EU REVISED SERVICES OFFER NEARING APPROVAL
On 20 April, the EU’s executive European Commission presented its revised market access offer for the ongoing WTO services negotiations to its 25 member states for approval and consultations. The offer will not, however, be circulated to all WTO Member countries until May.
The offer expands on some of the market-opening commitments present in the EU’s 2003 initial offer, and extends them to the ten countries that joined the Union in 2004. The Commission emphasises that its proposed offer "fully safeguards" public services within the EU. It also does not contain commitments to liberalise sensitive areas such as education, health, and audiovisual services to foreign competition.
In the WTO, trade in services is liberalised through a bilateral process of requests and offers of market access. Once agreed, commitments are extended to all WTO Members. The EU’s revised offer reflects requests made by other Members in response to its initial offer. The Commission specified that it would be "conditional on other WTO members making substantive offers."
According to the July Package (WT/l/579), Members are supposed to make their revised offers by May. However, many have not yet done so (see BRIDGES Weekly, 2 March 2005). Services talks resumed on 27 March.
ICTSD will provide coverage of the ongoing services negotiations in upcoming issues of BRIDGES Weekly.
"European Commission presents revised offer on services for Doha Development Round," EUROPEAN COMMISSION (Press Release), 20 April 2005.