February 10, 1999
The Financial Leaders Group (FLG) announced today that it would support the entry into force on March 1, 1999, of the WTO Financial Services Agreement that was reached in December, 1997. At the same time the FLG urged the European Commission and the US Government to continue to impress on the 17 countries that missed the January 29 deadline for filing their formal acceptances of the Agreement, the urgent need to do so as soon as possible.
Andrew Buxton, Chairman of Barclays PLC and FLG Co-Chairman, said that "on one hand we are encouraged that at a time of considerable financial turmoil, 54 WTO Members, among them most of the key emerging markets, accepted the Agreement by the deadline."
He noted that the companies and associations represented in the FLG are eager to secure the substantial benefits it believes the Agreement contains. These include assured rights of establishment, majority ownership, and national treatment that will benefit FLG companies.
Dean O'Hare, Chairman and CEO of The Chubb Corporation, and FLG Co-Chairman, pointed out that the Agreement will help other signatories. "We believe that these liberalization steps will bring real benefits to other countries," he said. "It will foster better risk management, expand product diversification, increase consumer choice, and help host country economies gain access to foreign markets, capital, and technology."
On the other hand, the two Co-Chairmen expressed disappointment that 17 countries, including some very large ones, did not manage to accept the Agreement and thus fulfill their commitments, by the deadline. This means that a number of Members of the WTO could have the benefit of the liberalization commitments undertaken by the 54 accepting countries, without having implemented their own liberalization commitments.
They strongly encouraged those countries that have not yet notified their ratification to do so, and called on their respective governments to continue to press vigorously for acceptance of the Agreement as soon as possible and to encourage the WTO Director General to use his "full influence" to secure acceptances by all remaining 17 countries well before the beginning of the next round of negotiations in 2000.
Contacts: London - Sir Nicholas Bayne, British Invisibles, 44-171-600-1198
Europe - Pascal Kerneis, European Services Network, 32-2-508-3730
Washington - Bob Vastine, Coalition of Service Industries, 1-202-289-7460
The Financial Leaders Group consists of leaders of financial institutions in Europe, North America, Japan and Hong Kong, who support liberalization of financial services markets. A list of members of the Financial Leaders Group and its Working Group can be found at www.uscsi.org