Post Date : 00-03-14
During the week of February 8 to February 11, 2011, the WTO Secretariat and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Singapore held the “WTO Advanced Regional Workshop on the GATS and the Services Negotiations” in Singapore with a view to strengthening the officials’ understanding of GATS and services negotiations under the WTO. The organizers invited WTO members in the Asia-Pacific region to assign one capital-based senior official responsible for trade in services to participate in this activity. Taiwan dispatched an official to attend this workshop to enhance knowledge of the GATS and its related issues.
The organizers arranged for five experts to come from Switzerland, Singapore and India. Nearly 50 participants, who displayed a basic concept of the GATS, joined this workshop. The experts deeply discussed the GATS and related issues such as dispute settlement cases, the progress of negotiations in domestic regulations, the regional agreement of trade in services, etc. In addition to practicing schedule of commitments, the participants also adjudged dispute settlement cases. Two experts from Singapore introduced the Annex on Financial Services and shared their successful experiences in the financial sector. The expert from India presented an overview of developments in three states, including India, Thailand and Indonesia.
Though there were many different views among the WTO members for concluding the DDA, the officials adhered to the important basic elements of the GATS. Through interactions in the working group, the participants learned how to identify the key concepts from the assumed questions. This was a great opportunity for the officials to enhance their abilities in dealing with the GATS issues domestically.