WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONS/WPDR/3
4 October 2001
(01-4781 )
Working Party on Domestic Regulation
REPORT OF THE WORKING PARTY ON DOMESTIC REGULATION
TO THE COUNCIL FOR TRADE IN SERVICES
1. Since its last annual report to the Council for Trade in Services, the Working Party on
Domestic Regulation (WPDR) held five formal meetings and one informal meeting.  Minutes of the
formal meetings are found in WTO documents S/WPDR/M/9 to M/13.
2. Since November 2000, formal papers were submitted to the Working Party by Mexico,
Canada, the European Communities, Australia, Switzerland and Thailand (S/WPDR/W/12 to W/16,
and W/18), together with informal papers from the Chairperson,1 Members2 and the Secretariat.3
3. Discussions of the Working Party with respect to the development of horizontally applicable
disciplines on domestic regulation have continued to focus mainly on necessity and transparencyissues, as identified by Members in the informal document Checklist of Issues for WPDR
(Job No. 5067, dated 17 August 2000) at the meeting of the WPDR on 11 May, Members agreed to
revise the Checklist (JOB(01)/92, dated 19 June 2001) to add issues related to equivalency and
technical standards.  As requested by delegations, an updated informal summary of the Checklist
discussions was added as an annex to the minutes of each WPDR meeting.
4. The Secretariat presented an informal paper, Examples of Measures to be Addressed by
Disciplines under GATS Article VI:4  (JOB(01)/62, dated 10 May 2001) at the meeting of the WPDR
on 11 May.  A number of Members stated that additional examples, and greater specificity, would be
useful.  Delegations also discussed issues related to distinguishing between the scope of GATS
Article VI:4 and that of Articles XVI and XVII.
5. With respect to the development of horizontal disciplines for professional services, the
Secretariat at the WPDR meeting on 29 November introduced its Synthesis of Results to Date of the
Domestic Consultations in Professional Services  (Job No. 7667, dated 29 November 2000) which was
subsequently revised (current version is JOB(01)/145, dated 26 September 2001) to include additional
Member reports on their domestic consultations with professional services organizations.
6. Members discussed the organization of future work at the Working Party meeting on 11 May,
based on a Chairperson’s Note (JOB(01)/59, dated 27 April 2001).  They agreed to continue focusingon necessity and transparency issues, in regard to the development of any necessary regulatory
disciplines, but also to begin discussion of equivalency and technical standards, on the basis of
submissions by Members, if any.  Members also discussed ways in which the work to develop
horizontally applicable disciplines on domestic regulation and the work to develop horizontal
disciplines for professional services could be made more complementary.
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1 JOB(01)/59, dated 27.04.01;  JOB(01)/93, date d 21.06.01;  and JOB(01)/130, dated 14.09.01.
2Job No. 1954 dated 20.03.01 (Communication from Japan);  JOB(01)/69, dated 10.05.01
(Communication from Australia);  and JOB(01)/77, dated 28.05.01 (Communication from Japan).
3; Job No. 7630, dated 29.11.00;  Job No. 7667, dated 29.11.00;  Job No. 1872, dated 16.03.01;
Job No. 1873, dated 16.03.01;  JOB(01)/62, dated 10.05. 01; JOB (01)/92, dated 19.06.01;  JOB(01)/98, dated
28.06.01;  JOB(01)/99, dated 28.06.01;  and JOB(01)/145, dated 26.09.01.