SERVICES 2000

A CONFERENCE ON THE FUTURE OF
SERVICES TRADE LIBERALIZATION

Ditchley Park, England, April 24 - 26, 1998

Chair: Jaime Serra

ASSESSING THE RECORD OF THE EFFORT TO LIBERALIZE TRADE IN SERVICES

GOAL: To provide a sense of the overall progress made in liberalizing trade in services from the outset of the effort, primarily within the framework of the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), but also as a result of regional and bilateral trade agreements, and of unilateral progress toward liberalization.

Presenters:

David Hartridge, WTO

Robert Madelin, European Commission

Claude Barfield, American Enterprise Institute

THE NEGOTIATING FRAMEWORK : THE GATS ARCHITECTURE AND ITS CAPACITY TO EMBRACE A NEW "SERVICES 2000" AGENDA, INCLUDING REGULATORY REFORM

GOAL: To seek consensus on the optimum negotiating format for Services 2000 in the context of other WTO negotiations required in 2000. Should the WTO conduct the services round in isolation, in a much broader traditional trade round, or in another format? Recognizing criticisms of the GATS, is there consensus on the need to reform it? Is there a consensus that trade liberalization and regulatory reform go hand in hand so that progress in the first requires progress in the other?

Presenters:

Pierre Sauvé, OECD

Geza Feketekuty, Monterey Institute for International Studies

SECTOR SNAPSHOTS: SYNTHESIZING THE PROGRESS OF LIBERALIZATION AND FRAMING THE FUTURE AGENDA IN KEY SECTORS, INCLUDING FINANCIAL SERVICES,TELECOMMUNICATIONS, PROFESSIONAL SERVICES, FREIGHT TRANSPORTATION, AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES

GOAL: A forthright review of the progress of liberalization in key industries within the service sector to assess their status, establish future goals and agree on strategies that will hasten liberalization.

Presenters:

Sir Nicholas Bayne
British Invisibles, LOTIS Committee Financial Services

Ken Lindhorst, AT&T Telecommunications

Charles Heeter, Arthur Andersen Professional Services

Peter Finnerty, Sea-Land Service, Inc. Freight Transportation

John Crysler, EDS Information Technology

PARALLEL PATHS TO LIBERALIZATION: REGIONAL AGREEMENTS, INVESTMENT DISCIPLINES, COMPETITION POLICY AND DISPUTE SETTLEMENT

GOAL: To examine liberalization strategies that can be employed in parallel with traditional multilateral negotiations. These might include: generalizing the benefits of regional trade agreements; using multilateral investment agreements to liberalize services trade; employing "competition policy" to liberalize domestic markets; and seeking liberalization through a deliberate WTO dispute litigation strategy.

Presenters:

Jaime Serra, SAI Consultores
Regional Agreements

Stuart Carre, Business Council on National Issues, Canada
Investment Discipline

Ambassador Jeffrey Lang, USTR
Competition Policy

Andy Stoler, USTR
Dispute Settlement

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN WORLD SERVICES TRADE

CONFERENCE GOAL: A survey of trade policy issues that offer challenges to EU-US relations and opportunities for expansion of the world trading system and the reach of the WTO: data privacy, the New Transatlantic Marketplace, China accession to the WTO, and trade aspects of electronic commerce.

Robert Litan, The Brookings Institution
Privacy

Guy de Jonquieres, Financial Times
New Transatlantic Marketplace

R. Michael Gadbaw, General Electric
China Accession

CONFERENCE GOAL: An agreement on how to liberalize trade in services in the WTO in Services 2000 and in other initiatives, distilled into a brief public declaration. The declaration should be accompanied by individual commitments to undertake specific initiatives within the broad liberalization strategy.