPA West)
5. Tunisia (EuroMed)
6. Turkey (EU Acc.)
7. UAE (GCC)

• GATS Revised Offers 4 countries
• Bahrain 3. Malaysia
• Egypt 2. Turkey

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Participation of ACP countries in DDA GATS
negotiations
14 ACP countries have tabled an initial offer Barbados Dominica Gabon Grenada Guyana Fiji, Jamaica Kenya Mauritius St. Chris Nevis St. Lucia St Vincent Grenadine Senegal Trinidad Tobago
4 African Countries 9 Caribbean Countries 1
Pacific Region 2 ESA Region 0 SADC (1 S.A.)
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• Why Europe needs successful Services
  Negotiations?
• To improve our access to foreign markets, so
  that Europe can maintain its economic
  development, largely based on the service economy
  and its capacity to export
• (60 of European workers in private services
  sectors, 20 of them work for the export).
• To improve market access within the EU to
  foreign service suppliers so that the services
  sectors continue to create jobs in Europe and
  keep their competitive advantage
• (10 of the European employees in private
  services sectors are working for a foreign
  controlled company, thanks to the openness of our
  economy).
• Between 2000 and 2004, the last year for which
  aggregate figures are available, over 8m jobs
  were created in services in Europe, while 2,8 m
  were lost in industry and agriculture

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• Preliminary Assessment of non EU Initial Offers

Assessment Countries Issues positive () or negative (-)
Acceptable Japan, Korea, Norway, Switzerland, Liechtenstein Mode 4 (), Business services (), Tourism (), Telecoms (), Legal services (), Courier services ()
Average New Zealand, Hong-Kong, Panama Mode 4 (), Business services (), engineering (), Postal () Financial services (-),
Disappointing US, Australia, Canada, India, Brasil Mode 4 (-), Telecoms (-), Transports (-), Financial services (-), IT(), Legal services ()
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ESF Assessment of Financial Services offers
  Facts and ESF Preliminary Assessment Countries
A No Initial Offer in the DDA 82 countries, i.e. 54 of WTO Membership !!!
B Do Not Know about Financial services - Restricted Initial (or Revised) Offers (25) Albania, Barbados, Brunei Darussalam, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Gabon, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Jordan, Kenya, Macao - China, Macedonia, Nicaragua, Qatar, St Lucia, St Vincent Grenadines, Senegal, Trinidad Tobago, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Suriname
C No Commitments in Initial or Revised Offer (10) Bolivia, Colombia, Israel, Peru, Philippines, Costa-Rica, Fiji, Grenada, St Kit Nevis,
D Weak or Disappointing Offers (21 countries, incl. 15 Revised Offers) Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Chinese Taipei, Egypt, Honk Kong - China, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, Pakistan, Paraguay, Singapore, Sri Lanka, South Africa, Switzerland, Thailand, Turkey, Uruguay
E Insufficient Offers (6) Australia, Guatemala, Japan, Korea, New Zealand, USA
F Decent Acceptable Offers (8) Argentina, Bahrain, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Mauritius, Morocco, Norway, Panama
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• CONCLUSION
• The GATS negotiations are very slow,
• But they remain the priority of the EU Services
  Business community.
• The offers on the table are very bad,
• But, we have collected some signals that many can
  be substantially improved.
• Binding of the current practice is a must to
  help to go out of the crisis,
• But it will not be sufficient to ensure the
  conclusion of the round.

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• THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!
• Pascal KERNEIS
• Managing Director
• European Services Forum ESF
• 168, Avenue de Cortenbergh
• B 1000 BRUSSELS
• Tel [phone]
• Fax [phone]
• Email esf_at_esf.be

Website www.esf.be