EU Plus “Real Good Friends” Plurilateral Services Agreement in 2013

A subset of WTO members that has been examining over the past year possible ways to lower barriers in services trade hope to formally launch negotiations for a services liberalisation agreement in 2013.

The group exploring such a move - known as the “Real Good Friends” (RGF) of Services - met last week in Geneva for both expert and ambassador-level meetings, during which time they reviewed a series of proposals from the participating members. The proposals touched on topics such as government procurement, postal and courier services, professional services, and mode 4 - where services are provided by foreign nationals abroad - among others.

Based on the discussions held over the past year, RGF members now have an agreement in principle for a framework for negotiations, sources say. The framework is meant to help those members who need a mandate from their capitals to formally participate in negotiations, once those are launched. For others, the framework essentially serves as a summary of the talks to date.

Members are tentatively planning to start negotiations in the first few months of next year - possibly in March - though no formal date has been set, sources say.

The RGF also gained a new member recently - Iceland - bringing the group total to 21 members, or 47 countries, given that the 27-member EU counts as one member.

Some WTO members not participating in the RGF talks have expressed scepticism over whether a plurilateral approach, such as that of the RGF, might end up undermining the Doha Round efforts and the broader multilateral trading system as a whole. Emerging economies - such as Brazil, China, and India - have been among those to raise such concerns.