Ambassador Jara's report to the Trade Negotiations Committee

Following the World Trade Organization (WTO) Mini-Ministerial Meeting in Dalian, China earlier this month, Ambassador Alejandro Jara, Chairman of the WTO Council for Trade in Services Special Session, issued a report on the state of play in the Doha Round services negotiations.

In his report, Ambassador Jara states that, in general, WTO Members are dissatisfied with the lack of progress in the services negotiations, and recognize that a tremendous amount of work remains. Although the total number of initial services offers has improved and a number of revised offers have been tabled, the overall quality of both initial and revised offers is unsatisfactory, with few new commercial opportunities for service suppliers. Many Members also acknowledged that the current request-offer method of services negotiations is not producing the desired results and that they should explore all negotiating methods available.

The report also contains an annex describing WTO members'assessments of offers in various service sectors, including legal, telecommunications, audiovisual, engineering, and financial services.

For a copy of this report, click here:http://ga4.org/ct/zpaVuz71Xm4B/