RESTRICTED
WORLD TRADE S/NGNP/7
12July1995
ORGANIZATION(95-1946)
Negotiating Group onMovement ofNatural Persons
NOTE ONTHE MEETING OF26,29and30JUNE 1995
TheNegotiating Group onMovement ofNatural Persons helditsseventh meeting under the
chairmanship ofAmbassador Bautista ofthePhilippines. Theagenda wascontained inAirgram
WTO/AIR/114.
Regarding thefirstagenda item, Progress oftheBilateral Negotiations andReview ofDraft
Final Schedules, theChairperson noted thatonlyAustralia andSwitzerland hadindicated conditional
improvements totheirschedules which were contained intheinformal secretariat noteof15June.
Norway announced (andsubsequently carried out)itsintention tosubmit aconditional offer for
independent services specialists covering anumber ofsectors whowould beallowed towork inNorway
onacontract basis without requiring compliance withaneconomic needs test. TheEuropean
Community representative saidthatthesubmission ofanoffer from theECanditsMember States
regarding services specialist personnel without commercial presence wasunder active consideration.
Therepresentative oftheUnited States saidthathisdelegation hadsubmitted averysubstantive offer
inDecember 1993 andwascurrently considering making improvements tothatofferinthebroader
negotiatingcontext,whichincludedwhetherdevelopmentsinthefinancialservicesareaweresatisfactory.
Thedelegate ofIndia, supported byEgypt andPakistan, saidthatowing totheinevitable linkage
between thenegotiations onmovement ofpersons andfinancial services, thetwonegotiations would
either succeed orfailtogether. Inrecent bilateral negotiations, hisdelegation hadindicated certain
possibilities ofimproving itsofferinfinancial services intheevent thatitstrading partners came up
withsubstantially improved offers onmovement ofnatural persons without commercial presence.
Subsequently theIndian delegation itself submitted arevised schedule which extended theduration
ofstayforforeign professionals working inIndia onacontract basis.
Thedelegate from thePhilippines urged participants which hadnotyetdonesototablefirm
offers onmovement ofpersons. Inamorelong-term context, thedelegate fromtheDominican Republic
raised thequestion ofhowtomonitor whether thecommitments onthefourth mode wereactually being
applied onanon-discriminatory basisgiven thefactthatitwould beindividuals thatwould beaffected
andthepotential problems inassessing aparticular caseofsetofcircumstances. TheCanadian
representative saidthatCanada wasconsidering circulating improvements initscurrent offerifmore
progress could bemade bydeveloping countries infinancial services andbycertain developed country
partners inmovement ofpersons.
Regarding thenextitem-Procedural issues regarding Modification andEntry intoForce of
Schedules -theChairperson saidthatsince thelastmeeting oftheGroup thesecretariat hadcirculated
aninformal notedated 2Junewhich contained apossible draft foraprotocol tobeadopted atthe
conclusion ofthepresent negotiations. India submitted fortheconsideration oftheGroup adraftfor
./.S/NGNP/7
Page2
athirdprotocol totheGATS tocover commitments onmovement ofnatural persons aswellasthe
related draftDecision foradoption bytheServices Council. Bothdocuments werequite similar in
theirapproach andwording totherelevant protocol anddecision thatwere under discussion inthe
financial services negotiations. Some delegations thencommented onparticular matters including date
ofentry intoforce, length ofperiod ofacceptance, andtheneedforamechanism incaseoffailure
toadopt theprotocol. Itwasagreed thatfurther work would benecessary tofinalize thetexts.
Inthelightofdevelopments inthefinancial services negotiations, there wasbroad agreement
intheGroup topresent adraftDecision foradoption bytheServices Council, which wasduetomeet
laterduring theevening of30June, totheeffect thattheprocess fortherevision oftheschedules
ofspecific commitments withrespect tomovement ofpersons would continue until28July1995with
aviewtoachieving higher levels ofcommitments under theGATS. Nomatters were raised under
Other Business andtheChairperson closed themeeting.