Resolution by Coalitions of Service Industries on
Professional Services
-- October 1996
The World Trade Organization (WTO) Working Party on Professional
Services (WPPS)
Professional services-such as accountancy, architecture, consulting, engineering and
legal and surveying (land, property and construction) - play a vital role in international
commerce, facilitating trade and investment in all sectors. The WPPS seeks to liberalize
trade in professional services by applying the rules of the General Agreement on Trade in
Services to the specific circumstances of these professions, beginning with accountancy.
On December 10, WTO ministers will meet in Singapore to review progress and plan action.
The Singapore meeting offers a unique opportunity to give new impetus to the efforts of
the WPPS.
- We urge our governments to renew their commitment now to the agenda of the Working Party
in order to achieve tangible initial results on accountancy services by the Singapore
Ministerial Meeting. Specifically, we urge the WPPS to approve guidelines for mutual
recognition agreements and to express support for the effort of the International
Accounting Standards Committee and the International Organization of Securities
Commissions to (IOSCO) develop international accounting standards. We further urge that
the WPPS express support for the efforts of the International Auditing Practices Committee
and IOSCO to recognize and develop international standards on auditing.
- We welcome the declaration following the Quad countries meeting in April 1996 in Kobe,
Japan which called for the WPPS to develop generic rules on professional services and to
accelerate its work on accountancy services. We are eager that an agreement on accountancy
be reached and that work commence on other professions.
- Ministers should agree at the Singapore Ministerial that the Working Party will complete
work on accountancy, including recommendations on international standards, no later than
December 1997.
- Ministers should require from the WPPS a progress report and future wok plan by December
1997 and annually thereafter.
- Ministers should agree at the Singapore Ministerial to set a timetable for work to begin
in the WPPS and to be completed on other professional services.
- A computerized database containing an inventory of educational, professional and
regulatory standards should be compiled, in partnership with accredited/recognized global
and, as appropriate, regional professional associations, to assist the WTO in identify and
eliminating national and, as appropriate, subnational practices which constitute
impediments to practice and barriers to trade in all professional services.
- We commend Chairperson Leonora de Sola Saurel for her dedicated leadership of the WPPS
and for her years of work on services issues. We wish Ambassador Saurel well in her future
endeavors.
- We call upon all WTO members which have not yet scheduled all professional services
under the GATS to agree to do so at the Singapore Ministerial. The content of the
scheduling should be the status quo or better. This would be a significant sign of support
for the liberalization of professional services and the mission of the Working Party on
Professional Services.
- All WTO members which require citizenship or impose onerous residency requirements as a
condition for an individual to obtain professional qualification or licensing within their
jurisdictions should agree to eliminate these requirements at the Singapore Ministerial.
These requirements are not necessary to ensure the quality of service and their
elimination would be an important initiative in support of liberalization of professional
services.
(Ends)
¡@
