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Following is a question by the Hon LEE Cheuk-yan and a reply by the Financial Secretary, Mr Henry Tang, in the Legislative Council today (November 16):
Question:
Regarding the new round of negotiations, to be conducted under the General Agreement on Trade in Services, on the issue of market access concerning trade in services, will the Government inform this Council of the details of:
(a) the requests tendered by Hong Kong, China ("HKC") for further liberalisation in trade in services of other World Trade Organization ("WTO") Members;
(b) the requests tendered by other Members of WTO for further liberalisation in trade in services of HKC and, among such requests, of those which are not covered by the initial and revised offers submitted by HKC in April 2003 and June 2005 respectively; and
(c) the consultation conducted before the submission of the initial and revised offers, including the parties consulted and the form of consultation; and whether it has assessed the impacts of such offers on the local economy and labour market; if so, of the outcome of the assessment?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) Hong Kong, China put forward requests for liberalisation on trade in services to 20 WTO Members during the period of July 2002 to March 2003. In gist, our requests sought market access commitments in areas where Hong Kong's services industries have expressed interest or enjoy competitive advantage, such as logistics-related services, tourism, telecommunications, audio-visual services, professional services, financial services, and business services. We also requested these WTO Members to remove discriminatory measures that are inconsistent with the most-favoured-nation principle, and to ensure that their domestic regulations would not cause unnecessary barriers to trade. Our requests were drawn up on the basis of the inputs and feedback received during our public consultation exercises and the advice of the relevant policy bureaux.
To ensure Hong Kong's best interests are preserved, we have not made public the details of our requests, which are the subject matters of on-going negotiations between Hong Kong and the concerned WTO Members. Given the delicate and sensitive nature of the negotiations, disclosure of details of our requests to certain Members may prejudice the negotiation process and jeopardize the interests of Hong Kong, especially for those requests that involve commercial sensitivity.
(b) We received requests for liberalisation in trade in services from 16 WTO Members by March 2003. We further received seven sets of supplementary/revised requests, mostly from Members which have tendered requests to us in 2003. These requests seek Hong Kong's offer of commitments in a number of different services sectors in which the requesting Members have particular interest. Those sectors requested by our trading partners and which are not included in our initial and revised offers include: social welfare services, air transport services and legal services. Our initial and revised offers mainly cover sectors that Hong Kong enjoys a competitive edge, such as telecommunications, maritime transport services, logistics-related services, and business services.
A cardinal WTO principle is that Members are free to decide whether or not to open up certain services to foreign competition and, if so, the extent and timetable of such liberalization, and whether to make commitments on the relevant services in the WTO. Nothing in the WTO General Agreement on Trade in Services obliges a WTO Member to offer commitments for those services sectors on which requests have been tendered by other Members.
WTO Members normally do not make public the details of the requests received from other Members. Given that these requests involve information tendered by other Members, Members generally consider that they are obliged to keep these requests confidential. Hong Kong has all along followed this practice. We are thus not in a position to disclose such details.
(c) Two public consultation exercises had been conducted: one from May to June 2002 before we tabled our initial offer to the WTO in April 2003 and another from February to March 2005 before we tabled our revised offer in June 2005. For both consultation exercises, we invited, by way of letters, press releases and messages posted at the website of the Trade and Industry Department, about 400 organisations - including chambers of commerce, major trade and industrial organisations in different sectors, academic institutions and civil society groups - and the general public to express views on the objectives of and priorities in the negotiations. In parallel, we consulted bureaux and departments responsible for different services sectors. Where appropriate, the relevant bureaux and departments also sought views from the major stakeholders in their respective sectors. The views collected formed, and will continue to form, the basis for drawing up Hong Kong's requests and offers as well as our negotiating positions.
The objective of our participation in the WTO trade in services negotiations is to safeguard and pursue the overall economic interest of Hong Kong, including to secure the best possible market access for Hong Kong services suppliers, and to provide the best possible environment for Hong Kong to attract foreign investment. These are conducive to further economic growth and local employment. The offers we have put forward fall fully within the parameters of the Government policies in the concerned services sectors. Careful policy research and assessment has been conducted by the relevant policy bureaux when they formulate such policies.
The Government has taken, and will continue to take, into account Hong Kong's economic and social conditions in formulating our offers under the WTO trade in services negotiations. We have also assessed the potential impacts of our offers to ensure that they would not adversely affect the local economy and employment.
Ends/Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Issued at HKT 12:59
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