During a virtual meeting on domestic regulation in services, members of the World Trade Organization (WTO) noted that several disciplines currently under negotiation at the WTO share the same goals as those of regional trade agreements such as the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP).

Participants at the 4 March 2021 meeting noted the equivalent disciplines, which are each intended to lock in good regulatory practices and increase certainty and predictability for service suppliers, with the overall objectives of facilitating trade in services and improving economic efficiency. The disciplines currently under development concern licensing and qualification requirements and procedures as well as technical standards for suppliers of services. A “far advanced” negotiating text on the domestic regulation disciplines was circulated on 18 December 2020.

The negotiating text, a WTO news release notes, “contains flexibilities that help governments implement measures domestically while remaining free to pursue their national policy objectives.” Australia and Thailand each flagged that the disciplines in the negotiating text feature strong similarities to the RCEP, signed on 15 November 2020 by 15 Asia-Pacific nations. Likewise, the two countries’ negotiators pointed to further similarities with domestic regulation issues in additional free trade agreements (FTAs), including those between Singapore and the EU, China and Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries, and Indonesia and Australia.

Domestic regulation disciplines are becoming increasingly common as “more and more countries at different levels of development” adopt comparable regional trade agreements, the WTO release emphasizes. Accordingly, participants in the meeting expressed that more WTO members should be encouraged to join the talks currently underway, especially given these disciplines’ relevance to economic recovery efforts and actions necessitated by COVID-19.

Ministers from 59 WTO members launched the talks on domestic regulation in services at the 11th Ministerial Conference (MC11) in December 2017 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Additional meetings, which are “member-driven, transparent and open to all WTO members,” are being held on 14 April, 10 May, 10 June, and 15 July. The text currently under negotiation at the WTO is set to be finalized at MC12, scheduled for November 2021 in Geneva, Switzerland, and chaired by Kazakhstan. [WTO News Release]