IWS Documented News INTERNATIONAL

IWS Documented News Service
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies----------------- Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor---------------------- Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016 -------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau
________________________________________________________________________

 

Congressional Research Service (CRS)

 

Trade in Services: The Doha Development Agenda Negotiations and U.S. Goals

William H. Cooper, Specialist in International Trade and Finance

April 7, 2010

http://opencrs.com/document/RL33085/2010-04-07/download/1013/

[full-text, 21 pages]

 

Summary

The United States and the other 153 members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) have been

conducting a set or “round” of negotiations called the Doha Development Agenda (DDA) since

the end of 2001. The DDA’s main objective is to refine and expand the rules by which WTO

members conduct foreign trade with one another. A critical element of the DDA round is the

negotiations pertaining to foreign trade in services. Trade in services has been covered under

multilateral rules only since 1995 with the entry into force of the General Agreement on Trade in

Services (GATS) and of the Uruguay Round Agreements creating the WTO.

 

The negotiations on services in the DDA round have two fundamental objectives. One objective

is to reform the current GATS rules and principles. The second objective is for each member

country to open more of its service sectors to foreign competition. The WTO services

negotiations have been going on for more than 10 years. However, as with the negotiations in

agriculture and non-agriculture market access, the services negotiations have proceeded slowly

with missed deadlines and few results.

 

The prospects for the negotiations are difficult to evaluate at this point. It is not unusual for

negotiations to lag as participants wait to place their best negotiating positions on the table until

just before crucial deadlines are reached. In July 2006, WTO Director-General Pascal Lamy

suspended the DDA negotiations, including the services negotiations, because major WTO

members could not agree on the terms or modalities for negotiations in agriculture and nonagriculture

market access. He resumed the negotiations in 2007. In 2009, negotiators from major

groups of developed and developing countries have worked to nail down the basic elements of a

draft text; however, they failed so far to reach a consensus on the basic negotiating modalities.

 

Several factors will determine if and when the services negotiations will be completed. One factor

is the political will the WTO members can muster to overcome the obstacles that hamper the

negotiations. Another factor is to what degree the various participants are willing to compromise

on goals in order to reach agreements. And a third factor is how quickly the issues in agriculture

and non-agriculture market access are resolved; the sooner they are resolved the sooner

negotiators can devote their attention to the services negotiations. This report will be updated as

events warrant. Many Members of Congress consider the services negotiations to be a critical

part, if not the most critical part, of the DDA round. These Members require strong commitments

from U.S. trading partners to remove barriers in trade in services as part of an overall trade

agreement they could support.. The DDA negotiations, including the negotiations on services,

could be the subject of oversight during the 111th Congress.

 

Contents

The Significance of Services .......................................................................................................2

The GATS: The International Rules of Trade...............................................................................3

The Four Modes of Delivery .................................................................................................4

The Structure of the GATS....................................................................................................4

Post-Uruguay Round Negotiations and Agreements...............................................................6

Schedule of Commitments ....................................................................................................6

The Negotiations........................................................................................................................7

The Evolution of the Negotiations .........................................................................................7

The Structure of the Negotiations ..........................................................................................9

The Status of the DDA Negotiations and Major Issues.................................................................9

U.S. Goals ..........................................................................................................................10

Quality of Commitments ...............................................................................................10

Regulatory Transparency...............................................................................................10

Commercial Presence (Mode-3) .................................................................................... 11

Financial Services ......................................................................................................... 11

Telecommunications Services ....................................................................................... 11

Express Delivery Services............................................................................................. 11

Energy Services ............................................................................................................ 11

Environmental Services................................................................................................. 11

Distribution Services.....................................................................................................12

Education and Training Services (ETS) .........................................................................12

Professional Services ....................................................................................................12

Other services ...............................................................................................................12

U.S. Offers.........................................................................................................................12

Major Issues in the Negotiations .........................................................................................14

Negotiating Format .......................................................................................................14

Mode-4 .........................................................................................................................15

Negotiations on Rules ...................................................................................................16

Status and Prospects..................................................................................................................16

Contacts

Author Contact Information ......................................................................................................18

________________________________________________________________________

This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.

****************************************
Stuart Basefsky                   
Director, IWS News Bureau                
Institute for Workplace Studies 
Cornell/ILR School                        
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor             
New York, NY 10016                        
                                   
Telephone: (607) 255-2703                
Fax: (607) 255-9641                       
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu                  
****************************************