On Thursday 23 May in Paris, on the margins of the OECD ministerial meeting, 59 members of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) engaged in negotiations on the Services Domestic Regulation.
In a joint statement, they also noted the additional efforts that will be needed in these negotiations before the next WTO Ministerial Conference in June 2020 in Kazakhstan.
Ongoing WTO negotiations on the domestic regulation of services aim to improve transparency and streamline authorisation procedures for domestic and foreign service providers.
At the end of the 11th WTO Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires in December 2017, the signatory countries pledged to make progress on 'new issues' other than those of the Doha Round, including domestic regulation of services and electronic commerce (see EUROPE 11926/12).
The signatories to the declaration, the majority of which are OECD countries, have undertaken to ensure that the results of their work are included in their respective schedules of specific commitments on services, thereby ensuring that “a critical mass of WTO members apply the new rules", on the basis of equal treatment of WTO members (the so-called "most favoured nation” principle, or MFN).
"Step forward for @WTO today, as 59 members agreed to finalise agreement on domestic services regulation at next ministerial in June 2020”, EU Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said on Twitter.
To read the joint statement: https://bit.ly/2MaKId2. (Original version in French by Hermine Donceel)