Papers on sectoral negotiations in GATS

4 December, 2005

Papers on arguments by some for commencing sectoral negotiations in the GATS, and the objectives of these negotiations:

1) Paper by Richard Self, chief US negotiator on services in the UR, on why they want Sectoral negotiations in the GATS, and why this is more far reaching than numerical benchmarks. This paper was commissioned by DFID.

2) Paper by ODI, on how technical assistance can be used to help countries agree to liberalisation, also commissioned by DFID

3) Objectives by mostly developed countries in the various services sectors in Note by the Secretariat on "Sectoral and Modal Objectives as Identified by members" (Note that para 2, Annex C of the Ministerial draft states "In order to provide guidance for the request-offer negotiations, the sectoral and modal objectives identified by Members may be considered")

4) EC Modal schedules identifying EC objectives in each sector and the countries they are targeting for liberalisation. (According to some, this was in large part why ASEAN finally sat up and started opposing paragraph 7 on plurilateral approaches in the draft text since they found themselves targeted in all sectors). This paper was sent out by Alexandra in early Sept.