ANNUAL REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON SPECIFIC COMMITMENTS
TO THE COUNCIL FOR TRADE IN SERVICES (2022)

Since its 2021 annual report to the Council for Trade in Services^[1], the Committee on Specific Commitments (CSC) held three formal meetings, on 18 October 2021, 10 March 2022 and 1 July 2022 respectively.^[2] At these meetings, the Committee considered three items: Implementation of Specific Commitments, Classification Issues and Scheduling Issues.

1  implementation of specific commitments

1.  During the reporting period, the Committee continued to examine conditional commitments contained in the Schedules of Specific Commitments under the GATS, an exercise initiated by a Communication from the United States dated 5 March 2020 with a view to improving transparency of commitments.^[3] The exercise was facilitated by the Compilation of Conditional Commitments prepared by the Secretariat.^[4] The Compilation encompasses those entries in the Schedules of Specific Commitments under the GATS which make the entry into force, implementation, or updating of specific commitments conditional upon a domestic process such as new legislation or policy review. Information related to the implementation of conditional commitments were later added to the Compilation, subject to the availability of information.^[5] Members were also invited to verify and complement such information.

2.  Engagement in the exercise on conditional commitments was on a voluntary basis. During the reporting period, a few Members provided updates on the implementation of their commitments included in the Compilation, and four further revisions of the Compilation were circulated accordingly.^[6] In particular, Thailand informed the Committee of the implementation of its conditional commitments in telecommunications and the certification of the improvements of its schedule pursuant to document S/L/84.

3.  At the meetings of 10 March and 1 July 2022, the Committee considered a proposal (S/CSC/W/73) from the delegation of Türkiye on implementation issues related to specific commitments and Article II (MFN) on cross-border supply of road transport services under the GATS. The proposal mainly raised three issues for discussion in the Committee: 1) the compatibility of imposing truck quotas with full market access commitments in Mode 1 on road transport services; 2) the understanding of "Unbound" in market access and "None" in national treatment with respect to cross-border supply of road transport; and 3) the MFN obligation with respect to all measures affecting international road transport including truck quotas, passage fees, customs measures, etc. Some delegations noted that they were still considering the proposal and would revert to it with more detailed comments. Some other delegations indicated that the Committee was not an appropriate body to interpret schedules.

2  classification issues

4.  At the meeting on 18 October 2021, the UN Statistics Division presented to the Committee an additional tool to help visualize the correspondence between the CPC Provisional and CPC Version 2.1. This was welcomed by Members. Members also showed interest in adding the Services Sectoral Classification List (MTN.GNS/W/120) to the visualization tool. At the subsequent meetings during the reporting period, the Secretariat informed the Committee of the progress in this respect.

3  scheduling issues

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

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