STATEMENT BY AMBASSADOR RITA D. HAYES
COUNCIL FOR SERVICES SPECIAL SESSION

Mr. Chairman, like many other WTO Members, the United States has been actively engaged in these negotiations over the past year, and we welcome this stocktaking session. The stocktaking offers us an opportunity to look back at what we have accomplished, and to look forward to consider how to build on our progress.

And we have made progress. From the negotiating guidelines and procedures agreed on Wednesday, to the scheduling guidelines agreed last Friday, to the negotiating proposals submitted over the past months from both developed and developing country Members, the signs point to serious and sustained interest in the negotiations.

We consider that this stocktaking clearly conveys that we are turning the corner in the negotiations, putting behind us the important procedural preparations. These preparations provide a firm foundation for moving to discuss the outlines of how Members can meet the mandate of the negotiations, including the mandate to remove restrictions and provide effective market access, to the benefit of all WTO Members.

Throughout these discussions the United States has said that one of our objectives is to help make this agreement work for all Members. For our part, it is not so much a question of prioritizing one Member's objectives over those of another, but of moving all of our interests forward together.

By its very structure, the GATS allows all of us to do that, and we believe the negotiating guidelines and procedures have accomplished exactly that -- they allow all of our interests to move forward together. Moreover, the scheduling guidelines are an important step in the preparations because we believe they will promote clarity, and consistency of future commitments, in this way helping to make the commitments more understandable not only to other governments but also to our domestic constituencies.

But, by its very structure, the GATS also requires significant contributions from individual Members to make it work. One example is the negotiating proposals submitted to date. We were pleased to hear, over the course of the Council's meetings this week, that a number of other Members are working on or considering additional proposals.

And another example of an area where Member contributions are important is in the assessment of trade in services, provided for in Article XIX, and development of modalities for the treatment of autonomous liberalization, also in Article XIX. Both provisions have been highlighted in the negotiating guidelines and procedures as important to all Members, but it will be up to us -- jointly -- to respond to these requirements. Yesterday's discussions on these two items proved fruitful, and we are optimistic that, with further contributions, we will be able to meet these obligations soon and in a way that promotes the objective of the GATS. We also hope that similar attention will be devoted to the Article XIX provision, also highlighted in the negotiating guidelines, on special treatment for least-developed countries.

Now, with respect to looking forward, the United States joins other Members in supporting an organization of our work that takes into account the following points, which we believe will allow us to build on our progress to date:

First, rather than discussing proposals according to who has submitted them, it would be sensible to group the proposals by sector and mode.

Second, we propose planning the agendas of our meetings -- that is, which sectors and modes will be taken up at which meetings -- far enough in advance to facilitate participation by capital-based experts.

Third, time devoted to the Special Session should be sufficient to allow for full, focussed discussion of each of the proposals. As a result, we may want to consider time implications for some of the subsidiary bodies. We also support those who suggest that detailed discussion of sectors and modes be subdivided between the two special sessions in July and October.

Fourth, after Members have had a chance to present and respond to questions regarding the individual submissions, we may want to ask the Secretariat to facilitate discussion by identifying issues Members may want to consider in the course of the sector or mode discussions. This can help us see the differences and similarities in proposals.

In conclusion, the United States welcomes the start of this second phase of the negotiations, confident that we have devoted the needed time to our preparations, and interested in working with other Members to promote the objectives of the GATS.