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Services, along with agriculture and industrial products, is one of the three key components of the current World Trade Organisation round of negotiations - the Doha Development Round. Many developed WTO members (including the European Union and Japan) insist that an ambitious outcome on services is required if there is to be a similarly ambitious result on agriculture.
The negotiations, launched in Doha in 2001, are now under time pressure with negotiators working towards concluding an agreement by the end of 2006.
With this sense of urgency in mind Ministers attending the Sixth Ministerial Conference held in Hong Kong in December 2005 called for a further round of revised services offers to be submitted by the end of July 2006.
Ministers also agreed that the ongoing country-to-country request/offer approach (which is the technique used to negotiate) should be supplemented by a plurilateral approach. This approach sees a group of countries with common objectives in a particular services sector jointly submit requests to a number of other WTO members.
New Zealand is participating in plurilateral requests in private education services, maritime services, air transport services, engineering and architecture services, construction services, postal and courier services, computer and related services, legal services, logistics services, and environmental services.
New Zealand is also participating in two generic plurilateral requests: delivery of services via Mode 1 (cross border supply) - improved commitments in this area, which include delivery over the internet, would be of benefit to New Zealand's many small and medium size services exporters who are not in a position to establish a presence on the ground in overseas markets; and delivery of services via Mode 3 (commercial presence) - removal of Mode 3 barriers would enable expanding New Zealand exporters to more easily gain a "bricks and mortar" foothold in overseas markets.
New Zealand is participating actively in all aspects of the services negotiations.
At the Doha WTO Ministerial Conference in 2001, Ministers set two deadlines: the end of June 2002 for the submission of initial services requests and the end of March 2003 for submission of initial services offers. In 2004 Ministers called for revised offers to be submitted by the end of May 2005. The next step came at Hong Kong in December 2005.
The New Zealand Government's approach to the WTO services negotiation is based on the principle that New Zealand's public services will not be undermined in any way. Under the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), the Government retains the right to regulate and fund public services in the manner it determines best meets broader New Zealand policy objectives. In addition, New Zealand's GATS commitments explicitly acknowledge the unique position of Maori in New Zealand; neither now, nor in the future, will any GATS commitments prevent the New Zealand Government from taking specific measures to provide preferential support to Maori service providers.
