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The General Agreement on Trade in Services

The Government of the Republic of Maldives 2008

The Government of the Republic of Egypt 2007

International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD), Geneva 2004 - 06

Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London 2004

The British Embassy in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, invited me to be one of three UK experts to speak at meetings of business people in Riyadh, Jeddah and Dammam, organised by the Embassy with the joint Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry. My presentation was about the GATS, the Saudi accession offer for services, and the benefits of liberalising trade and investment in services for the Saudi economy and exports. We also took part in an unscripted 45 minute discussion programme on the accession of Saudi Arabia to the WTO, together with the Deputy Minister of Commerce and Industry, recorded for the English language channel of the State TV service.

I wrote the background paper on 'GATS Issues' for their Global Dimensions programme symposium in Singapore on 20 February on 'Trade Policy Challenges in East Asia: the New Regionalism and the WTO', organised jointly by Singapore Management University Wee Kim Wee Centre, the LSE Centre for Global Governance and Commonwealth Business Council.

I proposed a methodology for constructing inventories, on a sector-by-sector basis, of barriers to trade in services, and how to rank them empirically by their relative restrictiveness. I also provided an analysis on how Article VI of the GATS on Domestic Regulation might be developed; and how the principle of 'transparency' might be more fully implemented by governments when making and administering regulations - in other words making their policy aims, laws and actions more open to public scrutiny and comment.

The Geneva Association sponsors annual international seminars by PROGRES (Research Programme on Regulation, Supervision and legal issues in insurance, formerly "The Programme of Research in the Economics of Services"). I had attended some in the early 1990s and contributed papers (in Geneva, Paris and Prague).

From 1996 I have organised the seminars for PROGRES and featured issues relating to the WTO and services trade liberalisation alongside the core insurance sector subjects. These seminars provide a neutral and informal setting for trade negotiators, regulators, officials of international organisations, academics and business people, to discuss their priorities and gain better mutual understanding.

2008	Towards a global architecture for insurance regulations and supervision
2007	Insurance industry and regulators in search of modern regulation
2006	The changing world of insurance regulation and supervision
2005	The regulation and supervision of financial services: challenging issues
2004	New developments in the regulation and supervision of financial services
2003	Key issues for the regulation and supervision of financial services
2002	New developments in the regulation and supervision of financial services
2001	The regulation of financial services: international principles and standards
2000	Regulation of insurance services: global issues
1999	Regulation of financial services: implications for services 2000
1998	Services developments and preparations for services negotiations in 2000
1997	The liberalisation of financial services
1996	Services and the trade liberalisation agenda of the WTO.

Reports have been prepared on:

-	the role of investment abroad in services (1998)
-	the WTO basic telecommunications agreement (1998)
-	the service liberalisation agenda of the WTO (1997)
-	the state of statistics on employment in the service sector, covering both conceptual and methodological aspects (1995).

I advised on the content of their representations to governments proposing the removal of restrictions on express carrier services, and on the related trade and competition issues.

I prepared briefing notes and position papers on how trade liberalisation policies were likely to interact with moves to negotiate rules at the WTO to cover government policies on investment abroad ('foreign direct investment', or FDI), competition, the environment and labour standards. It proved difficult to get business associations to agree on these complex subjects, and governments still find them politically extremely sensitive.

External Trade Relations Directorate-General of the European Commission 1994

Also projects for:

Services negotiations

London School of Economics, London 2003

CTA Economic & Export Analysts Ltd, Geneva 2003

UN Institute for Training and Research, Geneva 2003

The Services Group, Inc., Washington DC 2002 - 03

TSG appointed me on behalf of Chemonics International, the Lead Consultant in Washington DC, under a USAID capacity building project. I advised the Ministry of Industry and Trade in Amman, Jordan, in connection with the formulation of Jordan's negotiating position under the GATS negotiations. Two visits to Amman were made in 2002: in October (two weeks) and in December (three weeks). The work involved studying the 'requests' put to Jordan by some trading partners, the 'offers' tabled in Geneva by about 40 WTO member countries, and consideration of what Jordan should include in its own 'offer', taking account of the many new and revised laws affecting the service sector.

