ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON SPECIFIC COMMITMENTS

TO THE COUNCIL FOR TRADE IN SERVICES (2017)

Since its Annual Report of 2016 to the Council for Trade in Services^[1], the Committee on Specific Commitments (CSC) held only one formal meeting on 15 March 2017.^[2] At this meeting, the Committee addressed two standing items: classification issues and scheduling issues.

1  classification issues

1.1.  At the meeting of 15 March 2017, the delegation of China raised two issues under this item. First, taking issue with the view that the discussion on "new services" had been exhausted, China requested in-depth examination on related issues in the Committee. China noted the complexity of the issue of "new services" and its direct relevance to the implementation of specific commitments by Members. Second, China drew Members' attention to the distinction between the two terms: "e-commerce" and "digital trade". According to China, the interchangeable use of those two terms might cause misunderstanding and confusion in the future work on e-commerce in the WTO. In the follow-up discussions, Members expressed divergent views on whether or not to continue the discussion on "new services", and on the need to draw distinction between "e-commerce" and "digital trade".