WTO and Road Transport

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WTO and Road Transport

• How it works
• What it has achieved
• What it may achieve in the future

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WTO and Road Transport

• I. How it works

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WTO and Road Transport

• GATS commitments
• - Guarantee the conditions of operation of
  foreign services suppliers at a certain
  negotiated level of market access and national
  treatment
• - Ensure that this level cannot be deteriorated
• - Make this level available as a minimum to all
  WTO Members
• - Are subject to periodic negotiations with a
  view to improve them

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WTO and Road Transport

• Scheduling principles
• - Positive listing of sectors
• - Negative listing of restrictions
• - M.A discriminatory and
• non discriminatory measures
• 6 exhaustive categories number of
• suppliers, value of transactions/
• assets, number of operations,
• number of persons, legal form,
• foreign capital

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WTO and Road Transport

• Scheduling principles (continued)
• - NT any discriminatory measure de facto or de
  jure
• - The modes of delivery cross-border,
  consumption abroad, commercial presence,
  temporary movement of natural persons
• - The additional commitments
• - The freedom to modulate
• - The minimum MFN standard effect

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WTO and Road Transport
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WTO and Road Transport
11. Transport Services
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WTO and Road Transport
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WTO and Road Transport
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WTO and Road Transport
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WTO and Road Transport

• The potential gains of GATS liberalization
• (i.e. opening the sector to foreigners)
• for the offering country
• - More investment (secured through guaranteed
  conditions of access for investors)
• - State of the art technologies and management
• - More competition
• - Hence better services
• - Lower prices for the consumer
• - New opportunities in foreign markets
• (Win-Win effect)

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WTO and Road Transport
Policy choices
The dangers for the offering country

• Competition for its national providers
• Disruption of the bilateral framework
• Risk of skimming off the traffic (urban
  transport)
• Public service considerations network, level of
  service, prices (urban transport)
• Environmental considerations (road freight).

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WTO and Road transport

• II. What it has achieved so far

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WTO and Road Transport
Key 11.F.a. Passenger Transportation 11.F.b.
Freight Transportation 11.F.c. Rental of
Commercial vehicles with
Operator 11.F.d. Maintenance and Repair
of Road Transport Equipment 11.F.e.
Supporting Services of Road
Transport Services
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WTO and Road Transport
(Contd)
Key 11.F.a. Passenger Transportation 11.F.b.
Freight Transportation 11.F.c. Rental of
Commercial vehicles with
Operator 11.F.d. Maintenance and Repair of
Road Transport Equipment 11.F.e.
Supporting Services of Road
Transport Services
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WTO and Road Transport

• 38 MFN Exemptions
• Among which
• 22 Countries with commitments
• 16 Countries without commitments (Bolivia,
  Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Egypt,
  Honduras, Hungary, Jordan, Peru, Poland, Sierra
  Leone, Switzerland, Tunisia, Turkey Uruguay) .

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WTO and Road Transport

• What does this mean for you?
• No guarantees on market access in 100 countries
• 44 countries have guarantees on market access but
  still some restrictions are posed.

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WTO and Road Transport

• Main types of restrictions for passenger
  transport
• Economic need test (taxis, limos and bus
  services) citizenship requirement, natural
  persons only or, to the contrary incorporation
  required establishment required numerical
  quotas exclusive licences by zones and routes
  authorization required and not extended to
  foreign-registered vehicles residency required
  requirement of establishment in the country
  concerned to provide cabotage services prior
  approval, obligation for entities established
  under mode 3 to use vehicles with national
  registration.

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WTO and Road Transport

• Main types of restrictions for freight
  transport
• Economic need test foreign ownership
  restrictions incorporation required
  nationality of the board of directors
  citizenship requirement authorization required
  but not extended to foreign-registered vehicles
  emergency safeguards on the number of services
  suppliers, of services operations and of services
  output, and limitations on the use of leased
  vehicles, requirement of establishment in the
  country concerned to provide cabotage services,
  prior approval cargoes confined to containerized
  cargoes to be exported or imported and
  requirement on established entities to use
  vehicles with national registration.

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WTO and Road Transport

• What about Egypt?
• Unlike 50 Members Egypt has no commitments
• Egypt also has two MFN Exemptions (one general,
  one sectoral)

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Sector or Subsector Description of measure indicating its inconsistency with Article II Countries to which the measure applies Intended duration Conditions creating the need for the exemption
ALL SECTORS Full national treatment is extended to foreign personnel of the countries indicated in column 3 Greece Iraq Jordan Libya Qatar Sudan United Arab Emirates Yemen and possibly other countries This measure shall be maintained as long as the agreements referred to in column 2 remain in force or are exhausted To ensure opening of the markets in the countries referred to in column 3, as the major trading partners do not accord the Egyptian nationals satisfactory opportunities.
The supply of road transport services by foreign suppliers into and across the territory of Egypt is limited to vehicles registered in the countries indicated in column 3, with which Egypt is a party in bilateral or multilateral agreements The Arab-League countries, and possibly other countries This measure shall be maintained as long as the agreements referred to in column 2 remain in force or are extended To promote intra-Arab trade and facilitate movement of Arab citizens into Egypt as stipulated in the Arab-League Agreement
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WTO and Road transport

• III. What it may achieve in the future

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WTO and Road Transport

• Negotiations started 1 January 2000
• 80 Negotiating proposals on the table
• 2 on Road Transportation(EU, Japan)
• 2 on Related Services (Hong Kong, Switzerland)

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• The Japanese proposal is aiming at eliminating
• Restrictions on the participation of foreign
  capital
• Restrictions on the types of legal entity
• Numerical restrictions
• Measures that favour the providers of road
  transportation services of certain Members.

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WTO and Road Transport

• The EU proposal is aimed at obtaining
  commitments in
• International passenger and freight transport,
  and rental of commercial vehicles with operator
  (Mode 2 3)
• Maintenance and repair of road transport
  equipment, supporting services for transport
  services
• (Mode 1, 2 3).
• However it indicates that
• Exemptions and/or restrictions my need to be
  taken into account on a case by case basis in
  Mode 3 for transport of passengers and freight.

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WTO and Road Transport

• The Swiss proposal deals with
• Cargo handling services (CPC 741)
• storage and warehousing services (CPC 742)
• freight transport agency services including other
  auxiliary transport services (CPC 748)
• other supporting and auxiliary transport services
  
• (CPC 749).

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• And has identified the following obstacles
• Conditions for licenses
• Discriminatory security deposit requirement
• Preferential pricing.

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WTO and Road Transport

• Finally, the Hong Kong, China proposal is aimed
  at obtaining commitments in
• (a) Freight transportation services
• (b) cargo-handling services
• (c ) storage and warehousing services
• (d) customs clearance services
• (e) transport agency services
• (f) container station and depot services
• (g) inventory management services
• (h) order processing services
• (i) production planning services
• (j) production control services.

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WTO and Road Transport

• On 40 offers received so far...
• Only four mention road transport
• (three improvements, one new commitment)
• No Egyptian Offer yet