I made two visits (of one, and two, weeks respectively) to Accra, Ghana, as an 'International Expert' on trade in services policy, under a capacity building aid project funded by the UK Department for International Development. I advised the Ministry of Trade and private sector associations on the collection of information and the formulation of policy related to the GATS negotiations as part of the WTO Doha Development Round.

I prepared five background papers, and then conducted a one-day workshop on Financial Services in Hanoi, Vietnam, for about 80 government and central bank officials. My presentation focused on an analysis of the draft offer in financial services for the accession of Vietnam to the WTO, with reference to that committed by China upon its accession in late 2001.

This study by PE International for the UK Department for International Development advised on the implications of the Doha Round of WTO negotiations for 37 countries in Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States members. My input concerned the GATS negotiations, and the readiness of these countries to formulate their trade policies and to negotiate in Geneva during the Round.

A group of Islamic developing countries sought my advice on the position they should adopt during the GATS negotiations on further services liberalisation. It involved an analysis of the GATS framework agreement to see to how it could be improved to take account of their interests, and the strengths and weaknesses of their economies. Recommendations were made on a strategy for further liberalisation of services markets that they should demand from their trading partners. The likely demands that would made upon them in return were forecast. I appointed Michael Johnson, a former Director of Trade Policy at the UK Department of Trade and Industry, and Dr Sahar Tohamy, the Egyptian Centre for Economic Studies, Cairo, to assist me.

I advised on the position which Russia might adopt, when negotiating for accession to the WTO, for their proposed commitments to liberalise their communications, construction and transport sectors. Recommendations were also made on the classification system to adopt for compiling services statistics for balance of payments purposes. I appointed MGK, London, to assist me.

Planistat was commissioned by the European Commission to assess the impact on a group of African Countries of the proposed Regional Economic Partnership Agreement between them and the EC. This group is called the Central African Economic and Monetary Community, or CEMAC. I provided advice on the service sector and related issues, including the study methodology.

I reviewed the regulatory framework of Japan, and recommended what objectives the EC negotiators should concentrate on in their bilateral negotiations when asking the Japanese government to open up services markets to EC services exports, especially those of small firms. A separate part of the recommendations advised on how the European Commission could run an export promotion programme for small EU services exporters. I was a member of a consortium with Hill & Knowlton, Brussels (part of the WPP advertising and PR Group), and MGK, London, (economic consultants - now disbanded). My role included acting as the project co-ordinator and editor of the reports.

The formal title of this study for UNCTAD was "Expansion of Foreign Direct Investment and International Trade in Services: Thailand". After a visit to Bangkok in 1996 I reviewed the regulatory framework of Thailand so as to assess how their laws affected the service sector and its exports, and made recommendations on ways to improve the economy through liberalisation of services markets, to attract inward investment to the service sector, and to increase exports of services.

I analysed the draft 'offers' of ten countries for the EC services negotiator. These were proposals on the extent to which they might be prepared to liberalise their services markets. In formal terms the restrictions applying to the activities of foreigners in their territory or certain sectors as listed, that they promise not to make more restrictive. In all the other sectors, there are no such undertakings.
I also analysed patterns of world trade in maritime and insurance services, how to negotiate with countries failing to make commitments in financial services (the 'free riders'), and prepared notes on secondary and hidden obstacles to trade, and good practice for scheduling commitments.

External Trade Relations Directorate-General, European Commission 1992 - 93

Professional services

I surveyed the best practices in Europe deployed by the regulators of professional services (a) for ensuring that professionals maintain adequate professional liability cover (in whatever form) to provide their foreign clients with appropriate redress for any damage caused due to neglect, error or omission, and (b) to enforce disciplinary action on foreign professionals who were no longer in the jurisdiction where any such lapse occurred.

