ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON SPECIFIC COMMITMENTS

TO THE COUNCIL FOR TRADE IN SERVICES (2020)

1.  Since its 2019 annual report to the Council for Trade in Services^[1], the Committee on Specific Commitments (CSC) held two formal meetings, on 1 July 2020 and 1 October 2020 respectively.^[2] At these meetings, the Committee considered three items: Implementation of Specific Commitments, Scheduling Issues, and Classification Issues.

1  implementation of specific commitments

2.  This item was included in the agenda upon a Communication from the United States dated 5 March 2020.^[3] The United States proposed that the Committee examine conditional commitments contained in the Schedules under the GATS with a view to improving transparency of commitments. The Committee held preliminary discussions on the proposal of the United States. At the meeting on 1 October 2020, the Committee agreed on a step-by-step approach whereby the Secretariat would first prepare a factual compilation of conditional commitments contained in Members' Schedules and the Committee would then consider the next steps of the proposed exercise.

2  scheduling issues

3.  The Committee considered the issue of "Unbound*" entries in the Schedules of specific commitments under the GATS, which, usually inscribed under mode 1, were intended to mean "no commitments due to lack of technical feasibility". Noting that many services where Members inscribed "Unbound*" in their Schedules became tradeable as a result of recent technological developments, Switzerland expressed its interest in having discussions on this issue and shared its practices in recent Free Trade Agreements.

4.  The Committee continued to consider scheduling issues under mode 4, initially identified in a Communication from the Kyrgyz Republic.^[4] India reiterated its position on these issues and expressed its continued interest in having further discussions in this regard.

3  classification issues

5.  The Committee did not engage in substantive discussions under this item.