Brussels, 13/02/2008 (Agence Europe) - The status report, published in Geneva on 12 February, by the WTO services mediator Fernando de Mateo has caused puzzlement among the organisations representing the services industries of developed countries (including the EU, Australia, Canada, the United States, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand and Taiwan) gathered under the Global Services Coalition banner (see EUROPE 9525). While welcoming the statement in the text by the Mexican ambassador to the WTO that services are one of the three pillars of the Doha Round, these organisations deplore the document's lack of substance. It is simply a status report and not a negotiating document like those for agricultural goods and NAMA. De Mateo restricts himself, in five paragraphs, to setting out those parts of negotiations on which consensus has almost been reached and those on which there are continuing differences over market access issues. “The EU would have hoped for more from this text which doesn't contain guidance for setting the level of ambition of the services negotiation as one of the three access pillars of the Round,” commented Peter Power, spokesman for Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson. The text, to be debated in Geneva on 22 February, illustrates the continuing differences between emerging countries, led by Brazil and India, and developed countries, which want to know the commitments of the former on services before definitive horse trading in agriculture and NAMA. (E.H.)