This project was in the context of the EU-US Transatlantic Economic Partnership. I provided information relating to the architectural, engineering and legal professions on their control of standards for education and professional training, and the professional organisations. I made recommendations for mechanisms that might be set up to achieve the mutual recognition of qualifications for these three professions between the EU and the US.

I was a member of a consortium with Hill & Knowlton, Brussels, in the lead, and the Economists Advisory Group, London. A report was written analysing the links that exist between the providers and users of business and professional services, the ways in which firms were reorganising production, and the overall effect on qualifications, training and employment. I interviewed senior executives of firms in the USA, UK, The Netherlands and Portugal.

I wrote a paper analysing the issues that would arise if governments attempted the liberalisation of the international practice of accountants, architects, engineers, lawyers and surveyors, and on mechanisms for the mutual recognition of qualifications. A further paper reported to the Working Group on Accounting Standards on the mutual recognition already achieved by the accountancy profession in various free trade agreements.

My chief recommendation was that the representatives of major associations from these professions should be invited to a workshop with officials of the member governments, where they could for the first time at an international level see how there were certain issues affecting them all. It was typical until then that each profession considered itself to be unique. This was accepted and I prepared a joint paper with OECD for the first workshop in 1994 - which was so successful that further workshops were held in 1995 and 1997, which I also attended.

I was asked to describe which professional services were highly regulated, the nature of those regulations, how professional associations in different countries recognised the qualifications of their counterparts, and whether the requirements for any qualifications were being made identical ('harmonised')

OECD, Directorate for Trade, Paris 1986 - 87

Other brief reports on professional issues arising in the GATS were prepared for:

Advocacy

The Geneva Association is a think-tank funded by the chief executive officers of over 80 major insurance companies world-wide. Its formal title is "The International Association for the Study of Insurance Economics". On behalf of the Association, under an annual contract, I monitor the GATS negotiations for issues arising of relevance to the financial services sector, and attend conferences and consultative meetings with officials.

International Trade in Services: GATS Mode 4 (2008)
The GATS Negotiations on Insurance Services (2006)
New statistical models for measuring trade in insurance services (2006)
GATS Disciplines on Domestic Regulations - what are governments likely to accept? (2005)
The 20th PROGRES International Seminar: highlights (2004)
Legal predictability and risk management: what price the GATS? - How predictable are the legal effects of the GATS bindings of specific commitments? (2004)
Should the GATS 'Prudential Carve-Out' for financial services measures be revisited now - rather than left to store up a crisis for the WTO Dispute Settlement System? (2003)
The regulation of financial services in relation to risk - highlights of the issues arising in the 19th PROGRES Seminar (2003)
New developments in the regulation and supervision of financial services (2002)
The General Agreement on Trade in Services: the financial services negotiations (2002)
How is insurance trade measured? What are the challenges faced by the statisticians? (2002)
Trade Ministers at Doha launch WTO negotiations: the implications for financial services (2001)
The GATS negotiations on financial services: the first step (2001)
Regulation in financial services: implications for the Services 2000 negotiations (2001)
The 17th PROGRES Seminar: Introductory Remarks (2001)
Financial Services and the WTO Negotiations - 16th PROGRES Seminar (2001)
International Investment, Trade liberalisation and Competition: some issues for the insurance sector to consider (2000)
The WTO Ministerial Meeting in Seattle and the Services Negotiations (2000)
Update on GATS Negotiations (2000)
Globalisation and Small Business (2000)
Regulation in financial services (1999)
WTO Basic Telecommunications Agreement (1998)
The crucial role of investment abroad (1998)
The Service Liberalisation Agenda of the WTO (1997)
The GATS Agreement on liberalising telecoms services: an assessment (1997)
World trade in services: a new agenda to ensure continued expansion (1996)
Services statistics: the key issues (1995).

Services Rapporteur, GATT Working Group (1992-4), then Chairman, Services Group of the WTO Committee.

I made a key-note presentation to the CER-GATT Conference in Auckland on the "Objectives of the Multilateral Trade Negotiations" and a lunch-time presentation on the activities of the "The British Invisible Exports Council". The conference was the brain-child of Mike Moore, then the NZ Trade Minister, and later Prime Minister and recently Director-General of the WTO. (CER stands for the Closer Economic Relations Agreement that NZ has with Australia, often referred to as ANZCERTA.)

