./.WORLD TRADE
ORGANIZATIONS/CSS/W/122
27 November 2001
(01-6056)
Council for Trade in Services
Special SessionOriginal:  Spanish
COMMUNICATION FROM COLOMBIA1
Tourism and Travel-Related Services
The following communication has been received from the delegation of Colombia, with the
request that it be circulated to Members of the Council for Trade in Services.
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I. INTRODUCTION
1. World Tourism Organization statistics reveal that the main tourism service providers, in terms
of foreign exchange earnings and number of visitors, are developed countries.
2. The tourism industry is, however, of the utmost importance to developing countries, both
because a significant proportion of foreign exchange earnings stems from the provision of suchservices and because it leads to the creation of many jobs.
3. The most important modes of supply as far as market access is concerned are consumption
abroad, commercial presence and movement of natural persons.
II. PROPOSALS
4. Full commitments should be adopted under the consumption abroad and commercial presence
modes of supply, which would promote two-way tourism.
5. Restrictions involving an economic needs test to gain market access to tourism-related
activities should be eliminated.
6. Given that the provision of such services depends on the cross-border movement of persons,
Members should endeavour to ensure that their migration authorities facilitate such movement.
7. Market access conditions under the presence of natural persons mode of supply should be
improved in order to facilitate the temporary entry of  natural persons supplying services in this sector.
8. The competent authorities should take account of professional qualifications related to
tourism services acquired in the territory of another Member, on the basis of equivalency of education
and using qualification recognition methods.
                                                     
1 Colombia reserves the right to amend or withdraw this document at any time.S/CSS/W/122
Page 2
9. Anti-competitive behaviour by dominant operators can result in imbalances in the framework
of liberalized trade in services.  If the Doha Ministerial Conference grants a negotiating mandate on
multilateral rules in this field, disciplines regulating this issue could be dealt with in a general manner
and in accordance with the work carried out by the WTO Working Group on the Interaction between
Trade and Competition Policy (WGTCP).
10. The existing classification of trade in tourism and travel-related services should be revised to
include all services characteristic of this sector. Nevertheless, care should be taken that the resulting
classification does not duplicate the services already included in the “Services Sectoral Classification
List” (WTO document MTN.GNS/W/120).
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