Committee on Invisible Exports, London 1986 - 92

Also a presentation at a conference in Toronto, at the invitation of the Government of Canada (1991).

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Trade agreements

The Commonwealth Secretariat, on behalf of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Secretariat, appointed me to advise on the ACP countries' negotiating position on trade in services under the ACP-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (Cotonou). There was a special focus on which regulatory barriers in the EU, adversely affecting services exporters of the ACP countries, could be removed or reduced, including those relating to the temporary movement of workers. I appointed Michael D C Johnson to assist me.

I advised the UNCTAD Investment Division on the drafting of the Services Annex, to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Free Trade Agreement, which was then approved by Ministers in July 2002. I prepared draft schedules of reservations and commitments for ten of the SADC countries. These analyse the laws affecting trade in services and their likely status under the SADC FTA, as well as their consistency or otherwise with the provisions of the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) of the World Trade Organisation.

Services statistics

The client asked me to report on the current practice of official statistical offices in compiling data on the activities of foreign affiliates supplying services in markets abroad. I analysed how well advanced Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the UK, the US and Eurostat were to implement the new international UN standard for Foreign Affiliates Trade in Services (FATS) statistics set out in the Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services published in 2002 jointly by Eurostat, the IMF, OECD, UNCTAD, UNSD and the WTO. My final report was published in late 2002 and is available on the MTI website: www.sitrends.org - click on 'Library' (at left) and then enter 'Arkell' in the search box.

The brief called for data to be assembled to enable the economic interests of the UK to be evaluated during the EU negotiations on the liberalisation of laws restricting trade in services related to a wide range of countries and twelve selected service sectors. Statistics were obtained to show the UK service sector outputs and strengths, the trade and investment with the countries, and, where available, the characteristics of the foreign markets.

The brief called for data to be assembled to enable the economic interests of the EU to be evaluated in negotiating the liberalisation of laws restricting trade in services with nineteen countries in eleven major services sectors. Statistics were obtained to show the EU service sector outputs and strengths, and their trade with these countries, and, where available, the characteristics of those foreign markets, including an indication of the principle barriers to EU services exports within them.

I wrote the Eurostat publication "Statistics in Focus - SMEs", and, for their publication "Enterprises in Europe" (6th edition), a chapter on employment in SMEs. The first compares employment in firms with up to 499 workers in the EU with those in the US and Japan. The second analyses the pattern of employment in such enterprises in the EU.

I investigated and reported on the main leading indicators of the UK economy. These are figures estimating recent industrial performance ahead of the release of official statistics, and forecasts of future trends. The MTI website is SItrends.org.

I analysed the challenges that will arise in developing an international standard for compiling statistics on the movement of persons abroad to work in the service sector, and the value of the services they supply.

This Task Force was formed by the UN Statistics Division, UNCTAD, OECD (convenor in the chair), IMF, the World Bank, Eurostat (the statistical office of the European Commission) and the WTO.

The Task Force briefed me to prepare successive drafts of "The Manual on Statistics of International Trade in Services" which was published by the UN in late 2002. It forms the new international standard for all countries to compile their balance of payments data for services and data related to the activities of foreign affiliates.

(Separate contracts were awarded to me successively by members of the Task Force, the one for Eurostat being a sub-contract from Planistat Europe, Paris.)

I attended a three day conference in Washington DC on recent developments in services statistics and wrote a report for the OECD Working Group on Innovation and Technology Policy.

This study looked at the statistics revealing changes in world services output and trade, the importance of intra-EC trade in services, and the inadequacies of the data. Recommendations were made on action needed by the Commission to induce further liberalisation of services within the Internal Market, particularly for the regulated professions. I appointed the Economists Advisory Group Ltd, London, (Chairman Professor John Dunning) to assist me.

Committee on Invisible Exports (CoIE), London 1985 - 86

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